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?

  • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.netOP
    0·
    5 months ago

    When I think of __punk, I think about it having a whole -way of life- change, not just an aesthetic change. Cyberpunk incorporates all of the dystopia of deeply embedded tech and stuff. Solarpunk is the whole “living with nature” ideal, even steampunk had to reimagine how things would work (tho admittedly that’s way more of an aesthetic than the other two imho).

    So it’s basically a meaningless term then? That’s disappointing. I really want to explore other… hypothetical options I suppose.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      I don’t know, crustpunks were a real thing.

      What’s preventing you from exploring hypothetical options like Furrypunk, Meatpunk, Tallowpunk, PharmacyPunk, Leatherpunk, or Candlejackpu----

    • nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      It’s not meaningless, it’s just evolved into signifying an aesthetic/lifestyle different from the norm. English is a living language, so many words change in meaning over time