Thread by @waitmanb

🧵 On Those Classic Cultural Twitter Accounts

Someone on here questioned why I would say that accounts like the one below are dog whistles for white supremacy.

Well, ok. Let's do this.

This account has over a million followers and posts seemingly innocuous images of admittedly BEAUTIFUL buildings.

Of course, 99% of them are...er...the creations of white Europeans located in Europe.

Much of the genre of their account is lamenting the supposed loss of a world that generated these artistic genres and buildings.

This kind of nostalgia may seem innocent but the critique of the modern as degenerate has a rich history in far-right extremism and white supremacy which includes but is certainly not limited to the Nazi idea of literally degenerate art.

The account frequently posts images of religious (Christian) buildings, which, of course, by itself doesn't mean anything, but, does begin to suggest a trad christian connection.

The account (which is anonymous) also seems to be a fan of the new alt-right trend of "classical education" which is a reaction to DEI and return to reading only classics in western, Christian thought.

The point here is that so-called "classical" art and architecture has become for the extreme right and white supremacists a kind of coded language for expressing extremist ideas about race and culture.

The subtext in this is that things were best back when societies and cultures were dominated by art and architecture coded by the extreme right as white and European.

This places the idea of loss in a much more sinister light.

How have we "lost" these styles?

Well, someone (and their ideologies) have taken them away from us.

One doesn't need much imagination to fill in those blanks.

And I am certainly not the first person to notice this.

Open white supremacist groups have been making these points. Identity Europa is one.

news.artnet.com/art-world/iden…

When Trump was president, he tried to dictate an architectural return to exactly the genres that Culture Critic glorifies.

hyperallergic.com/614175/how-a-t…

hyperallergic.com/614175/how-a-t…

In Germany, this movement has gone so far as to have certain extreme right politicians recreating the kinds of German settler communities favored by völkisch thought and by Hitler and Himmler.

e-flux.com/architecture/s…

Culture Critic praises returns (reconstructions) of the kinds of art they find superior which is aligned with far-right thought as well.

The extreme right dog whistles of interent accounts are pretty clear to anyone who listens carefully.

. failedarchitecture.com/the-far-rights…

But what about the Culture Critic? Well, for the moment, they are anonymous...which raises several red flags for an account that is so popular and posts seemingly innocuous stuff.

Why be anonymous? Hmmm🧐

Well, Culture Critic has a knock-off Substack that might help us...

There's this article on Dresden.

"The rebirth of culture?" 😬
culturecritic.beehiiv.com/p/dresden-arch…

In the "article," Culture Critic summarizes the Nazi state like this...

Seems, like there are some things being left out here...

They then echo the kinds of things that Irving might have said about the Dresden bombing...

They then suggest that Germany was "punished by architecture" by Communists.

(There is an anti-communist bent throughout Culture Critic's account that is noteworthy btw)

The whole Dresden article has some real apologetic undertones to it.

WWII destruction reminded Germany of..."its excruciating loss of hope?"

That's certainly a take...

The account is certainly careful in its posts and replies to avoid anything that might be seen as overtly racist or white supremacist. But one can begin to build a composite picture...

Trad Christian
TERF
Toxic masculinity
"anti-communist"
Anti-DEI and regular schooling

Now, we can't (and shouldn't) judge an account solely based on who follows it, but it's a data point.

So, here is the Institute for Historical Review, the preeminent Holocaust denial website following it.

And...

And among the accounts that Culture Critic follows are:

Jared Kushner
Scott Adams

And if one takes a look at what the followers of the account say about it, well, another data point.

Dog whistle city.

Note: with no objection from Culture Critic

So...maybe think twice before you retweet Culture Critic out into the world.

For more on the phenomenon of classical art and architecture as coded language for white supremacy and far extremism, see:

newstatesman.com/politics/2018/…

news.artnet.com/art-world/iden…

hyperallergic.com/614175/how-a-t…

e-flux.com/architecture/s…

journals.open.tudelft.nl/footprint/arti…

dezeen.com/2023/05/04/kin…

And...if THIS is your response, you probably aren't a serious person.

https://x.com/history_under/status/1780156226573074854

I love it when people hop in my thread to prove the point of the thread.

https://x.com/C0mradeW1drbrn/status/1780207219872534614

I should also note that no one is saying you can't LIKE classical art and architecture. I LOVE me a gothic cathedral.

But I'm not going around saying that great white men built that cathedral but can't anymore because of DEI or immigration or race mixing or communists, etc.

My favorite genre is people coming to my thread to argue my point while simultaneously proving my point.

My favorite genre is people coming to my thread to argue my point while simultaneously proving my point.

My favorite genre is people coming to my thread to argue my point while simultaneously proving my point.

My favorite genre is people coming to my thread to argue my point while simultaneously proving my point.

OH...new blog post just dropped. Totally normal stuff.

Just a few more data points for anyone still listening. . .

Thinks Calvin Robinson is great...

Thinks Tucker Carlson is great.

The Habsburg guy?!

jfc.

Again...who is "we" here?

Here he is with the "how could brown people EVER have built stuff like this" narrative...

To the point above...pseudoarchaeology is racist at its foundations.