I really love the music, and by music, I mean Industrial and some Gothic-Rock.
To not be able to enjoy escapism, outside interests, actually touching grass, being earnest about the things that make you feel passionate, would-be pure misery for me. To participate in this performative soapbox-for-clout meta, I'd rather have a fucking root canal done. To surround myself with people that I have to tread lightly, walk around on eggshells, I'd rather be a scene tourist, go to clubs/gigs for the music for the entertainment factor and leave, than to be expected to code switch, pretend to believe extremist ideals to "fit in." That's just Christian dogma with a different coat of paint on it.
But the people, for the most part, make me want to be nothing more than a scene tourist.
People in the Goth/Industrial scene insulate themselves, structure their entire world to fit a mold. Their Raison D'etre is to gain scene clout, nothing more, nothing less.
I've never met so many passionless people. Being earnest, having outside interests, thinking outside the box, ironically is frowned upon.
Take Metalheads for instance. So many of them also have geeky interests. They also really love the music, want to have huge music libraries filled to the brim of different subgenres, local bands, old-school bands, overseas bands. Goths don't seem to care about the music that much at all. If they're a TradGoth, it's all about how they met so-and-so in the 1990's Deathrock scene, or dated them, et cetera. If they're more of an Industrial archetype, it's all about what will go well in their TikTok Cyber dance video.
Invite a Metalhead out to go hiking, traveling, creative projects, gaming, going to a LGS to play a card game, they're all about it, I can already hear the enthusiastic "fuck yeah!" Ask a Goth, they act like they're unironically allergic to the sun, that they can't overcome their neurodivergence (and I'm someone with crippling anxiety; it's called COGNITIVE EXPOSURE THERAPY).
The politics are another big issue. Goths always want to adopt some kind of extremist ideology as of late. Either some kind of wokescoldy Socialist, or the Rightwing "I can be alt and still support Trump/MAGA" snowflake variety. It gets very old. The former is too busy wanting to cancel musicians/artists/people for minor infractions than to be distracted by the love of the music or having hobbies outside of Tiktok or occasionally being kettled in their same clubs, listening to the same 20 songs. Point being, you're either immediately ostracized by not having the same world view as them or pretending that you do and participating in code switching when you're around them (so cringe), or they're a total energy vampire, because all they talk about are social issues, nothing else. Hell, if you want escape, you're chastised for it. Because the clout-farming Goth method is no longer to pick on the Emo/mall goth kids and blame them for clubs closing, now it's to chastise anyone who doesn't use their platform to soapbox about whatever the current social grievance is; not to make the world better, but to morally grandstand in the attention economy. It's very vapid.
To not be able to enjoy escapism, outside interests, actually touching grass, being earnest about the things that make you feel passionate, would-be pure misery for me. To participate in this performative soapbox-for-clout meta, I'd rather have a fucking root canal done. To surround myself with people that I have to tread lightly, walk around on eggshells, I'd rather be a scene tourist, go to clubs/gigs for the music for the entertainment factor and leave, than to be expected to code switch, pretend to believe extremist ideals to "fit in." That's just Christian dogma with a different coat of paint on it.
The scene incentivizes shallow people, trend followers, superficiality, and surface-level thinkers, and it's a shame.