An image from “America Lives” Photo: YouTube screenshot
A drag queen dressed in a red mohawk and rainbow-colored skirt reads to elementary school kids. An androgynous blonde child in a pink dress listens closely. Hung on the classroom wall are a rainbow flag, a portrait of Communist philosopher Karl Marx and two handwritten signs that say, “Diversity is our strength,” and “Trump = bad, White = Evil, Your parents LIE!”
This image appears in “America Lives,” a newly released four-minute, animated video that is basically an ad supporting the 2024 re-election of Donald Trump. It’s just the latest AI-generated political media pushing a right-wing, dystopian, and anti-LGBTQ+ worldview.
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“A tempest … seeks to tear apart the fabric of our nation,” its narrator says. “[This storm] seeks nothing less than the wanton destruction of this great nation of men and women. It seeks to rip out, erase, and supplant the very foundations of practicality and reason. It seeks to erase us.” The rhetoric echoes phrasing used by believers of QAnon and The Great Replacement, two influential right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theories.
“We know this enemy,” the narrator continues as the video displays images of a burning U.S. flag and Constitution, a blue-haired anti-fascist walking through a burning city street, and a young cisgender, heterosexual, white couple literally disintegrating into the surrounding darkened clouds.
The video then shows shadowy globalist businessmen sitting around a world map and a seemingly Satanic religious sect dressed in black hoods and red robes as blood stains their temple’s white stone floors.
“They have existed throughout time, and now they have come for us, and they have come for our children,” the video adds, before showing the aforementioned drag queen and kids. The scene alludes to right-wing accusations that the LGBTQ+ movement and Drag Queen Story Hour events seek to “indoctrinate” and “sexualize” children into “gender-confusion.” In reality, most drag queens who read to children don’t look like the androgynous mohawked punk rocker in the video — they typically resemble glamorous 1950s housewives.
Nevertheless, the video, released on Presidents’ Day by a co-creator calling himself Joshua Youngbluth, is “a patriotic AI-animated video that captures the essence of Donald Trump’s vision,” he wrote on YouTube. Youngbluth is a self-described U.S. Army/Air Force veteran who “works with AI [artificial intelligence] that stand for freedom, liberty, and America.” Youngbluth said he co-created the video with Jason Coursey, a right-winger whose X bio says his pronouns are “USA.”
Their video — which almost exclusively shows white people in danger or fighting evil — looks similar to animations produced with Dall-E-2 and Midjourney AI. These two massively popular visual art generators quickly create high-quality images from simple text descriptions, streamlining the ability to create animations, even without much artistic or technical training.
In honor of Presidents Day and to support the greatest president of our lifetime, President Donald J. Trump, we are presenting “America Lives,” possibly the first AI-animated video of its kind. This collaborative video is created by @JasonCoursey and myself, @JYoungbluth. pic.twitter.com/8GC2bqanNo
Youngbluth’s nine-year-old X/Twitter account re-posts right-wing viewpoints, including statements against progressive and inclusive business policies, disproven conspiracy theories against President Joe Biden, and AI-generated images of Trump flexing his muscles in tank tops.
Youngbluth also runs Art for Patriots, a website that sells AI-rendered “patriotic” artwork reprinted on posters, mousepads, flags, blankets, mugs, and “premium throw blankets.” The artwork depicts Trump as a Roman emperor, a lion-tamer, and The Punisher, a militaristic vigilante Marvel Comics superhero idealized by anti-LGBTQ+ right-wingers.
The website also sells a stylized portrait of anti-LGBTQ+ white supremacist former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Its items range in price from $35 to $90. Its FAQ section says Youngbluth will not make images depicting President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, or former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) because “We are Art for Patriots not Art for Traitors.”
website screenshot An image of premium throw blankets from “Art for Patriots”
Justin T. Brown, a pro-LGBTQ+ satirist who has used AI to make numerous videos and social media posts mocking right-wing queerphobes, has said that the technology has the power to sway elections, “tank the market, cause a riot, or send someone into a pizza shop with a gun” (an allusion to the QAnon #Pizzagate conspiracy theory).
Even Sam Altman, the gay CEO of the massively influential artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI, has warned that AI needs to be regulated or else it could “cause significant harm to the world.” Altman’s company recently unveiled a plan to prevent AI-generated disinformation from interfering in election outcomes.
If “America Lives” is any indication, AI will increasingly be used by conservative artists to rally others to their anti-LGBTQ+ worldviews. Thankfully, some practitioners are also using cutting-edge technology to foster empathy with queer and other marginalized communities.
