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I’d bet you half of them react with envy rather than disgust when hearing stories like this.

by paggle 7y ago

cthalupa 7y ago
I think it's more complicated than that, at least from what I've seen. There's a lot of people that have made significant contributions to art, science, culture, etc., while being awful people, and we have a hard time reconciling that. No one would argue that we shouldn't use any of the science advanced by Einstein, yet he manipulated and cheated on his first wife while trying to totally control her, down to giving her a list of demands she had to follow through with every day. Lots of people have beat their wives. Lots of musicians - and certainly not limited to rock musicians - have raped young teens. Do we stop listening to the music of anyone that's turned out to be a shitty human being? Do we ever forgive them if they modify their behavior? How do we reconcile our like or love of one aspect of a person with their heinous acts? What's the moral thing to do here? These are tough questions to answer. So it's easy to chalk this news up as 'Man those decades were just crazy! Sex, drugs, rock and roll! The girls obviously wanted it - they set out to do it!' and not think about the hard shit while still justifying to themselves why they continue to listen to the music and support the artist. It's hard. I've thought a lot and haven't been able to answer those questions, beyond coming up with a compromise for myself - I'll keep listening to the music, but I won't do anything to support an artist further if I learn of behavior like this. No concerts, no merch, etc. It's not perfect and I'm still contributing to their finances when I stream a song on spotify or whatever, but it's one that works for me. I do hope that it's this sort of thing that leads to the defense of the behavior, and not them actually being envious.
- paggle 7y ago
  Thanks. I don’t object to listening to Iggy Pop but I do object to writing articles about him today which don’t start and end with his history of child rape. No need to elevate this guy in any way.

I’d bet you half of them react with envy rather than disgust when hearing stories like this.

by paggle 7y ago

I’d bet you half of them react with envy rather than disgust when hearing stories like this.

I think it's more complicated than that, at least from what I've seen. There's a lot of people that have made significant contributions to art, science, culture, etc., while being awful people, and we have a hard time reconciling that. No one would argue that we shouldn't use any of the science advanced by Einstein, yet he manipulated and cheated on his first wife while trying to totally control her, down to giving her a list of demands she had to follow through with every day. Lots of people have beat their wives. Lots of musicians - and certainly not limited to rock musicians - have raped young teens. Do we stop listening to the music of anyone that's turned out to be a shitty human being? Do we ever forgive them if they modify their behavior? How do we reconcile our like or love of one aspect of a person with their heinous acts? What's the moral thing to do here? These are tough questions to answer. So it's easy to chalk this news up as 'Man those decades were just crazy! Sex, drugs, rock and roll! The girls obviously wanted it - they set out to do it!' and not think about the hard shit while still justifying to themselves why they continue to listen to the music and support the artist. It's hard. I've thought a lot and haven't been able to answer those questions, beyond coming up with a compromise for myself - I'll keep listening to the music, but I won't do anything to support an artist further if I learn of behavior like this. No concerts, no merch, etc. It's not perfect and I'm still contributing to their finances when I stream a song on spotify or whatever, but it's one that works for me. I do hope that it's this sort of thing that leads to the defense of the behavior, and not them actually being envious.

paggle 7y ago
Thanks. I don’t object to listening to Iggy Pop but I do object to writing articles about him today which don’t start and end with his history of child rape. No need to elevate this guy in any way.