Charlie Brooker — Cultural Behemoth or Just “Our Clarkson”
As much as you have to admire Charlie Brooker for building a career out of a foundations of depressed TV viewing and the cynical insights that has inspired, he is in essence nothing but the audio speaker part of the Culture Department of the Liberal Left’s echo chamber. Yes, he has bravely baited controversy, since his early days insulting teenagers for cash in PC Gamer magazine. And I think it’s ingenious that when he was suffering with depression he thought of putting his CRT monitor on its side so he could watch it in bed. And good for him for using anger as a disruptive force for perceived change. And who could criticise Black Mirror, with it’s slickly constructed and well thought out dystopian vision that people love to say we’re careering into?
But how controversial is Brooker? He’s picked his side and picked well. Whether he proves to be on the side of the winners, if any such side exists, is yet to be seen, but he’s the leader of the coolest gang, the mascot for the art college educated, the disenchanted city workers that are above the ‘basic’ wonts of Live Love Laugh mirrors and freeze dried coffee, we like our coffee fresh, in a Keep Cup, and not because we save 30p (it’s actually such a hassle) but because we care. We care about the planet and our fellow man, and we feel bloody good about that, and why shouldn’t we? We throw digital stones at the easy targets that have slimed their way to the top of the hierarchy, like orange-faced Trump, and before him that dangerous imbecile Bush that old Charlton so bravely allegedly incited assassination of in a screen burn column you’d struggle to find online now, but you can find the apology here https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/oct/24/tvandradio.theguide.
But who could dislike Charlie for incitement to violence regarding war criminal Bush, for whom some would perhaps say, careful not to fall into the same trap, death is too good for? He took the flack for it, and he said what we weren’t brave enough to say, or just didn’t because we don’t have a Guardian column. It’s like he can read our thoughts.
Well here’s the funny thing. He can. Because you’re predictable. A caricature of a cool open minded person that you picked off the rack in TK Maxx. Or bought, imaginatively, piecemeal from charity shops like everybody else.
Charlie Brooker, as far as we know, and from what we can go on given he seems to hate everything, despises you. But he doesn’t bite the hand that feeds, of course not. He doesn’t, like that old drunk in the local pub I never go in, “shit on his own doorstep”. As much as he criticises and cajoles, I’ve never noticed him hold a mirror up truly to himself or his disciples, for whom he is almost deified. Instead, he regurgitates the generic opinions of the many-patterned sheep that follow him back into their mouths. Tories r bad! What insight. Technology is problematic. He’s a soothsayer! We’re so many hypocrite neo-luddites complaining about the technology we spend all our money on. It’s a trick borrowed from Clarkson, but brought over from the dark side, to the size of the RebelsTM, who are going to win momentum and destroy the capitalist machine once and for all, and live out an acid communist sex party for the rest of their days with Brooker on a golden self-massaging throne.
