Cyberbully writer ‘pans’ legacy HIPSTER RUNOFF & Carles

It has been scarie 2 be back on the internet. I feel back in touch with ‘cyberbullying’ and why ppl don’t publish content 2 the internet. Every1 just says that what u publish is ‘stupid’, ‘easily replicable’ and ‘unoriginal thoughts.’

I was checking the scalable medium Twitter.com, and I noticed that some website had ‘tweeted’ a ‘story’ about HIPSTER RUNOFF.

It was called Flavorwire. It had about 88k Twitter followers. It seemed to cover ‘high end white ppl who use the internet culture.’ It had massive advertising zones flanking the content.

I’m not sure why he even wrote about HIPSTER RUNOFF bc it is not a scalable trending topic like a ‘GIRLS recap’ or writing why ‘the movie about the African American leader was snubbed from the Oscars.’ There seem to be ‘kewl’ trending topics at the top that probably appeal to the readership.

HIPSTER RUNOFF ‘already happened’ and did not impact mass culture. Contemporary social media audiences don’t even know what HIPSTER RUNOFF is, and can only really process it as a ‘oh ya! I CaN’t BeLieVe I UsEd 2 ReAd ThAt! S0o0oo FuNNie!’

The content farm Flavorwire seem like one of those ones that posts about ‘basically anything’ every hour in order to have enough content to push into the internet machine to aggregate short term traffic from FB trends & long term traffic from SEO, despite not really even having 1 person who says, “I really like this site.” Maybe like a ‘failed Gawker’ era NYC-centric site that still makes deece money and can pay ppl like $150 per blog post and give the founder a sustainable income.

(I really have no idea how the media advertising system works though.)

I went to the blog post writer’s twitter account and saw he was being mean about my content and voice. He wrote “I earn my money”, maybe like Carles didn’t earn his money by creating a scalable content farm during an opportune time during the rise of social media and write hundreds of thousands of millions of words on the internet.

He went on to ‘pan’ the eBook Nothing Matters without even reading it. I feel sad that I just wanted to experiment with a new message in a new eBook medium, but I have to be ‘panned’ 4 not writing another generic ‘internet piece’ that conforms to the neutered voice of the internet, where every1 is tolerant, appreciative, and handles topics in a ‘respectful way’ where u pretend 2 have deep thoughts and a deep knowledge of cultural events that make u an expert in eerything.

Why couldn’t he just use that generic voice when interpreting my content?
I just wanted 2 write something 4 my ‘authentic fans’ who ‘get it’ and now all of these ppl who ‘don’t get it’ are just being cyberbully haters who r intellectually, ethically, and spiritually superior to my content and the remnants of my ‘tribe.’

The story starts out very mean.

Who’d have guessed it? Carles, the shadowy creator of Hipster Runoff, the most ‘relevant’ alt of 2007 and the Internet’s foremost exponent of scare quotes, was an idealist all along. Our antihero has been in the news of late because he’s selling Hipster Runoff and its associated revenue streams — exactly the sort of cynical prank that you’d expect from him — and now he’s surfaced to publish a blog post entitled “Why I H8 Online Media.” (It’s the prelude to, god help us, an entire ebook, which is called Nothing Matters.) The site on which it’s published, carles.buzz, is supposedly the last we’ll ever hear from him, what he calls a “terminal pop-up art website blog where I will document my final days on the internet.” Of course, Carles being Carles, it’s hard to know how much of this is sincere and how much is ‘sincere’ — which has always been one of the most obnoxious things about reading him. But taken at face value, it’s an interesting, if profoundly depressing, insight into the bleak cynicism of HRO and its creator.

Why do ppl think I am not sincere? I just tried so hard 2 create a space where a segment of the population could cope with the duality of reality. I wish I could just create in a medium where I am not interprete
Why am I depressing?
Why is my cynicism bleak? I thought my cynicism was always uplifting & connected ppl.

The writer goes on 2 then say

“Do you ever step back and ask urself,” asks Carles, “‘Who am I and what do I believe in?’” Sure. Don’t we all?

It’s a bit rich for Carles to be asking this question, though, considering that his schtick has always been one that denies (or at least snidely undermines) any concept of meaning. It’s the sort of writing wherein any statement always exists simultaneously with the concept of that statement being reversed or nullified by a “lol i was just trolling u/being IRONIC/etc.” It gets to the point where the sides of the irony/sincerity binary become indistinguishable, and thus any sort of opinion becomes worthless. Instead, HRO just sort of pointed to the existence of online trends and memes, occasionally defining them, mostly just sort of ‘noting’ their ‘existence.’

I feel sad that I was ‘all schtick’ and didn’t mean anything 2 n e 1. I thought I was providing a service 2 the post-educated markets of the world. I thought we were all scared of feeling like everything & nothing was important at the same time, and it was just a sorta chill, fun way 2 experience the evolution of culture.

Was I post-ironic or post-sincere? Did u know that before I changed the name of my blog 2 HIPSTER RUNOFF, the blogspot’s name was postmeaningful.blogspot.com? That was alway my goal, 2 create something beyond meaningful.

Was I just a ‘troll’? Or is that a ‘label’ utilized by ppl who don’t ‘get’ the use of media as an expressive medium?

The piece continues to PAN Carles and HIPSTER RUNOFF.

People will no doubt argue that this was the whole point of Hipster Runoff — it existed to satirize exactly the sort of culture that Carles is writing about here, wherein everything exists to drive clicks and the actual content of #content is entirely irrelevant. But you can’t satirize if you, the satirist, have nothing to say. You end up like MAD magazine after about 1975, mindlessly lampooning whatever the issue of the day is without any thought or purpose beyond “this exists, let’s parody it.”

So it went with Carles — whoever on the Brooklyn scene was popular at any given moment ended up in a blue box on Hipster Runoff, along with a bunch of rhetorical questions that might elicit a mild giggle if you were familiar with the artist in question. The extent of the satire, such as it was, was something like, “Haha, look at these people who everyone is saying is popular even though they exist in a bubble, and look at this machine that exists to monetize their popularity!”

He says my entire blog existence was pointless. I guess my mom should’ve aborted me so that HIPSTER RUNOFF never came 2 life.
I feel like I negatively impacted the course of culture that I ‘covered.’ Maybe ‘indie’ would still be going strong without me and online media wouldn’t have been ruined without me.

Of course, HRO was doing both of those things: contributing to the hype machine that created buzzbands, and making money off of it too. I’m sure Carles would argue that was the whole point… which, fine. It’s deeply cynical, sure, but there’s perhaps something to the argument that it was a performative sort of cynicism, an overt cynicism that exposed more covert versions of the same. Either way, I’m not sure it mattered — the point is that HRO was a cynical and nihilistic exercise, and ultimately not a particularly interesting one, and pretty much everyone knew it.

Then he says I sound like I am being sincere 4 ‘wanting something better’, but it is also stupid 2 feel sincere and that my sincere thoughts about online media are ‘fucking stupid’. It feels sad 2 ‘put myself out there’ wanting the media scene 2 change a lil bit, but then some guy in media tells me that I am stupid 4 wanting change and wanting 2 publish content that means something 2 an audience.

I feel like I should never put my feelings on the internet again, so I am not #cyberbullied by internet writers who are great at reducing trends into scalable thinkpieces meant to ‘elicit reactions’ from both social media, and ‘response pieces’ from larger online outlets. It is hard being a trending topic, especially when u aren’t even a scalable trend, so it is just some1 going out of their way to be a meanmean head.

Apparently not Carles, though. He writes in his blog post, “For a while I thought that ‘the internet’ was a ‘new medium’ that would ‘change media’ and materially alter ‘the universal message.’ Somehow a ‘cultural or existential experience’ could be heightened solely by the internet as a medium.” Later, he writes, “I do feel alone and disoriented because of my misguided perception of the internet as a ‘place of salvation’ for ppl who wanted to see the world differently than lamestreamers who watch the generic interpretation of ‘the news’ on television/lamestream websites.”

Really? This seems weirdly naive and idealistic for a man whose entire persona is built on being neither of those things. It’s almost… idealistic! And, indeed, that’s the picture of Carles that arises from this article — a sort of unholy amalgam of angry teenager and bewildered 40-something, shaking his fist about how UNFAIR it all is. Of course, this might just be ‘part’ of the ‘joke,’ but he sounds pretty sincere, which perhaps isn’t that surprising given that he’s being sincere about being cynical and disaffected.

Anyways, the piece is too long and boring. Especially when you are running a cultural content farm. You only need about 2-3 paragraphs and a social-media-oriented headline and URL. It has sent about 17 referrals to this site.

After doing the traditional thinkpiece tool of using a random historical argument like, “This already happened with radio, TV, etc!” or something like that, he eventually personalizes the ‘piece.’

A final point: toward the end of his post, Carles asks: “Do u evr have those days where u just want 2 be a ‘writer’ but then u realize all u can rlly do is pump meaningless noise into an overcrowded medium that is just trying 2 capture information/analytix to justify their ‘reach’ despite having no actual reach/influence with real ppl?” As a ‘writer’ who publishes largely online, I’d answer: yes. Absolutely. But what’s the alternative? Without the Internet, we’d be… what? More people will read this essay than they ever would have done had I published it in a limited-run print magazine or journal.

It’s fascinating to hear Carles talk about this stuff, given how much he himself has contributed to the existence of the blank, meaningless click culture he now claims to disavow. Or, who knows — perhaps I’ve just been ‘trolled’ into the cycle of ‘hype’ to promote his relevant new ebook. I hope not. That’d be really sad — and not primarily for me.

I feel sad. I think he was saying with the final sentence that all Carles does is ‘use the internet to promote himself’ and that it is sad.
Why didn’t I say anything ‘original’ or ‘meaningful’?
Why did every1 h8 me?
Why can’t I want 2 mean something 2 real ppl?
Did I really create the existence of blank, meaningless click culture?
Did I ‘ruin’ the internet?
If HIPSTER RUNOFF didn’t exist, would this writer bro be in writer utopia?

I still feel like based on his content farm’s model shoulda just ‘passed’ on writing about me, but I guess he probably felt ‘passion’ while writing about the ‘online media’ topic that helped him 2 process his existence and justify why he continues 2 write. I feel happie 4 him bc he seems driven to pump more content into the machine and make a living, which is what we all have been trying 2 do [via human survival]. He feels like he is writing in a medium where he feels safe, and is happy with his position on the employment structure, which is something we are all searching 4.

Sorry 4 being so unchill and that my blogxistence hurt u in such a way.

I feel like I am just an ‘entry-level’ thinker while every1 else is rlly smart and post-self-aware and they are already living some sort of enlightened existence, while I am just using this medium to try 2 ‘stupidly’ figure things out 4 myself.

His tweet still seems very hateful,

But he also seems like he is probably the type that tweets about everything he feels and tweets about every piece of media that he is consuming (music, tv, movies, online writing) in order to ‘create a discussion’ in the scalable medium in order 2 feel connected 2 a community. That is a beautiful thing bc no1 deserves 2 feel alone.

I am sorrie if I ruined things 4 any of u by blogging the way that I did. Sorry 2 ppl who think i ‘ruined the scene’ by showing a ‘lack of human empathy’ when marginalizing the world into trending topics and formulating a way to make them seem ‘interesting’ to readers.
Sorry.

Your ex-bro,
Carles

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