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Text 2 The contempt of artists for critics is,of course,understandable.To create an artwork is to give the world a kind of gift,and no one likes having a gifi rejected,or even inspected too carefully.In a sense,artists who condemn criticism are relying on the old idea that"it"s the thought that counts":Because the intention of the giver is generous and pure,any criticizing about the gift is cruelly small-minded.Yet as anyone who has received an ill-fitting or unsuitable gift knows,the thought is not the only thing that counts.Once a work of art emerges from its creator"s study or studio,it becomes the possession of anyone who interacts with it,and therefore it is open to judgment:Do I actually derive pleasure and enlightenment from it?There is no way to evade this question,which is the foundation of all criticism.Every reader or viewer or listener asks it,whether they want to or not.A critic is just a reader or viewer or listener who makes the question explicit and tries to answer it publicly,for the benefit of other potential readers or viewers or listeners.No one gets to be president without wanting to write his or her name in large letters on the American psyche,but most presidents at least gesture in the direction of humility and public service.President Trump,however,has never been anything but straightforward about his egotism.He made his reputation in real estate by splashing his name in gold on almost every structure he built;now he hangs a map of his electoral victory on the White House wall.When the terms of his achievement are so personal,how could criticism fail to strike him as an egoistic injury?There is a danger when we see criticism as nothing but an expression of resentment.For in politics,as in art,the right to criticize is really the right to make an independent judgment of reality.Democracy relies on a citizenry informed and active enough to make such judgments;in a democracy,we are all critics.How to live with criticism is perhaps the hardest lesson that a liberal democracy teaches its citizens.No one really welcomes it,neither the left nor the right."If we are free to loathe Trump,xve are free to loathe his most loyal voters,"wrote Frank Rich in New York magazine in March.But as soon as our critics become our enemies-voices to be silenced and dismissed,rather than listened to-we have left the realm of politics behind 27.Art criticism is generally based on