[META] the angry hipster; or, how leftypoint's algorithm-driven shitposting is the most 2026 thing ever
In lefty's longer text post a week or two ago he finally expressed some of his deeper complaints. There were some valid and interesting thoughts and criticisms there, but... the whole shitposting saga is just a disservice to those criticisms.
Why it feels extremely algorithm-driven and following the same patterns of the contemporary world that have actually caused some of the problems that he complains about:
- The shitposting has made things viral. Might still be a niche virality in here, but this is one of many spaces that also feed back into influencers, writers, etc. who end up helping broader virality.
- By boxing this extremely niche set of interests into a label and moodboard, he's less shedding light and criticizing some microtrend and more crafting the slop stereotype that social media rewards and pushes so it can be consumed at an increased rate
- Memeifing and shitposting about something that you care about is not "ironic" or funny because "the world is cooked". It's just the pattern the algorithm has the chronically online to behave in.
- The response to his posting has also been text book subreddit hive mind. First everyone said "funny", then it was "I respect the grind", then it was "EK psyop", etc.
He was mad about EK's evil path through fame and virtue signalling, but by making not only him viral, but now a ton of other "slow clothes" brands viral in association he's just accelerating the growth in popularity (before a month ago tons of people in this sub didn't know who EK was) for these brands and people will consume them more out of buzz and social capital leading into what he was criticizing.
He said he used to care about these tiny relatively unknown brands, their processes and clothes, and about consuming more responsibly knowing all the evils (environmental, exploitation, etc) that the industry causes. As these brands and the conversations around "slow clothes" have grown in popularity (including around antagonists to anything cool and interesting), the things that drew lots of us into these small producers start becoming annoying and empty to us when parroted back by influencers and cringe figures who jump on anything and everything that'll get them more views. And when it gets co-opted, any possible truth that this thing had for us, starts feeling fake. This is just the hipster character arc.
This shitposting saga is not original, it's not actually funny, it's the most obvious and algorithm driven behavior that could happen in these corners of the chronically online world.