It’s funny that “performative” has become this grand insult. Everything is a performance now. The insult itself is performance: “you’re not earnest enough!” it declares, positioning the self as the arbiter of “authentic” while excusing them from performing any authenticity at all

Everything is a spectacle, everything is an excuse for content, a chance to make yourself the object. Performative? We are all performing, always, and you are too scared to do the imperfect, the messy, the nuanced, so you insult the attempt made by others. What about your own?