Poptimism & the death of criticism

[Anonymous No.17329556]

Does anyone else hate the current widespread beliefs that critics/elitism/gatekeeping are bad and outdated, everyone's aesthetic opinions are of equal worth, and there's no such thing as objectively good/bad, better/worse, higher/lower, there's only subjectivity? I feel like there's been a major change in the public's thinking over the past 10-15 years. Has the Web 2.0/social media/Yelp killed criticism and expertise by ennobling the plebs?
>in b4 have sex

[Anonymous No.17329607]

>>17329556
Not really, but people ought to have some coherence. I remember reading movie reviews on the newspaper and that shit was ridiculous. The critic gave "American Pie" 1 or 2 stars, which I can understand he didn't like the movie, but it is nonsense. You should rate things relatively to their own terms.

And there is such a thing as better and worse if you consider those parameters bounded by type or whatever. I don't think it makes any sense to compare Bukowski with Homer, both are literature but inherently different things.

[Anonymous No.17329620]

>>17329607
I'm the quoted anon, and if you consider his standards for comedy. That shit was all dead at the time and there was practically nothing worth anything. And don't get me wrong, I think that American Pie is a stupid movie.

[Anonymous No.17329707]

It's a tactic used by the capitalists to make people consume more products. Without a canon, the new is always better. You must consume the latest trendy products in order to have taste. They use leftist moral arguments to fool people into doing this, even as they claim to oppose capitalism. The old canon is said to be racist and sexist, therefore it is morally necessary to dismiss it and explore new works. Any new canon isn't based on true quality, it's based on superficial qualities such as racial representation, which allows them to easily churn out more works like a factory and have people consume them out of moral obligation. The new canon never ends and makes them more and more money. /mu/, /v/, /a/ are already the nadir of this, where there is little to no consideration of older works. /tv/ is almost there too, and they would love to do the same thing to /lit/.

[Anonymous No.17329780]

>>17329556
Poptimism started in rock critic circles and sought to challenge the critical supremacy of the album as a format, the elevation of "auteur" artists, authenticity as a de facto positive and so on. Basically all the stuff that makes 14 year olds say believe that Pink Floyd is the best band ever and is inherently superior to rap music or whatever. Since then it has warped into its own dogma. But the assumptions it challenged were never really "elite" anyway.

[Anonymous No.17329970]

>>17329556
There is nothing to be elitist about in the internet era. Nothing that you like is special, everyone has access to it. Grow up.

[Anonymous No.17329994]

>>17329707
Hm there is this too. Having a huge mass of classics isn't a good thing for industry.

>>17329970
Implying that a regular teenager has actual access to Shakespeare. Downloading a book and being able to read are very different things, anon.

[Anonymous No.17330002]

>>17329556
the best thing that is happening right now is the death of critics, I'm sorry OP. I know you like being told what to like and what not to like but critics are a waste of human space

[Anonymous No.17330123]

>>17329707
>muh capitalists
This is part of the problem. Has nothing to do with muh capitalists and thinking this just drags down discussion into equal opportunity stupidity.

[Anonymous No.17330136]

>>17330123
Hmmm yes, it just can't be capitalism! It's probably thanks to *rolls dice* ummm those damn postmodern neomarxists!

[Anonymous No.17330156]

>>17329994
>Implying that a regular teenager has actual access to Shakespeare.
Yes, indeed it has. Stop coping. Using art/literature/whatever as a replacement for a personality has always been a midwit cope. Art gatekeeps itself, it doesn't need you.

[Anonymous No.17330211]

>>17329556
Pick a movie. ANY movie. Now look at its RT scores for the general public and professional critics, chances are they differ significantly.
The truth is 99% of media produced in the modern is meant for the masses.
They do not have the education to gauge them critically. This has arguably always been the case

[Anonymous No.17330222]

>>17330136
Yikes. Why are you here?

[Anonymous No.17330328]

>>17329556
I've noticed that a lot of what passes for "anti-elitism" is really just cultural gatekeeping from below. If someone expresses an interest in classic literature, or anything else that's considered too "highbrow" or "difficult," they're either accused of being pretentious or met with passive aggressive arguments along the lines of "I'd rather just read for fun, it's totally okay to read YA fiction if you want, I'm not really impressed by people who read difficult books." It's discouragement, plain and simple, and it's usually directed at young people who are taking their first steps into the world of literature. For every pretentious teenager out there, there seem to be at least two other people whose sole purpose in life is to bash down anyone they think is reaching too high. At least the pretentious kids tend to mellow out and develop more perspective as they grow up. I'd rather tolerate teenage show-offs than live in a world where nobody reads anything more complicated than The Hunger Games.

[Anonymous No.17330348]

>>17330156
What are you talking about? Are you high?

[Anonymous No.17330394]

>>17329556
FUCK PEARS

[Anonymous No.17330444]

>>17330328
Yep, elitism is a problem that goes both ways, which is why I never got the point of elitism in the first place. What do you expect when you tell someone that what they like is shit and that they should enjoy what you like instead? Do you just expect people to kneel and suck you off for having superior taste? The only thing it causes is antagonising and creating this elitist anti-elitism. Some of the worst offenders have to be classicalfags for example. I almost never checked out classical music because clasicalfags are beyond insufferable and will posture behind their music all the time. It's no wonder people associate classical with pretentiousness. Rockfags/metalheads are also guilty of this and lewronggenerationism ironically got more people into rap because it was just embarrassing. All it takes is not being a pseud and introducing people to things you like, instead of shitting on them.