Fascists are suspicious and fearful of art and seek to censor and suppress it because they believe it is hostile to them and their project.  They’re right. It is.

Art is and encourages free expression of the individual unhindered by Authority and prescribed orthodoxy. Exposure to art makes the individual feel encouraged, connected, uplifted, inspired and empowered.

Fascism can only succeed when the individual is uprooted, contained, isolated, discouraged, surveilled, killed- if not in body than in spirit.

It is no exaggeration to say that making art and engaging with the art others make is the surest inoculation a society of free people has against the onslaught of fascism.

Make art for yourself and your friends and family, and if you can,  figure out ways to share it, too. Leave your drawing in a public place. Make stickers and pins and put them out in the world- even if they’re not explicitly political, they are a powerful defense against fascism. Go to galleries and museums and engage with the art that others are making and putting out into the world. make art with your children. Celebrate and nurture them as artists, and you will give them free thinking and the right to  individual expression as foundational values. They will not grow up to be fascists. They will be artists and free thinkers like you.

Our creativity is our birthright. And it has always kept those who would crush us at an insurmountable disadvantage. This time is no exception.