I was surfing around this morning and started reading a humorously ironic article about a racially-motivated MUNI fight. At first I was kind of entertained by the author’s ironic use of archaic racial slurs, but after a few paragraphs, when the terms kept coming, I started to realize that maybe I was reading an actually racist article, not an ironically racist one. With this flip of perspective, I was suddenly a horrible person who laughs at racist jokes. Just that quickly, everything changed.
I’m posting this as a cautionary tale. You kids think the irony is so hip, but let me tell you: it can turn on you. You think it’s cool to make fun of things that are empirically good? You think it’s funny to wear ugly clothes? It’s only a matter of time before you forget all about the mockery. Before the moog starts sounding as good to you as a wholesome old-fashioned electric guitar.
Lucky for me, I saw my own problem in time and stopped before I turned into a real, lifelong racist. But thousands of irony users haven’t been so lucky.
Remember, kids: Irony is a gateway drug to sincerity. Take it from one who knows.