there's this weird disconnect nobody talks about w/r/t culture, maybe because people don't notice, but there's this big gap between those who have one and those who don't that's a source of a lot of bitterness

I'm not sure how to discuss it without it getting weird

like, I think it's what leads some people to being nationalistic and substituting their country in place of that, or pretending that that common nostalgia is culture, instead. they kinda cobble shit together from nothing, while simultaneously being bitter/jealous of others who-

-don't really notice or just don't really care, or don't have to. they know they've got literally zero scaffolding in their life in that regard but feel like they do because they see similarly empty lives in media so they think it's all totally normal

so then media gets a bit wider, maybe with movies/tv shows with better representation, or with social media, and they see how other people live with something they have literally never known and suddenly they're starkly aware of how they have NONE of that shit

nostalgia has been fed to them all their lives as being the substitute for culture this whole time. This point-and-wink collective conscious that brings people together. But when they see actual, real cultural shit now after a lifetime of nostalgia for an era they weren't-

-even fucking alive for, they get bitter and jealous, so the weaker folks who aren't self-aware enough to notice this grab on to whatever shit they can like a barnacle on some fucking driftwood, and nowadays that's being offered to people in terms of white supremacy/nationalism

I mean obviously it always HAS been, but I mean like in the last 10 years of the internet age. You know what I mean.
I see some people double down on the nostalgia, though. I also see people find out they're like 1/8th Norwegian or some shit and then start-

-glomming on to vikings and twee icelandic fairy shit and whatever, but that doesn't really work either because they can put that in a box and forget about it for the rest of the year after St. Patrick's Day is over, where it doesn't actually influence their lives beyond that

and so when you see people wearing kilts, or getting drunk during oktoberfest or whatever it's just fucking embarrassing because they'll put that shit away like a christmas tree when they're done with it. Everyone knows it isn't real and is just done to ape what they-

-are now aware others have, what they feel entitled to have, but are too Woke to steal from someone else in 2020
I see this every time they reply to a tweet thread with some version of "b-but I did that too!! my family that too, we used adobo too! haha!! we're the same!"

tangentially I feel this in a different way: I was raised secular without any sort of religion. Yet when I get older, I see friends who have a real community in their religion, and then in highschool when it became cool to be an atheist I was like, "you will always have that-

-shit to go back to, shut up" and felt weird. That's when I became aware of this weird dynamic. It feels empty to be tangential to all of this
there isn't much to say because most people already are VERY FAMILIAR with this... but those who suffer from it, seem to have no idea

I dunno if this makes any sense, lol late night thoughts I'll delete this later

I think part of growing beyond this cringeworthy shit, is recognizing that nostalgia or fandom or OTHER THINGS I WON'T MENTION are not a substitute for what you know that you don't have, admitting you don't, and stopping trying to fill that hole and just learning to live with it