Anonymous asked:
This may be silly, but what exactly is meant in rattumb and adjacent spaces by "degeneracy"? I've seen it used to refer to orgies, acting affectionate, veganism, and pastry. Am confused.
my attempt at an extensional definition
I’m sure that doesn’t actually help. Here are some random thoughts:
- it’s basically the opposite of “trad”
- I guess I use it to mean something like “in violation of traditional social norms.” Which ones? Good question. My instinctive reference point is probably the social norms I was raised with–I don’t really think of being gay as degenerate, since that was something I considered normal growing up, but polyamory, rationalist-level PDA, orgies, being openly kinky, etc. definitely fall into this. Other people on tumblr are more trad than me and probably have reference points closer to like the agricultural revolution.
- it might just translate to “representative of things that annoy me personally about rationalist culture”
- the cupcakes are because liking cute things as an adult is seen as a sign of immaturity, and modern culture is more encouraging of immaturity in adults?
My followers probably have better answers to this.