Acid Horizon AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism with Gareth Watkins
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Mar 21, 2025 Gareth Watkins, a contributor to Death Sentence Podcast and New Socialist, joins to discuss the dark marriage between AI and far-right ideologies. He examines how AI serves as a tool for domination rather than innovation, spotlighting examples like Tommy Robinson's fake narratives. The conversation unfolds the aesthetics of fascism in the context of modern art and political deception, while grappling with the challenges of countering right-wing misinformation in today's discourse. Watkins also critiques the impact of AI on creativity, emphasizing its troubling degradation of artistic standards.
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Robinson's D-Day Fail
- Tommy Robinson tweeted an AI-generated D-Day image that was laughably inaccurate.
- The image depicted soldiers walking into the sea, the opposite direction of the D-Day landing.
Right-Wing Art's Decline
- The contemporary right increasingly produces poor art, unlike historical figures like Dostoevsky or Mishima.
- Their embrace of AI art separates the art from the artist, reflecting a decline in artistic ability.
Libidinal Economy of AI Art
- The right's enjoyment of AI art stems from its offensiveness, not its aesthetic merit.
- They enjoy "triggering the libs" with politically and aesthetically offensive content.
