In Which I Am Perhaps Too Open About The Mission Of This Web Site
Hate The Future continues to elicit some worrying/flattering responses, to the point where a certain clarification is in order.
I think of this blog—as I would hope my readers do—as a centrifuge where real scary/weird news collides with my goofy exaggeration of what lies ahead. I’m purposefully blurring the line between realistic uh-ohs and dryly absurd prophecy, crazy extant ideas and patently impossible ones, in an attempt, I suppose, to demonstrate how hard it is to tell the difference these days. This is the fun I’m trying to have and share, and I’m elated daily that a certain corner of the tumblr community wants to take part in this niche lampooning of 21st century culture.
(Un)fortunately, it turns out to be quite difficult to separate truth from fiction in this funhouse-like forum, and people have often reblogged me or commented to express sincerely their horror or anger about things that have not actually happened. Whether by failure of my humorous spin/editing or by a general absence of reason and skepticism, some HTF posts have gone all the way to Buzzfeed or Twitter or Gizmodo explicitly framed as actual, earnest journalism. I suppose on the one hand I could congratulate myself for proving a disturbing point; on the other, it makes me sad to think that people are not bothering to question the veracity of content offered by a website which, in the end, is meant to be an outlet for comedy. I realize I’m presenting these outlandish things as real (and some of them totally are real, presented without comment or modification!) but that’s a necessity for satire as a form: fake agendas, real stakes, fake realities, real people. Read Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal for an example of much better satire than has ever been provided here, and you’ll see what I mean.
To paraphrase another Jonathan—Stewart, specifically: Don’t get your news here, because I probably messed with it. In an ideal world, Hate The Future would simultaneously make you laugh and inspire you to seek out the real story. Part of me, of course, would be content to sit back and cackle about the informational chaos I’m sowing, but from an artistic standpoint, I felt compelled to be transparent about this. Some things here are all too real, some are just bad dreams. Most are a little of both. Trust no one—especially not me.
