The Dark Forces Destroying Art, Beauty and Robbing You of Your God-Given Creativity

The Tucker Carlson Show

Tucker Carlson interviews Jess Elofson, a self-taught potter and welder from South Dakota, about the decline of beauty, artistry, and creati

Key takeaways

• Beauty is intrinsically linked to symmetry, balance, and sacred geometry—foundational principles in nature and classical art.
• Modern art is portrayed as a deliberate attack on traditional beauty, possibly orchestrated through historical movements like Dada or even Cold War-era CIA influence.

Main topics

• The decline of beauty in modern art and architecture
• Critique of the Barack Obama Presidential Library as an aesthetic assault

Notable quotes

"Symmetry is the basis of beauty." "It's not possible that you have any appreciation for this shit." "That amount of money... it's got to be money laundering." "We need beauty in our lives and when we don't have that, it lowers your ability to think and enjoy and find your own happiness." "There has been nothing created mainstream in this world since I was born that should be taken in by human senses. It is disgusting." "My art comes with an IQ test. I'm not that difficult to find."

Conclusion

The episode argues that the systematic destruction of beauty in culture—through architecture, art,

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:04) Jess, thank you for doing this. Thank Speaker 3 (0:05) you, Tucker. Speaker 2 (0:06) One of my many theories, but the one I believe in most fervently is that the meritocracy as practiced in the United States is not a meritocracy. The promise is, you know, the system is going to locate the smartest people in the 50 states, funnel them through a certain number of approved schools, and then into a certain number of approved businesses or government, and we're going to get good governance and a good country as a result. And in fact, the opposite has happened. The system is designed to exclude. yeah rather than include exclude christians people with an independent cast of mind creativity you know an awakened spirit all of them genius all of them are excluded in favor of hyper aggressive selfish small-minded cruel compliant people and that's how you wind up with a system where ben shapiro gets into harvard like how could ben shapiro i'm just like on iq points it's not possible Sorry for the long preamble, but there's a reason, and I want viewers to understand why I was so anxious to do this interview. You live on a farm in South Dakota. You are a potter and a welder, and I think you're one of the best artists I've met personally. I think you have a kind of genius to what you do and an aesthetic sense that's lacking in our leadership, and I don't think a government populated by people who cared about beauty would blow up girls' schools. or allow its population to die of drug ODs. So I think it really, really matters. The love of beauty really matters and you have it. So anyway, that's why I'm doing this interview and there's a bigger reason and I hope a lot of people watch it. Tell us who you are, where you're from, how you live. Speaker 3 (1:47) My name is Jess Ellefson. I'm a three-dimensional artist. I do not, while I primarily work in ceramics, all three-dimensional art. I can work with any medium and create beauty with it. And that really is the goal of what I try to do, to make beautiful things out of materials that no one would ever think of. It's why I love ceramics. I can create. beautiful, long-lasting, enduring pieces of functional art that people can appreciate from just nothing more than raw elements off the periodic table. And it requires absolutely zero input or assistance from any other human on this planet. It is truly my own skills, my own mind, and my own abilities put down for eternity. Ceramics are what marks every civilization, is marked by its ceramics. And when you see what modern art puts out and just the horrendous... disgusting lack of aesthetics, lack of skill, lack of thought in modern art. It has disgusted me since high school art classes. I got in trouble for calling bullshit on modern art that they were like, this is in the Guggenheim. I was like, why? Because that's fucking horrendous. Like I wouldn't put that in my toilet. Like you think that this dude is skilled like people just drape plastic over shit or duct tape a banana to a wall like there's no possible way if you're being intellectually honest with me that you have any appreciation for this shit. Speaker 2 (3:44) And so before I want to understand what the purpose of it is, I mean, clearly this didn't arise organically. This the movement which began with Dada 100 years ago and then flowered into all kinds of different movements, but basically modern and postmodern art. Speaker 3 (4:01) I've heard it was a CIA op. Like literally like with Jackson Pollock who just slapped paint on a canvas and it was just trash and like there's no thought or interesting things beyond it. I've heard that the CIA started just paying retarded amounts of money for his paintings just to fuck with Russia. Because they were like, we'll do this and we'll make this the art. And like, when you look at Russian art and Russian classical architecture, which is like how our architecture used to be, right? Yes. Like beauty, symmetry, skill, like they wanted to confuse them. And for what reason? I mean, that's their admitted goal. Speaker 3 (4:47) And then you wonder, like, is that even their admitted goal? Were they just trying to destroy our society? Because that was the actual end effect, right? It Speaker 2 (4:55) was the end effect. Speaker 1 (4:57) So Speaker 2 (4:57) I want to put two images on the screen to contrast what I think art is and has always been and certainly ought to be with what art has become and has a totally different purpose. The first would be present-day understanding of what beauty is. which is in fact an attack on beauty. And this is the presidential library of Barack Obama, which I think I have read cost approaching a billion dollars to construct. It's in Chicago. Here it is. We're putting it on the screen now. So what do you make of that? Is that beautiful? Speaker 3 (5:30) The eye of Mordor? No, it is the absolute contrary opposition to aesthetics and beauty. There's no symmetry to that. Symmetry is... the basis of beauty. Speaker 2 (5:47) Yes. That's, that's what your eye immediately is drawn to. You don't have to be told what's beautiful. That's Speaker 3 (5:53) right. You don't have to be told when a woman is beautiful, like, and they teach you that in early art school, but then somehow it gets lost in the upper levels, you know, draw a line down the middle perspective, symmetry, balance, aesthetic. So Speaker 2 (6:09) symmetry is balance, right? It's so the human body is draw a line. Yeah. and you you can feel it through if you know just by touch you're from your palate to your navel to your toes you are symmetrical you two sides have joined even sides have joined mirror images have joined and there's a and that is true in nature it's true in plants it's true in other animals and so this is an organic fact symmetry is beauty the fibonacci Speaker 3 (6:35) spiral yes the golden ratio the golden means sacred geometry the the whole way everything was built and created before you know what the industrial revolution and the degradation of Speaker 2 (6:52) our own culture yes And so if something is asymmetrical, by definition, it cannot be beautiful. Or it's an assault on the senses. Speaker 3 (7:03) Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:03) Right. So you look at that building and you have to ask, what's the purpose of it? And when you spend $800 million to build something, it's not a haphazard project. There's a design to it, right? Literally a design, but also a conceptual design. Like, what are you trying to do with this building? Speaker 3 (7:17) I mean, that amount of money, it's got to be money laundering, right? Well, there's that. It didn't cost $2 million to build. Right. There's no way. Like you were just slapping together shit. You didn't cut shit. You didn't measure anything. You were just like, hey, look at that piece of metal I found in the scrap pile. Weld that one to this one. You know, is there even windows in the thing? Right. Like there's no way it could be billions of dollars. It's just not, it's just not possible. Speaker 2 (7:41) And yet the number of credentialed members of our ruling class will gaze upon that building and, you know, give. about how it's beauty and it challenges us to, excuse me, understand this or that. They'll justify it as art when every person looking at it knows that it's grotesque, it's offensive. So what's the purpose of that? It's to hurt us, isn't it? Speaker 3 (8:08) It is. To degrade our society, to destroy our families, to destroy your ideas of beauty, to take it out of your life. we need beauty in our lives and when we don't have that and when your surroundings are so degraded it lowers your ability to think and enjoy and find your own happiness yes in your in your life yes we are all drawn to beauty Look at the classical art and the Greek sculptures of the ideal human form. We should be worshiping those things, not... having Speaker 2 (8:55) dicks on chicks. Right. Which itself is an assault on not just the natural order, but aesthetics. Speaker 3 (9:01) What in this society today isn't an assault on humanity. Yes. It's become so blatant and obvious that they hate us and they want to destroy our lives and make us miserable and beat us down and shove. horribly ugly, disgusting music and architecture. There is nothing mainstream in this world that has any beauty in it. It is disgusting. Even the thoughts and policies of this government are disgusting. The music that they put out, which is also purposely to degrade our society. There has been nothing created mainstream in this world since I was born that should be taken in by human senses. It is, I'm disgusted by it all. I've been disgusted by it all forever. Most Speaker 1 (10:05) people don't like thinking about life insurance. It's one of those topics you tend to kind of put off. But if you're married, you've got kids, you've got people who depend on you. you probably should think about what would happen if you weren't around. And that's why we've partnered with Ethos. They've made getting life insurance super easy. You can do the whole thing online. You don't have to sit down with an agent or go through a medical exam. You get a quote in seconds, apply in just a few minutes, and in some cases, you get coverage the same day. You just answer a couple of simple health questions. You get up to $3 million in coverage. Some policies can be yours for as little as $30 a month. So it's a good deal. If you've been putting off life insurance because you thought it would be a very complicated, expensive process, you should probably check out Ethos. Take a couple of minutes, get your free quote online at ethos.com slash tucker. Ethos is E-T-H-O-S dot com slash tucker. Application times obviously vary as do rates, but we think it's pretty good. Speaker 2 (10:59) So I think what sets you apart is that you take it seriously because you understand its importance. I'm with you 100%. These are not boutique concerns. These are not like some eccentric fixation that you have. This is at the heart of what it means to be human and to continue your civilization and build one worth having. So I want to contrast the Obama Presidential Library, which is a pretty easy shot, by the way. I almost feel bad putting that up there. I mean, because as you said, ugliness, intentional ugliness, asymmetrical design, assaults on us are everywhere. I mean, from the packaging and the products we buy at the supermarket to the design of fast food restaurants and big box stores, you know, it's all around, it's omnipresent. But this is just a really obvious example. I want to contrast that with a video that I saw, I want to play 15 or 20 seconds of it, of art that you were creating, which we have been trained to dismiss as not art, as utilitarian. as welding. This is video. This was my first experience of your work. And the first time I heard your name, someone sent me this video. Someone whose aesthetic sense I admire and trust and said, this is unbelievable. This is you. Well, tell us what this is. It's you building a wood stove out of what? Speaker 3 (12:19) Out of excavator buckets. And not only is that a way to repurpose something that has already had a utilitarian life, but to give it a new purpose and create something that is not only beautiful, but functional. Yeah, Speaker 2 (12:40) useful. Speaker 3 (12:40) And does a better job at what it does than anything else you can buy today. That's really, and it's permanence. It's permanence. It's not just, you know, use this for a couple years and throw it away. What I like about it is that these are generational. These are pieces of functional art that could heat your home for generations. It's Speaker 2 (13:11) a Roman aqueduct. It's the Acropolis. It's still there. Speaker 3 (13:14) There is no greater civilization than the Roman Republic and the things they built and the architecture. Our Republic is framed on theirs. Yes. Our society was thought up. to be the best of what the Romans had to offer. Then with a bill of rights added to it, it was a possible shot at the golden age. Yes. And it's been perverted and destroyed and degraded and taken advantage of. Speaker 2 (13:47) It sure has. So without further ado, here is you creating art from an excavator bucket. Watch. Speaker 3 (13:57) This one's 1,500 pounds. Not every bucket can be a stove. I've built them up to 60 inches. The last one I built before this one was like almost, it was over 6,000 pounds when it was done. The color on this, this is only from fucking, what, eight hours, 10 hours of firing on it? The color is gonna soak all the way up and through this thing. After you've been using this thing for about a month straight. The color soaks all the way through it. The whole thing will get patinaed, and that's what fucking seals it. You can't put anything on the outside of it. Like, I did two loads of wood, and they hit 500, 600 degrees on this thing. And, of course, this flat spot up top is for cooking, right? You build these out, so that's Speaker 2 (14:40) a Speaker 3 (14:40) cooking plate. That hit 400 degrees while I was firing it just on that little thing. You fry yourself some fucking bacon. Speaker 2 (14:46) So, um... you know i guess you either find that beautiful or you don't i i don't send videos to people i don't watch videos i don't care for video i sent that to many people i showed my wife that probably the only video i've ever showed my wife um and she agreed that it was beautiful and that it also as you said this is this is an object that has use that that warms the home and anyone of course there's an assault on wood stoves because a wood stove is inherently beautiful uh so now they're banned But anyone who lives at the wood stove can tell you there's no more uplifting way, joyful way to heat your home than a wood stove. We have nothing in this world without fire. Speaker 3 (15:26) Fire is the basis of human ingenuity. It is the first tool we created. It cooks our food. It warms our homes. Human civilization doesn't exist without fire. It creates energy. There you go. Yeah. Speaker 2 (15:45) Steam powered generators. Exactly. Which is where we get our electricity overwhelmingly even now. So give us some background on you. So you live in Soho in New York over your gallery. Tell us where you're from. I live on my family Speaker 3 (16:02) farm in South Dakota, about 20 miles east of Sioux Falls. not far enough from civilization. And Speaker 2 (16:11) there's a thriving conceptual art community there? Yeah, no, Speaker 3 (16:14) South Dakota does not like me. Speaker 2 (16:17) Why? Speaker 3 (16:21) Because they are mainstream. Yeah. It Speaker 2 (16:25) is 10 years behind the rest of the world. They're insecure like a lot of rural places and they seek mainstream acceptance and so they fall for the dumbest lies. Speaker 3 (16:35) Sioux Falls wants to be all of the other biggest shitty cities. Right. And is like addicted to bringing in the shittiest. ideas from every other shitty city. Speaker 2 (16:47) Why don't we have African homeless here? Where's our drug problem? We need that. Speaker 3 (16:50) Yeah. They are super concerned about it. They feel left out. There's not enough stabbings and shootings and drug addictions. Yeah. Speaker 2 (16:56) Yeah. No, I'm very, as someone who lives in a rural area, I'm very familiar with the mindset. Tell me about the farm. It's a family farm. Yes. My Speaker 3 (17:05) family came from Sweden. Through Ellis Island, got an ox and a wagon and came directly to where I now live in 1876. Really? Same piece of ground? Same piece of ground. My studio is, what my studio is now is the first homestead house that they built in 1891. Speaker 2 (17:29) Amazing. Yeah. And your family's been there continuously the whole time? Yes. Speaker 3 (17:35) Yes. Always, always generations living there. Never just one, never just two, usually three. I grew up with my grandfather on the farm and my uncle also living there as well. And you still have three generations there now? Yes, we do. Yeah. On the same farm? On the same farm. I live 150 yards from my parents. Yeah. I get to see my dad every day. We work together. Who Speaker 2 (18:01) built your house? I Speaker 3 (18:03) built my house. Like Speaker 2 (18:04) physically built it? Physically built it. Yes. Yep. What kind of farm is it? Speaker 3 (18:11) Primarily agriculture. It's crossed many different things over the century and a half. I'm trying to bring it back to incorporate grass-fed natural livestock. I want to take it back to self-sufficient. I had to interview my grandfather when I was in middle school to talk about the Great Depression. And I was like, you know what was the great depression like like how did your life change and he was like what the fuck you talking about he's like we didn't even know there was a depression like it was the same shit it was the same thing from the day before and it was the same thing for the 10 years after like what do you mean there was what great depression like we were we were dirt poor we were self-sufficient And it was my grandfather who said to me, if you want nice things, you better learn to build them yourselves because we don't have any money. And he said that to my dad and he said that to me. And it stuck with both of us. My dad built his own house. My dad taught me how to restore vehicles. Speaker 3 (19:29) All that, I can build cars from the ground up. The best cars ever built. The old Ford 60s, 70s. There again, no car has been built since 1979 that's worth the money you pay for it. Yeah. Speaker 2 (19:44) What's in your studio? Speaker 3 (19:46) A wood stove. I bet. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (19:50) What else? Speaker 3 (19:53) I write all the greatest things I've ever learned on the walls around me. Pieces of history, some native pottery artifacts that I've collected from around the world. I love history. I think without history, you can't understand where you need to go. You can't understand where we've been. But moreover, you can see the mistakes of the past. Everyone has something to teach us. And the most important lesson is what not to do. Exactly. And if you learn only what not to do. I said that to my daughter the other day. I was like, you know, I don't, I, I, my daughter was born when I was 23 years old. Me and my wife, they was not planned, you know, but it, it bonded us together. And all I knew was what not to do from how I grew up. What did you know not to do? Speaker 3 (20:57) Not ignore your kids that even five minutes of not paying attention can cost lives. No one is guaranteed another day on this earth. That's right. And we can all leave at any moment. So live your life to the fullest. Use every moment and just... It's not hard to love your child and just be supportive. All you have to think is, how would I want to be talked to in this moment? What would I need? What would I have liked to have heard? Yeah. And there's no guidance in this world anymore. It'd be awesome if there was anybody out there, any preachers or churches or figures that were like, Here's how you properly raise a family, and that doesn't exist. It's only like how to destroy a family. Speaker 1 (21:57) We're often assured that Christians are safe in the Holy Land. Is that true? Well, the descendants of the very first Christians, these are families who have worshipped in the land of Jesus for centuries, for millennia, are now facing enormous pressure to flee their own homes. War and anti-Christian terrorism are driving them out, and untold numbers of innocent people are left feeling lost and without hope. This is why we are truly, genuinely proud to support the Vulnerable People Project. VPP is one of the very few organizations in the world consistently helping vulnerable Christians throughout the Holy Land, not hurting them, not lying to them, not trying to ethnically cleanse them, but helping them for real. Because of the generosity of our audience, VPP raised enough support to host a Bible summer camp for the children of Tabay. We saw pictures from that camp. It's an amazing site, and we're really proud to be part of it. This work makes a real difference in the lives of good people, but it's not possible without support from people like you. A gift of just $33 provides a day of protection and support for vulnerable Christians in the West Bank. A monthly gift of $83 helps sustain that protection all month long. We hope you will visit savewestbankchristians.com and stand with Christians in the Holy Land, the place where Christianity began, the land that Jesus walked. That's savewestbankchristians.com. Thanks. Speaker 3 (23:22) So where do you go for guidance? I basically have operated under the holy knowledge of what not to do. Yes. And then if something works, you repeat it. And if it doesn't, you change. pass. You change tactics. You adapt. You overcome. Yes. No lie. Probably the best marriage advice I've ever gotten is I've heard from you of things that never even occurred to me that seem so simple about when your wife says to you, where would you like to eat? And it was so eloquent the way you explained it. Just, oh, I'd like to go to Chinese. Like, let's go to Chinese. Oh, I hate Chinese. Yes, Chinese sucks. Like, how to be that support? Like, I don't know where you've gained these sage words Speaker 2 (24:15) of wisdom. She wants Speaker 3 (24:15) you to make the decision. Speaker 2 (24:16) She does not want to be bulldozed or yelled at or ordered around. Women hate that. But they want you to make the decision. And so very often the decision that you make is her choice repeated back to her in the form of a decision. And if you don't do that, she will feel abandoned, unprotected. She'll feel that you're not interested in her. Women are different from men, very different. Yes. But we need each other. A hundred percent. I couldn't live a day without my wife. I wouldn't want to, that's for sure. I would not be the person I am without my wife. Of course not. Of course not. But the lies that we've been told about the way that the sexes get along, the main lie is that they're identical. couldn't be farther from the truth. They couldn't be more different. We overestimate the differences between races and dramatically underestimate the difference between sexes. Men and women are nothing alike. And if you don't know that, and you treat your wife like your buddy, you're going to have a very unhappy wife. Speaker 1 (25:12) Or you're going to have a very short marriage. Speaker 2 (25:14) Very short marriage. And you Speaker 1 (25:16) will never know why. Speaker 2 (25:17) You know, we just weren't compatible. No, you just didn't understand. The difference is between men and women. And she does not want to be bossed around or ordered around or yelled at. My gosh, never yell at your wife ever. But she wants to be protected and provided for. And there's no shame in that. That's your duty. So anyway, so what's, tell me, you have a kiln in your shop. Yeah. A wood-fired kiln. What's a wood-fired kiln? I have a Speaker 3 (25:42) wood-fired kiln. And it's an anagama-style kiln that I kind of modified for, Speaker 3 (25:51) my use just from experience. It's a high fire ceramics kiln that burns wood. I also have a six burner downdraft LP kiln as well. Speaker 2 (26:00) So a wood fired kiln, where'd you get it? Where'd you buy that? Speaker 3 (26:03) Yeah. Yeah. No, that's not something you can buy. You have to build that. Yeah. Speaker 2 (26:08) How big a project is that? Speaker 3 (26:10) Six months of eight, 10 hour days. To build a Speaker 2 (26:14) kiln? Speaker 3 (26:15) 5,000 bricks. You're talking math. and geometry, cantonary arches, understandings of architecture, Speaker 2 (26:25) right? Why? Why is it not just a hotbox? Speaker 2 (26:31) 2,350 degrees isn't fucking around, Tucker. Well, you just stack a lot of wood and it gets to 2,350 degrees, no? Speaker 3 (26:39) No, you can burn a pile of wood on the ground all week long and it will never get hotter than 1,376 degrees. That is the peak temp burning of wood. Just like paper has an ignition point of like, what, 900? Speaker 2 (26:53) Yes. Speaker 3 (26:54) Yeah. So it is the shape of the kiln. the size of the chimney, the size of the firebox, to create the natural draft, and then the stored energy principles of thermodynamics to achieve temperatures over 2,000 degrees. It is incredibly complex, and I've seen more people fail at it than succeed. Speaker 2 (27:17) So, basically the design, the cantonary arches that you referred to, the design of the architecture of the kiln increases the temperature of the fire. Speaker 3 (27:30) Yes, yes. The way it works is your firebox sits at the front, your firing chamber is in between that, your chimney is at the back, your chimney is what is going to create that draft. But there are things to understand, like the expansion of air by volume as it is heated. So if the air coming in at 2,000 degrees increases in volume by four times its size, that math equation has to be done to have enough space at the back to allow that to leave. But if it's too big, it will not. create draft. These are not principles or ideas that you can hunt and peck around at or just happen to fucking build it right. There is complex math involved in building a kiln. These are not things that you're just like, oh, I just want to burn some pots and get them hot. And so that is one