Below is the front cover of the latest issue, as well as the editorial. Please send poems et al in accord with the FOCUS (see website) for next issue, to be published April/May.
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Editorial
Dough, Moolah & Art
My position is that even hate speech should be completely and totally allowed in our country. The most disgusting speech should absolutely be protected. The ACLU used to hold this viewpoint. The American Civil Liberties Union, they sued so that legitimate Nazis could march through downtown Skokie. As soon as you use the word ‘hate,’ that is a very subjective term. Then all of a sudden it is in the eyes, or it is in the implementation, of whomever has the power.
—Charlie Kirk, assassinated free speech advocate
Well, this is the fiftieth issue of The American Dissident, published twice annually since 1998. Yet, to date, only a handful of libraries have been willing to subscribe, despite my having “knocked” on many library doors over the years. Even my two alma maters, Northeastern University and Middlebury College, refused to subscribe. And not one of the 38 libraries on Cape Cod, where the journal has been published over the past 15 years, has been willing to subscribe. One of the library directors, Lucy Loomis, even rejected a free subscription offer and banned me without warning and due process (theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html). Another library in Massachusetts banned me for six months, again without warning or due process (theamericandissident.org/orgs/watertown_free_public_library.html). Are libraries, in general, open to free expression and vigorous debate, cornerstones of a thriving democracy? Certainly not! Are they, in general, open to criticism of libraries and library directors? Hell no! Sadly, the American Library Association mirrors that undemocratic modus operandi. Examine the dialogue de sounds I had with the former director of its Office for Intellectual Freedom (wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2017/04/james-larue.html). Its magazine, American Libraries, will NOT publish any criticism with its regard.
Over the decades, I have personally tested the waters of democracy. For some of those tests, examine theamericandissident.org. MONEY seems to be the prime controller of libraries, poetry, art and cultural organizations and magazines. As a flaming example, examine my letter to Rattle in the Literary Letters section and also my essay, “Non-Response and Free Speech” (www.newenglishreview.org/articles/non-response-and-free-speech/).
Stemming from the Kirk assassination, a veritable bullet into the heart of freedom of speech and vigorous debate, too much god this, god that has been blasting from the government, as well as the media. The prime problem with god-belief is the total absence of reason, logic, and fact. And, of course, it is impossible to convince believers of anything contrary to their god-ideology in the same manner as those into trans-ideology, DEI-ideology, global-warming ideology, socialism/communism-ideology, etc.
Positivity on steroids ends up drifting into vacuity on steroids. Perhaps in lieu of that, culture ought to be a weapon, not of the establishment, but rather one against the establishment, be it GOD right-wing or DEI left-wing. Socialist/communists like Mao, Stalin, Castro, and Hitler fully controlled culture, rendering it another weapon in their arsenal of autocratic control. My “Entartete Kunst” series of aquarelles, including the front and back covers of this issue, serves as a reminder of not only Hitler’s control over art, but also that of the establishment in modern-day America.
Both the front and back covers illustrate what most poets and artists will not dare do: criticize the local cogs of the academic/literary establishment. The front cover was incited by an email from the Cultural Center of Cape Cod highlighting its new “Art-Dog-in-Residence” Olive. A joke? Well, if so, then my front cover can also be a joke, though one that would no doubt elicit frowns, not chuckles, from the local arts apparatchiks. Such cultural centers with huge assets and revenues tend to serve, more than anything else, to render culture innocuous and friendly to the socio-political power structure that inevitably backs them and rules over the regions in question. For them, culture canNOT include criticism of the culture they push, including cycling as somehow culture… and even more so anointments of dogs as “Art-Dog-in-Residence.”
“We're looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help make the upcoming Second Summer Bike Ride a huge success on Sunday, September 14. 2025! Whether you're passionate about cycling, love supporting community events, or just want to be part of a great cause helping Cape Cod non-profits, we could use your help!” Even Olive -– the Cultural Center's Art-Dog-in-Residence –- will be helping! Follow her on Instagram: @olive_theartdog.”
The Cultural Center of Cape Cod, for example, has $3,000,000 in assets, over $1,000,000 in revenues, and its executive director, Molly Demeulenaere, makes over $80,000 per year. Sadly, MONEY definitely determines the direction so-called “culture” takes. The Center’s motto, “All the Arts for All of Us,” constitutes a typical example of blatant hypocrisy à la DEI, whose reality is UIE (i.e., Unity of thought, Inequality of treatment, and Exclusion). Some nameless “judge” on the Cause IQ website (www.causeiq.com/organizations/cultural-center-of-cape-cod,043553295/) proclaimed:
The Cultural Center of Cape Cod is more than a building. It is a world-class, inclusive space that cultivates curiosity, creativity, and Cultural exploration through exhibitions, learning, music, and events.
“Inclusive space” or rather BS 101? The Center’s DEI-Marxist Honcho-in-Residence, executive director Demeulenaere, has refused to permit any of my critical art, including satires with her regard, to hang upon its walls (wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/search?q=cultural+center). Is that somehow INCLUSION? Art—at least that which gets to appear in museums, cultural centers, local newspapers, and libraries—tends overwhelmingly to be that which does not offend the cultural-apparatchik control-freaks like Demeulenaere. The art/cultural/literary money-machine is so powerful that it is NOT possible for rare dissident artists and writers to pierce it with an iota of hard-core criticism. That is the state of our UN-democracy in the realm of not just the Center in question, but also of art, literature, and culture in general.
As for the back cover of this issue, it illustrates a handful of local arts apparatchiks of the Truro Center for the Arts and their total silence regarding the open letter I’d sent to them and published in this issue. Salaried arts apparatchiks willingly render art palatable for the leaders of the community and their reigning ideology. They eliminate any serious questioning and challenging with their regard, as well as with that of their favored artistes. And so, I examined the diverse arts “leaders,” who simply backed a conclusion I’d already made: humans, in general, tend overwhelmingly to choose to be in-lockstep team players, as opposed to staunch individuals. Few will dare go against the grain, rock the boat, and make waves. In a nutshell, the Faustian pact is MONEY in exchange for willful COOPTATION, CASTRATION, and CORRALLING…
Finally, thanks much to those who have subscribed and buy issues. Without that support, The AD would be fully unfunded. As previously mentioned, over the years, I have not been able to obtain any grants whatsoever. I’d even paid $500 a while ago to become a nonprofit in the hope that maybe the National Endowment for the Arts would provide a grant, as it does to many other literary journals. The faceless NEA arts apparatchiks simply commented as briefly as possible: “poor design, low artistic merit”
(theamericandissident.org/orgs/national_endowment_for_the_arts.html).
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