• The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Surrealism is always antifascist. Cruelty and absurdity are two sides of the same coin, or perhaps the same side of two coins.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        When you write a declaration of peace with the blood of your enemies.

        “Sir this is a rescue for puppies, why did you make a flag out of their pelt?”

      • Onionguy@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        There’s absurdity in cruelty… there’s cruelty in absurdity… kinda works… like a dark yin yang.

        • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          You say surrealism is anti-fascist. Then you say cruelty and absurdity are the same thing (two sides of the same coin). Then you try to clarify by saying they are two separate things but have a commonality (two coins same side). I think ying/yang is more fitting, and quicker to the punch, in that there can be a little cruelty in absurdity and vise versa, which you were dancing around with your ill fitting metaphor. So, yes, I don’t think so. Clarity is in the eye of the beer holder.

          • BlorpTheHagraven@startrek.website
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            3 months ago

            The expression “two sides of the same coin” does not mean two things that are the same. It means two things with the same base and opposite expressions.

            As such, the same side of two different coins indicates two different bases with the same expression

            The metaphor works better and acknowledges more nuance than the Yin Yang.

        • LustyArgonian@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 months ago

          I actually think I see a little of what you’re getting at, but maybe it’s just my willful interpretation.

          The absurd is the gap between what we expect to happen, and what actually happens. We expect to go to work today, it’ll be mundane and boring, and then an asteroid hits the road and we can’t go in today. How absurd.

          Cruelty is often a tool people use to gain control. The absurd by definition is outside of our control. I can see how these could be related in some way

    • Rolando@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Surrealism is always antifascist.

      I dunno. Doublethink is pretty surreal, but it supports fascism. If you’re just talking about art, I think you could make the case that the Italian Futurists were at least Surrealist-adjacent, and some of them supported fascism.

      • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        I’d argue semantically that surrealism is that which lies under reality whereas Doublethink (and other Orwellian language) lies over reality

        • Rolando@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          You may be thinking of 'Pataphysics:

          the science of that which is superinduced upon metaphysics, whether within or beyond the latter’s limitations, extending as far beyond metaphysics as the latter extends beyond physics

          • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            'pataphysics is an extension of metaphysics - both of which extend the concept of “that which is beyond

            although connected - surrealism from the French for “under reality” is more about incongruity with what is real, but meta- and 'pata-physics are looking at what is beyond the physical.

            Dream-like things like a star with a face are surreal, something like an actual sentient star would be 'pataphysical

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      4 months ago

      Absurdity is like seeing your cat go “mrwn! mrwn!” at the passing plane, then suddenly flying and catching it. Then cruelty is what your cat does with the passengers.

  • DavidGarcia@feddit.nl
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    4 months ago

    Suspicousmaxxing to gaslight the authorities and waste their time is a very wholesome thing to do

  • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    This reminded me of a glass artist named Josh Simpson who is known for his glass spheres he calls “planets” that have amazingly complex scenes in them. For over two decades he’s had what he calls the “Infinity Project” where he encourages people to hide them out in the open where folks are unlikely to find one. If you submit a proposal to him that he likes then he’ll send you two of his smaller planets, one for you to hide and one to keep for yourself.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Now THIS is art of a very high caliber, indeed!
    It was just a public visual detail that elicited a stupid response from the very stupid people, and probably some delight from the rest of the population.

    If I was one of the chief stassi goons in town, my response would have been “counter-intelligence art” or “counter-art”, painting MORE stones purple and even other colors, so that whatever secret message the original ones were conveying would be confused, drowned out.

    • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      After many years the stasi suddenly realise they have created the worlds largest pride celebration.

      Mission accomplished.

    • LustyArgonian@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      Can’t all visual art and performance art be boiled down to “just a public visual detail that elicited a stupid response from the very stupid people, and probably some delight from the rest of the population”?

  • vzq
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    3 months ago

    deleted by creator

  • don@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    No one actually cared, but at least they felt good about painting rocks.

      • don@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Sure! Like they said, it just felt good to do something that they felt the police couldn’t control or understand. From OP’s perspective, they needed to be able to exercise control over those that were controlling OP. Easy to understand.

        That said, the police and Stasi are (given the time) tasked with prosecuting and attacking far more than what OP could have known about, and given the relatively playful nature of children in even some of the most dire circumstances, the police and Stasi didn’t have limitless resources to chase down something that, over time, produced no significant threat.

        Both the police and the Stasi were wary and paranoid, but even they have their limits, and they weren’t completely stupid. They knew they had to devote their resources to far likelier threats.

        As OP said, she wanted to feel in control, and no one can really blame them. OP felt good, and that’s what matters.

        • rustyfish@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Thanks for your answer. Sorry, I really don’t want to come across like a duchebag asshole. But this sounds more like a general guess of what has happened or how the Stasi might have operated in your opinion (plus some armchair psychology that kinda rubs me the wrong way).

          I literally just woke up and thought you might have some actual insight on this particular case?

        • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Well I was there, and I can tell you the Stasi were confused af. Got a nice giggle out of it

        • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz
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          4 months ago

          You are not criticizing the OP, I guess, because you acknowledge their point, that it was meaningless, but it was entertaining to distract the Stasi. But you are criticizing the OP, because you think the Stasi were so competent?

          • Andrzej@lemmy.myserv.one
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            4 months ago

            Surely the point is that the OP couldn’t possibly have known what the authority thought about their painted stones, unless:

            1. they had a personal contact, which is quite the omission

            or

            1. the authorities were putting up posters around town, interviewing door-to-door etc
            • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz
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              4 months ago

              Cops going around and asking about purple rocks would cause a tiny stir. A kid would be aware of that and entertained. This is pre- internet and It’s Soviet culture. I’m not supporting the Soviets, but people talked to each other, which is generically quite positive.

              • Andrzej@lemmy.myserv.one
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                4 months ago

                Ok, I guess this is a matter of opinion, but ‘cops going around asking people about some purple rocks’ just doesn’t pass the sniff test for me

    • jvw
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      3 months ago

      deleted by creator

      • LustyArgonian@lemmy.worldOP
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        4 months ago

        Click “CC” in top right for closed captions, then click gear, ask it to change the captions to auto translate to English. Basically she’s saying there’s a guy dressed in a silly outfit (in video) walking around and no one knows why. Some people are scared.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    4 months ago

    That’s a neat story. The Nazis did some terrible things and it actually makes me happy to know that somewhere there was a Nazis official who was baffled

    Edit: wrong side and time

        • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          No. It was communist.

          The society itself was not communist, but It was definitely ruled by communists. Even Marx called himself and the people who followed his ideas communists, not “socialists seeking communism.” When people say a country was/is “communist,” they mean it’s being ruled by Marxist-Leninists, not that it’s achieved the hypothetical level of society that usually only Marxists are familiar with.

          • silasmariner@programming.dev
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            4 months ago

            When people say a country was/is “communist,” they mean it’s being ruled by Marxist-Leninists, not that it’s achieved the hypothetical level of society that usually only Marxists are familiar with.

            This is a great line