honestly there’s no recent cultural phenomenon as literally “hauntological” as the resurgence of early aughts “webcore” aesthetics amongst gen z. what was already an aesthetic mired in the prospects of aspiring towards now-lost futures of digital utopia has been reified (1-)

into a lurid nostalgia-fueled digital Garden of Eden, inexplicably free of the hyperatomisation of our current technocapital landscape. a lot of it can be owed to the perpetual reificative nature of 2020’s Spectacle as it continually neuters the notion of counterculture (2-)

into a series of easily packaged traits, so now the corporatised user interface of Windows XP and the sugary world of Webkinz are transformed into backdrops for libidinal teenage rebellion, the manufactured edginess of the pop-punk soundscape has acquired its authenticity (3-)

i don’t have much more to say i was gonna say some disjointed shit about memes neopronouns arriving from the future and fanboy and chum chum’s resurgence but i’m fuckign sleeby gn