It’s surprisingly hard to accurately parody wokeness. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an attempt that passed the ideological Turing test. Most of them focus on all the wrong things – it’s 2018, otherkin discourse has been dead for years – and miss subtleties in such a way that you can tell no one writing these things has actually interacted with Extremely Online types. Which implies that they’re not really parodying wokeness qua wokeness, but rather the version that trickles down to them via shitty right-wing outrage bait.
If it passes the ideological Turing test, it’s not a parody at all. Parody involves comedic exaggeration, which is always going to trip a flag in the test.
Right, but it doesn’t even pass in terms of what issues are presented as important. Like, to use an example I see a lot, no social justice activist in 2018 is going around starting otherkin discourse. Good parody, while exaggerated, still accurately represents the fundamental principles. Just turned up to 11.
Not right now, but should people stop telling jokes just because they’re not politically topical? Has social justice changed in a manner such that the underlying theory and praxis that caused otherkin activism no longer exists?
Of course no one should stop telling jokes just because they’re politically topical. I’m less concerned with topicality than with *staleness*, and a lot of SJ parodies are tediously stale these days. Endless iterations of “did you just assume my gender” don’t actually capture the absurdities and contradictions of wokeness as it exists in 2018. I don’t know who, if anyone, would be able to capture them.
This seems like a good opportunity for active contribution. Do you have a list of fresh contemporary-feeling SJ discursive/behavioral stereotypes that are ripe for parody?