The transition from 19th to 20th century Europe was a profound reckoning with all of the myths of imperialism. Both the value of imperial expansion and the ability of empires to continue to represent their people were being called into question. Proletarianisation was at its peak in a gilded industrial age and you saw the first real maturation of marketing as corporations and states preying on psychology through their advertisements. World War 1 heightened all of the contradictions to the point that it's like it is today and the psychological trauma of living through such an irrational period meant that the only rational response was showing how fucking stupid everything is. It was saying "despite all your accolades and authority, what you have just said is that pee is poo." and deconstructing all of the imagery into OKBR memes.

Dadaism is what attracted me to Chapo. Imagine all of our hostility, but in countries where the psychic energy after the war spawned movements like the Freikorps.