flâneur

The New Porn - by Abram Shaffer - This Is a Thesis

substack.com · 881 words · saved by 1 readers

Before the explosion of TikTok. Before every brand became a media company. Before the word “content” replaced “art.” He was already sick of it: “I detest competent, workmanlike storytelling... It’s like porn.” He wasn’t talking about sex. He was talking about numbness. The kind that comes from watching too much that was made too easily. This isn’t just a media problem; it’s a cultural one. Porn is what you get when the act matters more than the intimacy. And now everything’s porn. Food porn. Design porn. Storytelling porn. Slick. Stimulating. Shallow. We celebrate virality but forget the virus. We crave engagement but avoid connection. We sell relatability but never risk recognition; the kind that comes from seeing something that hurts because it’s true. Bourdain understood that. Baldwin warned us about it: “It is the responsibility of the artist to excavate the experience of the people who produced him.” Instead of excavation, we get extraction. Instead of culture, we get campaigns. I

We don’t tell stories anymore. We sell them. Wrapped in rhythm. Dressed in sincerity. Built for reach. And if you listen closely enough, you can hear the moan of the algorithm. Anthony Bourdain saw it coming. Before the explosion of TikTok. Before every brand became a media company. Before the word “content” replaced “art.” He was already sick of it: “I detest competent, workmanlike storytelling... It’s like porn.” He wasn’t talking about sex. He was talking about numbness. The kind that comes from watching too much that was made too easily. This isn’t just a media problem; it’s a…

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