I can usually separate art from the artist, given that the media in question doesn’t reflect their opinions/isn’t influenced by their actions.

I read/listen/watch my Harry Potter books and movies that I’ve had for 20 years because it basically kept me alive when I was in the closet and it’s a big part of me but also fuck JK Rowling.

If the content itself doesn’t reflect the creator’s shittiness, yes, but I won’t pay for it.

I struggle with it and am hypocritical about that.

Roman Polanski was convicted of a terrible crime, but I appreciate his work.

Weinstein’s production company made many of my favorite movies.

Kevin Spacey played some of my favorite characters.

EDIT:

And then there is Bill Cosby and OJ Simpson. I love the Naked Gun Movies and both are pure gold on screen.

Bill Cosby’s Chicken Heart routine is so fucking funny it was making me laugh my ass off until the mid 2010s… Now I when I ever I see the album it just makes me sad….

There are a lot of fair-minded takes in this thread which is surprising for me since this is lemmy where I’ve actually seen someone tell another person they are a piece of shit for even talking about Harry Potter lore.

generally, no.

and if I do, I make sure not to share/promote it

I’m too tired to really spend my time being too correctional on what I should or shouldn’t enjoy based on the actions some people do. It really depends. Ian Watkins is an exception, a horrible person, who made it easy for me to drop everything Lostprophets-related.

I still listen to Disturbed, because there’s way too many songs I like from them. I don’t have to care about David Draiman and I don’t, because of what he did.

I will still enjoy Harry Potter, because I believe the universe is bigger than J.K Rowlings to where, anything she does or says will not knock down my enjoyment of that universe. I can and will ignore her existence.

I don’t have the time or energy to go through the lives of every single person involved with a game/show/movie I want to enjoy to see if anyone involved has problematic views. Like I’m going to see Project Hail Mary this weekend. If someone tells me at some point Ryan Gosling said some dumb shit while drunk or the book the film is based on has racist symbolism, I honestly don’t care. I’m watching and judging the film filled with hard work done by tons of different people.

I try to avoid giving them more relevance, but I do occasionally revisit through means that don’t give them money. I hate Dave Mustaine’s guts, so I have the best three Megadeth albums downloaded (Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction).

Once I think a creator is a bad person, depending on what they did, I have trouble enjoying their stuff.

There are a ton of comedians, for example, that have done varying degrees of bad things that I just can’t listen to anymore. Louis CK, Cosby, any of the podcast bro comedians that got Trump elected, etc are all out. When I hear them perform it is all I can think about.

Same with bands, writers, etc. I just have a nagging feeling in the back of my head reminding me the person is shitty.

Yes, I think it’s okay to enjoy whatever it is you enjoy so long as doing so doesn’t harm others or yourself. I also think it’s important to be mindful what it is that makes you feel like there’s a moral quandary, and it’s also worth considering if the media you’re consuming is the work of a group of people or a single individual.

For example, I really enjoy the movie Chinatown, but Roman Polanski is a piece of shit. I don’t think his shitness diminishes the quality of the movie because it was acted well by Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway; the writing is incredible as is the cinematography; and credit where credit is due, Polanski directed the movie masterfully. He’s still a child rapist piece of shit though.

Possibly controversial take: I get super turned-off by any content creator who seems to be in it mainly for money.

There are lots of people out there who decided they want to be a youtuber as their profession - and best of luck to them! - but I feel quite safe in saying that almost every youtuber I truly love began their channel not because they wanted to make money, but because they had something to share. They had a passion, or burning thoughts, or knowledge that was too good to keep to themselves, and youtube was a way to voice it.

And they might be profitable now, but that’s not why they started.

So yeah. As soon as I get a smell that the content someone makes or the way they act or the things they say are dictated primarily by dollar signs, rather than by being the thing they truly want to do, I very quickly lose interest.

Usually if the person who made something is a massive piece of shit, that just puts me off it entirely. For example, Rurouni Kenshin might be considered one of the best animes of all time, but I cannot watch it without thinking about the fact that the guy who made it had so much child porn. Sours everything the fucker touched

Like, maybe I could learn to separate the art from the artist, but… why would I? There’s already more art than I could ever consume made by people who don’t jerk it to kids

It varies.

I often give the example of HP Lovecraft. I’m a big fan of his stories and the Cthulhu Mythos. But it remains that he was a huge racist. How do I reconcile the two?

First, an author’s works are separate from the author themselves. Second, in Lovecraft’s case, he was a product of his time and upbringing. And third, and importantly in his case: he’s dead. He has no ability to change beyond his passing in the 1930s. People can and do change all the time. If Lovecraft were around today he might have become to most left-leaning person in the world, but he never had that chance. There were indications, late in life, that he might well have changed.

But, he didn’t. It remains that he was a racist in life, that will never change, and because of it there will always be people uncomfortable with his work. That is understandable, and I won’t try to convince anyone that they should ignore it.

My favourite book is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. My edition has a foreword about how Lewis Carroll really really wasn’t a paedophile, he just loved children very very much. That foreword convinced me that he was a paedophile.