"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." -Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Popehat%27s%...
Popehat's Law of Goats:
He who fucks goats, either as part of a performance or to troll those he deems has overly delicate sensibilities is simply, a goatfucker.
He claimed he was just pretending to be racist to trigger the social justice warriors, but even if he is telling the truth, Popehat's Law of Goats still applies.
I sometimes argue the opposite of what I believe if I'm dealing with someone who's getting way too worked up over it. I kind of like the mental exercise of defending an opinion I don't agree with and the entertainment that goes with it.
Theory: Describing it as performance art could be personally offensive enough to said people that they may stop the activity that has become described as performance art.
Along the lines of "wow, how did you manage to keep a straight face the whole time?"
> (In high school, I started saying "Spiffy!" ironically, and kept saying it, and then there came a point where it didn't matter I meant it ironically, I was just the guy that said "Spiffy!")
I started saying 'ta ta' instead of 'seeya' or 'bye' in an ironic effort to be posh, and then one day I realised that 'ta ta' had become my default goodbye.
Having had this experience of irony becoming reality does make that 'game of chicken' seem like a plausible reality for the greater populace.
About 10 years ago I was in a clothes shop in London looking at jeans. There were a couple of younger guys, early 20s maybe, looking as well. One of them held up some bright pink jeans and asked his friend "do you think I could get away with wearing these ironically?"
What flashed through my head was "You'll still be the guy wearing pink jeans. If you like pink jeans, buy the pink jeans, wear them and be happy...". Irony is not visible to observers!
Culture jamming is not stupidity
The term for "culture jamming" when it is only disruptive is "trolling".
Like, if you ask the population if they believe if Trump is currently, secretly, President, some percentage will say they believe it. But I think the actual percentage is far lower; it's just polluted with an ever-growing number of people that are lying about their beliefs just to be obstinate.
Then it becomes like a game of chicken to see how far you can take it, how long can you insist on the belief before you crack. And ultimately at some point the difference doesn't really matter.
(In high school, I started saying "Spiffy!" ironically, and kept saying it, and then there came a point where it didn't matter I meant it ironically, I was just the guy that said "Spiffy!")