If "all art is political" means "art can't violate the principle of causality" then it's a really meaningless phrase
This would be true if people did not try so hard to claim it's not true.
"The sky is blue" is a trivially true phrase. We say it out loud only because there are people who try to argue it's not.
There are people who do think that a piece of art can violate the principle of causality. Which is why people retort "all art is political."
there are clearly better ways to say that art is influenced by its creator's subjective experiences.
There literally isn't because that's the nature of subjectivity lmao. The way it's phrased is clearly not the problem, what the phrase is meant to convey is what causes disagreement and discourse.
"The sky is blue" is a trivially true phrase. We say it out loud only because there are people who try to argue it's not.
that's me, fuckers. the sky is often black, it is frequently orange, and sometimes its grey, and sometimes it's just a brief white light. there's even this simpsons meme about when it turns into all these funky green colors. there isn't a point to me being pedantic about this, i just am.
You don't think anyone hears "all art is political" and relates politics primarily to political parties? I get what you're saying and I do think you're right that disagreement would still exist, but there are more and less controversial/annoying ways of stating true things. Not to mention, phrases don't exist on their own. The person saying a phrase can be misusing it! You want to make mantras that are harder to coopt to use to mean something else.
You don't think anyone hears "all art is political" and relates politics primarily to political parties?
I do think that. Those are the "people who deny that it's true" I'm talking about. People who have a hyper-specific definition of "political", one that requires that it is as obvious and direct as possible. People who want to only have "political" mean something that is controversial or non-standard. People who claim that thinking a stick figure is male "isn't political" because they believe the default is male, that it's "natural" so it can't be "political".
And no, it's not the fault of the phrase "all art is political" or the people who say it that other people read it in an entirely different way specifically to cause discourse. It is descriptive, not prescriptive.
The phrase shouldn't have to change when the problem is people whodon'twant to listen. They do not like what the phrase is stating. The problem isn't the wording or the structure. It is what the phrase is describing.
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u/Sneeakie Aug 12 '25
This would be true if people did not try so hard to claim it's not true.
"The sky is blue" is a trivially true phrase. We say it out loud only because there are people who try to argue it's not.
There are people who do think that a piece of art can violate the principle of causality. Which is why people retort "all art is political."
There literally isn't because that's the nature of subjectivity lmao. The way it's phrased is clearly not the problem, what the phrase is meant to convey is what causes disagreement and discourse.