chat

actual substantive criticism

I found UT's whole world view simultaneously too focused on pop culture but also not particularly deep in it's analysis of pop culture. He often attributed the rise of the far right in America to a pessimistic and nihilistic underlying theme in popular television, melting the brains of the American people and turning them towards the alt-right, and openly called for media that was more optimistic, wholesome, and straight forward and blatant in it's moral messaging.

But the American people's brain's have always been melted, what was causing it before the advent of prestige TV? Some really nihilistic vaudeville plays? Media is part of the broader cultural hegemony but only one small part of it, the relative level of cynicism in media is dwarfed by the broader history of settler colonialism and deeply ingrained racism. The rise of this current, vulgar expressions of fascism, MAGA and the alt-right, to me seem more a reaction to the declining status of America as a global empire than due to Breaking Bad's popularity.

Even if media is as powerful at UT claims it to be, his analysis of it was often just wrong, or at least very one dimensional. There was the famous Barry incident where he just straight up said things that were factually incorrect about the show only to then admit he had never watched it (and never intended to). Also, his analysis of the overall media landscaped seemed caught a decade or two in the past. He had a particular hatred of Breaking Bad and Fight Club, but the latter ended in 2013 and the former 1999. If anything I'd argue our current media landscape isn't defined by cynicism and darkness, but saccharine feel good vibes and light irreverent comedy. The biggest media empire in the world right now is Disney, who's whole brand is wholesomeness. An anecdotal survey of the Chuds in my life reveals more Disney adults than Fight Club fans. But UT's defense of the wholesome often lead him to dismiss any substantive criticism of it, he was convinced that the dislike for the character Barney was born of some edge-lord hatred of love and kindness, but would never engage with anyone who tried to point out that Barney is an extremely one dimensional character who behaves almost like a parody of a children's show protagonist, his saccharine continual bubbly-ness grating even to a lot of young children, myself being one of them. I myself tried to contrast the distaste for Barney with the fondness most people have for Sesame Street, a children's show with a far more interesting and engaging cast of characters who actually have emotions beyond ecstatic happiness, but he refused to engage with this argument.

It was difficult to debate UT on anything because he was very arrogant and sure of his own opinions, and interpreted even the most politely worded disagreement as people either slavishly defending their "treats" or trying to "silence" him (despite him posting more than anyone else here at the time). Even when people weren't defending any treats, just criticizing it from a different angle, that was still treat chasing, since any criticism besides his own was illegitimate and born purely out of an addiction to pop culture. It's not a surprise most people who disliked him ended up blocking him leaving only those who had positive interactions with him in the crowd when he made his exit.