Still not over that time when a white Australian decided to name their steampunk-themed business “Colonial [Metal]” bcos [Metal] was like their name and they were from ‘the colonies’. https://twitter.com/scumbelievable/status/1298110883445592066

And then there was the time at the Greenwich Observatory’s steampunk festival where another group of white Australians overheard me grousing at my companion about unexamined colonialism and you’ll *never guess* what they angrily retorted with!

Not to be a hypocrite, there was a lot of it around at the time and I definitely went to a bunch of steampunk-y things, including seeing Dresden Dolls live, but it’s not like internal criticism was wholly absent? It’s just that a lot of the wider engagement was hollow aesthetique

The music was so horrible tho, and I’m not even against consciously retro forms? I cannot meaningfully overstate my general fury about the existence of Professor Elemental.

whaddaya know, the memories have not yet ceased to be annoying, go figure