Although he styles himself as an artist his true strength lies in social criticism. His ability to lampoon the society he lives in without pulling punches on taboo topics made him the Jonathan Swift of modern America. His genius lies in taking the topic at hand as unseriously as possible, thus taking away the ability of the target of his jibes to fight back with moralism. He treats his victims as mentally deficient children who need to be chastised for their infantile beliefs. Generally he goes after people who take themselves too seriously and humiliates them by mocking their delivery and message. Common targets are journalists, moral crusaders, feminists, and social activists. While these may seem like soft targets his humor is a response to the screeching left wing activism that often confounds discourse on american universites and the internet.
He is mostly known for use of post irony, detaching himself from his message so thoroughly that viewers were often confused when he was being serious or not defined his chaotic style. His greatest attack was on youtuber idubbbz whose profanity laced videos matched Sam's style but lacked the intellectual finesse and honestly that put Sam apart from other internet satirists. Their main difference is that idubbbz possessed an underlying insecurity that Sam did not. While Sam mocked people because underneath his ironic takes he truly hated them for putting out content that didn't meet his high artistic standards, idubbbz made fun of people like a redditor would, because he felt that by mocking others lower than him he could prop himself up on the social hierarchy of the internet.
Underneath any great satirist lies a despondent romantic. Their desire for the world to be filled with decency and beauty is marred by the reality of the dark nature of the real world. In response they seek to change the reality of the sick world with irony rather than a sincerity and honestly that they know would never change the hearts of their cold countrymen.
Sam's tragedy is that he was not able to reach his goal. His desire to attack the Christian Puritanism that infested American intelligentsia failed. Feminism, social justice, and progressivism became the predominant social theories that defined the American ruling class and trickled down to destroy the internet spaces that he cherished so greatly. The leftism that he fought against worked to destroy art in any form that challenged the power structure of the new elite and in the process ruined Sam's career and dashed his artistic ambitions.
His desire to become a famous artist failed and with his failed ambitions generated a wounded soul who wreaked his vengeance on those he felt had wronged him. Tragically it was Sam's inability to be sincere and express his feeling that cratered his chances of entering into the art world that he desired to be in. His feeling that his artistic skills were not of the level that could catapult him to fame resulted in a career mocking his dead dream in an oblique way that directed his vitriolic self criticism to the crowd where his harsh words would be easier to bear.
He sunk himself to the lowest level of content possible and chose friends that were in his own eyes losers who could never truly judge the quality of his output and who'd always view him as a god. A combination of the wind of politics and his own ego prevented him from having the life he wanted so much but gained him eternal internet infamy.
[–]saiditkang 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (1 child)
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