Do you hold artist's political views against them?

originally posted by: Boadicea

originally posted by: eluryh22
a reply to: Boadicea

I think overall, we aren't too far apart from each other.

I think you may be right about that. It's just that sometimes freedom gets messy! As long as our hearts are in the right place, we can work it out or through or whatever it takes.

I can drink to that! (It's gotta be after 5:00pm somewhere).
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a reply to: Profusion
By artists you mean artists, right? Picasso was a member of the communist party late in his life. He was sort of a trophy mascot for the party, and painted The Sinchon Massacre in Korea back in 1950 and we all have seen his masterpiece Guernica.

George Bernard Shaw was a socialist, Beethoven was a fan of Napoleon. Lots of examples in history. Can we hold it against them? We can if we want to but will that affect they're contribution to humanity? Likely not. Who can argue if after two hundred years Katy Perry is still listened to or maybe her songs will be transcribed to orchestral pieces or acoustic quartets? Imagine Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball as an inspiration for a future opera composer or as a future Broadway-like show.

a reply to: usernameconspiracy

Just remember, I also said it depends on the views in question in this post. So there's no disagreement there. However, people have different values and priorities, which means that different things qualify as "extreme beliefs" to different people.

There's a thread going on right now where people here are vigorously defending hate speech. Some of them may also think that I'd be overreacting if I rejected the artists in the RaHoWa hate group because of their political views. Why? Because what qualifies as extreme beliefs to me may not be extreme to them. And by extension, the political views that they find extreme may not be extreme to me or you.

That's why I don't think it's correct to label people as flawed people with underdeveloped brains if they reject people with beliefs that they consider extreme. I might not agree with their assessment, but I at least acknowledge that we all have different sets of beliefs/views/priorities, etc.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Fair enough. And it's obvious I failed to read the post you linked until just now, and I have no argument with that decision on your part, although I can't think of any celebrity who has ever been "directly opposed to my priorities" but I don't know your battles, so maybe you do.

And since I'm finding this conversation intriguing, I will counter and say that people who hold extreme views probably don't think of those views as extreme at all.

If you can see or know someone with extremist views and be satisfied with knowing you don't agree, but are okay with them having those views based on everyone having different roads to walk, I applaud you. Not many can, or are willing to see both sides when it comes to extremism.