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 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….

I try not to enrich creators who are bad. Like Polanski and Weinstein and Whedon and Besson and Rowling and Gaiman. I might watch/read old stuff, but I'll avoid spending any money on it.

Then there's people who aren't rapists and abusers and virulently homophobic but are still not great. I'm thinking YT creators who pull dumb and mean pranks, or just revel in the more negative aspects of human nature. I don't watch them, but mostly because I don't enjoy that sort of content. It makes me depressed and sad. Since I don't like that sort of content anyway, it's hardly an effort. Same with MAGA bro podcaster types; I don't enjoy that garbage so "boycotting" it really just means going about my life per usual.

It depends. The artist being a bad person doesn't automatically make the art bad. But I also don’t want to support bad people. So, relevant questions to me are: Is the artist still alive? Do they profit from my consuming their work? Do I promote them perhaps indirectly? The answers will be different for e.g. Lovecraft vs. Rowling, or rereading a book I already own vs. convincing my book club to buy new copies.

Most people, even those who scream the loudest about human rights, tend to wear sweatshop clothes made by kids who occasionally burn to death because it's slightly cheaper to not have fire escapes.

Not enjoying an artist who in most cases isn't even profiting off of my enjoyment just seems silly. I prefer to focus my efforts on the actual harms to which I, like so many of us, really do contribute.

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.

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.

I was enjoying Sandman until shit went down with the author and it really left a bad taste in my mouth, just kind of dropped it instinctively

There’s plenty of good stuff made by decent people out there, I’m fine with dropping someone awful. I also like to think it helps me avoid picking up bad behaviors or internalizing shitty ideas.

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.

It depends on what it is. I generally don't expect an artist/creator to be what I'd consider a good role model.

Some examples:

Dave Grohl (lead singer/guitarist of Foo Fighters) announced he fathered a child outside of his marriage. I consider this morally wrong, but it has no impact on my enjoyment of the music.

J.K. Rowling being an outspoken transphobe has had an impact on my ability to enjoy Harry Potter. Not that I was ever a super fan, but I enjoyed the movies well enough. But discrimination against an entire group of people is too significant to me to keep the art separate from the artist.

No. If I have problems with a creator, publisher, etc., I'll stop consuming. If I previously purchased and own some work (i.e. an album from a band that turns out to be shitty), I will still sometimes engage with that, but no new money is going to them.

I try to at least not give those people money.

yes and so does everyone. you literally cannot avoid it, stop caring. you will drive yourself insane.

I had my first run in with this in the tail end of highschool. Lovecraft was the first author that really hit me. The feeling of existential dread and the idea of forces beyond our comprehension that we only survive sharing reality work because we're too inconsequential to do anything about were both formative and comforting ideas to my anxiety riddled mind. It wasn't until deciding I was truely a fan that I found out he was so racist the kkk didn't want to be associated with him.

He's not my only brush with this, I find that any figure I grow to like inevitably fails to meet my standards. Neil Gaiman, Danny Masterson, Dr. Seuss, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Joss Whedon, Louis C. K., Jack Black, Walt Disney, Jane Goodall, Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, and the list goes on. At this point, the only heroes I've had that haven't turned out to be bastards and sex pests are Weird Al and Bill Nye.

To this I've taken to the idea of the death of the author . In short, the essay states that you should ignore the artist's intention and biography when considering the merrit of the art. Awful people are just as likely to create something beautiful as anyone else. This doesn't hold entirely true and your mileage may very, Lovecraft's Xemophobia makes his inspirations far more obvious, but removing all of the overtly racist parts has no affect on the actual horror or conveys. That doesn't work for Scar Tissue by Red hot Chili Peppers which is explicitly about raping a minor.

Play it by ear. If it's not explicitly problematic then it's not on you to feel bad about it You can like a song without it meaning more than that.

Depends...

TV Shows? Yea sure, they are only one role out of a big set of casts, and it's also the product of writers and film directors...

Movies where its centered around that actor's character? Slightly gonna less fun to watch... depending on the nature of their crime.

Books? Well the entire thing is the the work of that one person so its gonna be much harder to "separate art from artist" but at least you dont have to hear their voice and personality like...

oh... which brings us to Youtube videos....

Yea... no... this is where the separate art from artist doesn't work... their voice and personality is probably reflecting their character...

Like... I watched PewDiePie's intro and I already cringe so hard so I never got into it...

Then later I tried it again, watching the PUBG videos... didn't even need to looked up the deleted bridge incident... he constantly makes uncomfortable jokes

Same with another gameplay channel doing challenge runs in Resident Evil, not even gonna name them since its a tiny ass channel but dude keeps making "women bad" jokes and then he showed the maga hat on a shelf and claimed its just meming... yeahhh... nope out of there real quick

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's almost impossible to do with music.

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.

i try my best not to and limit supporting them as much as possible. obviously you can't cut out every single thing unfortunately because capitalism loves exploitation, but i try to redirect my efforts elsewhere. for example, if i like the music of an immoral artist, I'll download the music instead of streaming it, refrain from buying merchandise, stuff like that. my money and time can be going towards someone else who actually deserves it.

i explain it like this: i dont buy from Starbucks because it's not a good company (setting their bad coffee aside). does the lack of profit from just me affect them? probably not much. but that $7 or whatever i spend on a latte could make a huge difference to my local coffee shop. that one view, one stream, one social media post, could go towards someone else

i also don't think it's possible to "separate art from artist." part of what makes art, art, is who made it. who were they? what environment was the art made in? what perspective is the subject being depicted from? the artist is ingrained in each of their creations. songs i used to like, i can no longer listen to after discovering things the artist had done. its just not the same

generally, no.

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

Sure, why not? Its not like I'm paying for it.

Every physician in the world uses Nazi data collected using the corpses of Jews. Most anatomy books uses drawings mad by Nazis. Just the swastikas have been airbrushed out. The data collection was never repeated.

I presume most everybody, myself included, does. Otherwise I doubt we'd be consuming just about any media.

Edit:

I mean this as things like old films, TV, books and the likes. I personally try to avoid controversial content creators and the likes, regardless of platform and media type. For books, I wouldn't wanna be caught reading certain alive authors.

No, but plenty of other people would probably claim that many of them are.

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).

I consume it. I don't pay for it but I do consume it.

Yes, as long as my actions don't put money in their pockets, directly or indirectly.

In significantly smaller amounts, but yes. No Hitler ate sugar.

I don't generally seek out information about the people that make media I enjoy but if I happen to find out because they are so stupid that I can't avoid it then I will avoid their content if it is something that I find abhorrent.

Like, i don't feel the need to vet a band but if I find out they are fucking horrible people despite making music that I liked I generally won't enjoy listening to them anymore. There is so much good shit out there that its really not hard to find stuff that isn't made by overt assholes.

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.

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.

It's very difficult for me. But also I realize if you look closely enough at most any artist you can find something disgusting about them, so I don't look into it in the first place. Like I used to love r. Kelly, but after learning about his past with Aaliyah and the whole situation that landed him where he is now, I haven't purposefully listened to his music since.

Idk, maybe I'm a bad person and lazy but I like enjoying things and I have learned over the years that sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss.

yes, or I'd consume nearly nothing.

it also scales, some shitier then others and of course you have to draw the line somewhere

I still listen to Kanye West music. Sometimes even the new stuff.

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

Yes, I choose to watch news from all oulets.. for better or worse

Anti-Flag was one of my favorite bands ever. I am so pissed off at Justin Sane for taking that music away from me, and from all of us. Especially now, when that kind of message is so necessary.

edit: I also loathe him for the things he did that made it impossible for me to continue to support his work.

I'm still a Rammstein fan so... yep, sadly.

If I find out about the artist before consuming any of the art, I will generally try to avoid it.

But if I already enjoy something and find out, I'll usually keep enjoying the thing. Occasionally I won't be able to, but I haven't fully figured out where the rules are yet. I think part of it is if the art is directly related to what/how they were a bad person. For example I can still enjoy ruroni kenshin, because it has pretty much nothing to do with what the creator was caught with

Depends. If the person is causing harm towards large groups of people or minorities at large by me supporting them, then I drop them. It's why I hate Harry Potter now. But, regardless, most of the media I consume that isn't games is usually not acquired by, erm, legal means, so I'm not technically giving them any money.

Depends, but generally yes. It's just too hard to screen all creatives for purity, some people are only good at one thing, but so good at that one thing. So if you don't let them do that one thing, it's like there's nothing left of them that is good. I probably won't give them my money, but as far as reading or listening to their stuff, enjoying their art, yeah I can. Can admit they are good in at least one way, if they are.

yeah crazy fuckers I don't give a shit

I do, even art that conveys bad values. Some amazing choir songs are written by religious zealots, rap songs that are sexists, and artists like Rammstein who are bad people singing about bad things, but i still enjoy their music. Listening to extreme metal really sets your bar low for what quality music should be and what message it should hold.

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.

There is nobody else on earth who agrees with me 100% on morality. (Jesus isn't on earth, and I only agree with him because of a commitment to change if he says something). Other than you might not be a Christian and thus have a different religious figure the above applies to you to. as such you have no choice about consuming something from immoral people.

the question is when does some immorality become so bad you reject someone because of it even though the thing I question otherwise has nothing to do with the moral issue.

Im not sure. Its a bit easier when the immoral behavior is a historical blip at this point and harder when the person is alive and we are talking about things in the last year. That being said if it does effect me at all it has to be clearly something and not something being debated and pretty severe and not just that they are an asshole. A lot of famous people have been assholes.

Some of the bands I like are comprised of literal murderers

Yes, we all do.

That said, everyone has a line, and if it makes my blood boil just thinking about them, I won't listen to them.

Good example: I used to follow this local band around. They mostly did covers. They took a song I loved and turned it into a pro-Nazi song. I'm not fucking kidding. Like a parody, but not funny. That was it for me. And I still kinda love a couple of their songs, but I will never listen to them again. That's a hard fucking line and they crossed it. And no, they were not being funny or ironic. My wife still thinks they're fine, but respects my decision.

For her, it's JK Rowling and her anti-trans stance. I too dislike JKR, but I'm also a big Harry Potter fan. I think the recent game, Hogwarts Legacy, is a great compromise. One, it has a trans character in it, and it's said that the developers did it to piss off JKR. Two, it has nothing to do with Harry Potter, except the castle. And I think a couple of the old wizarding families are mentioned? I can't think of any. There aren't any Weasleys, Snapes, Dumbledores... none of the main ones for sure, but I do vaguely recall hearing a name and thinking "oh that's so and so's ancestor." Very minor connection though. Mainly just the castle. You can explore the castle. Every bit of it. Except the Chamber of Secrets, the conditions for opening that are not present (you can't be a Parseltongue, for one). I think it's a fair compromise at least. She isn't so sure. She kinda wants to roll a Hufflepuff, but she also doesn't want to be seen supporting an anti-trans writer. And I respect her point. If I watch a Wizarding World movie (as in, JKR was involved with that, wrote it, whatever), I don't do it when she's home.

I still think Rooftops is a banger, but I won't listen to it after finding out what the singer was doing to literal babies. Even though he was recently killed in prison. I think it's okay to listen to Lostprophets now, because the rest of the band deserves credit for the work they did... but I don't wanna hear that guy's voice. I would listen to them if they got someone new to sing it. So I haven't heard it in... over a decade, at least, I think. I had it on a mix CD. I never owned their album. It's funny... the Japanese band ALI had a similar issue, but on a way smaller scale. Their drummer was scamming old folks out of some money. They pulled their hit song from streaming. Pulled the video. They immediately replaced the drummer, and re-recorded the song. At first I was pissed, I kept an archived copy to listen to. Then the new version came out. It sounds the same to me, but I respect them for doing the work to make a more ethical version. Says a lot for them. I think the difference may be, the drummer wasn't a songwriter, where the Lostprophets singer may have been, so he can't be cut out of the songs he made. I could only be okay with it if his share went entirely to victims, and not his family.

If someone didn’t then, idk…

They would only read the passages of the Bible about Jesus or something

Yes. It's like eating meat.

I've been let down by shock revelations about content creators so many times I'm starting to think they're awful people by default.

There's a reason they say you shouldn't meet your heroes.

I'd say for the most part, yes. I am not actively researching bands or authors that come up on lists and other things beyond just "do I think I will like this". And if it's, idk how else to phrase it, not "major" grievances, I'll still likely consume the media. I tend to pirate books then buy them if I enjoyed them, and I pay for YT Premium so the music just comes along with it. However, for the more serious stuff (a la Lost Prophets), they are skipped and removed from libraries. If stuff is brought to my attention about new artists, I'll also act how I feel accordingly. I don't take it upon myself to push others to share my view, but I do appreciate when others inform me, so I try to do the same.

If it's just humor of creators, I would probably still watch it, but when it skews toward hateful, it becomes less funny. I don't need an agenda, I want something smart and funny. Humor that is reduced down to slurs or just trolling is not funny. If I was 12, maybe, but those days are (long) gone.

Not quite on topic, but I was never able to hate the situation with Werner von Braun. Space technology, both real and imagined, has always been an inspiration for me. It embodies the dream of aspiring to more and greater, can lift us humans above our roots as clever tool using animals. The science and technology is a great investment as it pulls every part of society forward toward a better future (and I know some of y’all will come to bad-mouth this, but se la vie).

Werner von Braun developed rockets for the nazis, and I believe was responsible for the V2s that caused death and destruction in the UK. And it’s a root that has developed in some of the worst of humanity. And the us government brought him over, let him avoid any prosecution, used his work and let him build on it. But the us civilian space program brought us the dream, the challenge, the inspiration with his help. I am fine with that.

My feelings on the situation are pretty much inline with his treatment in “For All Mankind” and I even feel somewhat sad for him.

Brennan Lee Mulligan touched on this briefly in a podcast (1:03:24) and gave his own example about taking some of books off his bookshelf and what he does with them. It's difficult to grapple, and nuance is always going to play a role.

Everyone does some things right and other things wrong. Generally it takes repeated or extreme action in either direction to taint a person in the minds of others. I doubt many people have prints of Hitler's artworks framed and hung, but loads still listen to music by Michael Jackson regularly. It's all about context, I think. Trevor Noah's recent example is pretty similar to this topic. A slur in one place can hold no meaning in another.

It's very much a spectrum of our own beliefs, our joys, and the things we find repulsive. Like spilling black paint on a watercolour rainbow. To some it might go in the bin, others might still see the beauty in what remains. So long as you don't hang it on the wall because of the black stains, I'd say you're fine whichever you choose.

Depends on what they did and how it puts them in perspective to the messages in their art.

Problematic is tolerable if I'm not actively bankrolling harm to someone. But I don't want to experience art made by people divorced from their own message.

I've done my best to mentally discredit Gene Roddenberry of contributing anything meaningful or worthwhile to Star Trek. Despite what the fandom and producers claim otherwise.

But no, I can't really bring myself to abide by 'separating art from artist.' The artist puts their intent into the work. There's no separation to be made. Simple.

I really don't. I feel like what I consume and enjoy is a reflection of me.

Listening to pirated Burzum mp3s from time to time:(

All the time. It's definitely possible to appreciate the artistry in spite of their negative qualities and not because of them. It also kind of forces you to think about how humans are multi-faceted and complex beings, and that we're often the products of our environments or things beyond our control even when the individual decisions are up to the person.

Has Kanye West been an awful person at times? Yes, I don't actively listen to his music but I'll be damned if My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy isn't a masterpiece. Kanye has obviously struggled with mental health and personal issues over the years.

I'm a huge Beatles fan, and did John Lennon hit his wife one time and basically abandon his first son? Yes, but he realized his mistakes and tried to change later on and wanted peace and love in the world. And he basically had no father and barely a mother, a textbook example of generational trauma in young men.

(Also Ringo was probably a worse drunk and more violent person than John, but that doesn't get talked about nearly as much.)

And these are issues people struggle with everywhere, not even counting the added pressure of being famous and successful.

None of this is to excuse their actions or the actions of people like them, but I think understanding some causality goes a long way in appreciating people as humans, let alone artists.

If I know someone is a terrible person, I can't enjoy their work. Besides not wanting to financially support them, I like to put myself in an author's, actor's, writer's shoes when I watch/read stuff.

That said, I don't purposefully look into people's lives; I'm not into celebrity gossip. But sometimes a person is such an outlier or just so vocal about it that it's unavoidable.

Yes. I don't often buy media so I haven't yet tested if I would give them money, but I hope I wouldn't.

Only secondhand, via reporting by the observers monitoring right-wing spaces.

It does suck when one's formerly favorite author (Warren Ellis) gets outed as a sexual predator, or when the same happens to an actor (Cas Anvar) on your former favorite show, but there are plenty of other fish in the sea and I'm never going to run out of ethical creators to patronize.

I was going to say no, but for actual art, like music or tv shows, of course I do. I appreciate quality. I just have no interest in watching influencers be mean and/or stupid.

IF I think I'm going to learn something from seeing their frame-of-reference ( like: HOW it's wrong ), XOR their reasoning ( ditto ), certainly.

How'm I supposed to learn anything if I only remain within comforting meanings??

_ /\ _

American culture in general... Like I already admit to myself I pay tax to kill people. Shit america monetizes immorality and you can reach your "American Dream" by utilizing it.

There's nothing moral about this life.

The nation we fund is sick.

There's criminals with a stronger moral compass and better manners than some "regular" Americans.

There is at least one tictoc lady I watch religiously, even though she is a MAGA nutter.

I hate to sound like this, but I'm not watching for her thoughts and opinions.

For me, it's a constant question of: does the good of this person make up for the bad. I think that's fair. I don't expect anyone to be perfect, but I can't enjoy art made by someone whose misdeeds/horrible ideology overshadow the greatness of the art.

I try not to, but it seems like most rockstars are shitbags and the stories don’t always come out until much later.

I was about to say no, but I still listened a bit to the last One Morning Left album after I learned the singer was caught grooming an underage girl.

It sucks because the album was in my top 5 of the last 10 years and now I can't listen to it.

As soon as the other bandmates learned about the situation, they dissolved the band. So good on them for killing their livelihood to at least make a difference.

Depends on the level of bad and even though i will sometimes pirate some of it.

I watch Paul Miller shorts in short downtimes so yea I'm a bit conflicted lol

Yes, I have to admit a lot of the red pill dreck is entertaining in a mean-spirited way. And yes, political muck-raking and conspiracy theories as well. It satisfies some primal part of me I barely understand, and then I get back to reality

As is a lot of ai slop media, if you count that as immoral. It’s usually some space opera, romance or petty revenge fantasy written at middle school level, but I can watch a half hour escapist video that satisfies something in me.

Clearly “professional” media is partly to blame. I still try to stay objectively informed but the ongoing death of journalism makes that harder every day. In my chill out time I try to mind movies and tv shows to entertain me, but cable and streaming companies make it more painful every day." It’s really not worth it.

Certainly I am as well, filling up on the addictive sugar-laced snack foods of media, letting my attention span fade, and immersing myself in some twisted version of reality that can’t be good for anyone’s mental health. But I’m just saying the “healthy snacks” are priced out of reach and getting less and less shelf space

I try not to. If they have shitty political takes or real criminal stuff at least.

A lot of the time, if they're the writer or director, it shows though in the media.

Yes, all the time. Any behind-the-scenes stuff isn't even on my radar.

I try not to. It becomes a true guilty pleasure.

The production and distribution of much media means that it's practically impossible to avoid.

I try to avoid media when my consumption of that media significantly benefits bad people, and there is a reasonable alternative.

For example, I don't consume Harry Potter content because fuck jk Rowling. She is a key creative and a key beneficiary of consuming that media. There are alternatives within that genre I can read instead.
But I do use audible, despite them being terrible, because that's where my collection is and thats where new releases are.

Nope, because the contributions from my viewership just promotes their horrible immorality/views and helps spread them by giving it attention. If I find out someone s a MAGAt or other country's equivalent I drop them like a bad habit. I have no desire to help promote their line of thinking, even if the content is benign, and social ostracizing is the only real tool I have. I have stopped watching artists, youtube channels, and such because eventually said person's views come into focus. Any support of them also promote harm to people I care about because they may be likely to support candidates that'd hurt them.

Yes, but I will go out of my way not to pay for it.

'immoral' or 'bad' are not qualities, they are judgments and they depend on one's own personal values and biases. I tend to not think in moral terms in regards to information, I worry more about being, well, informed.

I read newspapers to be informed (we don't have a tv, and I don't use social media at all for that purpose). I read newspapers and magazines from 'my political side' as well as from the different 'sides', including the ones I may completely be in opposition with (meaning I also pay for them). Why? Because listening to diverging voices, even ones I can disagree with, helps me to not take anything for granted and even less so my own biases take over and blind my own judgment.

I will also read some mean-spirited content (provided I consider them well made), and pay for them too. Because I consider they're are more important than ever in our badly self-censoring and chastised (not to say neutered) times. Freedom of expression should not be limited to what one agrees with, that's my (very simple, I'll admit that) logic.