I’ve been in SUCH a state this last month and it’s been really bad, squad ❤️❤️ but thankfully animal crossing exists even if nintendo hates us and doesn’t want to update it anymore

"despairpilled whatevercore" is how I would describe Cyberpunk 2077 itself so far. Maybe it will surprise me. But I doubt it. let me explain but backwards:

Whatevercore,,,

The first thing that stands out to me about this setting is that there is no concept of 'counterculture.' In a game that has 'punk' in the title! That may be part of the 'point', that because the dominant culture's capitalist nightmare has consumed every possible human choice, motivation, emotional experience or expression it's all for sale and therefore it's extremely difficult to meaningfully oppose it. The police is normative culture. fuck the police is normative culture. conformity is normative, non-conformity is normative, rage against the machine is normative as a part of the machine... But what this means is that every possible aesthetic is blasting in your face at any given time at maximum volume surrounded by the trashiest possible conditions even in the supposedly high-class areas, so there are very few coherent emotional statements, reactions to the conditions (come back to this later) that could constitute 'punk art.'

And no, faking some kind of future-street-slanguage stand-in for AAVE does not constitute 'urban' punky flavor.

(Caption: ugh)

It's just aesthetic 'whatever' made with voyeurism to a racialized, class-linked idea of 'subculture' in mind, with no authentic foundation.

Now, I can understand the type of satire that exaggerates current conditions to express dissatisfaction with them, a desire to blow them all to bits. Warhammer 40k is a bit like this. But Cyberpunk 2077 makes the same mistake as Warhammer 40k: earnestly marketing the dystopian conditions as 'cool.' In reality everyone in this entire Cyberpunk 2077 world is deeply deeply uncool because none of them are fighting the currents that deposit them like sand in the suffering river, or at least not in any way that doesn't just replicate its conditions. you're never 'cool' if you follow the dominant hierarchical authoritarian thought in the world you live in, yes even if you mean to oppose it and YES! THAT MEANS YOU, KEANU REEVES! HOW DID PLAYING PRESIDENT TRUMAN SIMULATOR WORK OUT FOR YOU?

Rolling around being a super cool cyber assassin as a power fantasy is not counterculture in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 itself. at all. I have no choice but to be V who is one, and my experience is smooth and requires no thinking or friction besides two shit plot options that will both end bad for me sometimes, or how to blow up a buncha guys with my mind bullets and regular bullets. I swooce between cyber gang bandit lairs cleaning them out for the police. My wardrobe is mostly clothes i take from my dead enemies. I look horrible and I cant do anything about it right now.

I tried to design my V as a cute goth trans girl because if the game is going to force me to have a gender, that's the only correct answer. Sure, they have a bunch of lipstick shapes but they all kind of suck and ONLY ONE SHADE OF BLACK?! perish by my hand!!! There are a lot of 'options' for the character creator but all and all you can't actually execute them well as part of a 'look' anywhere near the start of the game so right away spiritually, physically, aesthetically, you're doomed to basically be 'whatevercore.' I could understand 'you gain the right to express yourself as you become more badass and accumulate more stuff' except for 1) the game LEADS with that this is a world of 'style over substance' in the character creator (an anti-punk statement if I ever heard one!!! the right to be so substantial you make people SICK is a punk fundamental RIGHT!) and 2) if a 14 year old could be a goth in middle school how come nobody running around is really 'anything' including me????

Despairpilled,,,

An important question and what I suspect is the theme of this game comes pretty early, from Dexter DeShawn: "Would you rather live in peace as Mr. Nobody, die ripe, old and smelling slightly of urine? Or go down for all times in a blaze of glory, smelling near like posies, without seeing your thirtieth?"

He's asking if I'm suicidal.

Everywhere I turn in Night City there's graffiti like, NO FUTURE or, THE END IS HERE. I think I saw an ACAB once but it was under a bunch of other stuff.

Even at the top of society, suicide seems like a prevalent theme given its relevance to Saburo Arasaka and his various children. Hell, Saburo wants you (an American) to be suicidal. It seems to be his goal, in how the Arasaka corporation targets the USA in specific. He is fighting a war against 'America' personally, like it's WWII. In a literal sense. The Japanese dominance in this story is primarily a dated one formed of American guilt, a fear of repercussions for atrocities of the atomic bomb from an enemy that committed (and denies) its own atrocities.

I don't want to say suicide isn't a powerful theme for a story. But the execution of this (no pun intended?) has very little relevance in a video game where your future does not move forward unless you do it yourself and moving forward often means like... roaming around barging into people's homes and getting into a zillion gunfights to no permanent consequences for you.

When I think of 'punk' attitudes, I don't really think about suicide by cop or drug overdose or a detachment from reality. I think like, 'we're not going to take this.' I think about Pride. I think about black activism. I think about die-ins on the steps at Capitol Hill. I think about a desire to live, demanding others not look away from those who are living and feeling. I think about anger at human sacrifice. Riots typically are about the right to not die, they aren't about a death wish.

Once the tumblr resurgence happens and having clout here means money I'll be making shit like whatevercore video edits of Seinfeld (japanese dub)

Not trying to be weird but I just want you to know traumacore isn't bad and I believe people who make vent art on tumblr are valid artists and don't deserve to be bullying, but of course you are allowed to not be okay with certain people posting your stuff. I hope you just know that some people (people like me) sometimes have many different valid interests like medical stuff but also like horror movies and cute stuff too. Sometimes people just post about all their interests and it might seem like the posts are related but they might not be. Like, I know there is a difference between body horror and medical information posts, but it might seem like I'm implying that they are the same thing if posted right after another but they aren't. All I'm saying basically is not everyone has horrible intentions when curating (or not curating) their blogs. Not everyone posts along strict "themes" or "--core" stuff only. Sometimes I will post traumacore, cottagecore, cutecore whatevercore, but to me its just my interests. I think making everything about an "aesthetic" is just wrong and claiming someone has a traumacore or whatever aesthetic might not always be true. Some people just post based on what they like or what helps them the most. I'm not trying to make you feel bad I just want you to know that people can be into dark stuff and still have respectful attitudes toward medical information and posts. I obviously don't know the specifics and you can decide for yourself if that's the situation or not, but I just don't want you to assume anything about people's intentions either ♡ love your blog

thank you for sharing your thoughts, these discussions are worth having.

absolutely, traumacore is understandable and no one should to be bullied for it. I agree ppl’s blogs are their own collection of things which don’t need to fit a category. Fyi when I say ‘traumacore’ I mean blogs who self identify as such. I DON’T believe in purity culture, & I think ppl who post dark stuff can still be extremely respectful & kind! And even if the content is harmful, it’s not my place to judge if it should be allowed to exist.

my issue is , I used to post a lot of traumacore/vent stuff, and it affected me negatively. It felt therapeutic but it was not. Talked a lot to my therapist & some posts along this theme are just not healthy,no matter how valid the feeling may be.

some of it is genuinely cathartic: using art to express that u feel worthless or dirty is therapist-approved! But posting in full seriousness that you deserve death & no one will ever love u & ur ugly & are going to self harm due to that is NOT healthy. And seeing hordes of people (mostly 14-18 year olds) reblog it is deeply upsetting!!!!

Censorship it bullshit, but I think we should analyse whether what we’re posting is healthy. And there are grey areas. My concern about these blogs interacting with me is my own mental health, as i KNOW it is not healthy for me personally. Hope that clears things up eek

lol I feel like there's no way you can talk about horrorcore anymore without at least one person thinking you mean it in a tiktok cottagecore whatevercore way

honestly i think it would be funny if jock villagers were as mean like some of these aesthetic uwu cottagecore fairycore whatevercore bitches made them out to be. like theyd make fun of ur pencil arms and tell you to work out more.

imagine going into animal crossing to get bullied by genji for being a wimp :(

i mean that’s also why i don’t really post any of my good photography on this website.  so many cute/aesthetic/cottagecore/whatevercore blogs get thousands of followers by reposting other people’s photos that the only pictures of mine i can feel comfortable posting (other than studyblr stuff) is like... mindless pictures of the sky lmao

thank the lord i am taking a long hiatus from instagram, because this means that i don't have to put up with those dumbarse dangy rongy picsart discourse accounts lurking around in my explore

like mate, i'm not interested in your “why sakura oogami is a terrible character!” bullshite, supported by a glitchcore/cottagecore/whatevercore kokichi sprite