Corecore Discourse: “The Zoomers Discovered Hauntology”

Corecore’s recent ascent has been fueled not just by the actual videos but by a discourse emerging around it. The scene has become a battleground for TikTok critics, YouTube essayists, and video makers proffering an array of theories about corecore’s original intent, how it was corrupted over time, and what it says about zoomers. On one end, people argue corecore is more than memes: it’s a politically charged art movement critical of capitalism and technology’s atomizing effect on society. The other camp says the videos are all about surreal humor and vibes; the amorphous essence of subjective interpretation; intangible emotions. 

As bizarre as it seems, the comment sections on these corecore dissertations feature some of the more lively debate I’ve read about the political potential of short form TikTok content. And on Twitter, there’s no end to the discourse—the reactions to corecore are sometimes more intriguing than the videos themselves: it’s “soundtracks for a Blade Runner funeral home”; “the zoomers discovered hauntology”; “communist psyop”; “the greatest invention of the alt-right pipeline”; “Marshall McLuhan died too soon”; “a Harmony Korine movie trailer”; “upcycled Tumblr”; “someone call Adam Curtis”; “crowdsourced Luis Buñuel”; “AI-generated emotional hypnosis.” It’s ridiculous, but it speaks to how people really want corecore to be something profound, to wrench meaning out of it.