No Hugging, No Learning - 'Seinfeld' and the Cultural Poison of Ironic Self-Awareness

I was scrolling through YouTube Shorts when a clip from Seinfeld surfaced. Jerry is at a rental car counter, confronting a woman about a missing reservation. The joke, as millions have laughed along with for decades, is simple: the company “knows how to take the reservation, they just don’t know how to hold the reservation.” Cue the audience laughter. B…