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Discussion on: Can we separate the artist from their art? Should we?

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dalmo profile image
Dalmo Mendonça

Too personal maybe?

Nobody's irreplaceable so if you don't feel comfortable supporting someone, look elsewhere. However that's your personal choice.

An example I can relate to is music. Many of the musicians I listen to could be terrible people, church arsonists etc but that makes no difference to the purpose of entertainment.

Some level of abstraction is inherent otherwise you'll go crazy, but you're free to draw your own line of course.

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awwsmm profile image
Andrew (he/him)

What church arsonists do you listen to? It's not Mayhem, is it?

You're right, of course, that like everything in life, this isn't black and white. Everyone has to draw their own line and decide what's acceptable and what's not.

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dalmo profile image
Dalmo Mendonça

Burzum, Emperor... lol no, I just pulled an extreme example.

What I meant by "drawing the line" was not only judging what's acceptable or not, but also about the level of abstraction between yourself and the artist in a certain context.

I won't say that arson is acceptable, but I would listen to Mayhem if I happened to like it. However I wouldn't go to a meet and greet and ask for autographs. Different contexts allow for greater or less abstraction.

An analogy with your original point would be: You're okay reading his book but not watching his videos.

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awwsmm profile image
Andrew (he/him)

That's probably the best approach. Different levels of acceptance for different media / interactions with that media / that artist. Extremely subjective, unfortunately...