2025 the year of Bunk

Brat & Punk united

At last, a fusion movement bringing together Brat and Punk creating a tsunami of social change.

Bunks love inverting the meanings of words. Felix Walker, who represented North Carolina's Buncombe County in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 gave a speech called the "speech for Buncombe". It went on and on and buncombe → bunkum → bunk came to mean a load of nonsense.

Bunk, today, means the opposite, it’s a quest for sense.

Bunks have a built in de-bunk instinct. They see through hype, marketing, speeches and trends in a way that pre-bunks don’t. They use the Bunk razor to cut away the lies, hyperbole and manipulation to see what is really there. Then they reject it or adopt the bits that are useful.

Bunks are seizing on the free/cheap solutions that work and are rejecting the over-priced, over-hyped crap that doesn’t.

Bunk places the individual first but not in the toxic pre-bunk way. Bunks value real-life social networks and hang around being helpful to others because it makes them feel good, useful and gives them a purpose in life.

Overwhelm, doom-scrolling and phone-fixation are being abandoned as Bunks turn to their dumb-phones to call their friends and actually chat with them. That said, they prefer to meet up with them and do something fun and helpful.

“Any fool can be driven, ambitious and power-hungry,” Bunks say, “but what’s the point?” The Star system is being eclipsed by the Dark-star system of millions of invisible Bunk inspirers. These people just go around being fun, helpful and nice. Yes, Nice, the word has been re-appropriated and moved on from it’s taupe/vanilla sense. Radical niceness is the big new thing and totally Bunk.

Trad youth activities are being rejected. Becoming a music or movie star, an influencer or an artist is seen as old stuff. “Why bother?” is the new Now. I do what I want, when I want it and how I wish, so long as none of it pisses people off, is 2025’s theme.

I wear what I want, I work or take time out when I feel like it. Chasing after romantic love or the new, industry created, teen idol has taken a back seat. He/She/They will turn up when it’s the right time. If I’m going to become a parent then maybe I will, I’m not going to run around trying to set it up. I’m certainly not going to listen to those who tell me it’s my duty. “Slow,it all down,” they say.

Bunks reject economic globalisation and prefer meeting local people and appreciating what they produce. At the same time, after years on global social networks, they reject narrow nationalism. They’ve V-met people from around the world and come to understand that we’re all much the same. War? Why would I support that? I’ve V-met people from whichever country, they seemed OK. Why would I want to go and kill them?

Bunks have also adopted the New Romantic approach to style and clothing. Fashion is thrown out the window as Bunkers wear whatever they want and feels good, most of it made at home. Socially connected individualism is killing off the fashion industry and it’s fake trends. “Why would I wear a plastic bag?” Bunks ask. “Pre-modern clothes made from synthetic fibres are out, natural fibres are back.”

Bunk is already hammering the Wellness industry as Bunks reject shampoo, soap, washing, jade eggs and all the rest. A multi-billion dollar industry tottering as people move out of it’s shadow and into the sunshine and freedom. You want to live longer, then make friends and do volunteer work. You want a glowing skin, then drop that fancy wellness soap and stop destroying your skin microbiome. Same thing for your hair. Want to be fit and healthy? Go and start a garden, get outside, listen to some birdsong.

Slow-food has finally taken off. Faced with supermarkets full of toxic, fake taste, ultra-transformed foods, Bunks have gone slow. They prefer to spend time with friends working over recipes and inventing new ones. Cooking and preparing is seen as being at least as important as sitting down and eating. Eating out in over-priced restaurants is pre-Bunk, checking out the different pop-up stalls run by good chefs is In.

Bunks tend to reject industry standard celebrations like Valentines day, Xmas and birthdays and their ‘buy to be happy’ paradigm. They find different ways of celebrating stuff. They have ‘spons’ an abbreviation of spontaneous, someone, somewhere starts one off and everyone joins in. They have reappropriated the Solstices, enjoying imagining the Earth through their feet, the great ‘Boat’ changing the direction of it’s slow, seasonal roll.

Perhaps the biggest trend, and one which lines up with the no-poo, no-soap trend is the no-vote. Sickened by the futility of hoping that the next ‘hero’ politician or political party will actually do any good, Bunks have gone local. Better to sort out what’s going bad where I am rather than wait, pathetically, for some paternalist or maternalist patronising twat to do it for me. Which they won’t anyway.

A signature feature of Bunk is it’s rejection of ‘generations’. They say that they are trans-gen, that not all boomers are bad and to blame for everything. They appreciate the social disruption wrought by the GenX and how it opened up new possibilities. They tend to read books like “Keep the Aspidistra flying” and the “Book of Merlyn”.

What about the climate, pollution and social injustice? Pre-bunks tried protesting, splashing paint, blocking roads and sabotage. Bunks see how ineffective and futile it all was, things continued to get worse and at a faster rate. Out the window with banging their heads against a wall and in with “sorting out my ‘hood”. Local, positive, effective action is seen as efficient, pro-social and very, personally, fulfilling.

Bunks see Bunk as the ‘trend that ends all trends’. they see it as being the way to valorise what it is to be a human being, or ‘hum-bee’ as they say. They have a profound appreciation of complexity, connectivity and that life is too short to waste it on senseless pursuits. Jogging, park-runs and even bicycles have been replaced with ‘hooding’ They stroll around their village or neighbourhood chatting to people and lending a hand here and there. Helping someone with something physical is causing a collapse in the Gym/fitness industry. Why pay to go and run on a fatuous treadmill like some demented hamster when you can go help someone build something or insulate their house?

Speaking of houses, these are being rejected too. Accepting decades of work to pay off a debt is seen as absurd and the waste of a good life. Feather homes, as the Bunks call them, are in. Self-built, low-cost, comfortable and efficient light-weight dwellings such as tiny houses, vardos, straw-bale houses are the Bunk way. As “bling accumulation” is also seen as being pre-bunk, Bunks need far less space as they have fewer possessions. Why heap up books and films when they are available in the local lending library? Tools and machines are shared around through tool-kit libraries. Feather lives in a feather home.

Binary views have been put aside, XX and YY has become X∞Y∞ to show how we are all different and on a sliding scale.

The word Geezer has come to mean anyone who is pro-social, trans-gen, helpful, compassionate and well … a geezer.

I got Bunked on Xmas eve, I was walking along carrying a backpack and this total geezer stopped his car, wound down the window and asked if I needed a lift.