Memes
Memes are very often under-appreciated due to being simple or not taking themselves seriously. They are powerful tools to bring new insights to discussion. Social engineers target memes due to their incredible impact in spreading ideas. Many of the threats to liberty aren’t always actions of tyrants but rather the apathy or ignorance of the public. If we are to preserve liberty we need to greatly magnify our efforts to promote liberty as a cultural value rather than simply a personal asset The effectiveness of memes comes from their simplicity and the potential to evoke strong emotions. The most valuable part of a good meme is the ability to “compress” lots of information into a consider sharable medium.
The problem is that people are ensnared in a culture that doesn’t properly value liberty or their rights. Corporations and governments work hard to curate online spaces to shape culture in their favor. This has had disastrous social consequences and devastating effects on people’s mental health. We must not only focus on undoing this demoralization but also on preventing it from taking hold ever again. People must not only learn the tools to protect themselves, but they must also learn to value things that are good and beautiful. The most effective way to rebuild a freedom-loving culture is to properly invest in providing a strong foundation for that culture to flourish. How does one build this foundation?
Art
Art is the expression of the human soul, with it’s value being largely in the eye of the beholder. Corporations and governments can imitate art, or mass produce it with financial advantages, but they can’t compete with genuine creativity borne from real passion and real experiences. Tyranny isn’t beautiful, and slavery isn’t inspiring. When given a choice, people will naturally choose the free and beautiful over the rigid and stagnant. As freedom loving people it is absolutely vital for us to encourage, support and fund ventures to provide people the opportunity to enjoy pro-human media and creative works.
Artists are craving for a way for their work to be properly supported. Many artists are disillusioned by not being able to make it in large corporate spaces. If we truly desire a culture that protects freedom we must work to provide the space for artists to promote this culture. Working together we can support artists who care deeply about building a better world. This will create real cultural capital that can upend the systems that undermine our liberty. With truth on our side, there can be no limit to the heights of our imagination.
I am no artist, but this piece is a call to people who value freedom to commit to supporting independent artists and building a true appreciation for their works. It is impossible to overstate the potential to change the global conversation against those who hate humanity when we sustain methods of lasting cultural change. There are so many ways to express what has gone wrong in the last two years. There are stories that need to be told, tragedies that cry out to be mourned, and victories that must be shared.
Starting small
In the long term, it would be ideal to create formal spaces and institutions with these goals in mind, but as individuals there is still a great deal we can do:
- With an appreciation that you need beauty in your life, hire artists to paint, sculpt, or even draw pieces for decoration in your home or office. These can be fantastic conversation pieces.
- Connect with local musicians, get people together to enjoy their music.
- Host events to give them an opportunity to promote themselves.
- Hire artists to create content for your website or social media profiles. Very often they can create better memes than what many of us can do with simple skills.
- Prominently feature like-minded talent in projects you undertake.
Do it yourself!
Can you draw, sing, dance, sculpt, paint, draw, carve, or create in other ways? Now is a great time to shine, you can stand out by promoting hope, freedom and compassion. I would be more than happy to feature you on my website! Do you have your own website? You might find Interverse interesting!
I also recommend joining the Fediverse:
Great FOSS Tools
There are a lot of fantastic Free & Open Source tools that are very useful for creating content. My hope is that one of these tools will help spark inspiration in what you can achieve or support someone in achieving. I would highly recommend donating to the development of these tools because they have made creating content much more accessible.
Inkscape
Whether you are an illustrator, designer, web designer or just someone who needs to create some vector imagery, Inkscape is for you!
Inkscape is fantastic for vector graphics, which are awesome at all sizes! It’s a fantastic tool for making posters, logos and even full-size banners!
Krita
A digital painting program.
Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.
- concept art
- texture and matte painters
- illustrations and comic
Demo Video: Krita 5 is HERE! Go for it!
Darktable
Photography software
Darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.
LMMS
Music production
Let’s make music with a free, cross-platform tool for your computer. Produce music with your computer by creating melodies and beats, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples and much more.
Synfig
2d animation
Synfig Studio is a free and open-source 2D animation software, designed as powerful industrial-strength solution for creating film-quality animation using a vector and bitmap artwork. It eliminates the need to create animation frame-by frame, allowing you to produce 2D animation of a higher quality with fewer people and resources.
Blender
Blender can do almost anything:
- 3d modeling
- Digital sculpting
- Video editing
- Simulations
- Digital painting
- Animations
Godot
Game engine
The game engine you waited for. Godot provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel. Godot is completely free and open-source under the very permissive MIT license. No strings attached, no royalties, nothing. Your game is yours, down to the last line of engine code.
