Unbelievable. They don’t just reject science, they don’t just despise women, they don’t just want to silence labor, Republicans hate art.
Over the weekend, the governor, Nikki Haley, destroyed the South Carolina Commission for the Arts — the cut was such that the 20 people who work there cannot show up to work today, can’t even go into their building, because of liability issues. The arts in South Carolina brings in $9.2 billion and creates 78,000 jobs at a cost of 1.9 million to the Arts Commission. It’s a phenomenally stupid cut — our state has one of the two best arts in education programs in the country! We don’t do a lot well in South Carolina, but this is one of the few we really do. And now we’re about to be the only state in the country without a public arts agency.
Read the whole thing. There’s a contact form there, you can contact the responsible idiots and tell ’em off; you should do that especially if you’re from South Carolina, but I think a world-wide show of solidarity would also be good.
Tell the philistines what you think.
What? Something good is happing in our state?! No! This cannot be!
/snark
Bloody hell.
Jesus is all the education man* needs.
Jesus is all the art man needs.
Jesus is all the health care man needs.
Jesus is all the labor representation man needs.
[*] As for women, fuck** them.
[**] Without her having an HPV vaccine first, because that would be slutty.
Fuck, man, even the Nazis loved art. Are they aware of how awful this makes them?
(The answer is “Yes”, they just don’t care)
Yeah, privatize everything. That would work out well for common people.
Haley is just buffing up her Tea Party credentials. If you don’t hate science and culture, you can’t be part of the club.
She also hates:
And
because she’s an idiot.
Beatrice:
Pffft, the common people. Art isn’t for the likes of us, it’s for families like the Waltons (who have nothing else to do with their billions of dollars that they did nothing to earn themselves.)
Sounds like Nikki Haley is getting ready to submit her resume to the Romney VP selection committee.
Oh ,there’s a whole list on the side of the article that I haven’t noticed. It makes her look worse and worse, the more I read.
The role of art and scholarship is to transform us as individuals, not entertain us as a group.
http://wewillnotbesilent.net/blog/?p=28
The role of art and scholarship is to transform us as individuals, not entertain us as a group. It is to nurture this capacity for understanding and empathy. Art and scholarship allow us to see the underlying structures and assumptions used to manipulate and control us. And this is why art, like intellectual endeavor, is feared by the corporate elite as subversive. This is why corporations have used their money to deform universities into vocational schools that spit out blinkered and illiterate systems managers. This is why the humanities are withering away.
I think south Carolina is where the PISS CHRIST
was born but I could be wrong–Oh, the humanity.
Also, the murderous fucking democrats are just as fucked-up as any republican.
The system is all the way broken. everyone of the scotus, the potus and the congress should be rounded up and put in prison for many many years.
there are a few exception in congress but the rest of’em don’t deserve to be able to go home at night.
that’s dems and reps. just about every one of’em.
I thought they worked a frugal living between the lumber mill and farming.
Have to agree with Zeno @ #5 above. I don’t think she’s stupid, just burnishing the Tea Party creds. Then again, that is pretty stupid. Although, who elected her?
He who pays the Piper, calls the tune.
@8 Dr. AZD
The removal of art is an on going process.
Garcia-Marquez is coming down with Alzheimers.
He is an artist that is already greatly missed by those that are able to feel. Really is the autumn of the patriarch.
A world without artists is not easy to contemplate. but it is bleak and dire for common people as well as the artist. I suppose laughing about it is one way to deal with the tragic sense of lost treasures.
As a matter of tactics, don’t call those who despise government-subsidized art philistines! That’s a compliment to them! The historical Philistines (uppercase) did, due to their location, have a moderately good taste in art for their time (see the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavation blog for details)!
Well, they just hate any and all government that isn’t acting in the interests of the military-industrial complex, large financial firms, or Christian theocracy. They haven’t been trying to hide that fact for a few years now, and it’s been the case for decades. Arts funding comes under fire pretty much every year at the federal level.
This is just horrible. I have to agree with joed #11: art promotes thinking, so it’s no wonder it’s on the Republicans’ hit list.
The role model for “Republicans” – as Jon Stewert presaged – is none other than Sauron.
To paraphase what Frodo quipped to Gollum in describing Sauron:
what do they NOT hate?
Stupidity, ignorance, and insanity have now been reforged as evil, and evil is about seeking power for its own sake, and the suffering of others to measure it.
If they buy and steal this election, they’ll be no truning back without violence – which (as much secondhand and by remote-control as possible) is what they and their idiot snaga most crave.
Y’all do realize that the arts will still exist in South Carolina without a commission for them, right?
@20 Andrew
Well, it is good to know the state contributes to the arts, the State considers the arts worthy. I don’t think that can be said about the State of SC.
If SC has it’s way the arts will go-by-the-way-side
I don’t believe that for a second, and I’m a little annoyed that a statistic that I’m guessing is a simple conflation of all arts business in South Carolina with spending on this Arts Commission is quoted by PZ.
Such lackadaisical scholarship might lead a student, on the strength of similar unchalleneged assertions by interested parties, in different arenas to conclude that the Earth is young and outside agencies shaped the universe and touch our lives.
Which is to say if one is to accept uncritically this thing which supports this position why complain that others routinely accept uncritically nonsense that supports their positions?
Whether or not the state ought be spending a couple of million on an Arts commission is a question people can debate but there’s no way anyones (state or private) $1.9 million investment is producing a %4842 profit. If it were arts wouldn’t be something patronised by the wealthy or public scabbling for audiences, they’d be a ruthlessly exploited resource we couldn’t escape.
Andrew;
Sure, but let’s look at this from a different angle: think about the 9.2 billion and 78,000 jobs that Commission was bringing into the SC economy. Wouldn’t you think that’s something SC should hang onto in the current economic climate? And will those benefits to SC still exist without the Commission? I’d like to think so, but the reality is probably not.
Yes, this is true. However, these sorts of arts programs are what keeps things like community theaters, wind ensembles, orchestras, art exhibits/museums and whatever other forms of local art around. Without it, people will still write, practice, play, and paint, but they won’t get any exposure whatsoever. Directors and writers don’t get to have their works performed, classical musicians are forced to sit around at home and practice and never get to perform their talents for an audience, and artists never have their works exposed to a wider audience.
When works get exposed, they potentially bring in money for their quality (or extreme lack thereof, making it hilarious – good ol’ So Bad It’s Good). Bring in money, and the state makes money. Sure, saving 2 million on arts programs sounds nice until you realize billions are made off arts.
Khrist Almighty.
Idiocy is far too tame a term. This is really scarey because you see the direction in which they want society to move, and that’s something akin to the society of Mad Max.
Holy shit, this is pathetic. I think Nikki Haley just passed Sarah Palin my list of shitty Republican officials. Still not quite a Rick Perry or Jan Brewer, but they’ll be getting a call from me. Maybe two.
Nice claim, but do you have any real evidence that a little state money doesn’t make a big contribution to the arts, which do make money that is taxed by SC? All I see from you is attitude. Why don’t you really look into the economic reality versus your theology of economics.
Already posted in my Dreamwidth journal, and I sent emails. Since I’m in Texas, not South Carolina, I doubt they will care–I was a bit snarky about how they needed to veto the governor’s act or exceed Texas in ignominy.
And I can’t wait until Cobert gets back from vacation….
Eliminate arts? Sure, sounds good to me. While you’re at it, the following expenditures need to be reduced down to $1/year:
Governor | $106,078 | Nikki Haley
Lieutenant Governor | $46,545 | Glenn McConnell
Secretary of State | $92,007 | Mark Hammond
Attorney General | $92,007 | Alan Wilson
Treasurer | $92,007 | Curtis Loftis, Jr.
That’s a savings of $345,832 per year, every year!
Typical Republican thinking. They have this “religious” belief that individuals or governments can save their way out of debt. Just turn off all the utilities, sit in the dark, and presto! Fiscal responsibility! Don’t do anything to make yourself qualified for a better job/a more attractive state for the educated to live in or visit. Don’t do anything to increase income/taxes and revenues.
“give this money to the taxpayers and let them decide which charities they are going to give money to”
May I suggest Oceana.org, since many South Carolinians will be getting more acquainted with the Atlantic a few years from now?
That was rather my point. If an opponent of cutting art funding want’s to make an argument against the cuts, finding evidence that what is spent is a good investment, or simply responsible meeting of duties, would be wise.
$2 million-ish doesn’t sound like an excessive amount to me for a U.S state to spend on promoting or organizing arts (it sounds like too little to manage the minimal amount of organization of likely public resources involvement with artists).
But the quote
Generally Republicans are against anything that they can’t use to make money and have little more than contempt for any arts that are given away to undeserving people for free. They see free, even low cost arts, as a state subsidized competitor to their schemes to make money by selling art. A free exhibit of Monet competes with their selling Kincaid paintings. Community ballet competes for eyes with Disney’s latest perversion of classic literature and history, and draws potentially exploitable viewers away from American Idol.
My point was the those wanting to make the cuts should be able to show that the money isn’t being spent well. Otherwise, all you have is the theology of “cut taxes”, never mind the real ROI due to increased services. Are there real savings, or are they imagufactured?
Oops, mucked up the blockquote. That ought have been…
The quote
is obviously not a true statement, and therefore a liability to the credibility of anyone using it in argument.
I think it likely the person who wrote the original quote meant that ten-ish billion dollars of trade is deserving of some small state attention, encouragement and representation so that it may be vacillatated to the advantage of citizens and two million isn’t too much to spend doing that, but what they wrote is that the ten billion relies exclusively on the two million.
And that ain’t so.
More like:
KORG 70012 BC
That is not the option before people. The elected representatives are reported as having made the decision to cut – they have already made the case to their own satisfaction for cutting the funding.
The onus, if debate or political pressure is to dissuade them, is now on making a case for keeping the funding.
Elmo makes art, do they hate Elmo too?
@fentex:
No. They didn’t say that the $9.2 billion was a direct return from a $1.9 million outlay. That $9.2 billion doesn’t go back into the state coffers as profit, it’s back into the wider economy/community.
All that is said is that the commission invested $1.9 million. Obviously there is going to be money coming from other sources. Comprehension of reality fail.
fentex—As you appear unable to follow the links to the source, here’s at least one source of those numbers:
http://www.scartsalliance.net/2012/04/2012-facts-talking-points/
The $9.2B figure appears to come from a USC study, which I assume is the University of South Carolina.
What ever you do don’t waste your time emailing our governor. Those emails will just disappear.
Fentex you appear to be missing the point terrifically.
In defense of the Waltons, Alice pretty much single-handedly paid for the collection in Crystal Bridges. It is one of the best collections of American art in the world. I’ve been three times since it opened in November and it is completely free admission for the public due to a large donation by the Walmart Foundation. I know I’ll probably get some instant flak for saying anything pro-Walmart, but in this case, they did a really good thing.
Philistines = Rethuglicans? Oh, PZ, you are way too fukken kind.
Atrocious, asshats, douchebags, shitbrained, fukktards, is much more like it.
Hate to say it, they no longer suprise me with their willingness to inflict Non-syndromic mental retardation on others.
President Bush Requests $18 Million Budget Increase for National Endowment for the Arts, Largest Since 1984
http://www.nea.gov/news/news04/AmericanMasterpieces1.html
Remember how we used to say “compared to Bush, Nixon wasn’t such a bad president”?
Just wait.
Lorn @ 33
Generally Republicans are against anything that they can’t use to make money and have little more than contempt for any arts that are given away to undeserving people for free.
That, and they generally oppose it because it might go to smutty pictures a nekkid people or dirty hippies who do pieces that run down America’s obvious greatness by pointing out what we’re doing wrong. (Darn commies!)
Thomas Kinkade and Aryan Jesus painted on velvet is more their speed.
everbody knows it ain’t art if reagan ain’t innit.
Given that the quote was obviously false I have no doubt that it is a misrepresentation of some possibly quite interesting data.
But that’s beside the point that the statement, as quoted, is nonsense and a poor piece of evidence on which to base an argument – one ought not rely on opposition to investigate the truth of ones own mistakes in argument.
A person who comes across the complaint in Pharyngula will read a complaint about Republicans attacking art with a quote that is obviously not true given in support – why ought they not just dismiss the complaint as a misrepresentation and probably over-wrought hyperbole, as after al,l there’s misrepresentation as clear as a bright sun in front of them?
I’ve no idea what it means for South Carolina to lose this Art Commission and I’m not particulary interested in finding out (not being from South Carolina or anywhere else in the U.S.A) so my only interest in this story is noticing in passing that PZ makes a complaint with a shoddy quote in it.
As a place where fervent disagreement with ill thought social mores is cultivated and pleas to clear thought are routine it seems to me to undermine credibility to let pass such obvious falsehoods without suitable critical attention because, it seems, they happen to support a chosen position.
Whoops – sent a relatively snarky comment to the House Members via the e-mail form on the SC Legislature website, got 18 “out of office” auto-replies in my inbox so far.
Still missing the point.
The point is that given the not insignificant impact the arts have on the state’s economy it’s very telling to the reasoning behind the cut of the, in the grand scheme of things not significant, $1.9 million from the budget.
And that’s only taking the fiscal impact that the arts have on our state, ignoring the cultural, educational and host of other positive impacts.
But as is demonstrated by this cut and many others as well as the increasingly hostile stance against the arts that the right wing has and is taking, the other positive impacts aren’t considered important.
Yes the arts will still survive, but will suffer.
But if you want to take this line of argumentation, why not cut money to every single program out there?
If that’s your stance I think you can find comrades here.
Haven’t they always hated art? After all, Romney has already promised to do this at the Federal level if elected, which would doom many arts organizations and save less money from the budget than he spends on suits.
Seems that all that’s new is their level of power and how far they’re willing to go thinking that their Tea Party support will protect them. On the other hand, maybe they don’t care about being reelected, they just plan to get lobbying jobs or host shows on Fox News and write books. Honestly, I wish I knew the real motivations of some of these people. Is being a Republican governor the first stop on the gravy train? Do what the Koch Brothers want and you get a cozy sinecure with Koch Industries when you can’t be reelected because people see how you’ve destroyed their states? It’s obvious that Palin just found a way to cash in and got out of her governorship as soon as the money appeared. Has this new crop of governors followed her lead? Or do they actually thing they’re doing good work?
Well yeah they have. Arts promote thinking outside the norm and we can’t have that. The NEA has been the golden target of the right wing for a while. Mostly since the early 80’s with Regan’s campaign to abolish it which was dropped after some of his supporters said it was a bad idea. Then of course it ramped back up with the AFA, Wildmon and my Senator at the Time Jesse “Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade-school classes that teach our children that CANNIBALISM, WIFE-SWAPPING and MURDER of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior.” Helms losing their fucking mind over NEA funds going to the art gallery SECCA in Winston-Salem which was where Pis Christ was displayed.
They hate the arts because they don’t like the idea of funds going to art they don’t like or understand.
Which fits into their general outlook on the world.
Piss Christ that is
@RBDC – I can see a Republican NEA now. Funding nothing but Thomas Kincade and that ghastly painting with Jesus handing down the Constitution to a little boy…
Conservative Republicans know that the only real purpose of art is to provide expensive objects of conspicuous consumption. You spend lots of
Ultimate Life Essencemoney on these ‘art’ things, so you can have Bigger Art than anyone else.That way, when people come over, they can be impressed with your Bigger Art. They will stand around, commenting on how Big your Art is, how it’s probably the Biggest Art they have ever seen (outside of the occasional YouTube video – but you can never tell if that Art has been, you know, enhanced). They might even remark that they thought their daddy had Big Art, but wow, your Art is Even Bigger!
Helps to prove you’re a man, Big Art does.
Worse than just art (and yes this is a copy-pasta of my own creation since I’m too aggitated right now to do the whole thing over and over):
I don’t know how this one got through the cracks, but Governor Haley has also decided to slash funding for rape crisis centers here in SC, which “distracts from the [Department of Health and Environmental Control’s] broader mission of protecting South Carolina’s public health.”
However just to show what a kind and caring individual she is, she does say that rape crisis center funding “attempts to serve a portion of our population for which we extend our sympathy and encouragement, but nevertheless, it is only a small portion of South Carolina’s chronically ill or abused.
The great wad of money saved by slashing this distraction? $453,000.
Mind you, since 1982 our state (SC) has reported above average rates of rape, and of the over 5000 victims helped in 2011, over half were children.
Well, folks, if anyone is still reading, I’m off to send more letters. I hope others do the same.