Political Resistance and Propaganda: From Dadaism to Slopaganda (Part 1)

 

AI-generated video animations, especially those emerging during the recent US-Iran war, have captivated social media users with political satire. Often blunt and using violent imagery, these production blur the lines between reality and fabrication, shaping narratives about war, democracy, and the “truth.”    

The use of satire, parody, and comical or even grotesque imagery for political purposes has a long history, evident during both World Wars and throughout the Cold War. Such tactics were not only employed by groups seeking to challenge and criticize prevailing power structures, systems, and political leaders, but also by governments and political elites themselves as instruments of propaganda.

Dadaism

Ridicule and absurdity as tools to shape public perception of politics saw their most explicit expression in the Dada artistic movement (1916–1925). Emerging first in Zurich during the Great War, Dadaism proclaimed itself as an antiwar, antibourgeois, and antifascist art movement. In fact, it was described as an “antiart art” movement that aims to take art back from the bourgeois. European artists opposed to the war and evading conscription found solace in neutral Switzerland, where they can express antiwar sentiments and collectivist ideals. This led to the formation of Dada Zurich, with prominent figure poet Tristan Tzara. Dada Zurich artists gathered in the Cabaret Voltaire night club, founded in 1916 by poets Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings, staging performances and exhibitions that deployed absurdities to expose the corrupt state of European liberalism, critique nationalism, and shock the common sense.

Cabaret Voltaire in 2006 (Wikipedia). It still exists today as a museum and cultural center.

One of Dada’s distinctive designs was its use of typography. Fragments of newsprint were cut and pasted in arrangements that made no sense, underscoring the message that government propaganda is just senseless rhetoric. Another distinctive feature—which particularly marks postwar Dadaism—was the use of photomontage that exhibits caricatures of government officials and cartoonish cutouts of images to satirize authority.

Dada Politics

In the postwar, some Dadaists chose the path to politics and used art as a vehicle for political means. Berlin Dadaism confronted the political and economic turmoil of Weimar Germany and became involved in communist organizing. Club Dada was founded in 1918 as a space for Berlin Dadaists to disseminate anticapitalist—and later antifascist—propaganda, and promote agitprop, transforming Dada from a cultural movement to a social movement for political change.

"Höch was one of the few renown Dada female artists to call out state capitalist patriarchy, and at the same time, patriarchy within the Dada movement itself ...

In the work of German artist Hannah Höch, “Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany” (1919), the heads of Weimar government officials are scattered across the composition. A map of Europe appears, highlighting countries where women had achieved suffrage. The kitchen knife—an object associated with domesticity and women—has been interpreted as a metaphor for cutting through male-dominated culture and dismantling the oppression of women. In “High Finance” (1923), Höch collaged male bankers and industrialists with grotesque distortions, exposing the entanglement of capital and patriarchy. Höch was one of the few renown Dada female artists to call out state capitalist patriarchy, and at the same time, patriarchy within the Dada movement itself, which did not seek to dismantle male privilege.

Hannah Höch
“Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany”, 1919
 (thecollector.com)

Although Dadaism presented a powerful message and Zurich Dadaists gained international acclaim, internal fragmentation and the absence of a unifying vision led to the inevitable dissolution of the movement in 1925. Nevertheless, subsequent artistic genres have inherited the chaos, parody, and provocation of Dadaism. Its tactics of mockery and grotesque imagery have influenced punk, zines, and, more recently, meme culture, which includes today’s AI-generated short videos spreading political propaganda or voicing resistance.

Dada-influenced Political Propaganda and Countercultures

Although Dada died out by the mid-1920s, its concept lived on to inspire artists and countercultures for decades, and ironically, also informed government propaganda. World War II and Cold War political propaganda—although not directly influenced by Dadaism—frequently employed tactics of parody, caricature, ridicule, and absurdity that resonate with Dadaism. Often taking the form of comic illustrations and short films with grotesque imagery, these works produced by both state agencies and independent groups, sought not only to bolster nationalism but also to intimidate adversaries and undermine enemy morale. Notable examples include “Der Fuehrer’s Face” (US government sponsored Disney cartoon, 1943), America’s “MAD Magazine” comic illustrations and Herblock editorial cartoons, and “The Millionaire” (Soviet cartoon on American imperialism produced by Soyuzmultfilm, 1963).

Screen shot of a scene from the Soviet cartoon, The Millionaire, released 1963 (YouTube)

Counterculture movements such as The Beat Generation (mid-1940s–mid-1960s), through self-publications of zines and other experimental works, reflected the influence of Dada’s antiestablishment aesthetics in their break with literary and cultural conventions, particularly in poetry and prose. Later, the Neo-Dada artists of the 1950s employed everyday objects, such as garbage, as satire to convey social commentary. This practice indirectly influenced Pop Art in its mass-produced imagery and usage of consumer goods to critique the elitism of high art. In fact, it is both interesting and ironic that amid the current US-Iran War, an “Art and War” exhibition is taking place in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art featuring antiwar-themed Pop Art by American artists of the 1960s. Deploying comical imagery, collage, mass produced objects, and textual wordplay to critique nationalism, militarism, war, and authority, these works demonstrate Dada’s enduring legacy of ridicule, parody, disruption, and resistance.

1970s punk zine (Pinterest.com)

The 1970s witnessed a Dadaist revival, notably in San Francisco, where performance art and zines carried over the antiart ethos and nonsensical aesthetics of the original movement. Later in the decade, the “grandchildren” of Dadaism emerged in Punk counterculture and short-lived underground zines. Whether or not punk was consciously informed by Dada, the anticapitalist, anticopyright, and D.I.Y. ethos of its zines and artworks reveal a clear lineage to Dadaist predecessors. Likewise, street art inherits Dada’s legacy of employing everyday objects, photomontage, and collage to produce art that stands as social commentary. They also carry Dada’s ethos of antiauthority as well as its tactics of disruption and provocation to shock common sense.

In the digital era, Dadaism appears to have mutated into new forms, as internet memes have inherited its DNA. This continuity is evident in today’s viral “slopaganda” videos on the ongoing US-Iran war that are flooding online platforms, exhibiting resistance and power play. This will be discussed in Part 2.

Top Image: Jean Arp, woodcut and collage for the cover of Dada 4-5, 1919 (Wikimedia Commons)

Read my other blog for topics on history and countercultures

Sources:

Anania, Billie (2022) The Dada Movement’s Political Turn. Jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2022/03/dada-movement-radical-weimar-republic-political-art [Accessed 30 March 2026].

Cramer, Charles and Kim Grant (2020) 'Dada Politics.' Smarthistory. https://smarthistory.org/dada-politics/ [Accessed 30 March 2026].

Groff, Adam (2025) Hegemonic Masculinity. EBSCO. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/political-science/hegemonic-masculinity [Accessed 7 April 2026].

Smith, Julianna (2022) History of the Zine. Coog Radio at University of Houston. https://coogradio.com/2022/04/history-of-the-zine/ [Accessed 11 April 2026].

Sullivan, James (1998) Dada Rises from Art Underground/Show Looks at Precursor to Punk Counterculture. SFGATE. https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Dada-Rises-From-Art-Underground-Show-looks-at-2998074.php [Accessed 11 April 2026].

The Millionaire (2010) Nam Dau YouTube channel. Soviet animated video first released in 1963. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jETJt_zbnKk [Accessed 13 April 2026].