#hypernormalisation

[sarasa-cat]

Hypernormalization captures this juxtaposition of the dysfunctional and mundane. It’s “the visceral sense of waking up in an alternate timeline with a deep, bodily knowing that something isn’t right – but having no clear idea how to fix it”, Harfoush tells me. “It’s reading an article about childhood hunger and genocide, only to scroll down to a carefree listicle highlighting the best-dressed celebrities or a whimsical quiz about: ‘What Pop-Tart are you?’” In his 2016 documentary HyperNormalisation, the British film-maker Adam Curtis argued that Yurchak’s critique of late-Soviet life applies neatly to the west’s decades-long slide into authoritarianism, something more Americans are now confronting head-on. “Donald Trump is not something new,” Curtis tells me, calling him “the final pantomime product” of the US government, where the powerful are abandoning any pretense of common, inclusive ideals and instead using their positions to settle scores, reward loyalty and hollow out institutions for personal or political gains. Trump’s US is “just like Yeltsin in Russia in the 1990s – promising a new kind of democracy, but in reality allowing the oligarchs to loot and distort the society”, says Curtis.

[docgold13]

An excellent descriptive encapsulation of a matter I’ve been dealing with and talking to others about for a long while now. Definitely worth reading.

[kenyatta]

Here we go. 🎢

[mrorel]

The Legislature is not performing it due diligence in over seeing the Executive branch.  This last breach of security regarding Yemen and the use of Signal.  In anyother time and regardless of party, investigations would already be underway.  And the Defense Secretary would be uderfire to resign from both sides of the aisle.  And probably already have resigned.  Not mention everyone else on that chat ... the Vise President, the Secretary of State, the Director of National Intelligence ...Just image how the the Republicans would be acting if this happened under Biden ...lesson learned, let's  move on ... REALLY!!

HyperNormalization - Adam Curtis BBC Documentary 2016.

"We live in a world where the powerful deceive us.  We know they lie, they they know we know they lie, they don't care, we say we care, but we do nothing.  And nothing ever changes. It's normal.  Welcome to the post truth world." - Adam Curtis in an interview.

Just for the record, I love Signal! I've been using it for years.

[absurdlakefront]

The coming days will be ugly. Yet I feel it’s my job to remind you that, bad as this is, we are not Weimar Germany, and this is not 1933. Trump and his lieutenants aren’t battle-hardened trench fighters, they’re Elon Musk and a coterie of half-enthusiastic half-frightened billionaires who got rich gambling on apps to let you rate your classmate’s tits. Their foot soldiers are used car salesmen from Encino, not Freikorps. The United States is not starving to death and crippled by war, it’s irritated and anxious because its working people have been robbed blind by those same billionaires.

The one thing we do have in common with Weimar is that our fascists now find themselves at the head of a state that capitulated to them not out of enthusiastic consent but exhaustion, cowardice and above all a feeling that it didn’t really matter.

That last one, the feeling that nothing matters, the system is fucked, there’s no point in engaging or organizing- that is the most powerful weapon they have right now. Because that feeling stops you and everyone else from opposing them. From interrupting as they reach out, yet again, to take something you love or need.

[teledyn]

HyperNormalisation explained

“I’m not real, I’m just like you. You don’t exist in this society. If you did your people wouldn’t be seeking equal rights.

You’re not real, if you were you’d have some status among the nations of the world. So we are both myths.

I do not come to you as a reality, I come to you as the myth because that is what black people are: myths.

I came from a dream that the black man dreamed long ago. I’m actually a presence sent to you by your ancestors.”

― Sun Ra, Space is the Place

[ereshckigal]

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Your ambient themes for 2025. Feel free to add whatever layers of hypernormalisation feel most appropriate.

[thixcy]

[sarasa-cat]

Pouring one out to every elite university educated women born in the 70s or first half of the 80s who attempted to call me out 10ish years ago bc I pointed at all the neoliberalism and how that would shape voter sentiment.

[mckennasdigitaldiary]

HyperNormalisation by: Adam Curtis 

When watching this documentary by Adam Curtis, it made me reconsider film as a form of art. When it comes to documentaries in general, they act as an archive. I've never thought about that until now. The collection of video clips, interviews, and graphic scenes are all tools to time stamp a certain period in history, in this case the year 2016. The documentary focuses on a certain point of view that is expressed by using dramatic filming techniques like slow pans of the cityscape or using the simple cinematography of a person typing on a computer, an empty room, even blood stains. These all seem very random, but Adam Cutis uses them deliberately to evoke a wide range of emotion within his audiences. 

Curtis never uses a clip of video for too long and cuts to the next in a quick, yet sometimes shocking way. I would say that he does this to highlight the ever-changing world that we live in today as well as emphasize how the dark and gruesome get overlooked, normalized, hence his title. The medium of film has a wide range of ways to express his message, yet Curtis uses similar techniques consistently in the documentary with his narration, old footage, and dramatic music. The combination of all these elements contribute to this film’s impact not only for the time it is reflecting on-- 2016, but also for today--2025, there are similarities to the present day that are scarily accurate. This archival documentary seems to reveal our continued mistakes within the ever-changing, yet always relevant, cultural and political climates. 

I feel that this film was very strong with its message and overall impact, but I truly did find it a bit monotonous at times. HyperNormalisation made me feel like my eyes were opened a bit wider to the world that is before me, a little sad, anxious and honestly like we are reliving history a bit. It makes me wonder how art can be incorporated into archives and whether or not documentaries also act as a form of art. In a sense everything is art, but how can random objects, photos, videos, etc. go from being just that to being an archive that has meaning? What makes the archive cohesive and how does one go about that process?

[kenyatta]

"Shapeshifting" from HyperNormalization by Adam Curtis

[yung-megs]

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[absurdlakefront]

Without a shared progressive vision for change, we accept growing inequality, exploitation, and the status quo marked as "stability."

[guerrilla-operator]

Crime In Stereo // Hypernormalisation

I saw the two of you were there, queuing up for cleaner air God forbid the software glitches out The palm oil and petrol, Coca-Cola and cobalt Let the future into your heart Sunlight swallowed up at night Everywhere, all at once, darkness arrives What the fuck is wrong with everyone? Abandon it!