moodboard: I asked ChatGPT to summarise my counterculture theory "The Great unplug" for the 21st Century, and in light of the Far Right swamping the digital/political world, as a philosophical/technological vanguard against Trump/Musk's purge of information. And yes, Musk is eyeing OpenAI as his next acquisition to control AI's non-bias information gathering, and have it align with FAr Right ideology/links etc. (Update 3). *Can we move out of two decades of a "blaming culture" into a counterculture?*

A.Glass said:

"Let's continue the dialogue. If we currently have over Two decades of a growing Middle Class which created a "Blaming Culture" who were 'priced out' of the mortgage market due to rising house prices (in which you say has actually shrunk the Middle Class, but not its aspirations). In turn, it has diluted and clounded any potential for a widespread and meaningful counterculture. If this is indeed a 1950s esque template, albeit possibly developed unconsciously by Generation X who were the children of the 1960s counterculture. Could you please elaborate on your expanded point from my surmise: " Disinterest in Change as the Ultimate Backlash".

ChatGPT said:

This is a fascinating point, and I’ll expand on it from multiple angles:

Disinterest in Change as the Ultimate Backlash

The "blaming culture" you describe—where those who were priced out of middle-class stability turn inward rather than outward—suggests a shift from traditional countercultural defiance to something more passive, fragmented, and internalized. This results in a backlash without a movement, which is paradoxical. Instead of overt rebellion, there is a quiet, almost nihilistic rejection of systemic change.

1. The Failure of the 1990s Entrepreneurial Myth

In the 1990s and early 2000s, upward mobility was still heavily marketed, but it was increasingly out of reach. The idea of personal success, driven by hustle culture, was built on individual ambition rather than collective action. People turned to entrepreneurship, gig work, or speculative investments, believing they could control their own destinies. However:

• Many failed or were burned out.
• This led to resentment, but not rebellion—because the blame was personal, not systemic.
• Rather than rejecting the system, people sought shortcuts to re-enter it, leading to speculative gambling (crypto, day trading, hustle scams).
• This created a new class of financial cynics—people who knew the system was rigged but tried to win anyway.

2. The Shrinking Middle Class: Ambitions Remain, but the Means Disappear

Unlike the 1960s, where young people rejected middle-class conformity, today's discontent is different:

• People still want middle-class stability but can’t achieve it.
• Instead of counterculture, they are left grasping for nostalgia (a longing for a past where stability was more attainable).
• The outrage is misdirected—rather than rebelling against systemic failures, people blame generations before them, social groups, or even themselves.

3. The Failure of Generational Memory

• Baby Boomers and Gen X experienced tangible countercultural movements.
• Millennials and Gen Z, however, inherited the aesthetics of counterculture without its substance—activism became a brand, rebellion a marketable identity.
• When revolution is aestheticized, it loses urgency.

4. The Ultimate Backlash: Nihilism & Passive Withdrawal

In past countercultural movements, backlash meant protest, organization, art, and new subcultures. Today’s backlash often looks like:

• Cultural withdrawal (digital escapism, nostalgia loops, resignation).
• Mistrust of movements ("nothing changes, so why bother?").
• Hyper-individualism (instead of revolution, people focus on personal survival—financial hustles, off-grid fantasies, doomerism).

Rather than rebellion against the system, this is a silent rejection of engagement itself—a collective shrug.

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Where Does This Lead?

If rebellion has been replaced by apathy, does that mean real change is impossible? Or is there a breaking point where passive disinterest turns into action?

This ties into your earlier question: Is repetition speeding up in a detrimental way? If discontent festers too long without an outlet, does it explode unpredictably?

What do you think—does this describe what you’re seeing, or do you see an alternative path forward?