I was just watching some edgy songs (at the time) from the 1980s and I realized that something very disturbing has happened to counter culture. Fighting “the man” used to be venerated in certain circles. Media outlets praised it. Most interesting music revolves around it. Humor was largely based on it. Teenage slang was antiestablishment. Every bully parent were people pushing the norms on a kid that wanted to be different.
Today, Antiestablishment media is not allowed. Art tries to avoid sensitive subjects, or it toes popular opinion. Interesting music and humor is getting pushed far underground. There isn’t any edgy slang in the same way there once was (or it is being created by 4chan).
A major problem with the suffocating culture establishmentarianism is that the real counter culture gets pretty extreme. By labeling anyone who doesn’t toe the party line heretics, it pushes people far outside of society. We have lost our moderate antiestablishment actors and have pushed people really far outside of acceptable society.
This trend hasn’t made people feel less suffocated by society. It has obviously suffocated people more. However, they can’t have a moderately acceptable outlet in just about any sphere. What is left over is that people who would’ve listened to punk music and wore some different clothes in their youth are now being pushed to 4chan, Q, The Proud Boys, the alt-right, and other outlets that allow for antiestablishment sentiments. This seems like a recipe for disaster.
I recommend people watch “We’re Not Going To Take It”, “Another Brick in the Wall” “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or some of the other great antiestablishment songs or movies from the 80s and 90s and you will realize this spirit will be dead. The only antiestablishment sentiment I could think of that is mildly around might be represented by the song “fuck the police.” It is oddly an establishment sentiment to hate on the police, but they are kind of the establishment at the same time.
