I like "ketman" as a concept. I find myself shocked by my fellow Gen-Xers, especially those who loved the same pop culture I did and who remember the same trends I do, who ended up as MAGA folks. I guess we took in the same pop culture and learned exactly the opposite lessons. I watched movies with caricatures of selfish tycoons, extreme examples of police corruption, folks trying to escape violent environments by telling stories about its damage, and thought I understood who the villains were, i.e. the venal systems and individuals who grabbed what they could for themselves while stomping the faces of those below them (Do The Right Thing, Colors, Wall Street). For some reason, some 70% of males in my age range are super right wing when it comes to who they venerate. And while we all grew up singing along to George Michael and Freddy Mercury and Rob Halford (not to mention their immediate forerunners Lou Reed and David Bowie) and it allowed to accept that gay marriage and parentage was inevitable, now they clutch their pearls at the idea that trans folks may need love and acceptance and a revised way of looking at our institutions. I didn't realize I was in the minority by looking for the ketman in the world around me.
Do you think those guys are faking their MAGA aesthetic? Or is their taste just as shallow as whatever is popular right now? In other words, are the hypocrites or just shallow idiots? Ketman, it seems to me, requires hypocrites.
I like "ketman" as a concept. I find myself shocked by my fellow Gen-Xers, especially those who loved the same pop culture I did and who remember the same trends I do, who ended up as MAGA folks. I guess we took in the same pop culture and learned exactly the opposite lessons. I watched movies with caricatures of selfish tycoons, extreme examples of police corruption, folks trying to escape violent environments by telling stories about its damage, and thought I understood who the villains were, i.e. the venal systems and individuals who grabbed what they could for themselves while stomping the faces of those below them (Do The Right Thing, Colors, Wall Street). For some reason, some 70% of males in my age range are super right wing when it comes to who they venerate. And while we all grew up singing along to George Michael and Freddy Mercury and Rob Halford (not to mention their immediate forerunners Lou Reed and David Bowie) and it allowed to accept that gay marriage and parentage was inevitable, now they clutch their pearls at the idea that trans folks may need love and acceptance and a revised way of looking at our institutions. I didn't realize I was in the minority by looking for the ketman in the world around me.
Do you think those guys are faking their MAGA aesthetic? Or is their taste just as shallow as whatever is popular right now? In other words, are the hypocrites or just shallow idiots? Ketman, it seems to me, requires hypocrites.