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If I do not interpret our times as the new 1930s, it’s because as best as I can tell, there’s a big ol’ culture-wars split. Because a certain sort of person is Team Hamas, the other sort of person—the person who baseline hated that sort of person pre-October 7, 2023—is suddenly extremely on the side of Israel and Jews.
It’s better to have allies than not. And I, personally, never claimed to be on the Jewish left, so I do not feel (to use a terrible expression) politically homeless at this time. If liberal sorts are being reasonable, I’m good on that front. Which is for the best because sometimes I glance at where full-on right-wing sorts are at and it is not where I’m at, except for these glimmers of a moment when someone on that side is excruciatingly annoying. But never enough to actually impact my politics.
But something seems odd to me about the way things are shaking out. Should your opinion on trans women in sports (a topic that I’m sure Matters but causes my eyes to glaze over) imply any particular stance regarding Israel and Gaza? Are we really looking at DEI or wokeness run amok or does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict possibly have other sources? (Like white women. #Sarcasm, for the non-link-clickers.)
One tangential aspect of this I find strangely compelling is the way the teams appear to have their own uniforms. Or rather, one of them does, and the other’s is basically anything but what they’re in. I was on the streetcar earlier and a group got on, white people in their 30s or so, with neon-pastel hair and N95 masks. I don’t know their politics, except I totally know their politics. You could give me a long checklist of seemingly unrelated issues of the moment and I would bet a lot on knowing where they stood on each.
This is a political team, but also an aesthetic subculture that effectively didn’t exist pre-Covid. I think? Unnatural hair colors—something I myself would dabble in—sometimes meant punk, but had come to mean nothing whatsoever (remember dip-dye? ombré?) and had even become, outside the more sartorially conservative professions, office-appropriate.
Now you get things like right-wing demagogue Ben Shapiro posting a video (I have not watched it) called “Purple Haired Leftist Can’t Handle Red-Pilled Asian American.”
The thing I’m describing is a new mishmash of preexisting things (what isn’t?), and is, I think, the only distinctly 2020s look-outlook there is. It’s not an extension of the hipster, and nothing about Covid-cautiousness seems punk. It’s earnest and righteous, its stance one of caring more than everyone else, of everyone else being an asshole. It is (I think?) home of something called a smol bean, but I’m still not sure what that is.
Meanwhile, what’s the other team wearing? If by “the other team” what’s meant is conservatives, I guess there’s always some variation of the 1950s nostalgia look, the standard for conservatives since the hippie days. You see this lately with the men who post stuff like, ‘I have a wife and a kid, I’m owning the libs!’ and they are living extremely unremarkable lives but looking like Ward Cleaver while doing so. They look square.
But liberals, or even heterodox sorts, the ones who might vote Democrat or Liberal, is there a ‘fit? Do I ever see someone and think, based on their personal style, that they are on the culture-wars team that is closest to my own position on most issues? Is there one and I just don’t see it, and if so, what is it?
It seems like more of an absence of consistent signifiers. Maybe there’s a (Covid) mask, maybe not, though probably not a 2023 outdoor N95. Maybe someone is gender-conforming, maybe not. They’re certainly not all straight. They’re probably not wearing pins bearing political messages of any kind. (A pronoun pin is unlikely, but I can’t say I see a ton of those on anyone over 16 outside of this one coffee shop.) Maybe you see less Manic Panic usage these days, given the evolution of what it all signifies, or maybe my team is a bunch of 40-year-olds who would rather not spend their spare time removing errant hair dye from their towels.
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Several years ago I attended a talk by a scientist whose appearance included colorful hair, tattoos, and piercings. The person introducing the speaker went through the usual career highlights and biographical details noted in such introductions, and then added that the speaker has extensive experience drafting codes of conduct for conferences and professional organizations.
Once upon a time, this speaker's appearance would have marked them as outside the mainstream power structures of an academic organization. The last thing you'd expect from the person with tattoos and piercings is a lecture on rules and order. Yes, people with tattoos and piercings have a stake in order and decency like anyone else, but you'd also expect a bit more "live and let live" and a bit less "Hey, we have RULES here!" If nothing else, they'd probably figure that the enforcers of rules and order aren't terribly interested in protecting them, so they'd operate in a mode of letting certain things slide.
Nowadays, one assumes that the person with tattoos and piercings and colorful hair has the code of conduct memorized and can explain how violations of the code further systemic oppression AND THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF DAMNIT!!!!!
Interesting shift in the culture.
I guess in my neck of the woods the teams look pretty alike, except one team is a lot more likely to wear, say, a t-shirt with the American flag on it. Their Facebook feeds will give you a lot more clues than their wardrobe, though. And now that I know ladies in their 70s who show up with pink hair, that isn't a marker either.
I can tell you what a smol bean is though! Because I have gen z kids. It's anything small and cute and snuggly. Your cat is a smol bean, and possibly your favorite cartoon character, but it is infantilizing to call a person a smol bean. Your cat may be a smol bean but your girlfriend is not.