Gawker didn't invent ironic detachment, obviously, and this sort of pose has been around in our media for years. Letterman does it. SNL does it. And it all works pretty much the same way. Strike an ironic pose. Look edgy. But don't stick your neck out.

Everybody's doing it. Why does that bother me?

Well, I guess it bothers me because I'm an old fart. I have a certain admiration for those who really stick their necks out and do it for good reasons, even if they do it a little gracelessly sometimes.

This is not a defense of Blackface Jesus, by the way. I honestly don't know what's going on in his head, and I can't buy into his approach on any level that I've been able to determine. Like I said, I'm an old fart. But in those cases where people are attempting to make sense of things and contribute to the discourse in some substantive way and doing so with some focus and thought, I'm more inclined to address them on the merits (or lack thereof) of what they are doing than to simply point and snicker.

Gawker still puzzles me, though. On MLK Day, they made a glorious mess of things. Attempting to be funny and clever, they instead came off hamhanded and insulting.

But that's the beauty of ironic detachment. Taking offense is for rubes. Everything's a joke.

Ah. I'm picking on Gawker too much. (Laziness on my part, no doubt.) My complaint is not with Gawker. My complaint is with the ease and meaninglessness of the ironic posture.

It bothers me because I believe that there are things worth sticking one's neck out for.

I look at our current state of things. Now, you may believe that everything's beautiful right now (and if you do, bless your heart, and go back to sleep), but more likely you see stuff you don't like, stuff that bothers you. I know this is true because I see that stuff bouncing all around the blogosphere.

Some of this stuff is less than earth-shaking, but some of it is earth-shaking.

But making little ironic comments to the choir doesn't really do much of anything about it. There is a certain resignation and nihilism inherent in such self-conscious irony. And no matter how hard one smirks, it eventually shows through. And people (with the possible exception of the choir, which we know can be pretty big) usually see the hipster resignation for what it is.