A.R. MoxonEpstein redactions aren't believable, and they are valuable to fascists specifically because they aren't believable.
Fascists prefer lies to truth. Believing in a lie is preferable to believing a truth, if what you want is to dominate.
Believing lies dominates truth. So they believe lies.
Believing a lie menaces those who care about truth, and it pleases fascists to menace others, by dominating reality.
A lie gives a fascist something to force others to believe; a way to demonstrate they control not just their own reality, but that of others.
So fascists prefer to believe lies.
A person who lives according to a truth you've told may have been compelled by the truth, not you.
But to force a person to live according to your lie means you are the one who compelled them.
The more obvious the lie, the more obvious your domination.
So fascists prefer obvious lies.
American conservatives and other types of fascist don't love Trump because he lies well. They've had leaders who lied well before and rejected them.
They love him because he lies badly. The more blatant his lies, the more they love him.
Lies are pure virtue to fascists.
American conservatives and other types of fascist have no desire to return to the days of skillful liars.
A person living by a lie told skillfully may have been fooled by the skill.
But to force a person to live according to an obvious lie means you have dominated them.
I think this is why fascists love AI art, not because it is good, but because it is bad. Not because it is original, but because it is stolen.
To make art as an expression of skill and craft and humanity reinforces humanity.
To push a button that steals art and call it your own is domination.
So fascists love brutality, not because it creates safety & security & plenty, but because it creates danger & uncertainty & lack.
Creating something of value is a threat to those who create nothing and deliver only theft.
But if you hold power despite creating nothing but pain, you dominate.
These are people who war against all human virtue, against dignity, against creativity, against humanity itself, wherever they find it and inside themselves most of all.
They'll tell you if you listen to them.
And if you won't listen, they'll force you to.
www.the-reframe.com/the-crime-of...
The Crime of Human Virtue
The Crime of Human Virtue
AJ Sadauskas@juliusgoat.bsky.social And they were doing "AI art" before the AI chatbots existed.
Think back about five or 10 years.
Remember the *really poorly* Photoshopped memes that used to float around Facebook?
The poorly deep etched objects that were still surrounded by a white outline from their original backgrounds?
Where the brightness, saturation, warmth, etc., of the deep etched foreground images were completely different to the background?
Oddly scaled and positioned?
Still somehow fooled many right-wing boomer uncles?
Let's call that low-effort, bad Photoshop aesthetic proto-AI art.
With even a little effort, the bad memes could have looked a lot better (or at least less bad).
So why the bad Photoshop then and bad AI now?
A lack of skill.
A lack of effort.
A contempt for artistic competence and good art.
And a strong urge to spread low-skill, low-effort messages.
Think back about five or 10 years.
Remember the *really poorly* Photoshopped memes that used to float around Facebook?
The poorly deep etched objects that were still surrounded by a white outline from their original backgrounds?
Where the brightness, saturation, warmth, etc., of the deep etched foreground images were completely different to the background?
Oddly scaled and positioned?
Still somehow fooled many right-wing boomer uncles?
Let's call that low-effort, bad Photoshop aesthetic proto-AI art.
With even a little effort, the bad memes could have looked a lot better (or at least less bad).
So why the bad Photoshop then and bad AI now?
A lack of skill.
A lack of effort.
A contempt for artistic competence and good art.
And a strong urge to spread low-skill, low-effort messages.
Jared Norman@juliusgoat.bsky.social something to be said for the obsession of modern fascism with the aesthetic forms, devoid of the underlying purpose and meaning