Teikoku Kagekidan

at least they are short and can even be funny

I really hope that it's different for other people, but I haven't felt such existential anguish from anything else as I do from TikTok. When people in cramped apartments open their mouths and act out scenes to trendy Russian music; when lonely schoolchildren on vacation play with a box and a rubber band and film it; when people going crazy within four walls show some kind of tricks with paper, a plate of pilaf, and a bucket of water – it hits me unironically in a way that even the funniest, most fashionable, and clever images from a depressing meme page don't. Behind the staged video-entertainment facade, a slice of everyday hopelessness and post-Soviet reality is revealed, which is capable of killing any hope for the future in seconds. I didn't think it was possible in 2020, but it turns out it is.