It’s something I struggle with. Some bad news comes out about some public persona doing something shitty and they get cancelled. But sometimes I really struggle with giving up the things they’ve made because I like them. There are also occasions where the person has been accused of something and it doesn’t seem true to me, or I think they’re genuinely sorry and have been punished enough, and the context isn’t being considered.
What do you think? Who do you feel conflicted about enjoying?
Neil Gaiman. I’m extremely depressed that he’s actually a POS, and because I loved his work so much, I’m conflicted. His work itself seemed to have well interrogated values woven into it’s fiber, but I guess you never can tell.
Edit: really fucking bummed about Red Hot Chili Peppers too
kiedis from scar tissue? or is there something new i missed?
Yeah, his memoir or whatever details him knowingly committing statutory of a 14 yo girl.
Justin Timberlake. I’m in my mid 30s now so I don’t follow celebrity gossip as much as I did in my tween years but from what I’ve seen he didn’t do anything too bad? Felt more like it was cool to hate him cos he’s been famous for a bit but no longer at the top. But I still think he’s a fantastic performer and some of the new songs are great.
Die Antwoord. The music tickles a particular part of my brain, but they’re accused of some truly heinous shit.
I have a weird interest in South African rock music. I would buy SA CD compilations on ebay and discogs Nd listen to all the cool SA bands. One of them had a track by an artist called Max Normal. The track fucking slapped. No one in the US has heard of these SA artists I listen to. One day I mention my interest to a coworker and he said something like “oh man, you should check out Die Antwood.” So, I did. I’m reading about Die Antwood and I had a holy fuck moment. They were the same artist on that compilation CD. They changed their name to Die Antwood. The artist of an obscure track on a compilation CD I have went on to become an internationally known artist. I also found out they are pretty shitty people. Life is crazy sometimes.
Do I dare ask? I have this sinking feeling it’s racism related…
I think Ninja told some girl he wanted to fuck her after he told her she looked like his daughter.
Typical dodgy celebrity stuff, support young artists get them high, rape…
And then there’s Racism, and exploiting kids
Bill Cosby is a monster, but his stand-up special “Himself” is a master class on comedic story-telling.
Privileged white folk really don’t realize how much good Bill Cosby has done for poor kids. He contributed an insane amount to the community. He supported schools programs financially and helped a whole generation of black folk.
And when the news came out, you better believe we were all in the 5 stages of grief.
Just a complete 180 on his entire body of work. Like finding out Batman used homeless people for target practice. Or Jesus was a sith lord.
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert. I have several of his print books and still enjoy reading them; ditto his old cartoons. They really spoke to me years ago, as a cubicle-coder.
I really enjoyed Lost Prophets music, but after what happened, I feel really weird about listening to it. I like it but I don’t feel like I should.
I wouldn’t recommend looking up what the singer did
Same. I thought their album was going to change the scene. Haven’t listened to it since he was convicted. He was stabbed to death in prison this year.
Good riddance tbh.
Genuine question, has your opinion changed now that the singer has died? In no way, shape or form is the person who sang the music benefiting in any way from you listening to it.
People often say to separate the art from the artist. In an acting role I kinda get it, because an actor is playing a different character. For music, it’s kinda the same. The music is its own thing separate from the person. Maybe?
I don’t know, not really. I feel like music embodies singers more, but I also realise that there was a whole innocent band attached to that too, that didn’t know do or condone.
Its weird, I don’t really know how to feel about it.
Walt Disney
This one hurts because he really pushed an art form.
Cartoons were not at all well respected as a method of storytelling back in the day. And Walt threw himself into the fire pretty often to strike success and build the Disney empire.
Lawrence Krauss did this awesome video about global warming for “skeptics” and deniers and it is so good
Only problem I can’t really share it because anyone who googles the name learns he’s all over the damn Epstein files
Oh wow.
I always had a weird feeling about MSI mindless self indulgence. Now all doubt is removed…
Wait, what did they do?
Jimmy Urine has settled a lawsuit for grooming and abusing a 15 year old.
I really loved the music so much. This hit me like the Neil Gaiman story
Why is everyone a fucking pedo?
Naomi Wu a.k.a. SexyCyborg on youtube.
Unforgotten.
Got taken out (and we can only imagine how, but surely in a most effective way) of public life because she had the bad luck of living in China.
I don’t think this person really fits the question, but I agree with the sentiment.
Same buddy. She burned so bright
holds up my binder of CDs
I love that you have CDs though.
Any artist old enough to have popular CD albums for sure has done something bad.
And I’m old enough to have collected them in my youth.
If you want some real gut churning debauchery, look at my tape collection. For sure those guys are evil.
(I don’t actually have a tape collection anymore)
Louis C.K
The reason he got cancelled was so stupid and everyone made it seem like he raped countless women. Also, he asked permission to do what he did. If anyone around him at that time didn’t like the sound of him doing what he asked permission for, they could’ve said ‘No’ and he wouldn’t have done it. I just didn’t see Louis being that kind of unreasonable guy but that’s what they demonized him as. I think it was all a ploy, to trap him to do what he did so they could demonize him that way.
The only reason I don’t care of him that much these days is because I’m being introduced to more comics, that I am finding Louis’ material very samey. Like always going on about his kids, family life .etc
I found this one difficult. Like they were comparing him to all the other MeToo incidents, like Cosby and Weinstein.
Which is like, there is a serious gradient of crime here. And weighing it all equally like it’s black or white is problematic.
My tinfoil hat is all that accusation and black/white style of blame is what led to the manosphere gaining so much power and attention.
He has even admitted himself that he was in a position of power over those women and that makes it considerably harder to say no when the person asking could make or break your career.
I mean, I didn’t throw out my Harry Potter boxed set just becsuse Rowling is a dumb fucking TERF. I just don’t continue buying shit she profits off of, and can see tons of questionable things in her work that I didn’t question before knowing her thoughts on things.
Doesn’t anything HP give her a cut?
It’s the reason HP is banned in this household.
The Harry Potter universe is bigger than her to where we can love the universe for what it is and can cut her out easily.
H.P. Lovecraft
Lovecraft was my first experience with seperating the artist and the work. Since then, I’ve had to deal with it frequently but eventually you get used to it.
Those books are wild.
Turns out that the author that popularized the horror of the alien and unknown was a racist and xenophobic putz. Who would have guessed?
michael jackson made incredible music. i don’t even know how much of the stuff about him is true but it does feel weird listening to his stuff now, even though it’s extremely well made.
mj was something special if very fuken weird, but the maker of his best jams was quincy jones. if you don’t know him, spend some time investigating his catalog.
He was an incredibly talented artist. I think his father deserves most of the blame for Michael’s bizarre behavior. Most adults would struggle with the pressures of fame and performing that he spent his whole life under from the time he was like 10 years old. Joe recognized that his kids were talented and then proceeded to squeeze every last red cent he could out of them. No wonder Michael snapped.
I don’t think we’ll ever know. I have a feeling he actually wasn’t a pedophile at all, but just felt close to children because he had Peter Pan syndrome or something. He seemed very infantile to me is the only real sense I got of him. Strange person. But without question he did make some r really iconic music.
yeah that’s my impression as well. being a child star really fucks you up mentally.
then again i haven’t seen the documentaries.
I agree, and the thing is we can never really know what someone is like all the time even if we get to know some aspects of them well.
I’ve been shocked by things that some people I knew did, that I would never have thought they were capable of.
I hope that is not the case for MJ, but it might be. And we’ll likely never know.
Ehhhh, I’ve seen some pics of him being happily surrounded with people known for being sex pests/pedos so idk. Two things can be true, you know, he might have been mentally and developmentally different but he might have also touched some kids, sadly.
I’ve heard rumors that he was either physically or chemically castrated to keep his beautiful, pure singing voice.
If that is the case, then it would kind of explain how fucked up he is, or how fucked up he was.
Oof. Didn’t he have kids though? Or is there a form of castration that doesn’t affect one’s ability to reproduce? Regardless, yeah, it doesn’t absolve him of his sins but let’s just say they’re attenuating factors for his judgement.
None of his kids are genetically his as far as I know.
Oop. Okay, yeah. Hurt people hurt people. 😕
The fact that he had to pay a family hush-money was incredibly suspicious enough.
I don’t give a shit about Michael Jackson. Except maybe his upbringing with his piece of shit father has had something to do with how he’d later behave. Glad Joe is dead.
