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It is one thing to support the literary works of someone who has views that are disagreeable. It is quite another to continue that support when the person take

It is one thing to support the literary works of someone who has views that are disagreeable. It is quite another to continue that support when the person takes actions that are treasonous on the one hand, and supportive of murderous and barbaric activities on the other. The world was engaged in an existential fight for the very ability to speak freely at the time. Many people lost loved ones in this fight, and the cost was very high. And Pound decides he's going to lend his talent to the people killing of Jews and anyone else who got in the way of the fascists.

kelnos 6y ago
That's your opinion, and I respect it, but my opinion is that you are drawing too hard a line, and that it can be possible to separate a person's work from their other views and actions. Perhaps not always, but it can be. And -- as I said in my original comment -- it is still possible to suffer bad consequences from doing this, so we still must be careful when choosing to publish non-toxic works from toxic creators.
TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
It's one thing to go after a possibly mad poet to make a point. But while this was happening the US had shipped Von Braun and other Nazi scientists over to the US, IBM's practical contribution to the Holocaust was being quietly forgotten, the industrialist Thyssen - who provided substantial funding to Hitler and could be argued to have made WWII possible - was being allowed to live a very comfortable life having been punished with a fine of just 15% of his net worth, and there appeared to be little interest in investigating the role that US industrialists and bankers, including the grandfather of George Bush, had played in association with Thyssen and other industrialists. In fact many of their confiscated assets were quietly returned. Against this background Pound's actions had exactly zero influence on the course of the war and the fate of the holocaust victims. The real causes were elsewhere. And not only were the people responsible never deplatformed or otherwise challenged, many never faced any significant criticism of their actions. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworl...
- tomohawk 6y ago
  Nice whataboutisms. What the people running the US government and other allied governments did after the war in the face of the massive Soviet threat really has nothing to do with this case.
  - TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
    That's an interesting attempt at a whataboutism of your own. Perhaps you can explain how a fascist propagandist was supposed to be involved in the "massive Soviet threat"?

kelnos 6y ago

That's your opinion, and I respect it, but my opinion is that you are drawing too hard a line, and that it can be possible to separate a person's work from their other views and actions. Perhaps not always, but it can be. And -- as I said in my original comment -- it is still possible to suffer bad consequences from doing this, so we still must be careful when choosing to publish non-toxic works from toxic creators.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago

It's one thing to go after a possibly mad poet to make a point. But while this was happening the US had shipped Von Braun and other Nazi scientists over to the US, IBM's practical contribution to the Holocaust was being quietly forgotten, the industrialist Thyssen - who provided substantial funding to Hitler and could be argued to have made WWII possible - was being allowed to live a very comfortable life having been punished with a fine of just 15% of his net worth, and there appeared to be little interest in investigating the role that US industrialists and bankers, including the grandfather of George Bush, had played in association with Thyssen and other industrialists. In fact many of their confiscated assets were quietly returned. Against this background Pound's actions had exactly zero influence on the course of the war and the fate of the holocaust victims. The real causes were elsewhere. And not only were the people responsible never deplatformed or otherwise challenged, many never faced any significant criticism of their actions. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworl...

tomohawk 6y ago
Nice whataboutisms. What the people running the US government and other allied governments did after the war in the face of the massive Soviet threat really has nothing to do with this case.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  That's an interesting attempt at a whataboutism of your own. Perhaps you can explain how a fascist propagandist was supposed to be involved in the "massive Soviet threat"?