worst fad of the 21st century so far. it's steampunk, right?

I guess because the thread doesn't say 'best fad'.

yeah idk what about it codes as wealthy unless you think people are actually buying/making steam-powered computers or something xxp

there is definite steampunk - burning man crossover. With only a few exceptions, everyone I know who is a steampunk person either is or was a burning man person at some point.

the only person irl i know who has expressed any interest in steampunk is a young man who is sweet, non-gothy, very working class, and enjoys making things in the family shed

such a nice kid in fact that i've never took the piss out of him for liking steampunk

I had a steampunk outfit in a play I did once and I don't think the pieces combined cost us more than $100.

enjoys making things in the family shed

most of the steampunk ppl I know were like this as kids too.

worst fad: pro-rape blogs

i totally get the aesthetic delights of brass and clockwork and exposed engineering, i'm just a bit eyebrow-raisy about peeps who seem to crave to inhabit a more colonial era

generalized neo-Victorianism seems arguably worse than steampunk.

― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Thursday, August 25, 2016 11:03 PM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is there really a diff

― mh 😏, Thursday, August 25, 2016 11:03 PM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean yeah I think Steampunk has the defense of being a kind of fantasy/parallel universe thing, whereas straight up Victorian nostalgia is (1) nostalgia, which is inherently bad and (2) nostalgia for a more colonial era as NV says

to play devil's advocate for Victorianism though, you can make the same claim about nostalgia for almost any era. Humanity is pretty much always doing lots of horrible shit at any given time. 80s night -- "What, you're nostalgic for Reaganism? American imperialist foreign policy?

This ad keeps popping up in my FB feed and I've never wanted a train to derail so badly.

http://i.imgur.com/WFnqCqD.png

there's a certain kind of industrial optimism about the victorians that i still find kind of seductive: huge canals, the statue of liberty, digging up dinosaurs, national parks, all that. impossible to tease out from the bullshit ofc. and i'm not about to wear a 'waistcoat' in any case.

yeah i'm not gonna call anybody a monster if some aesthetic/imaginary version of the past tickles their fancy, but it is interesting the same kind of fantasies that become popular - i think there are political implications under the surface but not in convoluted, unexamined ways. i see some connection with "rap lyrics in stodgy English" and the whole exaggerated old-fashioned manners/m'lady/chappism cults. because manners are a weapon of class privilege and the roleplay adopters don't seem to be exactly detourning this aspect of their fantasy

most of the victorian "nostalgia" is about as accurate as renaissance fairs ime

sorry, scratch that "not" - the political undercurrents are complicated and usually unexamined

For Americans the VIctorian Era was actually a less-colonial era

yeah i get that but steampunk is largely Victorian London fixated imo unless you count that Will Smith movie

altho come to think of it just because the US's colonies in the 19th century were largely internal let's not pretend they weren't there

For Americans the VIctorian Era was actually a less-colonial era

― Josefa, Friday, August 26, 2016 1:24 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

reeeally depends how you approach the westward expansion of the US

also the Philippines (though that might be just after Victorian era proper)

Isn't steampunk like at least thirty years old?

steampunk was basically codified in the early 70s, sci-fi lit subgenre (Oswald Bastable books, KW Jeter etc.) That it's become a "thing" that people LARP about in is sad and ridiculous.

i totally get the aesthetic delights of brass and clockwork and exposed engineering, i'm just a bit eyebrow-raisy about peeps who seem to crave to inhabit a more colonial era

I was thinking recently that there's a weird correlation between these anti-technologists and anti-social progressive Trump supporters. They should join forces and buy an island somewhere and live out their pre-industrial revolution fantasies.

burning man is also something you need to be wealthy to do.

also most of the good (or "good") steampunk books (difference engine, maaaaaybe diamond age) are pretty explicit abou viewing the victorian era/the victorian mindset as kinda pretty fucked up.

irl steampunk is more like "nostalgia for a bbc sci-fi miniseries that never actually existed."

burning man is also something you need to be wealthy to do.

yup

it didn't used to be that way but it sure is now

not if u work on a crew, based on what a bunch of my relatively poor 20-something friends are doing right now

what, you mean a crew bankrolled by a wealthy person, ie as an employee?

I dunno, whatever the garbage/recycling crew is, pretty sure that's part of the actual organization, they give crew passes in exchange for work.

those are employees not attendees

Burning Man LLC is a thing

was responding to "need to be wealthy to do", which did not specify an employee/attendee divide (which is pretty tenuous at best, the folks who are working still have a lot of fun, maybe even more fun)

well i mean you get to see babs streisand if you're a janitor at the arena

https://twitter.com/GroverNorquist/status/768988127415377924

Grover Norquist ‏@GroverNorquist 18h
18 hours ago Massachusetts, USA

There is no Trump. There is no Clinton.
Burning Man starts Monday.
All is right with the world.

if only we all could enjoy the privelege of cleaning up after Grover Norquist

We already are.

god that tweet is amazing

There is no Trump. There is no Clinton. Only Thiel.

I dunno, whatever the garbage/recycling crew is, pretty sure that's part of the actual organization, they give crew passes in exchange for work.

― vagenda of manocide (sleeve), Friday, August 26, 2016 8:12 PM (one hour ago)

those are employees not attendees

― Οὖτις, Friday, August 26, 2016 8:14 PM (one hour ago)

Nah, this is a really common thing to do to get into festivals. You volunteer for a few hours worth of shifts and then get to go to the whole thing for free.

Anyway, the answer to this question is Electroswing.

I think claiming you don't have to be rich to go there, you just have to work for no pay and free entry is a bit o_0. You used to be able to go to Burning Man for nothing (no tickets!), just the cost of your own transport and supplies (ie the cost of camping - a thing poor people do!). It is not like that anymore, and it hasn't been that way for 10+ years.

the only person i know who goes every year is ilxor d. wolk.

How'd we get this far without mentioning anti-vaxxers and/or gluten-free?

But yeah Steampunk is pretty bad.

I think claiming you don't have to be rich to go there, you just have to work for no pay and free entry is a bit o_0. You used to be able to go to Burning Man for nothing (no tickets!), just the cost of your own transport and supplies (ie the cost of camping - a thing poor people do!). It is not like that anymore, and it hasn't been that way for 10+ years.

― Οὖτις, Friday, August 26, 2016 9:22 PM (fifteen minutes ago)

My point wasn't really about Burning Man specifically (I know nobody who has been and have always thought it looked abominable). Just that 'not attendees but employees' is not entirely correct.

imagine having to clean up the CEO of Uber's toilet tank waste then being like woo this was all worth it

mra

doxxing

I shouldve said 20+ years fwiw

Damn i'm old

Xp

xxxp that's the Porta-Potty companies' job, not the people who help attendees sort their "garbage" into categories. Those folks just hang in a big tent and chill, people gotta come to them and then my friends chastise them for not sorting their shit correctly (note that I have never been to BM and am not a fan)

but yeah Shakey is correct that it changed into something else once the expensive tickets started happening

really I think Burning Man is a good nomination for the thread title

Anybody said TED talks or Amanda Palmer yet?