Still from the NRA ad show, the Walt Disney Concert Hall

We are never told who “they” are, but the shots make it clear: “They” are people in liberal L.A. and Chicago who swan about in fancy parks and buildings.

Perhaps the NRA’s depiction of Disney Hall and Cloud Gate was just an handy b-roll choice, and perhaps Watson’s animus against modern design is a personal quirk. But it seems more likely that elements of the far right are deliberately making architecture a front in the Trump-era culture wars. Why?

In one way, there’s nothing new about this: There’s a long conservative tradition of eviscerating Modernism, which young fogeys can learn from and mine. In the past, the vehicle for such criticism was the magazine or newspaper column and the odd TV gig. But Internet video has opened up the field to amateur critics and made it possible to skip the textual description and short-cut straight to the offending building itself.

citylab.com

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