Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

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.

I'll have to take your word for it. I don't think I know a single person who owns any clothing with a Mao print, and if I come across such a person I'd appreciate the invitation to talk to them about it without entertaining vague accusations of racist ulterior motives.

I'd be the first to sign up for questioning background norms, and society would be a lot healthier if it were easier to do it. But my tweets were about the claim that what's communicated when you wear Warhol's Mao is the same as what's communicated by wearing a swastika.