It’s no secret that 99.999% of the high profile creatives who preach about diversity are politically and culturally aligned a full 100%. At least they pretend to be, lest they be taken down by a kind of Neo-McCarthyism.
Many will justify their undeviating homogenous position on absolutely everything culturally or politically, as merely the moral opinions of good and virtuous people. But when Katy Perry, George Clooney, or J.K. Rowling virtue signal about Trump’s alleged misogyny, racism, or homophobia while remaining conspiciously silent in their condemnation about anything like this, this, or this, it leaves us with smoking gun evidence that their views have little to do with any kind of moral compass, and everything to do with strict collectivist ideology.
There was never much that conservatives, centrists, or those who are free of ideology could do about it. They had the floor with a closed shop monopoly on film and music studios, media, and most importantly, distribution channels. Any art to the right of Gough Whitlam consisted mainly of making your free thinking friends laugh around the bar.
That’s all changed. The opportunities are limitless with the (for now) egalitarian nature of new media, free (for now) distribution methods, and inexpensive and versatile equipment, be it paint and canvas, digital hardware, advanced authoring software, and the ability to literally broadcast yourself (again for now).
Naturally, people who think in the correct manner, and also don’t deviate from acceptable positions on all of the big hot button topics, don’t see anything wrong with a culturally and politically homogenous artistic landscape.
Imagine being an African American who wants to read fiction novels, but all of those available seem to be written by card carrying members of the Ku Klux Klan who don’t even regard him as being allowed to exist. Yet he is expected to bite his lip and consume the literary output of people who despise him without complaint. And hurry up and die.
This is a hypothetical of course, but pretty much approximates how half the population feel when the likes of J.K. Rowling or Lena Dunham weigh in on them. They make their contempt and dehumanisation very clear.
Just like the hypothetical Klansman author in regard to the black reader, any divergence whatsoever from these high profile left-leaning artists disqualifies you as being human, but they’ll happily take your money made off the back of someone they believe you oppressed with your privilege.
The most important thing that those with a soft spot for Western Civilisation can do to lessen the influence of those who would tear it all down while remaining secure in gated communities, is to consume less of their art, consume more made by those who at least regard you with civility even if they don’t agree with you, and most importantly, make your own art!
If you’re in a band, record some satirical songs. If you’re good on photoshop, start making memes. If you like a chat, start a You Tube channel or a podcast. If you paint or sculpt, come up with something that isn’t tired hard-left grant bait. The possibilities are limitless.
And the possibilities are profitable. Think about it for a minute. Only about half the population at most lean to left, give or take. Even less are rabidly left. Only so many people want #NEVERTRUMP merchandise to begin with, and absolutely everyone is doing #NEVERTRUMP merchandise. The market is only so big, and only so many slices can be taken from a pie before even those that got a slice are still hungry.
Meanwhile, you have an entire population of centrists, libertarians, conservatives, and others who may never have even seen art from someone who doesn’t believe we need to give communism just one more try. I’m sure these people would love to support artists who don’t make them roll their eyes or feel nauseated every time they tweet.
For the creative capitalists out there, there’s an entire industry just waiting to happen. Some are already riding the wave.
Although he seems more cynical than politically or culturally aligned, it’s no coincidence that Bill Burr’s star has risen since he started pointing out the insanity of the left.
Compare Burr’s meteoric rise to the waning careers of hysterical Alt-Left sympathisers like Colbert, Schumer, Silverman, and Griffin. These people all had burgeoning careers until they jumped the shark.
The Joe Rogan Experience is the biggest podcast on the planet. Again, he isn’t a conservative by any means, but realises the value of genuine diversity of opinion. There are probably a thousand big soft-left podcasts out there peddling all the same nonsense as one another, and booking all the same safe soft-left guests. None of them are brave enough to book challenging guests like Jordan Peterson, Bret Weinstein, or James Damore. Those podcasts are all fighting one another over the scraps of virtuous content like vultures while Rogan is enjoying the lion’s share of the audience.
You don’t even need to make anything overtly political. Just something that lives within the realms of reality will do. A television commercial where the father isn’t always an incompetent dolt. A film set in small town Nebraska where a quarter of the populace isn’t openly gay, there are more redheads than Wahabi Muslims, and the white Sheriff doesn’t wind up shooting the one black guy in town.
Go and make something where the aliens taking over the town take their rightful place as the biggest issue we have in our suspension of disbelief, instead of the 60kg actress stomping 500kg alien butt with her bare hands. That’d be nice.
Politics are pointless compared to culture. Culture is where these things are won and lost. Whether it’s film, television, music, memes, poetry, painting, novels, podcasting, vlogging, blogging, meming, or whatever it is you’ve always dreamed of doing, it’s time to dilute the mean spirited cess pool of creatively bankrupt decapitated Trump heads and tired redundant Tony Abbott murals and make art edgy and dangerous again.
Art is supposed to be transgressive. It’s supposed to make people think. Art used to be those things. Over the past two decades the left became the boring predictable establishment. But they didn’t cede creative endeavours to outsiders as the establishment had before. Their art screams this in volumes.
You have Sarah Silverman dictating to other comics what is or isn’t funny. You have culture vultures arbitrarily applauding the millionth tired Abbott or Trump themed art installation as if it were somehow dangerous, edgy, or original in any known universe. You have Hollywood executives (the least artistic people on the planet) embracing patronising diversity quotas at the expense of genuine creativity.
You have Simon & Shuster pulping the books of one of the most genuinely intriguing, albeit controversial, counter-culture figures of the 21st century in a McCarthyist moral panic, while publishing an infinitely more questionable and completely culturally irrelevant very mainstream figure without any qualms about criminal activity or a clearly dodgy charity. Who would even need to read this book aside from H.R.C herself?!?!
We have their number. None of these people are doing anything remotely subversive or culturally significant. From top to bottom they are either profiteering from safe critic-proof projects brimming with soft-left ideology, or at the lower end of the scale, emotionally blackmailing funding bodies to bankroll derivative art installations that buffer themselves against rejection in a hard-left suit of ideological armour.
For those who don’t think like these people, or even diverge on a few opinions, it’s all up to you. If you wanna save Western civilisation, make some art or at least support those who do. Let’s make art great again!
It’s your XYZ.
Editor: If you make art which you think could help save Western civilisation, you can send it through to The XYZ at editors@xyz.net.au. If you would like to provide funds to art which can help save Western civilisation, you can donate at The XYZ Patreon.