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

[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

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