Chat, Am I Insane?

Last night while on a little doomscroll (as a treat), I came across a video that honestly drove me mad. I know short-form videos have the capability to educate people as we've seen with silly little linguist man but damn, is it also a trojan horse for ignorance. This random person that happened on my phone was going on with their usual intro-bait about solarpunk. Sci-fihead that I am, I tuned in and listened to the most misinformed definitions of cyberpunk and solarpunk. They purported that cyberpunk is the idea that "technology is the apocalypse" (verbatim by the way), and that solarpunk is the opposite because it is positive portrayals of technology with "social justice at the center"(verbatim too) then cited examples of "solarpunk" media namely: Arco (which I have not watched so I cannot confirm nor deny), and fucking Marvel's BLACK PANTHER (?????????????????????????????), and then gave examples of "solarpunk products and services" then asked their audience to contribute to the list.

The internet is an information highway, and knowledge is very readily available for those who seek it. I don't think it takes much time to verify if the person posing as an authority over knowledge of certain things especially as something as easily-searchable as "cyberpunk" and "solarpunk" has true knowledge of such things. And yet I find myself in the comments section, witnessing everyone link their favorite huge corporation and products. Chat, am I insane?

Unfortunately, the only thing lending me credibility to define certain things is that I've read books about them, and adjacent to them (I specifically have olde cyberpunk manuscripts but they are to never see the light of day for good reason). That being laid out, let me try my best to define them: Cyberpunk is a primarily sci-fi subgenre that is defined by hypercapitalism and technology, often telling stories with humanist themes DESPITE the background of dystopian hypercapitalist society. Such examples are (OFC) William Gibson's Neuromancer, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Solarpunk, while also primarily a sci-fi subgenre and social movement, is often defined by utopian, post-colonial societies relying on technology powered by sustainable energy. I'm less familiar with fictional media associated with solarpunk as I understand but BOY did I have a huge, LARGE, GARGANTUAN Social Ecology and Murray Bookchin phase so despite my lack of exposure to it by way of fiction, my brain can wrap around it by way of Social Ecology. I highly recommend Post-Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin in that regard. [EDIT: It also does need to be said on here that sometimes solarpunk and cyberpunk do stand in opposition of one another but that depends on what you read and who you ask.]

Now that I've defined them to the best of my ability, I have found myself truly confused as to how the shorts person defined, and presented cyberpunk and solarpunk in that way: First, without acknowledgement to both movements' origins, and connection to sociopolitical thought. As a video that's supposedly informative, I truly do not understand why that was omitted outright ("social justice as the center" is too vague of a sentence, sorry). Perhaps it's one of those things that happen in the internet where concepts get watered down to be palatable enough as social media content, or a pinterest aesthetic (there is much to be said too about how that event in itself is fascistic). Second, that shorts person found a way to accomodate hyperconsumerism, something often critiqued in sci-fi, in a video supposedly informing people about solarpunk. The call to action for products and services that are "solarpunk" as by definition of shorts person is all sorts of ironic when you understand what these subgenres and movements truly mean. Lastly, presenting Black Panther's Wakanda as solarpunk when its setting is highly-industrialized with their countless Vibranium mines seems pretty unfounded or at the very least, misconstrued with tech-optimism: an idea that is found in solarpunk but not necessarily solarpunk itself. There is something to be said as well that putting it under solarpunk and not, at the very least, afro-futurism is an colonial assimilationist dogwhistle but I am not the person who should be talking about these things.

Social media, despite its claims of connection, has made me feel more and more isolated, seeking other spaces within the internet for refuge (I am writing this post after all). I do not have it in me anymore to expose my back and make a post about the things I've talked about on here when the past few times I've done that, I was only met with harassment from strangers in the internet. It feels impossible to be critical outwardly as it will always, ALWAYS be read as an attack when most of the time, criticism offers more questions and uncomfortable ruminations rather than a verdict that announces MEDIA UNEQUIVOCALLY BAD/GOOD. I don't know how to close this apart from saying that more than ever, we need to be truly curious.