I wanted to like this meme, but upon investigation its point falls apart. Neither of these modern artists were “artists with degrees,” in fact it’s the complete opposite. They weren’t elitists from academic institutions, they came from ordinary backgrounds and were basically untrained in art.
▪️The banana duct taped to the wall was done by Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian artist. He was ”the son of a truck driver and cleaning woman, he grew up rough and working class. He spent his youth getting poor grades in school and then flailing around with s****y, menial jobs as a young man…”
▪️He had no formal training in art, he started his career designing and building furniture. He is known for being a joker, humor and satire is at the core of much of his work.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/maurizio-cattelan-is-one-of-arts-greatest-mysteries/
▪️The tryptich (three white canvas squares) was painted by Robert Ryman, an American artist. He did attend college, enrolling at the Tennessee Polytechnic Institute in 1948, then transferring to George Peabody College the next year. But he studied music & doesn’t appear to have gotten a degree (he was in college for just 2 years)
▪️In 1950, Ryman enlisted in the US Army reserve corps and was assigned to an army reserve band during the Korean War. After his military service he moved to NYC with hopes of becoming a professional saxophonist.
▪️He took on various odd jobs to support himself, including being a security guard at the MOMA. Here he met various contemporary artists, bought supplies and started experimenting in his apartment, eventually launching his art career.
https://web.archive.org/web/20081026084819/http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_140.html
▪️Clearly, “artists with degrees” doesn’t explain these modern art works. Instead, these were people with no formal art training that managed to reach high status in the modern art world. A different narrative is needed to explain it!
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
▪️This is a proposal that pertains only to graduate level nursing degrees, not undergraduate ones (which were never considered professional degrees). The proposal will have a 30-60 day public comment period next year, where groups can object, before the DoE will decide on it.
▪️This is about how much federal student loans someone can take out for a particular degree. The cap on graduate degrees is $100k ($20,500/yr), while a “professional degree” limit is $200k ($50k/yr).
▪️Under the new rule proposal, professional degrees include:
🔹Pharmacy
🔹Dentistry
🔹Veterinary medicine
🔹Chiropractic
🔹Law
🔹Medicine (including osteopathic medicine & podiatry)
🔹Optometry
🔹Theology
▪️The nursing degrees excluded are ones like master of science in nursing (MSN), doctor of nursing practice (DNP) and PhD in nursing. These degrees would be limited to $100k in federal student loans, like all other graduate degrees.
▪️These changes came from the One Big Beautiful Bill’s...
