SOCIALIST PARADISE: Cuba to Censor ‘Artistic Expression,’ Seeks ‘Absolute Control’

Originally published at: SOCIALIST PARADISE: Cuba to Censor ‘Artistic Expression,’ Seeks ‘Absolute Control’ | Sean Hannity

Cuba’s brutal socialist regime signed into-law this week a severe crackdown on the country’s artistic and music community; imposing stiff guidelines and state approval for everything from “art galleries” to “music festivals.”

The law -titled Decree 349- was officially introduced by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel after facing stiff opposition from artists and political activists across the country. The new rules severely limit visual artists, hip-hop musicians, public performances, and more.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the decree prohibits the sale, distribution, and display of artwork not expressly “approved by the state.”

“The decree aims for absolute control, you can’t exhibit your work anywhere without prior authorization,” said one artist.

“The purpose of the decree is to regulate a new world: private businesses, art galleries, people working from their homes,” added another.

Read the full report at the Wall Street Journal.

Sounds like the Trump second term coming to fruition!

:laughing:

In subsequent years, Trump has fashioned himself as a philistine par excellence. (Trump has been known to play selections from The Phantom of the Opera at his rallies; whether that alone proves my point depends on one’s taste.) He has been flirting with a presidential run since the late ’80s; as early as 1999, he made a public call for censorship and claimed that his hypothetical presidency would cut federal funding for the arts. That was the year that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani embarked on a crusade against the Brooklyn Museum for its exhibition of Chris Ofili’s The Holy Mary Virgin (1996), which depicts the Madonna in materials including oil paint, glitter, and elephant dung. Giuliani told the Times the work wasn’t art because he could make it himself. He went so far as to try to cancel the institution’s lease with the city, evicting it from its home of more than 100 years. Outside of religious groups, Giuliani had few allies in this fight in New York, besides Trump, who released a statement to the Daily News —in reference to what the paper referred to only as “the Brooklyn Museum’s elephant-dung Madonna”—saying, “As president, I would ensure that the National Endowment of the Arts stops funding of this sort.” (The Daily News pointed out that the organization’s correct title is “National Endowment for the Arts,” and that the NEA did not give any funding to the Brooklyn Museum’s show that featured Ofili.) Regarding the Ofili, Trump continued: “It’s not art. It’s absolutely gross, degenerate stuff.” Note the word “degenerate.” There was, of course, another politician who used that adjective to describe works of art that offended him.

:laughing:

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