"It’s not just creepy images: the word has acquired new valences, has come to signify increasingly generalized feelings of anxiety and malaise. 'The way I use "cursed" has a connotation of being trapped, i.e. a sort of Greek Mythology Ironic Eternal Punishment vibe,' Alex Pareene, a writer for The New Republic, told me.... The cursedness that has come to be incessantly invoked online... may be connected to a sense that the very relationship between direct cause and effect has grown weaker. Americans are regularly dying in mass shootings but Congress won’t pass basic gun legislation; the President has been racking up impeachable offenses since the Inauguration but momentum for impeachment is only building now, as we approach the end of 2019 (and, really, who knows for sure). At the same time, our sense of indirect, complex cause and effect may be tightening. We see Caribbean islands destroyed by hurricanes and look guiltily at our air-conditioning units; the Supreme Court ruled one way in Bush v. Gore and now Ivanka Trump is acting as a diplomat in North Korea’s demilitarized zone. I have never been able to interest myself too much in the idea that we are living in a simulation, and yet the idea of cursed energy does evoke a feeling that the simulation is breaking, and that something terrible is emerging from the breach...."
From
a Jia Tolentino essay (in The New Yorker) about the social-media concept "cursed."
She doesn't mention Reddit, but I've been following the subreddit
r/cursedimages. Tolentino goes
so political in her essay. The subreddit
r/cursedimages isn't at all political. That's why I subscribe to it. I've got my Reddit setup to give me endless interesting material that's nearly 100% devoid of politics. That's the way I like it!
Here's the r/cursedimage
elaborate explanation of what is and is not "cursed" for the purposes of that subreddit. They're looking for images that produce "confusion, eerieness, or dread." And they quite emphatically do not want "random gross/weird food... [a]ny illustrated/animated character, especially Minions and Spongebob... [y]ou or your friend doing random poses in the dark...
r/mildlypenis or mildly sexual things... Hitler/Nazi/KKK/ Antifa Posts," etc. etc.
By the way, I also follow
r/mildlypenis. It's the kind of relaxing entertainment I look to Reddit for.
Here are a few examples from r/cursedimages (which actually I don't recommend looking at a lot of them in a row):
Cursed_Cats from r/cursedimages
Cursed_ earphones from r/cursedimages
Cursed_nest from r/cursedimages
cursed_toilet from r/cursedimages
Cursed_Seat from r/cursedimages
Posts
18 comments:
Americans are regularly dying in mass shootings
While that's a technically accurate statement, it's misleading. Far more people die falling out of bed each year than in highly sensationalized mass shootings. In fact, far more people die from falling off of ladders, drowning in pools, and misadvantures with ATVs.
Lefties want to start eating babies. They told us that last week. That will go well with the multiple other unforgivable crimes they commit every day.
See how this works?
Thirty or so posts in to r/penises, and not one geoduck.
What’s the world coming to?
I disagreed with every factual assertion made by this author, and then...oh, The New Yorker...of course.
here's an interesting twist:
https://www.takimag.com/article/slavery-reparations-movement-founder-hated-jews-loved-neo-nazis/
In "Return of the King" Gandalf, during his meeting with the Mouth of Sauron, calls the latter "faithless ... accursed!"
Geez. When I saw the words "Cursed toilet" my mind immediately suggested "dude, there's going to be a snake in it...don't keep scrolling!" But I kept scrolling. Need eye bleach.
Americans are regularly dying in mass shootings but Congress won’t pass basic gun legislation; the President has been racking up impeachable offenses since the Inauguration but momentum for impeachment is only building now, as we approach the end of 2019 (and, really, who knows for sure). At the same time, our sense of indirect, complex cause and effect may be tightening. We see Caribbean islands destroyed by hurricanes and look guiltily at our air-conditioning units
This Jia person has a poor sense of proof-of-cause. She isn't tightening anything and definitely needs some loose screws adjusted. I will give her that she is addressing an audience that needs no convincing. Choirs seldom need preaching.
I have never looked at my air-conditioning unit guiltily. I am relieved that I am not a member of her choir.
The writer is assuming facts not in evidence.
I wouldn’t call this political. I’d call this detached from reality.
The New Yorker piece is the usual drivel but I found many of the images clever and funny, sometimes in a sick-joke kind of way. They were generally imaginative and very well done.
There was even a guy drinking from a urinal! ("Free catch" no foul.) And here I thought AOC made that one up!
There's really people in New York that believe in curses and stuff like that? No wonder Hillary lives there. If she wants to get elected, she's definitely going to need help from the Principalities Of The Air.
Americans are regularly dying in mass shootings but Congress won’t pass basic gun legislation
There's no evidence that any proposed legislation will do a darn thing to change this.
the President has been racking up impeachable offenses since the Inauguration but momentum for impeachment is only building now
Really? Name the offenses. Tell me how they are different than what his predecessors have done.
We see Caribbean islands destroyed by hurricanes and look guiltily at our air-conditioning units
I don't look guiltily at my AC. I find it to be a great invention.
the Supreme Court ruled one way in Bush v. Gore and now Ivanka Trump is acting as a diplomat in North Korea’s demilitarized zone.
What does this even mean?
How do these people get jobs as writers?
Could only look at five pictures. Maybe they are accursed.
Curses!! Those 68 yr olds are at it again !!
r/CursedToilet??
That's the aftermath of the number 2 burrito down at Gordo's. No one ever finishes the number 1 burrito!!
Party of Science. Reality-Based Community. Citizens of Rationalia.
The snake was definitely hard to look at. The tree trunk was amusing. The copier was typical male. I'd scroll back up to look at all of them again but I don't want to see the snake again...
This sounds really weird to me.
Post a Comment