BasedColombian

A transcription of a short video that was sent to me a couple of days ago: I think I've figured out the real problem here which is that this kind of Twitter artist, I'll use that term for now, what they really want is to be treated now and forever like they are handing a drawing they made in kindergarten to their parents that will be, uh, stuck on the fridge with magnets no matter what. There is this horrific, self-pitying, preciousness-mongering impulse [chuckles] that has completely destroyed the online artistic scene like a plague in which people seem to be under the mistaken impression that being an artist means that they are owed anything. As if the simple act of identifying as an artist and creating is this noble, uh, expression of the human soul that innately earns them, uh, respect and empathy because they're expressing themselves. And if you don't like their expression of the self, you're basically... This is a, a deeply misguided idea of what an artist is, okay? An artist, I've said it before, I will say it again, an artist is a parasite. An artist is an unproductive member of society. [chuckles] And I say this as someone who has very little interest in life beyond art. It is all I think about. It is all I want to do. If for some reason you are afflicted with that condition, you need to understand that you have a parasitic relationship to the rest of society, and that it is up to you to earn any ounce of respect or money or time, because there is nothing innately valuable about what you are doing. Every single dime that is ever paid to you for your art is charity. I hate that AI exists now, because it serves as this, this anti-totem that these people can now use to soothe themselves by being at least not. [chuckles] There's a lot of people out there whose only real secure idea of their own worth is that they are at least not AI and who will launch defenses of things that people make solely off the fact that it is at least not AI. I think you are forgetting that art is not just a craft. It's not just something you do as an individual in a vacuum. What art actually is, is a trans-historical process. It is unfolding over time. It is a process of developments and revolutions and improvements and violence of violently reframing what can be done. And it is the way in which mankind can digest its own history as it occurs in real time. It's maybe the fastest way we have to respond [chuckles] to the developments that mankind is going through. No one cares about your self-expression. Every piece of autobiographical art, any work of self-expression, only has any value insofar as it incidentally comes into contact with the universal, okay? Look, I've looked at your account, all right? You are a very technically skilled artist, but you draw Sonic comics. You are more of a craftsman than anything. Look, I'm a craftsman for work, okay? I get it. You're, you're very skilled. Uh, that's, that's, that's worthy of, of, of applause. But you are not really actually engaging in art. Nothing is being developed or jeopardized. There's no... Where is the novelty? Where is the, even the attempt to really create something new in your work? I think you're speaking out of line here. [laughs] I really do. I would take a long look in the mirror, and I would deeply consider what exactly it is that you are bringing to the table and why anyone should give you the time of day simply by virtue of the things you make being made by a human. I think it's really unfortunate that people are letting the existence of AI art, completely destroy their ability to discern between good and bad art. Art is the way that mankind digests its history as it occurs, and criticism is the way that it digests the art that it produces. If you're even going to have the hubris to identify as an artist, which is already, uh... Boy, you gotta be real confident to even posit that. You need to understand that you are a worm. [laughs] You are a worm worthy of being squashed until your work itself proves otherwise to other people, okay? There is nothing about what you do that is innately worthy of any kind of empathy or respect. Even if you feel like it is an expression of yourself, you gotta cut that umbilical cord, okay? When you make art, you're giving birth in Sparta, okay? And it is up to everyone else whether or not they throw that shit off the cliff.