Why does everything feel so joyless? Welcome to the age of decadence without pleasure

appeal to emotion: The rhetorical question and invitation to 'tell us your desires' frames the reader as complicit in a culture of shallow indulgence, creating a sense of guilt or self-doubt.

“Do you want to have a good time? You know, really enjoy yourself?”

framing by emphasis: The paragraph emphasizes hedonistic, passive, and isolating forms of consumption while omitting communal, creative, or meaningful leisure, skewing the portrayal of modern pleasures.

“Maybe it’s porn or gambling. Perhaps you prefer the infinite scroll, the endlessly unfurling ribbon of glossy images and videos starring people you’ll never meet doing things you’ll never do.”

narrative framing: The rhetorical questions assume a universal mood of emptiness and boredom without evidence, framing the reader to accept a cultural diagnosis as self-evident.

“Why then the pervasive mood of emptiness? Why are so many at once overstimulated and bored?”

loaded labels: The phrase 'decadence without pleasure' is a loaded label that frames contemporary culture negatively by invoking moral decay while denying its traditional hedonistic core.

“decadence without pleasure”

selective coverage: The paragraph selects extreme, sensational examples of Roman decadence while omitting broader historical context or counter-narratives of cultural flourishing.

“smothered guests to death with an avalanche of rose petals”

sensationalism: The vivid, grotesque details about rose petals and dogs devouring enemies serve to shock rather than inform, amplifying moral judgment.

“smothered guests to death with an avalanche of rose petals”

loaded labels: Describing decadence as having an 'inescapably pejorative ring' frames it as inherently negative, discouraging neutral or positive interpretations.

“inescapably pejorative ring”

vague attribution: The phrase 'plenty of thinkers on the left' is vague and unattributed, creating an impression of broad consensus without specificity.

“plenty of thinkers on the left”

missing historical context: The paragraph presents right-wing critiques of decadence as dominant without exploring their ideological framing or historical lineage in moral conservatism.

“Critics of decadence have usually hailed from the political right”

cherry picking: The paragraph cherry-picks culturally celebrated artistic movements as evidence of decadence’s positive potential, ignoring less glamorous or more destructive aspects of those periods.

“the experimental cinema and nightlife of Weimar Berlin”

framing by emphasis: The paragraph emphasizes the grotesque and shocking elements of decadent art while downplaying their philosophical or aesthetic depth.

“a bejeweled tortoise crushed to death by the weight of its splendor”

shock appeal: The description of 'monstrous flowers growing between her thighs' is designed to provoke discomfort and reinforce a sense of decadence as transgressive and extreme.

“a woman with monstrous flowers growing between her thighs”

loaded adjectives: Describing Victorian society as suffering from 'deadening enslavement' uses emotionally charged language to frame it as oppressive and lifeless.

“deadening enslavement to usefulness, materialism and conventionality”

moral framing: The paragraph moralizes the decadents’ philosophy as superior without acknowledging its elitism or impracticality.

“The virtue of decadent pleasure is that it is useless, an end in itself.”

loaded adjectives: Describing modern forms as 'shrivelled' implies cultural decline and moral judgment without neutral description.

“shrivelled, technologically mediated forms”

framing by emphasis: The paragraph frames medical and technological interventions as inherently joyless, ignoring potential benefits or user satisfaction.

“turn the delights of eating into a problem to be managed”

narrative framing: The paragraph asserts a sweeping cultural diagnosis without evidence, framing modern culture as universally pleasureless.

“pleasure is subordinated to programs of optimisation and replaced at scale by numbing algorithmic stimulation”

loaded adjectives: Describing stimulation as 'numbing' carries a negative judgment about modern experiences without neutrality.

“numbing algorithmic stimulation”

loaded adjectives: Describing contemporary decadence as 'meh' and 'oddly joyless' uses dismissive, emotionally charged language to reinforce a negative cultural narrative.

“meh and oddly joyless”

cherry picking: The mention of Joybuy is used as ironic evidence of cultural emptiness without exploring its actual function or user experience.

“Joybuy”

loaded adjectives: Describing Johnson’s lifestyle as 'harrowingly spartan' and his regimen as 'prurient excess' uses judgmental language to frame him as both extreme and morally suspect.

“harrowingly spartan”

outrage appeal: The detail about tapping his teenage son for blood plasma is included to provoke moral outrage rather than explain medical rationale.

“once tapped his teenage son for blood plasma”

loaded adjectives: Describing Johnson’s treatment of impotence as 'repeatedly shocking his penis' uses clinical details in a way that invites ridicule rather than understanding.

“repeatedly shocking his penis to increase his erections”

moral framing: The contrast between des Esseintes and Johnson frames aesthetic decadence as noble and medical intervention as crass, without acknowledging different cultural contexts.

“whereas des Esseintes’s withdrawal is an immersion into the subtleties of sensation, Johnson’s “Don’t Die” movement treats the delights of the senses as suspect, even fatal”

loaded labels: The nickname 'Billionaire’s Vagina Club' is a loaded label that mocks rather than neutrally reports.

“Billionaire’s Vagina Club”

vague attribution: The claim about 'some superwealthy people in or around Palo Alto' is vague and unverified.

“some superwealthy people in or around Palo Alto”

class framing: The binary 'biohacking for the rich, algorithmic stimulation for the rest' oversimplifies complex social dynamics and reduces cultural experience to class determinism.

“biohacking and quantified asceticism for the rich, algorithmic stimulation for the rest”

loaded labels: The term 'pleasureless decadence' is a repeated loaded label that frames the entire argument.

“pleasureless decadence”

framing by emphasis: The paragraph frames elite behaviors as inherently joyless without acknowledging alternative interpretations or motivations.

“What passes for “fun” among today’s top 0.001% amounts to anything but”

loaded adjectives: Describing Madison Square Garden as a 'miniature surveillance state' injects a politically charged judgment into a description of luxury access.

“miniature surveillance state that is Madison Square Garden”

class framing: The claim that 'the pleasurelessness of the ultra-monied classes trickles down' presents a sweeping cultural theory without evidence.

“the pleasurelessness of the ultra-monied classes trickles down to the rest of us”