I am liberal enough that I can embrace the political right when its humor is funny. And while I don’t agree with the ideological impurity of the disturbingly witty The People’s Cube, I’ll blog to the death their right to be right. (While this may seem too extreme, I am a liberal after all.)
Founded by Oleg Atbashian, who moved to the U.S. from the Ukraine in 1994, where he worked as a “propaganda artist” for the Soviets, The People’s Cube is a political satire website and “people’s blog” that grew out of Communists for Kerry, founded in 2004 by the Hellgate Republican Club of New York (and was an alternative to Billionaires for Bush). Atbashian questioned why liberals blamed America for the world’s ills and decided to mount his own protest. He built a language of satire based on parodies of Soviet-era iconography, and most recently, TPC has lampooned Senator Obama (and continues to lambast Senator Kerry).
While The People’s Cube churns out the satiric sausage on a regular basis, its cousin Che-Mart adds to the counter-revolutionary insurgent hilarity with scores of audacious products featuring T-shirts of that over-commercialized consumptionary Che Guevara. I guess, for every action there is a reaction. Right? Or Right on?
About Steven Heller
Steven Heller is the co-chair of the SVA MFA Designer /Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program, writes frequently for Wired and Design Observer. He is also the author of over 170 books on design and visual culture. He received the 1999 AIGA Medal and is the 2011 recipient of the Smithsonian National Design Award.View all posts by Steven Heller →