It's Art Right For Now...
How the Manhattan neo-reactionary movement needs to give up ALL politics
Like many people, I became fascinated by the Doomsday Preppies of Dimes Square around the same time the press seemed infatuated by them (Spring 2022 as this Substack points out). Like this Substack also points out, they are already losing steam. Not only because there is literally going to be a Dimes Square reality show on Freeform (none of whom are actual Canal cult characters of course); a few weeks ago, Curtis Yarvin, Dasha, and all the usual suspects photographed at the scene, were caught on camera at The Devere Ball. It was a magazine launch. Nothing surprising there. The magazine is called Take the Devere Pill though and it centers itself around William Shakespeare actually being Edward de Vere. Yes, the movement has all sorts of aesthetic flirtations with fascism that the dissident right should like.
Instead, thanks to all the dorky (how my generation says “cringe”) photos that floated to the surface like chum to sharks, they mocked it mercilessly. And after the jokes died down, out came the outrage from new right pundits like Pedro Gonzalez who are resentful that they are not focused on the message of discouraging youth gender transitions.
So there you have it: in March, they were the “anti-woke” art right. Now they are losing their supposed base. Instead of acknowledging this and moving on, some of them are fighting the anti-abortion ruling, but from a racist angle. I agree with the linked Substack, which points out that is futile to chase the base.
My $00.02 on the the whole matter: the value this scene has is not in actually serving any political masters. Initially, I was fascinated by how they were anti-woke without sounding like Facebook Boomers. This falling out with the online right is a great opportunity to shrug them off too. I said it before I’ll say it again. Fuck playing for a team. Grab the ball and take it to the hoop yourself. My politics skew left of Bernie Sanders, but I have rarely enjoyed or created art that wore its politics on its sleeve. As a Gen Xer, I still wince when I remember the earnestness of Bono waving a flag.
What makes the movement potentially thrilling is that it acts as an extreme counter-ballast to the hyper-virtuous after-school special nightmare that all American expression seems trapped in. Before March of this year, creatives were not acknowledged in ancient media or Twitter unless they had their rainbow justice bona fides. With such monstrous, rakish characters to throw off the scent, now there is room for art that doesn’t use messaging as a crutch.
A crutch that hacks and corporations love of course. Not since the flower power sixties, with youthful Pepsi ads and hilltop singing Coke commercials, has it been easier to put wit and creativity on the back burner and simply put everything on Message Cruise Control. More companies are using right and left messaging to guarantee a customer base, using the old Washington Post/NPR trick of saying that your money will go to the cause.
The Dimers are in danger of doing the same thing with fringe Internet e-deologies. It’s up to them: they can either be the next great downtown art movement or they can give away Curtis Yarvin tote bags on Patreon.