I wrote about how Bo Burnham's 'Inside' has become a curious time capsule that unintentionally demonstrates exactly where and how we went wrong: jasonpargin.substack.com/p/in-which-i... - ThreadSky

jasonkpargin.bsky.social • 17 days ago

I wrote about how Bo Burnham's 'Inside' has become a curious time capsule that unintentionally demonstrates exactly where and how we went wrong:

https://jasonpargin.substack.com/p/in-which-i-declare-war-on-beloved

Comments

shteev.bsky.social•17 days ago

📌

joebandy.bsky.social•17 days ago

Completely nailed it Jason. There’s a fundamental lack of self awareness in that special that extends to the online doomerism. It’s an easy thing to fall prey to! Which is why it’s so important to call out.

wkndrd.bsky.social•17 days ago

This is a fantastic piece!

toasty.cx•17 days ago

this feels like the kind of thing lots of people need to read

onedayinjune.bsky.social•17 days ago

Thing is, people seem to think it's a binary between pollyannaish optimism and pessimistic doomerism! It's not! You can be clear-sighted about how things are bad, pick yourself up, and keep fighting because there's always a chance and nothing is ever truly hopeless.

pvn2099.bsky.social•17 days ago

This is really well put. I had trouble realizing I had picked up that layer of trollish quirks until I got off Reddit and Twitter in 2018, saw how people who were still soaking in that stuff sounded to me, recognized myself in them, and recoiled in embarrassment.

alaskanweeb.bsky.social•17 days ago

On YouTube it was breadtube but I feel like there needs to be a word for the broader haze that surrounded that

slanderous.bsky.social•17 days ago

le miasma du pan

literalhiggs.bsky.social•17 days ago

Humans want a scapegoat

johnnyrimes.bsky.social•17 days ago

It’s why Captain America and Superman (Boy Scout characters) resonate so much with people

samusishere.bsky.social•17 days ago

Hmmmm, so I kind of really disagree with a lot of your argument here.

One thing to note is that one of the most popular movements in human history, Christianity, is literally an apocalypse cult that says all of life is a curse.

samusishere.bsky.social•17 days ago

The Bible is very explicit that the world is supposed to end very soon, that the universe was created to punish humans, that you should do nothing but suffer, and that even the god of this universe must suffer to change his own rules.

samusishere.bsky.social•17 days ago

Paul and Jesus attack family bonds, attack wealth, attack wearing things other than rags, attack sex, attack... Basically everything actually, lol.

And it grew to gain the support of multiple billion people.

pumpkinpal.bsky.social•17 days ago

You seem to have missed that the entire fucking point of it is the hope for bliss in the next life

junegloom.bsky.social•17 days ago

i would rather hope for liberty and happiness for everyone in the current life -- you know, the one that we definitely know exists because we're living it right now.

pumpkinpal.bsky.social•17 days ago

The preceding comment was a rejection of the notion that christian theology offers hope. You and I can agree til we're blue in the face about that hope being a false hope. I was disputing the idea that it doesn't offer any. This is called reading comprehension.

samusishere.bsky.social•17 days ago

The depressed communist worldview is based on the hope for the communist revolution and the end of politics.

krubner.bsky.social•17 days ago

But the Communists rarely paint a happy picture of life after the Revolution. Famously, Karl Marx never wrote on the subject, aside from a few vague sentences about “the withering of the state.” Lenin had to invent post-Revolution life whole-cloth because Marx never mentioned it.

samusishere.bsky.social•17 days ago

I just don’t see the major difference between Paul bragging about being a virgin with almost no friends because he’ll be rewarded at the end of the world and random posters bragging about depression because the end of the United States is coming soon.

utumno4.bsky.social•12 days ago

Jason's words apply just as well to all aspects of Christianity, including your "hope for bliss" idiocy.

digitaldaydreams.bsky.social•17 days ago

Christianity has the built-in hope of heaven at the end of all the suffering

doyhickey.bsky.social•17 days ago

yeah that kinda invalidates their point

samusishere.bsky.social•17 days ago

This hope was generally copied by communists by the dream of a communist revolution.

fifisch.bsky.social•16 days ago

No, it is not. I was raised a catholic and have never heard of the apocalypse until I got into metal and got curious about satanic symbols

Neither the catholic, nor orthodox, nor most European protestant churches really talk about the end of days.

It's only overemphasized in American christianity.

samusishere.bsky.social•16 days ago

Paul’s authentic writings are the most accurate depiction of Jesus’ teachings due to the inherent inaccuracy of oral transmission and Paul is constantly claiming the end of the world was imminent.

samusishere.bsky.social•16 days ago

The faith pivoted away from this as it became clear that the apocalypse promised would never happen, but it very much started as an apocalyptic cult.

fifisch.bsky.social•16 days ago

Citation needed on the "all of life is a curse"

samusishere.bsky.social•16 days ago

Christian theology has largely converged on the Problem of Evil when directed at humans being collective punishment towards humans for early humans disobeying god.

This is a very bad theological solution, of course.

fifisch.bsky.social•16 days ago

But what they offer is a positive vision.

"Well the reason the world is bad and you feel bad is the fact our ancestors fucked up. Join us, your sins will be washed away and you will have your place in the Kingdom of Heaven, where justice reigns and everything is awesome"

afraidoftheworld.bsky.social•17 days ago

Except this validates the people who tell those people they're wrong for their struggles and all they need to do is "smarten up". Bootstraps energy here.

First we need to know there's more than JUST US struggling with something. That goes a long way. THEN we can consider solutions, if there is any.

notmovielines.bsky.social•17 days ago

I think this is largely correct. As someone who suffers some of those same anxieties I will say that I know for some this can be a way to exercise a level of control.

There are events or circumstances beyond your control that are causing you anxiety.

notmovielines.bsky.social•17 days ago

I know I personally doomscroll sometimes, because I hope I’ll find some bit of news that tells me everything will be okay. The act of doomscrolling, though, perpetuates the sense that things are out of control and my anxiety increases.

notmovielines.bsky.social•17 days ago

In the end I think 24/7 access to the Internet is where this problem starts.

thelukejohnson.bsky.social•17 days ago

finagle-a-hegel.bsky.social•17 days ago

I never saw this special but I admit I'm quite intrigued and excited to read this. At least for me, this hook works lol

violentlycar.bsky.social•17 days ago

hey, this is really good. the end in particular is very resonant with me

shimmersoft.bsky.social•16 days ago

as someone who only watched Inside for the first time two months ago, i really think you've hit the nail on the head here. it's a really funny, impressive and layered work, but it does encapsulate the toxic relationship between lefty anxiety and social media incentives.

cgdavidb.bsky.social•17 days ago

I should also add that Bo did release an Outtakes video a couple years ago that reveals that yes he is staging all of this, so he wasn't intentionally hiding anything - plus there are additional songs and some of them are pretty good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XWEVoI40sE

cgdavidb.bsky.social•17 days ago

You have a typo - but very good article and I absolutely agree. Gonna pick up your book too

exxzackly.bsky.social•16 days ago

Great article Jason, absolutely loved it ❤️

toomuchsascha.bsky.social•13 days ago

Rou Reynolds said it best - "When people feel powerless they will rarely resist"

leupp.bsky.social•17 days ago

💀

themetricsander.bsky.social•17 days ago

I mean, I still remember when he wrote a deeply misanthropic and nihilistic article for Cracked claiming that everybody around you secretly hates you/doesn’t want you to improve in any capacity whatsoever. . . . . .So that would be an UNIRONIC enthusiastic yes from me!!

fifisch.bsky.social•16 days ago

Years ago this very article gave me the motivation to co-produce two independent music festivals, co-organize a range of anti-fascist marches, hone my work skills to eventually land a pretty comfy job and become way nicer to my friends.

I don't think it's misanthropic nor nihilistic.

samd.bsky.social•17 days ago

this was my initial reaction watching it, but I didn’t know how to concretely explain why I didn’t like it… so thank you for writing this piece that created a coherent thesis that basically explains my gut reaction

denam.bsky.social•17 days ago

One minor quibble (which doesn't detract from the piece); the point of White Woman's Instagram is that the desire to mock the positivity and be a cynic is fundamentally empty! It agrees with your overall thrust

jwar.bsky.social•17 days ago

Yeah, the sincere section in the song is legitimately devastating. It's why I can never listen to it

invisiblespiders.com•17 days ago

You are like the patron saint of 'Gaining some darn perspective'.

guiltypanacea.bsky.social•17 days ago

I'm trying to grapple with this feeling of apocalypse as an escape, which I think I adopted as a religious youth, but has stuck with me. Thank your for sharing this

scooterbones.bsky.social•16 days ago

I'd like to respond to this by saying it is fine and good to repel normies. Eat my ass, normies. Eat my hairy ass with shit sauce.

cadencecivet.bsky.social•17 days ago

I legitimately didn’t expect this to hook me but it did. Good observations all around!

arjunbanerjee.bsky.social•16 days ago

I have to disagree that white women's Instagram mocks sincerity. The actual moment of sincerity where she discusses her mother's death is treated with a lot of depth and reverence.

It criticizes insincere performance, but holds space (visually) for people's real complexity.

rjsoldan.bsky.social•16 days ago

It does both I think. That’s what I love about Inside. Every song makes you laugh and then subsequently gut punches you.

ryn.fm•16 days ago

i liked this! i think i see a negative space to his artistic output that could explain his misery, but we as outsiders are not really empowered to speculate on it

(hint: the simplest shots of "Inside" are Burnham emulating a white woman's instagram feed and _clearly_ enjoying it)

polygolub.bsky.social•17 days ago

Good observations, but also, you are responsible for about 90% of the modern malaise industry.

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