Are there any highschool subcultures that are cool now? Speaking from a US perspective:
- Jocks are now finance/crypto bros, or clueless managers.
- Nerds are building bombs or AI or spending their days trying to get people to click on ads.
- Theatre kids are imperialist hamilton libs who think the US is “a nation of immigrants”, and not a settler-state based on indigenous eviction.
- Hippies are pacifist color-revolution-supporters.
- Goths are probably eco-nihilists.
- My experience with modern day punks, skaters, and stoners is that they’re mostly some kind of libertarian who believe in a lot of reactionary conspiracy theories.
- Hipsters are almost always some flavor of western-chauvinist / white supremacist.
I was just thinking that everyone who is recognizable to their high school archetype is probably part of the problem.
literally, if all someone does is move along the rails after high school, they likely suck.
the only people from high school who aren’t fucked in the dome 20+ years later, are the people who are wildly different humans now and have some life path that can’t be quickly understood without interpretation.
also, the people who just plain vanished and don’t have any socials could probably be cool.
Nah the former jocks include finance bros and car dealership owners. You may not think of that as jock labor but they didn’t all go on and become professional athletes.
finance bros and car dealership owners.
100% + the new techbros and cryptonerds. The talenyed athletes are not usually the stereotypical jocks.
I don’t have the exact quote but in high school English it was required reading that we read this sci-fi book called Unwind and one of the protagonists actually made this connection.
“There were two types of cops: the bullies who peaked in high school that want to keep reliving their glory days, and people who were bullied that want to oppress undesirables as a misguided way to get revenge on ‘wrongdoers’.” - Unwind (not exact quote just what I vaguely remember.)
But it explains the two types of fascists and those in fash jobs perfectly.
EDIT: Here’s the full quote -
“The way Risa sees it, there are two types of people who become Juvey-cops. Type one: bullies who want to spend their lives reliving their glory days of high school bullying. Type Two: the former victims of type ones, who see every Unwind as the kid who tormented them all those years ago. Type twos are endlessly shoveling vengeance into a pit that will never be full. Amazing that the bullies and victims can now work together to bring misery to others.“
Wiki sounds interesting, worth reading?
No, it’s the most unbelievably hamfisted anti-abortion, utilitarian ethic screed I’ve ever seen, poorly disguised as your standard YA dystopian fic.
Unwinding is, in universe, the process of completely taking someone apart and using all their pieces as medical transplants for others, and parents can choose to have their kids unwound up until the age of 16 or something for any reason. It’s the trolley problem variation where the surgeon kills one person for their organs to save five that need transplants.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the book either (probably because I’m not a Young Adult), but the whole point of the novel is that unwinding is an absurdly evil “compromise” that’s worse than forced birth or abortion. I read it as a caution against liberal civility politics, more than anything.
“Progressivism never took root in geek culture because gamers didn’t see themselves as persecuted nerds, but as temporarily embarrassed jocks.” - DragonBallZinn
