Which piece of writing best epitomises 2016? I saw an articl

my suicide not desu

The Decline of the West

>>8896667

I remember reading that one too and can't think of any articles (or blog-essays) this year that were as good a lookback to 2017.

Thanks for bringing it back to my attention since it's worth a reread post-election.

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>Which piece of writing best epitomises 2016?
For a fun comparison, the 1969 issue's cover featured the heroics of the Apollo 11 mission.

>>8897884
wait so is that a trap

>>8896667
Replacing "IYI" with "Redditor" improved this piece significantly for me

>>8897899
A little boy, driven slightly mad to try and prove a point. Leave him be and he probably would have turned out just gay. Now he wants to be a pink Barbie doll

>>8897884
holy shit that trap smoking

are there more pics inside

>>8896667
Is that article supposed to be good? The ressentiment simultaneously pains me and makes me laugh in contempt.

yeah, when someone talks in detailed third-person about an exact type of person and everything they do, down to "reading the New Yorker", it's hard not to see a lot of pathetic resentment from their own lives, attacking some specific who they don't like in real life but doesn't accurately represent a type at all, with some projection thrown in. They're the type of people who pride themselves on being too self-aware to be like these people but ironically are just as petty as them. They spend their whole lives squabbling, in intellectual debate, loving to be contrarian and edgy, not even realizing that they've let their hearts shrivel up and die. Perhaps, at the end of their lives, they may look back at what they've "lived" like in horror and remorse. Whereas other people are passionate enough to have convictions about things, even if these things are wrongheaded and idiotic, these guys pride themselves on being more cynical, more aware, and on being able to tear down other's more naive and idealistic worldviews: but they don't realize that in the process they simply destroy their souls and make their lives shrunken up, unemotional and bitter, obsessed with projecting an image of power and intellectual strength and cynicism at the expense of love, of kindness, of peace, even if it may appear naive and gooey. In short, they're the type of person who writes for The Medium

wait

>>8897956
If your post intends to respond to Taleb, you've made an incredibly dumb post. If it is just some sort of joke---referenced by your last word--then carry on (although it wasn't funny or anything)

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>>8896667
>Which piece of writing best epitomises 2016?

>>8898477
After the second headline I thought this was from the Onion

A baby shitting on a wall

>>8897920
That's the article's story. Crazy conservative parents couldn't stand the idea of their son being gay. Would rather believe he's actually a girl.

>>8897884
>https://medium.com/@nntaleb/the-intellectual-yet-idiot-13211e2d0577#.1w8vohgw1

This so fucking hard.

It's our decadence, and celebration of the other, for the sake of self-aggrandizement.

Facebook+Khardasians+Infinite Relativism.

Luckily, Islam is winning, so we can still turn this thing around.

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Nigel Farage

>>8897956
he talks about how the "IYI" prejudges "rednecks" as he proceeds to prejudge them.
what about stop putting labels on people you fucking idiot.
>>8898472
>U DUMB
good argument.
you're the moron for thinking that article isn't just narcissism disguised as cynical insight. it says a lot more about him than it does about anyone else.

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>>8898979

>>8896667
That would be such a good article if the author wasn't such a try hard psued.

>>8896667
So the best piece of writing on 2016 is a substanceless screed of ad hominems directed at an imaginary strawman. Fuck off.

>>8897884
Remember when people transitioned because they wanted to be the other gender not because they wanted to be trans

>>8897846
this and The Closing of the American Mind

>>8896667
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

>>8901475
Most people who talk about "anti-intellectualism" are brainwashed libtards
>w-why didn't they vote form Trump? They must not be intellectual like me, I watch MSNBC, listen to NPR, and read the New Yorker

>>8901492
Such a crude binary way of thinking. There are major strains of anti-intellectualism running through the mass of Trump supporters as well as the "brainwashed libtards". That you immediately thought I was only targeting Trump voters speaks volumes, though.

>>8901475
Considering that the major intellectual institutions in this country are tools used to secure the class system, anti-intellectualism is a necessary force.

>>8901515
when you literally have a choice for one of the dirtiest known politicians in history under investigation by the fbi and a media darling who took out a full page ad in a newspaper in the 80's advocating for proper military intervention and welcomed Gadhafi onto his front lawn when New York turned him out, and you still have difficulty choosing, that reflects poorly on the country.
We've been taught republicans are old, evil, and unhip and that nearly got an unabashed criminal into the white house. This is considered a 'partisan' comment, in these strange times.

>>8898472
>
>>8898987
It was a joke. Not even a funny one, I just like bothering people sometimes with long and unfunny jokes.

>>8897884
Democrats in 1969: put a man on the moon
Democrats in 2016: put a man in the women's bathroom

>>8902007
You shouldn't have had a tantrum over JFK being Irish and Catholic.

>>8897846
>>8901470
Two of my favorites. Thanks for being weird with me, /lit/ -- Spengler and the Blooms (Allan and Harold) really helped shape me into the failure I am today.

>>8901965
Many republicans, I would argue, certainly are 'old, evil, and unhip', as are many Democrats. Anti-intellectualism begins when one side acts as though their argument is a priori, and hence indisputable in a battlefield of ideas. I don't have a dog in this fight, to me they just represent opposite sides of the coin in terms of how they went about getting to where they are now- Clinton as a political chameleon, and Trump as a guy who might have good intentions, but ultimately roused fury to get elected, which is a recipe for disaster most of the time.

The worst thing about you, as a Trump supporter, is that you believe the man can do no wrong if I go by your glowing comment. What happens if it turns out he played you and and 46% of the American population? Personally, I hope that is the case so we can finally get closer to some truer semblance of honesty in politics, and away from this terrible practice of blind faith that people like you and libtards, and SJW cucks, and all you fucking ideologues subscribe too.

>>8901965

Wow. There's nothing left in this trashcan.

You seem like an elderly person who believes every bit of propaganda yelled at you. I am surprised there wasn't a "#lockherup" in your post.

>>8901492
This was a really stupid post so you were kind of proving his post.

>>8897956
>Is that article supposed to be good?
No, it's supposed to be satire, and it's pretty giid from that perspective.. The problem is that a bunch of idiots took it as vindication of their own ignorance.

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>>8897956
>>8898987
>>8899279
>>8899305
>>8901515
>>8903706
>>8903724
>>8903735

>>8903757

This is some irony.

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>>8903690
both sides are just as bad

xD

>>8903760
i like how the guy on the right has a calm face while he says "some individuals are certainly worth more than others", even though that opinion only comes from people who are severely fucking rustled.

>>8903757
>expecting /lit/ to be like /pol/ but smart.
if /pol/ was smart it wouldn't be so far right.
almost every worthwhile creative in human history has been on the left of the respective spectrum from their time. right wing people just aren't creative. it's as simple as that. especially nowadays.

>>8903760
not an argument

>>8903760
did you make that just now or do you have a folder full of those things? Is this how you usually post?

bit reddit if im honest m8

>>8903779
because racist people can't be calm

>>8896667
>But the problem is the one-eyed following the blind: these self-described members of the “intelligentsia” can’t find a coconut in Coconut Island, meaning they aren’t intelligent enough to define intelligence hence fall into circularities—but their main skill is capacity to pass exams written by people like them.

This is such a clusterfuck of a sentence. If you want to use grammar and syntax to show off how smart you are, learn grammar and syntax first.

>(For instance it is trivial to show the following: much of what the Cass-Sunstein-Richard Thaler types—those who want to “nudge” us into some behavior—much of what they would classify as “rational” or “irrational” (or some such categories indicating deviation from a desired or prescribed protocol) comes from their misunderstanding of probability theory and cosmetic use of first-order models.)

Oh my god this is even worse. Why put that whole sentence in brackets from start to finish? It wasn't halfway through a point or anything.

>Beware the semi-erudite who thinks he is an erudite. He fails to naturally detect sophistry.

This was a whole paragraph. This is the most pseud thing I've ever read.

This whole article could have been written as the following shitpost:

"I go to the gym and I don't like liberals."

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>>8903779

>"some individuals are certainly worth more than others", even though that opinion only comes from people who are severely fucking rustled.

Projection.

The idea that "some individuals couldn't possibly be worth more than others" comes from those who are themselves worthless.

>>8903808
>says its projection
>proceeds to tell me im worthless
dunno u sound pretty rustled to me

>>8903818

You were projecting.

I was observing.

>>8903821
ok sure thing

>>8903808
>Projection.
observation.

>>8903808
/lit/ is a christian anarchist board. jesus and the bible teach that we're all equal in the eyes of god. except you. fuck off

>>8903808
lotta ressentiment for a Nietzsche poster

>>8896667
Why do you idiots act as if 2016 was different to previous years ?

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>>8903806
>muh autistic high school sentence structure that is 100% set in stone and must be adhered to

butthurt leftist philistine confirmed, go read a book, e.g anything by james joyce

you're just upset because you're the exact IYI he's lambasting; doubly so because he's right on the money

8 years of Trump fagboi

>>8903806
When you graduate high school you should go read some books.

>>8902007
Republicans in 1863: "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom."

Republicans now: "An extremely credible source has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.”

Candide. 2016 had a definite Candide vibe.

>>8903783
This is completely false, most artists in history were not left-leaning at all. You're projecting modern liberalism onto people who predate the right-left dichotomy. And even now, the artistic equivalent of leftism is thought-terminating postmodern nihilistic garbage. Leftists are the people who claim all art is equal and try to reject symbolic order and life itself, they will NEVER make good artists.

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>>8904340
>left-leaning
>liberal

Also this thread is not about literature. Please corporate and stay on your containment board.

>>8904353
I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. You seriously think the only "worthwhile creatives" in history were leftists? Leftism as we know it didn't even exist until the 19th century.

>>8904364
I'm not the tard you are arguing with. I just want you to stop with the liberals-are-lefties shit. You have your board for that, let us have our lit board in peace thank you.