Psyop Realism and the Crisis of Authenticity
How the transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age has atomized society, disrupted power, and given birth to a new trend: Psyop Realism.
Stay with me for a second: the printing press was to the Catholic Church, what the internet is to the nation-state.
What the fuck does that mean and what does it have to do with fashion?
I’ll get there, just let me ramble for a second. Just as the printing press disrupted the Catholic Church's grip on Christian theology, so the internet is doing to the hegemony of liberal democracy. The proliferation of information has corroded once ironclad institutions, power is being decentralized, and the ability for establishment forces to impose their will (or version of reality) on society is slowly unraveling.
What’s happening now, and why everything feels so frenetic and crazy is because we are essentially undergoing a similar transition in the way mass information and the ability to disseminate media, undermines power centers. There was a point in time when everyone read the same news from the same sources. You turned on channel whatever the fuck, and Walter Cronkite would rattle off the news in his monotone voice. There was a shared reality, a consensus on “truth” and for the most part, no one questioned anything. There was really no way to air dissent like you could now. It was also a great way to manufacture consent in an era where competing sources for truth and information were non-existent. Now, however, people’s feeds are more tailored to their preferences, and the idea of “customized media” has become a plain reality. Political polarization is at an all-time high, and the idea of national divorce is floated by mainstream politicians. These are all fairly obvious points, but it is important to recognize that in the hyper-online modern world, the ability of establishment power to manufacture a shared consensus has decreased significantly, and is getting to the point of being non-existent. Conspiratorial, paranoid thinking has risen dramatically in the past 10 years, but is that a function of the internet making people crazy, or have we really just been exposed to more and more examples of propaganda and informational warfare from our own government and media? 3 years ago, if you said that you think Covid-19 may have leaked from a lab you were called a conspiracy theorist – a right-wing lunatic. Now, there’s an acknowledgment that the theory isn’t just plausible, but likely to be true... Left-Right fault lines were cynically exploited, and people unable to think beyond tribalistic in-group/out-group dynamics never seemed to go beyond that narrative. The irony is that it had absolutely nothing to do with ideology or political identity in the first place, it’s simply a matter of scientific and historical fact.
Psyop Realism is a cultural (one could even say artistic) trend in post-ironic internet subcultures, mostly composed of memes but recently taken to more formal expressions in art exhibits. The influx of psyop memes and the age of Psyop Realism is not an indication that people are going insane, but it does show just how much distrust and paranoia there is on the internet. People rightly feel that their emotions are being primed for some sort of ideological or consumerist purpose.
Just as the Surrealist movement reacted against the rationalism which precipitated the horrors of World War I, Psy-Op Realism–cultural products which reflect “increased awareness to the propaganda and subversion that we are exposed to every day”–is a direct reaction to the psychological manipulation and coercion exacted on Americans by our government, media, and corporations.
“You are presented with information which you disagree with? Psyop. Someone tries to convince you of something? Fed. This is the direction that I see our world heading towards,” says meme admin @okschizo. “Everyone becomes their own prophet. It is the decentralisation of ‘truth’.” In other words, we’re entering an age of ‘psyop realism’ (the belief that this paranoia will only increase, and it’s not possible to envisage a future without it – a spin on Mark Fisher’s famed capitalist realism). “[I can’t see a] future beyond a world of psyops,” says artist Brandon Bandy, whose exhibition Psyop Realism ran in New York last November.
an excerpt from Günseli Yalcinkaya’s piece on Psyop Realism.
The tone of expression within this trend is reflective of something deeply emblematic of modern American culture: people are paranoid and really sensitive to things that they feel are subverting their sense of reality.
The underlying message of memes like the ones above is that people hate the manipulative tactics that underpin much of modern advertising. The most offensive form is corporate astroturfing - brands or artists marketed as independent small businesses but really backed by major corporations. Within music, the pejorative term “industry plant” is commonly used to refer to musicians who brand themselves as homegrown, organic acts but really have major label backing to help with distribution and marketing. This term gets thrown around a lot and sometimes incorrectly, but its existence and importance indicate something sinister about common propaganda/marketing practices.
Make no mistake, advertising is propaganda. That being said, I think there’s a way to do it that doesn’t make people feel like they’re being manipulated. Anyone who works at an ad agency or in marketing is probably sick of hearing about “authenticity,” and usually when corporations try to invoke “authenticity,” they come away looking really stupid, out of touch, or straight-up inauthentic. The agency Think Forward captures this crisis of authenticity perfectly in their 2023 trend report:
“Our cultural understanding of what’s ‘authentic’ has spanned the whole spectrum: from peak performativity to performative vulnerability, from full-throttle FaceTune to #nomakeup selfies. Having been through it all, there’s a sense that none of it feels real anymore. Now, to combat the sense that any form of self-presentation is disingenuous, authenticity has become a game of chicken: people are pushing further into the margins to separate those who are performing from those who truly believe. This explains why self-expression is moving to extremes: in the post-genuineness internet, extreme now equates to believability. Incredibly niche interests are persuasive, whether that’s self-identifying as a water sommelier or spending hours hand-stitching artisan footballs. Deeply weird or chaotic energy is relatable, from the aforementioned cult of Julia Fox, to mass identification with Goblin Mode, to the nearly four million views on ‘gross girl’ TikToks.”
It’s clear that the desire for authenticity is behind much of the backlash to fashion stunts. The fatigue is probably driven by a combination of a general skepticism of corporate marketing and a lack of perceived authenticity from said companies. To me, they feel like blatant attempts to hijack your feed rather than an attempt to make cool clothes. The fatigue we’re seeing against stunts was perfectly captured in the comment section of Coperni’s cringe Boston Dynamics show. They got roasted! And rightfully so. Fashion has transitioned from an artistic form of sartorial expression to pure entertainment as a means to drive sales. In this increasingly sophisticated age of media consumption, these ruses tend to get discovered quickly, the backlash is swift and the court of public opinion is harsh. Last year, Coperni made headlines with their ingenious display of material innovation when they spray painted Bella Hadid with a material that very quickly formed into a dress. A true display of brilliance, and they rightfully earned adoration in the eyes of the internet, only to fuck it all up this year with a cheap party trick. Meh… My advice to corporations, small brands, and artists alike: stop trying to trick people into buying stuff. Come up with a good product, and make cool shit. Nothing bugs me more than when brands in the CPG space like Dove or Gillette try to convince you that you’re saving the world, destroying toxic masculinity, or solving racism by buying their products. Or when people who work at Mondelez (the company that owns Oreos, Chips Ahoy! Sour Patch Kids, and other amazingly healthy snacks) try to make videos that tell you “Diet culture, fatphobia, and systems of oppression have created false hierarchies of food and it shows up everywhere.”
See how they hijack academic social justice jargon to then shill the idea that there’s no such thing as “good food” or “bad food”, especially pernicious knowing that the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics took millions from junk food makers. These kinds of psychological tactics are not only despicable, but they also make it harder for real progressive action to happen. Psyop Realism is a very genuine reaction, the success of accounts like @okschizo and @northwest_mcm_wholesale highlights something important that people within media and marketing roles should understand about consumer sentiment. Cynicism is at an all-time high, people are freakishly paranoid, and honestly, they have full right to be.
Love how your Substack marries philosophy and art/fashion