Hi all,

Brutus here. Just wanted to sound off about DIY punk and AI content. 

Here at 82Brutus, we are committed to providing original content with no ads and no AI. We want real. Is it scruffy? Yeah. Is it raw? Yeah. Is it unpolished and weird? Hel yeah. That’s how we like it. 

I grew up in a small town outside of Kelowna, too small to even be considered a suburb. My parents moved me out there to the sticks from the big city of Vancouver. It was a huge adjustment. What I learned from the process is that there was one group of people who didn’t care what class of people you were. Didn’t care if you were a hometown hero or a model citizen. Didn’t care if you fit within the mould. This group had many names: skids, grungers, losers, misfits, outcasts, you name it. But they were all one thing: punk.

Being punk actually had little to do with music or fashion. You might meet other punks at 5 bands for 5 bucks down at the hall, and fashion was usually cheap stuff from goodwill or bargain stores. You’d take the cheap clothes n make em cool. You’d bedazzle em, put in spike rivets, put patches of your favourite bands on em. If they ripped, you’d still wear em cuz you didn’t have the money to replace em. You couldn’t differentiate between street kids and punks, and it didn’t matter anyway. 

The only thing that might outcast you from the outcasts is if it was pretty clear that you were the fortunate son. People who grew up comfortable could buy pre-ripped pre-patched clothes, do their hair up to match the folks on the scene, and wash it all off before dinner. The disingenuous hid among people who couldn’t count on someone else providing a future. I mean, if you had it made, good for you. But you didn’t need us. Your job was secure. Soon, you’d be using AI to automate jobs that would have been our only chance to save up for the kind of life you take for granted. 

I keep informed on issues surrounding AI and whether it’s good for the scene. Boo me if you want, but I don’t like straw men… yes, AI has been used by corporations and lazy humans who refuse to pay content creators depending on getting paid for their art. And this sucks. On the other hand, all you need is a computer, a little investment, and presto! People who had little creation/syndication potential, could now express themselves to audiences that they’d been denied access. I could set up an AI studio for the people I work with, people affected by poverty and addiction, people with disorders and disabilities, and they could use AI for good purposes. The cash flow could come from public grants. This is one reason that the arguments against AI can be considered classist: the wealthy can make money off AI-generated art, so why can’t we? Are we really helping our people by telling them to avoid a marketable skill?

Yes, I can sit in my warm, comfortable home, and use my years of costly art school and my high-end art supplies to create original works. Isn’t that privilege? Should I condemn people who don’t have these advantages for wanting to express their creativity using the only medium they can afford?

So, now that I’m debating a steel man and not a straw man, allow me to retort. 

I don’t have a costly art school education. My ESL certificate and post-secondary came from loans. I taught in a country locked in civil war. I had to choose a practical way to make a living for some time before entering addictions and disabilities work. My current position is undervalued and underpaid. But I’m making it on my own, and it’s more than I thought I’d get. 

Yeah, my markers and art books are cheap. You’ll see my illustrations and photographs all over this site. You’ll agree that I’m not super well trained in art. But I’m going for soul. 

That soul is the real talent, in my opinion. Read the articles, stories and view the illustrations and photos on the site and know: real people made this. AI slop is everywhere. But not here. 

An AI bot didn’t stand at a train station in North Korea wondering if he’d make it out alive. An AI bot didn’t have to make difficult decisions to support a family. An AI bot didn’t sleep on who knows how many park benches waiting for the sun to come up and dissolve the midnight chill. That’s what you see in my art. That’s what you can never digitally replicate. 

So I’d like to encourage people out there with the soul of an artist, but who were forced by necessity to choose a difficult, challenging or practical path: buy those cheap markers. Get those garbage sketchbooks from the thrift store. Express yourself, and don’t stop cuz you think you aren’t a good artist, or you don’t have the training, or you’re drowning in debt. You can find a way. But only if you value yourself and own your experiences, no matter how dark and difficult they’ve been. 

An AI can be trained to create a precision drawing. But only you can see the spots of light while facing a world of darkness. Use that. That’s what you have, that they don’t. 

And that’s what we do here. 

War out,

Brutus.