> Today, a person’s success (because our culture has been reduced to basically only valuing popularity (visibility) and wealth and not intelligence or moral rec

> Today, a person’s success (because our culture has been reduced to basically only valuing popularity (visibility) and wealth and not intelligence or moral rectitude) tends to grant them degrees of social immunity and prevent the appropriate application of the law Is it really a problem specific to our society that being famous/rich/talented/pretty/etc allows people to, sometimes literally, get away with murder? > The révocation of works is not some abstract association between morals and the value of artworks as such—it is the concrete fallout of our particular situation and the realization that in our particular society wide distribution grants you some form of power that plenty of assholes have used to abuse other human beings and skirt the legal repercussions. It seems facile to say that it's bad that "powerful assholes can abuse their power and then skirt the repercussions". I think we're all in agreement about that. In a just world, no matter how rich or famous you are, if you do the crime, you will be caught and punished. The question is: how do we bring about that world? Our justice/legal system is a series of compromises. I think we've basically made the right compromises. I'm open to people questioning those compromises, to people suggesting new compromises or rethinking the old ones. At the same time I'm skeptical that there are easy solutions that would result in a fairer society. I also don't see a lot of what I would describe as "useful and productive questioning" on this subject. Furthermore, some of this stuff has nothing to do with crimes at all. Roseanne Barr saying something racist is not a crime. > people aren’t interested in saying there’s some innate connection between the moral quality of artists and the quality of their work The comment I responded to is making this exact argument. Lots of the outrage about Cosby/Louie CK/Polanski/etc makes the argument that their work is rife with vileness.