The Toxicity of Metamodernism

A Public Service Announcement

Since the end of 2023, I’ve been stuck with so many people that are somehow adjacent to metamodernism, and it’s incredibly frustrating.

There people continuously spit big words, again and again they lure you in with so much “sensemaking” and “regeneration”.

But in reality, whenever being in these spaces, it all loses meaning. Everything is deconstructed into soulless, meaningless nonsense, building dream worlds and talking, talking, talking, infinitely.

Then there’s the sex- and kink-negativity. So many people there believe they found the holy grail, they think they’re super smart because they’re reciting Hermann Hesse, they’re idealizing the perversions of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, some even want a “Second Renaissance”. At the same time, sex is simply never addressed. Whether it’s internalized shame and homophobia (at least I have never seen a queer flag in any metamodern spaces), or just being completely oblivious and disconnected from their own body, no idea.

They claim to want to create global community, but in reality it’s people who think that they are superior, because they’re more “educated”. The foolishness of meritocracy at its finest, all in an echo chamber completely detached from reality. Sprinkling in some Web3, as always, of course.

They don’t even try to be understood. It’s a continuous dick measuring contest around who can make the most complex frameworks, the most complex theories, the hardest to understand procedures and processes, while believing that they’re doing something meaningful. Again, it’s all this echo chamber of “sensemaking”, where they’re not actually making any sense, but they’re all saying to each other that those things make sense.

It’s similar to the absolute fakeness of “Effective Altruism”, which is most effective in pushing the egos of young white graduates who run on self-congratulation and hypocrisy. Same with “Less Wrong”, which is just people getting off on AI dystopia and believing that their thousandth “AI Safety Manifesto” will do anything at all. And just like in every subculture, people hate it if their bullshit is called out. The hypocrisy of believing you’re in all of the uppermost stages, whether it’s nonsense like Integral Theory or any other of these “developmental stage theories” just designed to emphasize hierarchy between people and making the primarily European and American white boys feel even more superior and elitist.

For me, it’s especially hurtful, because many of my interests do overlap with people from the metamodern scene. I do genuinely think that what many people do there is cool, and then I get closer, but every time, every single time, I’m disappointed. It’s not actually someone who genuinely wants to make a change, it’s just another coach scamming you with their covert narcissism. Every single time the only emotional outcome I’m having from this is disappointment, lack of connection, feeling chaotic and overwhelmed.

Whenever I hear the word “sensemaking” in a serious context nowadays, I’ll switch off, just out of self-protection. It’s all illusion. These people are not actually emotional or embrace pluralism, they just want to exclude others through using the most complicated words possible. I can’t bear this loveless coldness, this crazy disconnect between thinking and acting, this politeness pushing away all creativity and joy. They can play their games, and even though I think that those are the opposite of fun, because they’re overthinking and overcomplicating everything, let them have their fun. But I can’t deal with it.

Just to be clear: I don’t think that all these people are doing this intentionally. Without exception, all of the people I’ve met in the metamodern community are nice people. But they’ve also all just been spitting words, building nonsensical theories and doing pretty much the opposite of building systems valuable for the “common man”.

If you want actual change, stay as far away from the metamodern communities as possible. They quickly lure you in with big words and promising you all kinds of systemic change. But it’s all BS. I don’t know, maybe 1% of the people who call themselves “metamodernists” are actually doing something worthwhile, but at least I haven’t found them. They’re always just stuck in thinking (or coaching), all justified by this completely meaningless word “sensemaking”, with a strong aversion towards analyzing existing societal systems more deeply.

They have no desire to interface with the real world, even though they believe that they do. Again, to emphasize, and that’s the core of this public service announcement: Whenever you hear words like “sensemaking” or “metacrisis”, step away.

The “meaning crisis” (i.e. people not feeling any meaning in their life) is very much real, and it’s one of the most valid issues of our time. But metamodernists have somewhat claimed this term for them. The people continuously speaking about this are doing this just to keep their minds busy. In general, most terms in this context starting with “meta” are nonsense in the same realm.

They won’t bring any meaning into your life, no matter how hopeful you feel.

Everyone has their own journey towards meaning, but metamodernists are, specifically because they want to find meaning so badly, the worst place to look for that.

But, as always, of course make your own experiences, I’m just sharing this so that maybe some people after me won’t need to face the same disillusionment and disappointment. Just be aware that the lack of cohesion in respective articles, presentations etc. you will continuously see is not unusual, but it’s like this everywhere in that space.