shadows: the indiscriminate and snob (discernment)

Discernment is labor. It takes attention and mental energy to refine your intuitions into tastes. Think critically about the content and art you consume, because they shape your thoughts, decisions, and habits. Consuming everything means you consume nothing. Don't be a dick about what you like and don&

offense

Mexican poet César A. Cruz (might have) said, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." Art is that thing that provokes us to see the world as an outsider would. To see ourselves as a stranger would. Artists are agitators. Tyrants and theocrats detest art not sanctioned

slop

Please call shitty things shitty. There is bad content and a lot of it. There is a widespread norm that justifies the existence and value of any and all aesthetics. As existentially revolting as it is, the rise of AI-generated audio-visual content (or, slop) has led people to

mid

ERUDITE seeks to use maximalist aesthetics to make important knowledge more engaging and vibrant. Already, there are rumblings of a reaction to cultural homogeneity. It isn't hard to find widespread disgust with the identical minimalism of every coffee shop, every Airbnb, every 'we do things differently here&

authenticity fetish

So many young Americans today are disillusioned with being American. There is a pervasive and indiscriminate belief that things are getting worse. If we perceive our primary identity (in this case, nationhood) to be in decline, we must make sense of it. A conservative response might see the national community