There is currently a fight in Horror Movie Twitter about whether horror movies should be overtly political or not.

I hope my stance on this is clear: ALL GOOD ART IS POLITICAL.

For an artist to “ignore politics” is both impossible and also an attempt to support the status quo.

To clarify further…

1) Overt politics have been part of art for the entire history of art. Both protest art and propaganda

2) Inadvertent political content in art is literally impossible to avoid. It’s like trying to cook food that has no flavor. “No flavor” is still a flavor.

3) The vast majority of good artists realize these two facts, and thus make sure the political content of their art is as intentional as the rest of their work.

4) The artists who strive to avoid politics in their art are still making an intentional political statement: that they think art can be separated from politics. And on top of that, it will also have unintentional political content that naturally results from creative expression.

5) Just because there are VIEWERS who are able to look at a piece of art without realizing that it contains any political content doesn’t mean the political content doesn’t exist. Just as flavor still exists even if the eater has no taste buds.

Also, just to be super explicit about my biggest influences on the topics of politics in art and specifically in genre art: Toni Morrison and Ursula Le Guin. If I have any useful insight on this topic, it’s only because I borrowed it from them.