Based Safety vs Cringe Propaganda #14

This Week in Based and Cringe

BASED SAFETY
Welcome back to “Based Safety vs. Cringe Propaganda,” ladies and gentleman. I’ve been more blissfully out of the discourse this week than usual, so I’ll try and be brief this go about. But fear not, I would never disappoint my faithful flock. For it is you that keeps the mission going.

WSWS’s Alex Lantier takes professor Marlene Daut to task for her brainwormed, racialist essay on Napolean, “Napolean Isn’t a Hero to Celebrate.” The essay — which would have been a CRINGE PROPAGANDA had I not missed it upon its publication — argues that because Napolean reinstated slavery there’s simply nothing about him worthy of celebration. As Lantier points out, Daut uses her stance on Napolean to posture as a critic of Emmanuel Macron’s police state measures against the Islamic faith, but in her absence of class analysis, she actually mirrors the French leader’s rhetoric. These people’s lack of complexity to their thought is stunning; does Daut not realize that her ability to even put this essay out into the world is a right largely won by the French revolution? Does she really think that Napolean was driven by genocidal hatred of black people, and not simply the pragmatic compromises he needed to make to win his battles? Jesus fucking christ!

Two of my best gal pals link up: Aimee Terese joins Angie Speaks on the Low Society podcast. The Perfume Nationalist invites the boys of the Thot Topics podcast to discuss James Cameron’s Titanic and makes me feel like a fool for ever doubting the film’s sublime beauty! At Covidian Aesthetics, Fabián Muniesa outlines a “science of stereotypes.” ArtReview editor JJ Charlesworth critiques the embarrassing “radical chic” of the Turner Prize. Turner Prize has always had a tendency to celebrate shitty, libtard art, but at least it used to be……. art. Now its jurors are out to blow their loads over any group of people that get together and claim they’re doing a “social practice.” Boring. Boring. Lame. “That the Turner Prize should pivot to radical-sounding collaborative groups says more about the Tate’s desire to endorse what aren’t really particularly radical or oppositional positions, in order to be seen as progressive itself,” writes Charlesworth. Musician, writer, and poet of the “radical elite” Ian Svenonious — a long time hero of mine, mind you (I’ve been a fan of his band Nation of Ulysses since I was a teenager, and only became a bigger fan when he self-canceled with class and style last year or so) — releases a new album with his group Escape-Ism. I bought it on Bandcamp as a digital download. When I was out running, I put it on, and I thought my headphones were broken. Why? Because the record is silent. It is eight tracks of silence, one of which stretches 10 minutes. At first, I was a bit angry that I spent money on this. And then I realized: this is the best album of the year, and I will defend it as hard as Lester Bangs once defended Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. The Silent Record is what you need right now. While on the topic of records, there is also great new music out by Basic Rhythm, Terrence Dixon, and Demstervold.

Finally, the beautiful Jana Surkova of the Hate Fiction podcast and the lovely Zach Langley of the I’m So Popular podcast come on our show at System of Systems to discuss the collapse of eroticism and our favorite cinematic sex scenes.

CRINGE PROPAGANDA
The truly cynical Intercept “reporter” Natasha Lennard, she who took it upon herself to try and cancel her own colleague last summer when Lee Fang posted a video of a young black man voicing a criticism of BLM, begs (and I mean BEGS) her readers to not abandon the woke rhetoric that everyone abhors in the wake of the CIA recruitment ad. “Despite their claims, those who condemn any discourse of race or gender identity as a neoliberal ploy fail to understand how capitalism works through a bordered, racial regime of labor segmentation,” writes Lennard, totally desperate to prove that she and her publication are anything other than what they are: propaganda for the progressive wing of a capitalist state. Leave it to ol’ Hrag and his terrible website Hyperallergic to write an essay about the oppression of a children’s computer game that literally no one cares about. Speaking of Marlene L. Daut, the Napolean hater mentioned above, she’s very happy this week that women of color are the new faces of “Feel Good TV.” I guess she believes that diversifying meaningless pop culture is evidence of the success of her struggle, or whatever.

Unsurprisingly, ArtForum jumps on the #STOPASIANHATE movement and immediately takes liberties to link that movement to BLM. lyko Day’s essay here is one of the many pretending that white nationalism is behind the anti-Asian crime wave, despite the fact that the vast majority of perpetrators haven’t even been white. One really wishes people would start examining the contradictions in their world view, but that assumes that they are just misguided, not cynical. A false assumption no doubt. Suzanne Enzerink details her story of when a bad encounter with a man made her change her mind about Mulholland Drive, which she now “bravely” sees as “racist” and misogynist.” I hate liberal critics with every fiber of my being. David Lynch is beyond your critique Suzanne. Your shitty little faux-contrarian opinion means nothing in the face of the beautiful art that he has created! No one fucking cares about your opinion!

OK, sorry about that. That article truly enraged me. What else? Oh yes. It’s about that time again when the liberal bourgeoise starts fear mongering Roe V. Wade once more (relax people, Roe V. Wade isn’t going anywhere, because you can’t rewind capitalist development!). Also, the wife of one member of Detroit techno pioneers Drexciya posts this letter. Honestly, I have no idea what’s going on here, and the reporting about the letter was equally befuddling. So I don’t even know why I’m including it. I love Drexciya though!

That’s a wrap for this week. I have to finish my book now. Wish me well. And prepare to have your life changed when it’s out. Safety Propaganda is becoming a force to be reckoned with!

Illustration by Adam Lehrer