Put your heroes on pedestals and watch them topple off

Simple, don't put anyone on a pedestal. Then no one is shocked at scandal because ultimately we're all going to end up 6 feet under. Every human has their flaws.

Who cares. We’re all contemptible in places in our lifetimes.
If I like the art, I like the art. Who cares who made it.
Humans make mistakes

Humans *are mistakes

Fify

I saw in Scott Kelly only what I projected there. My fascination with his work lead me to deify the man. Now I don't know who's the bigger asshole: him, or me for admiring him for something he wasn't.

And that’s the rub.

I know it's dangerous to conflate admiration of art with admiration of its artist, and I know that to boycott the fruits of underhanded deeds is to live naked in a cave grunting at the wall. But I also know that I can never listen to Neurosis again without the indelible taint of the recently revealed heinous acts of its progenitor ruining the experience. And fxck me, I'm just a fan. The bandmates just had the legacy of their lifes' work corrupted beyond redemption. And fxck them too, the real victims are Scott Kelly's (the metal paragon, not the astronaut) wife and young kids, whom he systematically and deviously tormented and abused for over a decade.

Bill Cosby's material is still clever. Sarah Silverman is still friends with Loius CK. Most medical science was built on questionable ethics. Hell, the US was arguably built on cruelty, deceit and exploitation. (Happy Thankgiving btw.) I'm still going to keep listening to Through Silver in Blood and Times of Grace...but I'll never be able to separate them from the despicable acts of their creator. I might have been saved much of this dissonance had I avoided the trap of identifying with the artist and just focused on the art.

Enjoy the art as just that, Art. Do you have to delve into the personal lives of every singer and painter before you can approve of their work? That's the beauty of art, it allows us an escape from the harsh realities of life. You can paint a perfect picture despite your own imperfection. I didn't require a criminal background check from you before I decided you were worth my time and had something positive to contribute to my stream. 😊

That certainly makes me feel better about laughing at Charles Manson's knock-knock jokes.