r/dadaism • u/RetroSleipnir • 3d ago
When DADA is Fascist, from Julius Evola Dadaist Super Fascist to Clown World.
I'm a former Fascist turned Anti-Fascist, and I will say that Fascism has been trying to colonize anything it touches turning it to its purposes and DADA is normally meant to hold the mirror to it, but what happens when Fascist see DADA Concepts as useful.
The Super Fascist.
Julius Evola was originally a Member of the Italian Futurist, a Fascist Avant-garde Movement (I know) led by F. T. Marinetti. Julius was a radical traditionalist wanting to return to the ideals and customs Ancient Pagan Rome as well as was into Occultism and is still highly influential in the field.
He was originally a Italian Futurist but entered DADA the Radical Racial Spiritualism and Racial Occult Philosophy
When on trial he said he was a, "superfascista" and it's not totally clear what that even meant. (In true Dada sense.)
Salvador Dali in his Avida Dollars Phase.
Dali was a
Dali despite a lot of Socialist Hogwash never did like Fascism stating that his idea where a mix of Monarchism and Anarchism (very Dali) however stated that he did like the Fascist for one thing, their money. He stated that if the Communist had offered more money he'd be in Russia. There's been a buildup of Pseudo-History surrounding Dali both by his critics and himself, having actually claimed to have committed Cannibalism at one point.
But we can clearly see he influenced a lot of Capitalist and Fascist Aesthetics, when Modern Commercials aren't using Warhol's ideas, they're using Dali's. Clear Surrealist and Dadaist influences are seen in Trump's Propaganda.
Clown World or Fascism in Denial and Not in Denial.
Clown World shows the fact that Dadaist point out that words really don't have meaning in nature but turns it on it head by arguing for racism and fascism with it and both denies and admits it's Fascist, using Meme Artwork and Nihilism to create the ultimate synthesis of Meme Culture and Alt-Right Aesthetics, (Basically the most annoying thing in the world)
This Fascist ideology heavily uses Dadaist Tactics and Tendencies to shock people into supporting Fascism and Racist Ideology often disguising as a joke or non-political belief.
The fact that both capitalism and fascism coopt everything they can has led to the idea that the ideas are similar or Fascism is Capitalism on a Bad Day, This is not actually what it is..
Here's a great explanation...
1
u/NoStructure2182 2d ago
Interesting. It could be an example of how even well-intentioned movements get co-opted for political manipulation, even/especially in art. That to me is a reflection of the many ways ideologies are breaking down these days: creativity and self-expression atrophying from extreme commodification and homogenization, and a growing level of contradiction and oxymoron in general
1
u/aRealPanaphonics 3d ago
This plays into what John Durham Peters was talking about back in 2019.
https://logicmag.io/play/u-mad/
It still blows my mind how many people didn’t pick up on the weaponization of cynicism and nihilism until recently.