But a Jape

“I liked his stuff much better before he got all political.”

– art critic after Hitler starts making political cartoons

I don’t care who it upsets, but Adolf Hitler was absolutely not a great artist and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was right to reject him. His work was boring, unimaginative, unoriginal, and sloppy. Every now and then, this topic comes up on the internet and you see people say “He was actually pretty good, what was the art school’s problem?” and “Those pretentious art teachers should have just given him a chance!” I’ve even seen a couple of times people would say, “Well, maybe he wasn’t a great artist yet, but that’s what school is for, right?” Yeah, and I’m sure places like Harvard should just let any mediocre applicant in because “Well, maybe if the school just accepted them, they would learn how to be a better student!”

And what, an asshole like Hitler was just going to not be an asshole because he got into art school? What’s gonna happen when a shitty artist like him is surrounded by vastly more talented peers and gets looked over for them? Probably still find a way to blame his inadequacies on the Jews anyway. Kinda like how every other rightwing knob like Ben Shapiro or Steven Crowder had their starts as failed creatives too.

So you get all these hypothetical time travelers going back in time to get Hitler accepted into art school so he doesn’t turn bitter and commit genocide. Well, if harming Hitler’s fragile ego is enough to turn him into a genocidal maniac, you’re gonna have to keep on coddling this guy for the rest of his life if that’s your plan!

– James