I’m probably just out of the loop, but what the hell is up with slapping “Punk” after some random word and trying to pass it off as a thing?

I know cyberpunk, I know steampunk, I know solarpunk, and those I can accept as “more than an aesthetic”, tho steampunk is mostly an aesthetic… but then you have for example frostpunk (a game I know nothing about), cypherpunk, silkpunk, etc. (I don’t really know how to find other bastardizations for examples, but I know I’ve come across other random nouns followed by “punk” and I find it super weird and confusing)

Is it just capitalizing on the cyberpunk/steampunk fad for naming, or do these other “punk” things actually have a legitimate claim of being punk? Is all this ___punk watering down the meaning or am I old man yells at cloud meme here?

  • BubbleMonkeyOP
    6•6 months ago

    I mean I get that it’s used that way, but that doesn’t address what I want to know - are these “more than aesthetic”, or is it watering down what punk means by being applied too broadly?

    I tend to think it’s the latter, because while the three I called out specifically are an aesthetic, they are also “alternative present/future” in a rebellious and/or politicized sort of way. They are sort of “what if?” Or “this would be good/bad/interesting”.

    I don’t think the others really have that quality, but I’m not deeply involved with anything that would really help sort it out. So here I am :)

    • @Deceptichum@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11•6 months ago

      Only cyberpunk and SolarPunk are punk.

      The others follow the suffix, like a watergategate. They’re inspired by what Cyberpunk did and use the name as a reflection of the similarities in being a style.