Daniel’s Journal #78 – Satire and Irony May Be Dead, but Passive Aggression is Thriving
I wanted to do my weekly blog post about fighting against your muse, but I think I’ll save that for next week since I forgot to write it ahead of time. It’s been a long week, and it’s only Wednesday morning. It’s had its ups and downs like every week, but I’m still here to persevere. Because in the end, what other choice do I have?
The title of this piece gives away my current feelings this morning, but it won’t be the focus of what I want to say (isn’t that usually how these things go). Hell, I’m not even sure what point I’m attempting to make. Maybe I need to get some stuff off my chest and into the ether. Maybe the world needs to see my agitation for what it is and then explain it to me so I may know myself.
And that’s the crux of how things are, isn’t it? You head out into the world with your ideas stuffed inside you bindle looking for the train to get you somewhere, anywhere. What the world spits back at you, however, is some contrite definition of what it assumes you meant. Worse, it reiterates your existential issues and redirects the wording to make it your fault.
I was shown this quote by Evangelical pastor Charles Swindoll this morning:
I was shown this quote in a passive aggressive manor to let me know a negative attitude will get you nowhere. It was followed by an added message that we need to keep our attitudes positive toward the shit they’re attempting to feed us. Here’s a shorter and more apt quote: “You’re going to eat this pile of literal shit, and you don’t like it because your attitude about it sucks.”
Oh, let me add one more quote: “Fuck Charles Swindoll!”
Maybe that’s not fair. I don’t know this person from Adam, but the whole “evangelical” thing is a huge red flag. So is that asinine quote that nuzzles against fascist thinking. I don’t have to even google his name to know he’s probably a Trump supporter. But maybe it’s my negative fuckin attitude toward the evangelical church and their support of fascists that’s the problem, not the problem itself.
Maybe this is just language Swindoll uses to soften the smooth brains of his flock so he could stuff them full of his personal ideologies. After all, the only difference between a religion and a cult is the tax breaks. Then again, I still don’t know this guy aside from this one quote, and that opinion of him that’s embedded into my mind is marred since his words were weaponized against me in the most banal sense of this arduous and wordy metaphor. Then again, my instincts about these things are usually dead-on.
But let’s move away from this. I feel like I’ve spent too much time and have give too much headspace to this douchey quote and the man who had the balls to speak it.
Do you think that when Charles Swindoll thinks about his balls they have little halos floating over them like a cartoon angel?
OK, now I’m done with this topic, I promise.
Moving backward, I want to talk a little bit about the death of satire and irony. Their bodies weren’t even cold when the AI clowns started pulling the valuables off the corpses. I could quote the latest discourse coming from the AI supporters, but there will likely be a new one dropping by the time I finish this paragraph.
AI isn’t anything special. It’s not even artificial intelligence. It’s a superpowered Google imitator that does nothing more than pull from a database of sources that sucks up immense amounts of power to stay online. Then again, this isn’t news. A lot of people outside the writing sphere don’t realize there isn’t any actual intellect behind it, but they’re too busy asking their AI bot apps how to hit on women.
And before you call me out: yes, I’m generalizing AI supports as incel tech bros who spent way too much of their parents’ money on picture of monkeys.
The thing that kills me most about this is the amount of flaming hoops these ding dongs have to jump through to justify using it for art and writing. They’ll argue all day that the artistry (HA!) comes from building the prompt that gets the AI creating the best story or illustration. They take credit for what the program creates and brag that it was their PROMPT, meaning they still full credit for what the program put together pulling from a myriad of sources without any permissions or agreements. The worst part about all this is how much the mainstream is eating it up!
AI as it stands now is nothing special, and I fail to see the merit in putting out a story you promoted a supercomputer to write for you. I guess it’s that corporate shill attitude shown by moguls like Elon Musk who made his fortune off shit he didn’t create himself. Sure, he may have been good at some point choosing which technologies to support and getting the right engineers and technicians on the job, but he didn’t create or design Teslas, he didn’t invent Twitter, and he bought his way to the top of his fields with (you guessed it!) inherited wealth. It’s no wonder the mini-musks running all over the place want to create without actually creating. Look at their damn idol!
Let me tie this all together before my head melts like I looked at The Ark of the Covenant without safety goggles. Contrary to the argument from AI bros, it takes ZERO skill to feed a prompt to a program to get an image or a story. It’s a basic outline—scratch that. It’s a list, more or less, of what you want to see when it’s completed. It takes skill to craft a story, paint a picture, or do anything AI claims it can do. Ordering an inflectionless pile of words isn’t crafting anything. It’s like using a turd as clay to make a model of a different-looking turd.
It also takes ZERO skill to send out a passive aggressive quote to tell people to get in line with your nonsense and pass it off as managing. You can’t inspire people to get on board, so you tell them the low morale is their fault for lowering it themselves. You’re not inspiring people to follow your lead. You’re telling them to get in line and be happy they’re allowed to follow. Shit, I get a job’s a job and all that, but have a little respect for your people even if you don’t respect yourself.
But this is all the trend we’re navigating as the future takes shape around us despite our warnings. Don’t like the president supporting genocide? Oh well, it’s your fault for not supporting him to the fullest extent you are able to. Upset that another mass shooting has torn families apart? Too bad, you should be grateful we have the freedoms to have guns. I can go on, but this is depressing. I hate to keep playing the fascism card, but if the clown shoe fits, you have to wear it.
Also, Trump Sneakers are literal clown shoes.
That’s it. I’m spent. Keep on truckin’ or whatever.
-Daniel Aegan 2/21/24
****
Want some books not written by fascist robots? Then you want to check out The Aegan Multiverse. It’s full of villainous goodies, compelling bastards, and all-you-can-eat drama. And it’s all written by a verifiable human being!
Check out what’s new and be ready for what’s coming!
