Ironic Expressions Become You

 

On the dangers of saying things ironically.

I noticed a funny little trend in my two years at a high school. Students would say something, as if making a mockery of it, and they’d do this regularly. Over the course of a year or so, this would become a regular pattern in their speech, this ironic pattern. Then, one day, I didn’t detect irony. They had legitimately bought into whatever little thing they were doing.

One manifestation, I believe, was My Little Pony. My fellows would consume this TV show, seemingly to mock it. However, by the time we left the institution, they were definitely fans and cared very much about Shutterfly and friends. I know several teenagers who made online “ship boards,” online forums where teenagers (and twenty-somethings) could declare which characters should end up together. There were many of these floating around the internet, it seemed to be quite popular. I believe this all to have originated in irony: what teenager trying to break away from being an infant would watch an infantile television show enough to get hooked?

As many of you are aware, during my most recent (voluntary) job search, I was asked for my preferred pronouns. My interviewer, a professional software engineer, had her pronouns placed right after her name in her profile. LinkedIn connections for this person also ensured their last names had parenthetical pronouns perched on the end. This is not standard on the platform: these people had to care.

At my university, we had “roundtable discussions” around rectangular tables, where someone in the professional world would come in for an hour to share their story, some advice for how someone could get to where they are, and field questions by college students about their work, life, or anything else that seemed interesting. One week we had someone who wrote long-form articles for Texas Monthly, who shared how he would spend months on stories, and how he built himself up to having this cushy journalism job.

At one point he wrote articles for a sports journal of some sort, I know nothing of the topic so bear with me, and his writing was consistently rated above his peers. Apparently, his essays reminded people of works by former great sportswriters. He shared his secret with us. The best way to learn how to write is practice, right? His practice was just of a different nature. He would decide on an author to emulate, and find some of their work. He would then sit down with a typewriter (not necessarily a sign of the age) and start copying, word for word. He would take samples and copy them several times. Soon, when he wrote other work, he’d find himself falling into that practiced zone, writing like the authors he copied.

This led to his work being respected for the voices which it mirrored, and he ended up being promoted and found himself able to get cushier and cushier jobs.

That practice, that lip service, that shallow mimicry of those previous authors, burned itself into his brain, and next time he used his brain those familiar patterns came up again.

People say things in irony. They do things because they are ironic, signs of idiocy that week, of course nobody would take that seriously. But those things we say and do become habits, and get burned onto our brain. Eventually, we do them without being ironic and, down the line, we do them intentionally. “Man is a rationalizing animal” and when we find ourselves doing something, we work backward to come up with reasons, and since we do those things we must believe those reasons.

Eventually, as more people spend their minutes on this earth training their brains in this new fashion, the culture shifts.

Maybe we shouldn’t.

I currently refuse to answer questions about my pronouns with any response that fits the formula, even “Apache Attack Helicopter.” There may be limits to what we can make ourselves believe, but so far our friends in the rabid wing of the left haven’t found them.

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  1. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    Irony is an interesting defense mechanism. For a while, you don’t have to take responsibility for what comes out of your mouth. But you’re right, eventually it sticks. The number of people I know that got stuck with saying “bro” were shocked to find that the joke ended up on them. 

    • #1
  2. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    In order to understand irony, you need to have a sense of humor, and be able to recognize it.  The Left has neither.

    We have both, thus, this post.  Good job!

    • #2
  3. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Do others have examples of earnestness following light imitation or mockery? 

    • #3
  4. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Yes, there’s a linguist component to this, too.  Using — adopting for the sake of “clarity” — the Left’s terminology or redefinition of words, leads to mentally adopting the correctness of the usage.  This is especially important with people (thoughtlessly, I think) referring to “gender” when they are clearly talking about “sex”.

    In fact, I now read people on Ricochet adopting the word “gender” to mean not only”sex” and “sexual identity” but also “sexual orientation” or “sexual preference”.  For example, “children of either gender…”  This is especially dangerous because children don’t yet have a fixed concept of their own sex, let alone any sexual preference.

    Added: And even using the modifier “preferred” as in “preferred pronouns” leads to thinking that pronouns are matters of personal preference rather than denotatively fixed and meaningful.

    • #4
  5. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    For those who missed my first introduction and identification, I identify as a Slab-sided Dutch-built Bugger.  And my personal pronoun is HMS pronounces Hims, and my personal possessive is HMS’s, pronounced Himzes.

    Thank you for respecting my choices.

    (Just kidding.)

    • #5
  6. Captain French Moderator
    Captain French
    @AlFrench

    Don’t keep us in suspense. What was your answer when she asked for your preferred pronouns?

    • #6
  7. kidCoder Member
    kidCoder
    @kidCoder

    Captain French (View Comment):

    Don’t keep us in suspense. What was your answer when she asked for your preferred pronouns?

    “I prefer not to answer. I hope that’s OK.”

    • #7
  8. HankRhody Freelance Philosopher Contributor
    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher
    @HankRhody

    In all my dealings with bronies I don’t think I met one who was doing it ironically. Your M may V, as the saying goes.

    • #8
  9. Captain French Moderator
    Captain French
    @AlFrench

    kidCoder (View Comment):

    Captain French (View Comment):

    Don’t keep us in suspense. What was your answer when she asked for your preferred pronouns?

    “I prefer not to answer. I hope that’s OK.”

    Of course.

    • #9
  10. kidCoder Member
    kidCoder
    @kidCoder

    Captain French (View Comment):

    kidCoder (View Comment):

    Captain French (View Comment):

    Don’t keep us in suspense. What was your answer when she asked for your preferred pronouns?

    “I prefer not to answer. I hope that’s OK.”

    Of course.

    See, it works! It worked there too.

    • #10
  11. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    I think this is a terrific post because it makes an observation about something that seems true and important, and yet probably isn’t something most of us think about very often, if at all.

    I’ve seen the same use of irony before, the self-mocking apparently insincere approval that either masks or portends a real enthusiasm. It never occurred to me to think about it in the context of modern social media and the intensified virtual peer culture in which today’s young people — and perhaps all of us — live. I’ll pay more attention to it now.

    Regarding that writing technique, I’m pretty sure Stephen King recounts doing the same thing: painstakingly transcribing (by hand, if I remember correctly) the works of famous writers in hopes of understanding and emulating them. I think King is a talented writer, though one not to my tastes, and I can’t argue against the practicality of his technique. (His book On Writing was, I thought, pretty good.) Of course, King frankly describes his own work as literary “Big Macs,” and I tend to agree. But McDonald’s didn’t get huge selling haute cuisine, so there’s that.

    • #11
  12. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher (View Comment):
    In all my dealings with bronies….

    So many questions….

    • #12
  13. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    kidCoder: The best way to learn how to write is practice, right? His practice was just of a different nature. He would decide on an author to emulate, and find some of their work. He would then sit down with a typewriter (not necessarily a sign of the age) and start copying, word for word. He would take samples and copy them several times. Soon, when he wrote other work, he’d find himself falling into that practiced zone, writing like the authors he copied.

    This is sage advice, an excellent practice.  A jazz lessons book I own recommends playing solos by admired musicians until you can’t tell any difference between your rendition and theirs.  As an aspiring microsurgeon I copied every aspect of my mentors’ technique.  The young Handel copied music by Frescobaldi; the young Beethoven copied music by Handel; the young Brahms copied music by Beethoven.

    Imitation is not only flattery, it is education.

    • #13
  14. Dad Dog Member
    Dad Dog
    @DadDog

    Live Not By Lies.

    • #14
  15. HankRhody Freelance Philosopher Contributor
    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher
    @HankRhody

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher (View Comment):
    In all my dealings with bronies….

    So many questions….

    I’m told I should prefer not to answer.

    • #15
  16. Captain French Moderator
    Captain French
    @AlFrench

    kidCoder (View Comment):

    Captain French (View Comment):

    kidCoder (View Comment):

    Captain French (View Comment):

    Don’t keep us in suspense. What was your answer when she asked for your preferred pronouns?

    “I prefer not to answer. I hope that’s OK.”

    Of course.

    See, it works! It worked there too.

    Well, duh. (I missed the quotation marks.)

    • #16
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