The ManifestoWritten byChaoscuntWith contributions fromErica Frevel, Sidney Lundy, S.V.Edited byBrett StevensDisclaimer: This manifesto is based on a traditional understanding of Fine Arts and does not include any form of art that includes non-consensual physical abuse of living humans or animals.Edgetivism is the practice of stamping your art with the most reprehensible themes of your time to defend the idea that art is limitless.PART 1 – ART NOT REALITYWhy art is not real life and should not be treated as such.Art is not real life.Art is a limitless “virtual reality” and there can be no direct causal link between art and life because art, without a perceiver, has no agency of its own. Consequently, its creators cannot be held “accountable” for their art in any degree.Humans frequently scapegoat art for the problems of their world, which is a way of denying their own responsibility and pretending that the fault lies with the art.When a work of art forms connection to real life, the people interacting with it are responsible for their own decisions and cannot blame the art.Art requires continual expansion in all directions in order to maintain its status as a space for conjecture and catharsis. The further one ventures within the confines of fine art medium, the stronger art as a whole will be.Like fantasy, art allows us to freely and often metaphorically express ourselves through psychological processes, which is why we allow depictions of murder and acts of antisocial lawlessness.In order to allow this exploration, the artist must work within the canvas of that which is stimulating, which includes the shocking, disturbing, and terrifying.For this reason, it is the duty of the audience to regulate their own offense. Art is not offensive; our reactions to it are.Psychological sublimation provides a healthy coping mechanism that when thwarted through censorship, causes more harm and violence than any antisocial art ever has.Antisocial art provides a cathartic therapeutic process by which humans assess their own impulses, psychologies and thoughts.PART 2 – VIRTUESTIGMAISM & SAFETYISMIdentifying the hindrance of artistic progress.A mental virus conquered the art world some time ago, and now has polluted all of its output.Called henceforth virtuestigmaism, this virus categorizes works of art by their most superficial aspects, notably “political” associations. This destroys the nature of art as exploration.Stigmatisation: Since art must push the boundaries of thought, it will naturally touch on the disturbing, which leads to accusations of “crypto-fascism” and “blasphemy” or other political terms by those who fear disruption of their bourgeois and consumerist worldview.Virtuism: On the other end of the spectrum is the “virtue signalling,” a form of trying to expand the social status of the artist by making art about opinions that people already hold, which is the philosophical equivalent of making decoration or another commercial product.Consumer versions of “art” tend to reward virtuestigmaist propaganda by promoting art valued for the sake of its message, which is invariably political, such as the praise and promotion of works about gays, religion, blacks, or patriotism.The virtuestigmaist art world disables aspiring artists by way of online mobs threatening people’s careers, families, and general safety. Artists labeled “problematic” for whatever reason cannot apply for funds, to show their art at festivals, rent a space to show it, or advertise it on social media. For the sin of non-conformity, you do not exist.Those who understand art realize that art in its whole form is never political, and that the intention of its artist cannot be read from its subject matter; a painting of bananas is not an advertisement or propaganda for bananas. In this way, art is different from all other media that we consume.The consumer mindset, which we will call safetyism, is a form of politically correct and socially-acceptable artistic castration designed to hide the dark tendencies of humanity which we must explore if we hope to understand ourselves.Safetyism can be understood as a form of self-censorship by forcing conformity to the dominant social tendencies of the time. This construes a blow against progress, growth, and evolution through the thought experiments of art.A safetyist is not necessarily a virtuestigmaist, but someone who accepts their authority and goes out of his way to avoid conflict.There can be no virtue through compulsion. Art made from a desire to avoid punishment is mere propaganda on par with the works of the Soviets or National Socialists.PART 3 – EDGETIVISMHow we will do activism through being edgy.To resurrect art, we must engage in edgetivism, a portmanteau of “edgy” and “activism.” This means art, which believes that in order to be limitless, art itself must push against the boundaries that we fear the most.Edgetivism aims to both liberate artists who either do not believe in political correctness or will exist in a future where they will not have to bother with such nonsense, and to stop the promotion of spurious art simply because it serves as propaganda for dominant social tendencies.Edgetivism takes a path unlike that of the fake “activist art” which is made by wasting millions of government funds or fathers’ credit cards to make insincere “artworks” of counterfeit compassion that get applauded (the real reason why they’re made) for their virtue signalling without risking or changing anything. Edgetivism really has the potential, sincerity and willingness to cause significant change.When there are enough edgetivist works, society will have to confront the question of whether art is reality and whether art can be prosecuted or not.Unlike the “humanist” art of today, edgetivist art addresses ideas in their pure form, and so is individualistic and openly selfish in nature.The Edgetivist creates edgetivist art so that hopefully someday HE HIMSELF will have the right to create without banishment from portals of exhibition or any form of unnecessary legal proceedings. This is a selfish goal and this selfishness is why edgetivism is actually honest, which is a quality missing from the world of “art” and “activism” that virtue signalling opportunists dominated in order to get themselves recognized through works of bogus humanitarianism.In edgetivism, you actively put yourself at artistic risk with your “activism” simply to remind people that art is not real life and can not be held accountable for people’s feelings or deeds.The Edgetivist will explore the most socially unacceptable aspects of life in his art. Not only does the work have to be breaking some sort of law that goes against freedom of artistic expression but also be reprehensible to the point of leaving 95% of society in shock. If you can put the contents of the work on a t-shirt and walk without getting into trouble with most people on the street, then it has failed to be edgetivist.This takes into account the factor of time; each edgetivist must and should confront the norms of his time. This means that a work that is edgetivism now, but becomes socially normalized over time, will cease to be edgetivist. Like art itself, edgetivism is an inevitably passing quality.We are not a group or social clique; an edgetivist artist is alone by definition. The moment something becomes safe, go the other way. Whenever you feel that you are becoming part of a group, destroy it.PART 4 – THE MANUALA practical guide to do Edgetivism.Poke the ART CANCER called “identity politics” with all weapons that you’ve got.Kill sacred cows: never just write about “violence”; always include a character that consumer society will identify with such as a cat, a baby, a homeless woman, a “nigger,” a “Jew,” a “faggot,” a white boy hung by the neck, an American flag burnt by Mexicans.Use words and expressions that the most unsophisticated people (lowest common denominator) can understand. Do not veil your “edginess” in subtlety or sophistication; we are artistic activists.The best edgetivist works transcend labels with clever usage of oxymoronic juxtapositions. So long as you have that one aspect that makes your work “deplorable” then the rest is completely up to you.Belittle so called “extreme” artists who fail to engage in any edgetivism. They aren’t our friends by any stretch; as a matter of fact they ARE the enemy. Alienate every scumbag who is a part of the rotting of Art through safetyism. They enable the hangman.Always produce work that side against the predominant people in the art world. Make anti-Christian & feminist art in middle age Europe, make anti-Islamic & anti-feminist art in 2016 Europe. Never side with anyone for your benefit. Be alone.Always praise the enemies of your audience, and when those enemies come to congratulate you, say “fuck you” and praise the enemies of those enemies.If/when you win an award, turn the ceremony into an antisocial performance art, destroy the reward and tell them about edgetivism.Make art to invoke hatred and fear. Not through sensory aspects, but through challenging morality.Never hope for success or recognition.PART 5 – HYPOCRISYThe hypocrisy in how people view and deal with art.It is known that certain antisocial behavior is completely accepted in art whereas others are shunned for their violation of the societal norms of their times.If Quentin Tarantino is not a murderer, neither is Red Bible Black a group of pedophiles for making songs about raping children.The moralists always talk about a “dangerous message” that certain artworks send and set precedents of outlawing certain expressions in the name of their “toxicity” where there is no scientific evidence to prove it is an active and provable harm.Teaching children that art is important because of creativity and expression, while simultaneously enforcing social norms on it thereafter, guarantees more danger in society by means of repression, regression, and ignorance.Those who fear school shootings, for example, instead of attempting to understand these antisocial thoughts, react by suppressing them, forcing them to be expressed in real life and not art, fantasy, or dreams.Psychological sublimation of violent antisocial urges into extreme art should be encouraged rather than censored. Evil art gives people a healthy coping mechanism for evil.Art provides the inverse of reality in its topics. Propaganda and advertising, however, are not inverted; what they show you, they want to manipulate you to adopt.PART 6 – GOALSPractical end goals we want to achieve.The most important outcome we desire is establishing a culture of artistic freedom.A more utopian outcome is an ultra enforced freedom of expression “sanctity” when the subject is a work of art.In the intermediate, we intend to force a total immunity from law enforcement AND being removed from open hosting communities of the artwork and its authors for anything that the said work presumably might influence.We sponsor any efforts to guarantee that no entity shall be enabled to completely wipe expression of art from history on their platforms. We do not oppose ratings or voluntary filters, but outright banishment is the enemy.We seek to broaden individual choice by creating more robust online platforms that give users more control over what they see.Another utopian goal comprises our desire to disrupt the circle jerk of virtue signalling and safetyism in the world of art.The most important way we will fight for these goals is through making completely antisocial works of art. Relentless and always pushing for more.We do not care about being banned, beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Edgetivists do not give up; we will always push the edges of art.Art is limitless!PART 7 – MOMENT OF TRUTHor word of warning…You may read this manifesto and feel like it fills your useless life with purpose.You may feel that this is such a “cool” idea.You may think, “Hell, I want to do edgetivism.”You may want to start a new project.But when it is the moment to actually do it, you will be filled with hesitation.You will think about the possible aftermaths.Your inner pussy will try to stop you; this is self-censoring.While the “narcissist” inside you will tell you to give it a try.If you are having these thoughts, do NOT attempt edgetivism.This is not something “cool” or “fun”; this is war.PART 8 – TRAILBLAZERSome encouraging words…What you do is nothing short of genius.Expect to run into haters from all angles.They will all get offended for various different reasons.However, they will all act like they don’t “actually” get offended.They will try to say that they aren’t offended and that the work is “stupid,” as if they take the time of the day to take action on every “stupid” thing they see.In reality, they are offended because they envy the attention you get with such simplicity. Your symbols are more powerful than theirs.They will say to themselves, “I can do this too but I choose not to.”This is a pathetic excuse they give to themselves for failing themselves in being as great as you.They will call you “edgy” as if it was supposed to be hurtful. Of course you are edgy; this is art and it is supposed to be edgy.They will hate you solely because they wish they could do edgy stuff but they are trapped in their own fear of being socially ostracized.They are only blaming themselves for being too much of pussies to do what you do: trailblazing
Edgetivism is the practice of stamping your art with the mostreprehensible themes of your time to defend the idea that art islimitless.www.edgetivism.comPART 1 – ART NOT REALITY Why art is not real life andshould not be treated as such.1. Art is not real life.2. Art is a limitless “virtual reality” and there can be no directcausal link between art and life because art, without aperceiver, has no agency of its own. Consequently, itscreators cannot be held “accountable” for their art in anydegree.3. Humans frequently scapegoat art for the problems of theirworld, which is a way of denying their own responsibility andpretending that the fault lies with the art.4. When a work of art forms connection to real life, the peopleinteracting with it are responsible for their own decisions andcannot blame the art.5. Art requires continual expansion in all directions in order tomaintain its status as a space for conjecture and catharsis. Thefurther one ventures within the confines of fine art medium,the stronger art as a whole will be.6. Like fantasy, art allows us to freely and often metaphoricallyexpress ourselves through psychological processes, which iswhy we allow depictions of murder and acts of antisociallawlessness.7. In order to allow this exploration, the artist must work withinthe canvas of that which is stimulating, which includes theshocking, disturbing, and terrifying.8. For this reason, it is the duty of the audience to regulate theirown offense. Art is not offensive; our reactions to it are.9. Psychological sublimation provides a healthy copingmechanism that when thwarted through censorship, causesmore harm and violence than any antisocial art ever has.10. Antisocial art provides a cathartic therapeutic processby which humans assess their own impulses, psychologiesand thoughts.PART 2 – VIRTUESTIGMAISM & SAFETYISM Identifyingthe hindrance of artistic progress.www.edgetivism.com1. A mental virus conquered the art world some time ago, andnow has polluted all of its output.2. Called henceforth virtuestigmaism, this virus categorizesworks of art by their most superficial aspects, notably“political” associations. This destroys the nature of art asexploration.3. Stigmatisation: Since art must push the boundaries ofthought, it will naturally touch on the disturbing, which leadsto accusations of “crypto-fascism” and “blasphemy” or otherpolitical terms by those who fear disruption of their bourgeoisand consumerist worldview.4. Virtuism: On the other end of the spectrum is the “virtuesignalling,” a form of trying to expand the social status of theartist by making art about opinions that people already hold,which is the philosophical equivalent of making decoration oranother commercial product.5. Consumer versions of “art” tend to reward virtuestigmaistpropaganda by promoting art valued for the sake of itsmessage, which is invariably political, such as the praise andpromotion of works about gays, religion, blacks, orpatriotism.6. The virtuestigmaist art world disables aspiring artists by wayof online mobs threatening people’s careers, families, andgeneral safety. Artists labeled “problematic” for whateverreason cannot apply for funds, to show their art at festivals,rent a space to show it, or advertise it on social media. For thesin of non-conformity, you do not exist.7. Those who understand art realize that art in its whole form isnever political, and that the intention of its artist cannot beread from its subject matter; a painting of bananas is not anadvertisement or propaganda for bananas. In this way, art isdifferent from all other media that we consume.8. The consumer mindset, which we will call safetyism, is aform of politically correct and socially-acceptable artisticcastration designed to hide the dark tendencies of humanitywhich we must explore if we hope to understand ourselves.www.edgetivism.com9. Safetyism can be understood as a form of self-censorship byforcing conformity to the dominant social tendencies of thetime. This construes a blow against progress, growth, andevolution through the thought experiments of art.10. A safetyist is not necessarily a virtuestigmaist, butsomeone who accepts their authority and goes out of his wayto avoid conflict.11. There can be no virtue through compulsion. Art madefrom a desire to avoid punishment is mere propaganda on parwith the works of the Soviets or National Socialists.PART 3 – EDGETIVISM How we will do activism throughbeing edgy.1. To resurrect art, we must engage in edgetivism, aportmanteau of “edgy” and “activism.” This means art, whichbelieves that in order to be limitless, art itself must pushagainst the boundaries that we fear the most.2. Edgetivism aims to both liberate artists who either do notbelieve in political correctness or will exist in a future wherethey will not have to bother with such nonsense, and to stopthe promotion of spurious art simply because it serves aspropaganda for dominant social tendencies.3. Edgetivism takes a path unlike that of the fake “activist art”which is made by wasting millions of government funds orfathers’ credit cards to make insincere “artworks” ofcounterfeit compassion that get applauded (the real reasonwhy they’re made) for their virtue signalling without riskingor changing anything. Edgetivism really has the potential,sincerity and willingness to cause significant change.4. When there are enough edgetivist works, society will have toconfront the question of whether art is reality and whether artcan be prosecuted or not.5. Unlike the “humanist” art of today, edgetivist art addressesideas in their pure form, and so is individualistic and openlyselfish in nature.6. The Edgetivist creates edgetivist art so that hopefullysomeday HE HIMSELF will have the right to create withoutwww.edgetivism.combanishment from portals of exhibition or any form ofunnecessary legal proceedings. This is a selfish goal and thisselfishness is why edgetivism is actually honest, which is aquality missing from the world of “art” and “activism” thatvirtue signalling opportunists dominated in order to getthemselves recognized through works of bogushumanitarianism.7. In edgetivism, you actively put yourself at artistic risk withyour “activism” simply to remind people that art is not reallife and can not be held accountable for people’s feelings ordeeds.8. The Edgetivist will explore the most socially unacceptableaspects of life in his art. Not only does the work have to bebreaking some sort of law that goes against freedom ofartistic expression but also be reprehensible to the point ofleaving 95% of society in shock. If you can put the contentsof the work on a t-shirt and walk without getting into troublewith most people on the street, then it has failed to beedgetivist.9. This takes into account the factor of time; each edgetivistmust and should confront the norms of his time. This meansthat a work that is edgetivism now, but becomes sociallynormalized over time, will cease to be edgetivist. Like artitself, edgetivism is an inevitably passing quality.10. We are not a group or social clique; an edgetivist artistis alone by definition. The moment something becomes safe,go the other way. Whenever you feel that you are becomingpart of a group, destroy it.PART 4 – THE MANUAL A practical guide to do Edgetivism.1. Poke the ART CANCER called “identity politics” with allweapons that you’ve got.2. Kill sacred cows: never just write about “violence”; alwaysinclude a character that consumer society will identify withsuch as a cat, a baby, a homeless woman, a “nigger,” a “Jew,”a “faggot,” a white boy hung by the neck, an American flagburnt by Mexicans.3. Use words and expressions that the most unsophisticatedpeople (lowest common denominator) can understand. Do notveil your “edginess” in subtlety or sophistication; we areartistic activists.4. The best edgetivist works transcend labels with clever usageof oxymoronic juxtapositions. So long as you have that oneaspect that makes your work “deplorable” then the rest iscompletely up to you.5. Belittle so called “extreme” artists who fail to engage in anyedgetivism. They aren’t our friends by any stretch; as amatter of fact they ARE the enemy. Alienate every scumbagwho is a part of the rotting of Art through safetyism. Theyenable the hangman.6. Always produce work that side against the predominantpeople in the art world. Make anti-Christian & feminist art inmiddle age Europe, make anti-Islamic & anti-feminist art in2016 Europe. Never side with anyone for your benefit. Bealone.7. Always praise the enemies of your audience, and when thoseenemies come to congratulate you, say “fuck you” and praisethe enemies of those enemies.8. If/when you win an award, turn the ceremony into anantisocial performance art, destroy the reward and tell themabout edgetivism.9. Make art to invoke hatred and fear. Not through sensoryaspects, but through challenging morality.10. Never hope for success or recognition.PART 5 – HYPOCRISY The hypocrisy in how people view anddeal with art.1. It is known that certain antisocial behavior is completelyaccepted in art whereas others are shunned for their violationof the societal norms of their times.2. If Quentin Tarantino is not a murderer, neither is Red BibleBlack a group of pedophiles for making songs about rapingchildren.www.edgetivism.com3. The moralists always talk about a “dangerous message” thatcertain artworks send and set precedents of outlawing certainexpressions in the name of their “toxicity” where there is noscientific evidence to prove it is an active and provable harm.4. Teaching children that art is important because of creativityand expression, while simultaneously enforcing social normson it thereafter, guarantees more danger in society by meansof repression, regression, and ignorance.5. Those who fear school shootings, for example, instead ofattempting to understand these antisocial thoughts, react bysuppressing them, forcing them to be expressed in real lifeand not art, fantasy, or dreams.6. Psychological sublimation of violent antisocial urges intoextreme art should be encouraged rather than censored. Evilart gives people a healthy coping mechanism for evil.7. Art provides the inverse of reality in its topics. Propagandaand advertising, however, are not inverted; what they showyou, they want to manipulate you to adopt.PART 6 – GOALS Practical end goals we want to achieve.1. The most important outcome we desire is establishing aculture of artistic freedom.2. A more utopian outcome is an ultra enforced freedom ofexpression “sanctity” when the subject is a work of art.3. In the intermediate, we intend to force a total immunity fromlaw enforcement AND being removed from open hostingcommunities of the artwork and its authors for anything thatthe said work presumably might influence.4. We sponsor any efforts to guarantee that no entity shall beenabled to completely wipe expression of art from history ontheir platforms. We do not oppose ratings or voluntary filters,but outright banishment is the enemy.5. We seek to broaden individual choice by creating morerobust online platforms that give users more control overwhat they see.www.edgetivism.com6. Another utopian goal comprises our desire to disrupt thecircle jerk of virtue signalling and safetyism in the world ofart.7. The most important way we will fight for these goals isthrough making completely antisocial works of art. Relentlessand always pushing for more.8. We do not care about being banned, beaten, imprisoned,tortured, and killed. Edgetivists do not give up; we willalways push the edges of art.9. Art is limitless!PART 7 – MOMENT OF TRUTH or word of warning...1. You may read this manifesto and feel like it fills your uselesslife with purpose.2. You may feel that this is such a “cool” idea.3. You may think, “Hell, I want to do edgetivism.”4. You may want to start a new project.5. But when it is the moment to actually do it, you will be filledwith hesitation.6. You will think about the possible aftermaths.7. Your inner pussy will try to stop you; this is self-censoring.8. While the “narcissist” inside you will tell you to give it a try.9. If you are having these thoughts, do NOT attemptedgetivism.10. This is not something “cool” or “fun”; this is war.PART 8 – TRAILBLAZER Some encouraging words...1. What you do is nothing short of genius.2. Expect to run into haters from all angles.3. They will all get offended for various different reasons.4. However, they will all act like they don’t “actually” getoffended.5. They will try to say that they aren’t offended and that thework is “stupid,” as if they take the time of the day to takeaction on every “stupid” thing they see.www.edgetivism.com6. In reality, they are offended because they envy the attentionyou get with such simplicity. Your symbols are morepowerful than theirs.7. They will say to themselves, “I can do this too but I choosenot to.”8. This is a pathetic excuse they give to themselves for failingthemselves in being as great as you.9. They will call you “edgy” as if it was supposed to be hurtful.Of course you are edgy; this is art and it is supposed to beedgy.10. They will hate you solely because they wish they coulddo edgy stuff but they are trapped in their own fear of beingsocially ostracized.11. They are only blaming themselves for being too muchof pussies to do what you do: trailblazing