November 14th: Journal Entry #12

The question that I will be exploring this coming month in EMC is "how do propagandists utilize popular culture?" Recently, a conservative friend of mine recommended a video by Prager University titled "why modern art is bad." Naturally, as a leftist I was suspicious of Prager University. I had heard of their videos in the past, and their right wing reservations; however, I never viewed the university, if one could describe the Youtube channel as a university, as far-right. However, this video presented several far right ideas; I would like to add that I am not arguing that any criticism of modern art is based in far-right ideas. Rather, I am suggesting that the terminology and manner in which Prager University denounced modern art was shockingly similar to the methods adopted by fascists. In 1937 the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany organized a "degenerate art" exhibition which held over 16,000 works; all of which were mocked and labeled as "anti-Aryan." Prager University's video acted as a similar exhibition, a denunciation of modern art on the basis of it being reductionist, simple, and childish. This is ultimately why my essential question for this month is "how do propagandists utilize popular culture?"

In order to address my essential question I plan on interviewing several professors, and recording these interviews on OBS. Following these interviews I will edit the audio on DaVinci Resolve.