I've been trying to understand why left wing art was so much better in the early 90's and it basically never works now, and I wonder if it's because back then there weren't as many rules for what constitutes being a good leftist and so you could kind of merge those issues with more personal ones if that makes sense... like Frogstomp by Silverchair has several political songs that work really well, but there were all these double meanings like the use of "fat boy" as a reference to a man rich enough to eat but also to a sense of responsibility moving the singer toward anorexia... or like they were mostly influenced by Pearl Jam and WMA is a really good political song with basic anti police lyrics, but their use of the words "my brother" and the tribal beats they might have been too worried about cultural appropriation to utilize now... or like the riot grrl/riot grrl adjacent bands used language so vulgar and were so unhinged that the Linda Lindas (or even Sleater-Kinney) don't really work as a contemporary (despite obvious talent/ability) because the energy feels too "I could never break barriers like that, I'm not disciplined enough" whereas back then it just kind of looked like unhinged...rage regardless of skill and you'd think "I'd love to do that" idk... leftism only really works as unhinged commentary by males streaming now (and when they try to turn it into art like stand up comedy or journalism it's terrible), but I'm not really sure why... like leftist posts by women on sites like this make me cringe and I want the algorithm to change because it's just echoing what male streamers say but more virtuous-sounding, and even radical feminism always ends up being a puritan contest... I guess I don't understand yet why males streaming is the only space where rules don't apply and you look revolutionary
Edit thinking about it some I guess part of it is that men got a lot more committed to monitoring the...cultural landscape... to establish dominance, it's hard to explain... like satire used to be one of the most powerful tools you had to communicate that you were in a difficult position, it used to be that you could utilize it in the extreme without being picked apart and judged for it... like the early 90's riot grrl-adjacent artists would dress themselves up like dolls and then scream the most vulgar words possible to make a statement about expectations being a trap but like, women in radical spaces now just laugh at that for looking hysterical and compete for who's best at avoiding men while emulating them, like a puritan contest basically... but that's because men got so good at monitoring satire so they could say "I see what you're doing" and laugh, and establish that they had no respect for you (for feeling a need to communicate your discomfort at all; for existing as a marginalized person basically)... and there would be corresponding rules for men like don't give in to sensitivity to the satire meant to make you uncomfortable; dominate it instead... so like if you are in this position of having successfully dominated marginalized and sensitive people you can say more or less anything and look revolutionary, but art is just too primitive of a tool for self expression to be truly good without ridding your self of that kind of calculation
