A funny, too-accurate depiction of at least one style of modern freak appears below. *(1)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/29/we-are-douchebags_n_338568.html
What was interesting to me was how all these douchebags were pseudo-hipsters. These actors were all scarily accurate in their portrayals, so much so that I wondered as to their d-bag status in real life. But I'll be generous and credit their non-d-bag abilities to harness their inner douches.
There have been some other takes on douchebags and their plight. The earliest I can recall is the classic SNL sketch referencing "Milord and Lady Douchebag".
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/comedy/watch/v17990992nmqFyzgY
(As is the SNL tradition, it isn't really funny until about 2:35).
And then there was this more recent SNL take as well. This seems to place douchebags within a lower-class income bracket.
http://www.myvideo.be/watch/6554419
The Daily Show, on the other hand, tends to fall a bit closer to my take on the elusive quality of douchebaggery.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-7-2008/the-douche-vote
I tend to define douchebaggery a different way. For instance, Mitt Romney would not be at home with any of these guys. But to me he was a definite douchebag.
It all comes down to, what is your inner douche? Or, and only slightly more seriously, what is it about a person that makes them a douchebag?
Well first, "douchebag" is one of those interesting epithets, along with with "asshole" and "shithead", that while technically unisex is really only used towards males. So there's a specific sort of male energy referenced here - kind of ironic.
What there also seems to require is a certain sort of petty, self-interested shittiness *and* faux sincerity. And *definitely* a smugness.
It also does seem that douchebaggery is a thoroughly white phenomenon. I can only hope that, within the white population I'm a part of, they are and remain a minority. I guess I'll be a proper liberal and hope that they aren't brutally oppressed and kept from reproducing - but does that put me in the odd position of being a douchebag sympathizer? Perhaps even a douchebag as well?
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(1) But aren't we all freaks? Yes, in that we are all unique. It is preferable that we cause as little pain as possible to others, while we are engaged in our own individual freaky experiments which make up our lives...at least, to the extent that other's pain isn't caused by their own minds.
ReplyDeleteDouchebags push right against this edge.