Recently one of Boing Boing's bloggers wrote this:

As I said at the beginning of this program, I'm constantly amazed at the "pop culture amnesia" that seems to be an epidemic today. People have forgotten some of the greatest achievements of mankind... and what have they replaced it with? Infomercials, current events clowns, celebrity gossip and patently phony reality shows. Now, I can already hear you saying... "Well. me and all my friends know about important stuff... all kinds of stuff!" Whenever I ask one of my archive interns what kind of music they listen to, I always get the same answer- "All kinds of music!" Then I ask, "Who's your favorite country and western artist?" or "What's your favorite opera?" and I get blank stares. It turns out that "all kinds of music" means "acid house, electronica, trance, darkwave, eurobeat, speedcore, etc."- a million different names for the same kind of music. It isn't their fault that they're ignorant of the cultural riches of the 20th century. Big media has kept them in the dark so they can spoon feed them "pre-packaged, pasteurized entertainment product".

This person sounds to me like an elitist wanker.  I find it particularly offensive how the implication is that country or opera count as "real" achievements but x other genres - all of which are "coincidentally" electronic and favored by younger people - are not.

Also stupid: Um, hello blogger, has it occurred to you that these genres all seem "the same" to you because you're not a fan, and that they are obviously, perceivably different to people who are fans?

Also also stupid: What does that rant at the end about "big media" have to do with the genres listed?  Yeah, some of them are "mainstream" but some of them are probably more "indy" than the stuff this guy is actually posting as "music you should like."  Oh, but they use synthesizers, so obviously that must automatically mean they are "fake" and not worth anything. /sarcasm And furthermore, I see no necessary connection between liking electronic music and liking "Infomercials, current events clowns, celebrity gossip and patently phony reality shows" - in my experience, there's at best the opposite of correlation, and at worst no more correlation than with people who like any other kind of music. Which further supports my contention that this writer is being kind of ignorant.

I admit, I hate the "all kinds of music!" answer too, because in my experience this is just something people say so as to seem open-minded and not offend anyone when in practice, it is never literally true and there is always something the person doesn't like. 

But I don't understand where this attitude comes from that it's a big deal to be familiar with pop culture that is "historic" but not with other kinds.  To me that's like saying people have an obligation to watch TV so that they can talk to other people about it - this is just the more nose-in-the-air equivalent.  Buddy, if you are lacking in people to talk to about your pet interest, yeah that's unfortunate, but how about expressing it as the subjective issue that it is for you instead of talking like there is objectively something wrong with people who just don't care about all your little black-and-white bluegrass clips?

Though speaking of bluegrass: I also find it interesting how this guy at one point showcases the term "beautiful ignorance" as if it's such a great, American, down-home thing, when I can't help but coincidentally notice that the "down-home" collection of values is quite likely to include disdain for the tastes of young people and for "weird looking" subcultural people in contrast to the "wholesome" images of the black-and-white entertainment of yesteryear.

Pardon me, but I'm not real fond of some fogey-hick telling me that people I know and relate to are ignorant just because they don't like [favorite thing that is just as arbitrary as whatever my favorite thing is].

In closing, at least when Boing Boing pisses me off, it gives me more interesting and intellectual things to rant about than FARK ever did.