"A quick crash course in blackpill accelerationism: the memes are the ideology." (Must see)

[Nevilledog]

Last edited Sun Sep 14, 2025, 03:20 PM - Edit history (1)

Amazing explainer. Cy Canterel: Feral scholar. Systems theory, technology, art, and the human condition. Decoding systems of power and meaning. New Orleans.

Link to tweet

Another fantastic piece:

Lost In the Kingdom of Kitsch
Kitsch, addiction, and the emotional architecture of MAGA

https://cybelecanterel.substack.com/p/lost-in-the-kingdom-of-kitsch


The cultural aesthetic of MAGA is as instantly recognizable as it is idiosyncratic: red hats, golden crosses, genre-laden realist memes, and endless flags. But why? Why the plastic patriotism, the sentimental religiosity, when the core ideology has so little to do with either actual Christianity or actual American history?

A short answer: the aesthetic is kitsch. MAGA kitsch. Christo-fascist kitsch. And kitsch is not incidental— it’s the scaffolding that props up the movement’s values and delivers its psychic charge. It’s the addictive element that manages followers’ anxiety and fear of change; the glue that solidifies their group identity.

Art critic Clement Greenberg, in 1939 (another important year for kitsch), defined it as artifacts of mass culture based on “vicarious experience” and “faked sensations.” Its representations are shallow and stereotypical, yet emotionally intense, pulling from a reservoir of shared cultural archetypes and reproducing them in emotionally blunt, instantly recognizable forms. Milan Kundera sharpened it further: “Kitsch is the absolute denial of shit…a folding screen set up to curtain off death.”

Philosopher Tomas Kulka, in his book Kitsch and Art, adds three rules to the definition:

1. Kitsch depicts objects or themes that are highly charged with stock emotions.
2. The objects or themes depicted by kitsch are instantly and effortlessly identifiable.
3. Kitsch does not substantially enrich our associations relating to the depicted objects or themes.

If art is ambiguity and evocation, kitsch is certainty and prescription. Art asks. Kitsch does exactly what it says on the tin.

*snip*

Youtube link

?feature=shared

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8SSRDEg/

[Ocelot II]

1. The video is really eye-opening. I hardly ever watch videos but

I'm glad I watched this one. If this person is correct, what we are up against isn't traditional right-wing ideology, it's nihilism. It's a desire for destruction as the in-crowd watches it all burn. It's just a big, meaningless joke. Charlie Kirk was part of traditional right-wing politics, the desire to influence society for a desired outcome in which white Christians are in control. The groypers or black-pillers or whatever they are, aren't ideological opponents of Kirk's right wing; they don't care about policy. They don't believe in anything except the inevitable collapse of everything. They are completely on-line, and their on-line world is as real to them as the physical world. It's scary but it explains some things that have never seemed to make much sense. We don't know for sure about Robinson's motivation but it seems to be relevant to that of Robin Westman, the Annunciation School shooter.

[Celerity]

5. another insightful one

“It was a shitpost.”
This is very insightful analysis.

Link to tweet

[Nevilledog]

9. And another

Link to tweet

This is the most spot-on explanation of what's happened to disaffected Gen Z boys in America I've heard yet. There are a shitload of Tyler Robinsons in the US. Steve Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos, Nick Fuentes and Charlie Kirk created a Frankenstein monster that's now out of control.

[vanlassie]

21. This kid said a mouthful.

[Buckeyeblue]

29. These people have always existed

It's the prepper crowd. The conspiracy theory people. They are convinced that humanity will destruct. And they are rooting for that to happen. This is the old Art Bell crowd. Their lives suck and they want to see the total collapse of everything.

[Midnight Writer]

2. I recall Carl Jung warning that symbols would become more important than reality.

I think he was spot on.

Symbols of Christianity carry more weight than examples of Christianity.

Symbols of patriotism are now more important than acts of patriotism.

Cos-play experts are given more regard than actual experts.

Memes have replaced reason.

[still-prayin4rain]

24. Wow, this is so true (and depressing).

[Celerity]

3. big big rec

[hatrack]

4. This is really good - and it echoes the history of the Nazis as an ideology of kitsch and meaninglessness

Trite, reassuring non-art, non-logic and non-answers packaged as a worldview, with lots of flags 'n stuff.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Kitsch like the gold clutter in the Oval Office. . .

[peggysue2]

7. The article at the link is really interesting

There are a number of quotable lines. This one caught my attention

“Kitsch is art that engages the emotions and deliberately ignores the intellect, a form of cultural anesthesia”. Kitsch provides a behavioral shortcut around discomfort and ambiguity, rewarding avoidance with a hit of certainty.

and

After tying this thought to consumer capitalism--what we have (as in goods, entertainment, whatever--to what we could have) the article goes to the heart of what we're seeing in group behavior:

Fascism works the same psychological seam: it exploits the gap between what its followers feel— anxiety, rejection, fear of change and difference— and what it promises they could feel: enmeshment, boundary collapse, and the regression to a womb-like belonging…forever. The spectacle of rallies, the flood of symbols, the orchestrated chants: all are kitsch rituals engineered to simultaneously collapse the boundaries of the group inside, and to close the walls against the groups outside. The logic of the loop: stoke anxiety and fear, then relieve it through group spectacle and performance, ad infinitum.

The Logic of the Loop!

And finally,

Donald Trump embodies kitsch with almost comic literalness.


All that gold has purpose, meaning despite it being ugly as hell to rest of us.

Everyman a King. Every King a Sucker.

because,

Kitsch provides the medium, history supplies the symbols, and Trump embodies the spectacle.


Bingo!

A good read and definitely recommended.

[Solly Mack]

8. Excellent. Watch and read.

[Stuckinthebush]

10. Excellent!

Highly recommend as an explanation of the crazy right factions

[BluesRunTheGame]

11. Thanks for posting.

This is one of the better and more useful things I’ve seen posted here recently.

[BoRaGard]

12. k and r

[h2ebits]

13. Please help many of us who do NOT wish to use X

This is the second post that I have seen today where TikTok is the platform but ended up on X as a post by someone on X.

It's worthwhile information but would you please go directly to the source and use that instead of the X post?

It would help me a lot and I would really appreciate it.

[Nevilledog]

15. Here's the TikTok link

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8SSRDEg/

[h2ebits]

22. Thanks!

[Nevilledog]

17. Also YouTube

[h2ebits]

23. Thanks again!

[KPN]

14. Really informative ... and highly recommended. Thanks!

[Nevilledog]

16. UPDATE...added YouTube & TikTok link to op

[SalviaBlue]

18. Thanks for posting!

Recommend!

[Nevilledog]

19. Kick

[malaise]

20. Must see

Rec. Rec. Rec

[Nevilledog]

25. Kick

[some_of_us_are_sane]

26. Absolutely BRILLIANT!

Wow!

[dgauss]

27. Thanks for posting, I just learned a lot. Huge Rec for all the videos in this thread.

What a wake up call.

[Torchlight]

28. There really does seem a strong undercurrent of 'bumper sticker v. bumper sticker'

in place of exchanging and examining ideas. The new goal of scoring cheap points at the expense of learning new things (and it so often shows). The right wing political stage truly exemplifies this "I'm the loudest, so I'm the right-est!" routine.