There's a certain podcast-that-shall-remain-unnamed that's got one host who's a NYC-area art burnout who has now transitioned to unhinged political commentary. Approve or disapprove of the commentary -- what this fundamentally indicates is that all of the new direction in the culture-politics crossover.

In the Obama era, every Grinnell English major had a Tumblr critiquing culture from a political perspective. The current culture-sludge of the 2020s is downstream from this. This is not my point

In the 2020s, the real cutting edge in culture is treating politics as a space for culture. There are teens who obsess over political compass memes, or over creating webcomics depicting the interactions of polities, or over niche meme political ideologies. There's a strong parallel to rare Pepes.

This is the space of the contrarian arthoe podcasters. They're transitioning their tastes for cultural criticism to ideology itself.

It's the natural evolution of all that goddamn Tumblr commentary.

Thesis: culture with dull/unenlightened/normie politics
Antithesis: smart/enlightened/edgy political commentary on culture
Synthesis: obscurantist/playful/schizo cultural commentary on politics