Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

Do you have any evidence whatsoever that anyone "attacking associations with Mao" today is doing that because of anything remotely related to the Black Panthers, rather than because he was one of the most vicious genocidal authoritarians of all time?

The twitter discussion was about Mounk's raising of a Portland politician's pop art skirt that contained, among other images, an image of Mao. Given that BLM is at issue here, I was raising the history of Black radical movements and their use of Mao.

Can you really not think of a more obvious reason someone might take an issue with an American politician wearing Mao kitsch while campaigning?

Mao kitsch is a permanent part of American pop art, and it is ubiquitous. So is Soviet kitsch. Nazi kitsch isn't. These are background facts. Many teenagers across the Western world have Che t-shirts.

I can't say I think Mao kitsch is "ubiquitous," but insofar as it is I think it's perfectly reasonable and probably somewhat morally obligatory to ask why anyone is comfortable with that.

I don't disagree. But someone flaunting a swastika is violating very strong norms intentionally, and sending a strong message. In contrast, someone wearing a skirt with pop art images, including one of Mao, is simply replicating styles ubiquitous on American college campuses.

If Mao kitsch is ubiquitous at Yale, I sincerely think the entire faculty has a responsibility to adjust the curriculum a bit to ensure the student body understands what that imagery represents.

Yale? Many of our undergrads go into finance, so no this s not true. It's a very centrist student body. But Andy Warhol's Mao image is very well known and widespread.