Put a name on something that you're seeing for the first time. The next day you will see it again.

Saturday, I came up with the term "hipster homophobia." Sunday, the thing to which the term applied popped up again. I didn't search for anything. It simply came up in the ordinary course of reading and blogging.

This reminds me of something I used to experience as eerie when I was in my 20s. I'd notice a new word and then within a day or so, I'd encounter the same word, and often I'd see it again and again. How could I have gone all my life without noticing the word and then it would come up repeatedly? The best answer — dispelling the eeriness — is that the word had been coming up all along, and it was the noticing of it for the first time that gave future appearances of the previously unnoticed word a specialness that made me notice it every time.

Here's the lesson I learned back in my 20s and followed successfully ever since. When you notice a new word, look it up in the dictionary. Don't just let it go, because it will come up again, and you'll have to think, if I'd learned that word the first time, I'd understand it now. There will be a next time, and soon, so take the trouble to learn it now. I did that back in the days when you had to get up and walk over to a book called the dictionary and flip through pages while thinking about the details of alphabetical order.

It may seem inefficient to stop the flow of whatever you're reading or listening to, and it's inconsistent with the way you learn words as a child — when you roll with so many unknowns — but it's efficient in the long run and suitable for a nonchild going forward using a language where you do know most of the words.

But words are specific. You know when you're hearing that same word again. An idea is different. Having an idea once doesn't necessarily set you up to think — when it glimmers to mind on another occasion — there's that same idea again. You need to give that idea a name, so it becomes like the new word that heightens awareness and causes you to see the recurrence.

Ideas are unlike words, though, in that you don't have to name words. Words are already words. And there are far too many ideas to name them all. You choose what to give a name. Name something that you want to know when you see it again. And you will.

Not-Funnyites converge on a hipster homophobe.

Yesterday, responding to a NYT article about the supposed new trend of "gaysploitation," I offered the term "hipster homophobia" (like "hipster racism") to refer to some uses of homophobia that don't count as bad but work as casual and cool and perhaps even affectionate. I said:

But watch out, especially if you're the wrong kind of person. We've seen "hipster racism" (how'd that work out?), and I'm inclined to call this "hipster homophobia." Make sure you're wearing your "hipster" shield! But you can't make sure, because it's not hip to fret about security. And never forget: this is The Era of That's Not Funny. And the Not-Funnyites know how to strip you of your livelihood in just about exactly one day. To be hip, you must be loose and casual about your ironic interface with the world. If you're not already poor and beyond any interest in building a career, step away from the fun new game of "gaysploitation."

And now, today, I've stumbled into "Disney remixer Pogo can’t walk back his homophobic comments on YouTube." I had to get up to speed on what a "Disney remixer" is. It's not some job at Disney, the media giant, it's independent recording, using Disney audio, and producing results like this...



... which is truly fun and delightful and perfectly nice. That video, from 11 years ago, has over 20 million views, and AV Club had a piece, 5 years ago, "Pogo’s 'Alice' is the Internet’s nostalgia fixation at its most enchanting." Here's a Reddit discussion of it that includes a lot of reminds me of the time I took LSD.

Here's another example of Pogo's sweet video pleasantry:



It seems simultaneously edgy and cushiony soft. Mmm... just like I feel when I think I'm so hip and I can say... anything. And you'll get me. Because you know I'm cool, and you'd be stupid or stiff if you didn't understand the amorphous hipster place whence I originate.

But this is The Era of That's Not Funny. And the Not-Funnyites know how to strip you of your livelihood in just about exactly one day.

So, back to the piece in The Verge.

Earlier this week, a wildly homophobic video surfaced where [Nick] Bertke [AKA Pogo] states that he views “gays as an abomination” and cheers the 2016 massacre at the gay nightclub Pulse. Faced with immediate backlash, the musician is now trying to walk his statements back, claiming the internet “has taken the video very far out of context and proportion.”

In the video, which was filmed in 2016, Bertke addresses why he chose the username “Fagottron” for his YouTube channel. “I’ve always had a very thorough dislike of homosexuals,” he says. “I’ve never liked a grown man acting like a 12-year-old girl. I’ve always found that to be quite disgusting.” The video has since been taken down, though mirrors of it remain on YouTube. He adds that his “subtle” username is a way for him to “express to the world that I view gays as an abomination.”

Here's that video. I've watched it. You watch it and catch whatever nuance you can:



It's "hipster homophobia," isn't it? To my ear, he's a confident guy who thinks he's cool and can tweak and trigger uptight dumb people. Here he is, after he's come under the attack of the Not-Funnyites and after it's not funny for him anymore because he must find a way to repent or die:



At one point, he mentions Andy Kaufman. Fortunately, for Andy Kaufman, he's already dead or he would be murdered.

Returning to gay stereotypes in a new spirit of fun.

That's a thing now, according to "Gaysploitation Upends the Stereotypes That Make Us Wince" (NYT), which shows us 5 stereotypes that (apparently) it's okay to have fun with (if you do it the right way*): The Nance, The Gal Pal, The Rebel, The Men in Wigs, The Neo-Revolutionary. Those are all stereotypes from the movies, and the new "gaysploitation" is (supposedly) a movie genre. The details of the stereotypes are lifted — openly — from the great documentary, "The Celluloid Closet."

________________________

* But watch out, especially if you're the wrong kind of person. We've seen "hipster racism" (how'd that work out?), and I'm inclined to call this "hipster homophobia." Make sure you're wearing your "hipster" shield! But you can't make sure, because it's not hip to fret about security. And never forget: this is The Era of That's Not Funny. And the Not-Funnyites know how to strip you of your livelihood in just about exactly one day. To be hip, you must be loose and casual about your ironic interface with the world. If you're not already poor and beyond any interest in building a career, step away from the fun new game of "gaysploitation."