5 ms·
She never deserved to be shunned.
by robertheadley 3y ago
She never deserved to be shunned.
- david927 3y agoThe opposite -- I'm so proud of her for taking that stand.
- yabones 3y agoShe was right. Few people listened, and those who did took little or no action. That puts her in the highest of culture heroes to me. RIP.
- jawns 3y agoEven if you strongly agree with her criticism of the pope, the way that she expressed that criticism -- by deceiving everyone on SNL to pull off her stunt -- certainly branded her as a loose cannon in the industry. Unpredictability might entertain audiences, but it's a huge liability from an entertainment industry perspective. And arguably, her antics greatly overshadowed the message she was trying to get across. How many people even realized what she was criticizing? So it ended up pissing off a lot of people without actually being effective in drawing attention to the issue she wanted to raise awareness toward.
- TehCorwiz 3y agoA protest that doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable has no teeth.
- lotsoweiners 3y agoPlenty of protests that make people uncomfortable also have no teeth.
- redwall_hp 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denying_the_antecedent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denying_the_antecedent
- acheron 3y ago[flagged]
- mburns 3y agoShe spoke truth to power. With the benefit of hindsight, how is there any doubt she was on the right side of history for bringing attention to the issue?
- notfromhere 3y agoA whole institution spent decades covering up child sexual abuse and you’re complaining about decorum? People upset with her over that completely missed what they should be mad about.
- bigbillheck 3y agoBet it's a whole lot more than 'decades'.
- Gabriel_Martin 3y agoYour HN account is probably older than many of those kids the church covered up the abuse of. But sure, she's the asshole for making you think about it.
- CWuestefeld 3y agoI don't think that's fair. Nobody claimed the converse, and that's what would be a more apt target of your comment. And I think that there's a lot of space between "making someone uncomfortable" versus being an asshole.
- DonHopkins 3y agoThere are words much more devastating than "asshole" to aptly and fairly describe people like you who carry the water for child abusers.
- CPLX 3y agoWhat “industry” are you talking about exactly?
- IvyMike 3y agoNot sure if this was an edit, but the post says "entertainment industry"
- subpixel 3y agoElvis Costello lied to SNL as well, and then produced one of the best musical performances on that show, _ever_. Elvis was protesting corporate control and homogeneity. Sinead was protesting institutions that enabled evil. Who cares if some suits were made uncomfortable.
- dredmorbius 3y agoIn 1977: "The ultimate act of punk defiance that got Elvis Costello banned from 'Saturday Night Live'" Costello, his label and the show’s producers, had agreed prior to the show that they would perform their catchy single ‘Less Than Zero’, a track which was written about disgraced British politician Oswald Mosley who, at the time, was the former leader of the British Union of Fascists. However, as the lights of the famous studio glared down upon him, Costello wouldn’t miss his opportunity. While it certainly was considered the band’s biggest opportunity commercial to date, Costello put a stop to the performance mid-intro, yelling: “Stop! Stop!” in the direction of his band. “I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen,” he said before adding: “But there’s no reason to do this song here”. Instead, Costello and his band rolled into a performance of the song ‘Radio Radio’ which, controversially, includes lyrics that criticised the commercialisation of the airwaves in both television and radio as well as pointed the finger at corporate-controlled broadcasting. Costello had certainly made his statement clear and in the middle of one of the most hostile environments.... <https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/elvis-costello-banned-snl-video/ https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/elvis-costello-banned-snl-video...>
- bryanrasmussen 3y agoI remember reading an article in which Costello was evidently offended by some of the comedians being jerks - Bill Murray figures in - but reading this https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/elvis-costello-recalls-snl-performance-stunt-apple-music-interview-9516023/ https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/elvis-costello-recalls-... it seems more like 'protesting corporate control' as you wrote.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- IvyMike 3y agoArguably her protest was the pebble that started the avalanche of investigations of the catholic church that resulted in abuses coming to light and the Pope apologizing in 2005.
- pmarreck 3y agoI'm not disputing this, but do you have any evidence for it? (Would be nice if it were verifiably true.)
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoAnd she made exactly that point by saying that doing that didn't hurt her career, it hurt the careers of the people who wanted to make money from her.
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoLooking back 30 years later, it’s really hard to understand. If it was today, it would barely be a blip.
- GoofballJones 3y agoI would even bet if it happened on an SNL today, it would have been met with applause.
- CSMastermind 3y agoThat's just because the mores of society have changed. I can think of dozens of true statements that if spoken on a show like Saturday Night Live would led to a performer being banned.
- hotpotamus 3y agoHere's an SNL clip from way back where Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor trade racial slurs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuEBBwJdjhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuEBBwJdjhQ I'm not a big fan of the whole, "you couldn't do that today", but you sure couldn't do that today. I think you weren't supposed to do it then either which made it subversive comedy.
- cmh89 3y ago>That's just because the mores of society have changed. And the huge amounts of research that shined the light on the Catholic church's culture of preying and assaulting children and then covering it up. It took quite a heroic effort to bring the Catholic church's crimes to light and she was speaking about something the media wasn't comfortable or willing to report on.
- mynameishere 3y agoIt's not hard to understand. I remember when it happened, and I remember thinking "publicity stunt". I wouldn't hold that against her--that's show business. Sometimes you eat the nipple and sometimes the nipple eats you.
- toyg 3y ago[flagged]
- wnevets 3y agoIt's hard not to laugh whenever people talk about "cancel culture" being a new phenomenon. The amount of hate she received for merely bringing up the horrible actions the catholic church committed was absurd.
- TedDoesntTalk 3y agoWho is calling it a new phenomenon? The only thing new about it is the name.
- wnevets 3y agoVirtually everyone who complains about it. The complains are almost always about how sensitive people are today, how blazing saddles couldn't be made today or whatever non-sense they use to rage farm. Its almost always framed as a today problem.
- parker_mountain 3y agoThe problem they have, of course, is not that cancel culture exists. It's that the center of force of "cancellation" went from the right to the left. The thing they used to great effect against queer people, anti-religious people, etc, is now being directed at them. It sucks being on the other side. I personally think that things are too "hot" right now, but nobody should pretend this is a modern problem.
- kodt 3y agoI think the real complaint is over who has the power to "cancel" someone, and being upset at how that has shifted.
- somewhat_drunk 3y ago100%
- spamizbad 3y agoWhen you look at historic examples of cancel culture its almost absurd at how tame their offenses were. Dixie Chicks are another example that come to mind where critical but not controversial statements are made and it ruined people's careers.