The author is basically describing the predominant style of the current generation of college-educated, urban twenty-somethings, which is to basically laugh at everything and believe in nothing. The only antidote is an intrusion of cold hard reality into their otherwise sheltered lives, which I fear is imminent given the results of the recent election.
Exactly - which is why they get their news from Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart...
Post-modern irony died on 9-11-2001 but it came back like Carrie a few weeks later.
Recall when Dan Ratherbiased and David Letterman shed it tear for the days when we could just laugh again and talk about simple minded bullstalin.