Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

Better to be new than true? Welcome to the era of 'take-ism'

theblaze.com · 19h · first reportShare

I’ve recently come up with the term “take-ism” to describe what I consider to be one of the most pernicious and destructive social phenomena of our era. We all know the term “hot take.” Basically, it’s an idea that’s provocative, strident, and also — and this is key — a bit new. It’s the opposite of a cold take, which is essentially common knowledge. Is it the overexposure to infinite faces and places that our phones enable that creates this desperate need for novelty, even at the expense of our sanity? A hot take is often offensive to someone out there, but that's just a byproduct. What it really needs to offer is novelty. Race to novelty Take-ism is essentially a race to novelty above all and at all costs. While there are hot takes that are true and novel takes that do illuminate an unexplored and previously unobserved fact of reality, the pursuit of truth plays little role in the real thrust of take-ism. The logic of take-ism is essentially the logic of the internet: novelty = inter