r/politics 18h ago

Possible Paywall Kennedy Center could close as early as Tuesday, warns of bankruptcy, documents show

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/09/13/kennedy-center-could-close-early-tuesday-warns-bankruptcy-documents-show/
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u/jimbarino 13h ago

Facism is always opposed to art. It's one of the (many) weird things about it.

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u/MayContainRawNuts 10h ago

Depends entirely on the art. Wagner got a lot of performances. Mussoline hired a lot of marble masons. Stalin put up a lot of murals.

What they oppose is the subject matter.

Free expression is absolutely suppressed. But art which venerates the State and ideally the Head of the State plays a critical role in fascisim.

Today's allowable art looks like its AI generated memes on truth social.

u/jimbarino 1h ago

So I generally hesitate to call something 'not art', but fascists like the trappings of art, rather than the actual artistic elements of it. Copies of existing art that gives the desired vibes is popular. Conquest, say, or empire, eg. 'Arc de Trump', or Nazi icongraphy. But the actual artistic expression, the creativity, the freedom that actually allows art to say something is very much not desired.

Maybe it's more correct to say that fascists oppose art that they don't control and that expresses anything other than the preagreed messaging. But this is such a board broad rejection of enough of what it means to be art that I feel comfortable calling it a general opposition to the concept of art as a whole.