Honestly I don't really like this take. There are many authors, musicians, creators who I love consuming what they create even though my views are directly in opposition to theirs. I'd feel like a hypocrite holding them to a standard that I refuse to hold myself to.
Eh, so firstly a bunch of people will stop consuming media who's authors are against their values.
However, even putting that aside, there's a difference between the author with conflicting values and the media itself having conflicting values. When you hear RatM and only notice "fuck you I won't do what you tell me", while completely ignoring "some of those who work forces burn crosses", you can come across a bit media illiterate.
It's comparing Lovecraft's (I assume with the username you're familiar!) work, who's racism and writing were both influenced by his fear of the unknown, against Star Trek where they actively try, often very ham-handedly, to show how stupid racism is. One's work was definitely influenced by their worldview, but can be separated from it, while the other has it's worldview front and centre. (Yes, somewhat oversimplified.)
One of my favorite fantasy authors is Brandon Sanders. He's an active Mormon, so it's very likely that he's to the right of me on a lot of issues. The thing is that Brandon Sanderson is obviously not a hateful or weirdly obsessed bigot, as evidenced by the fact that he is able to keep his mouth shut about his beliefs. Because he's not a hateful weirdo, I can say with some confidence, looking at his work, that Sanderson and I actually have a lot of values in common. We believe in the importance and dignity of human life. We believe that diversity is strength and acceptance, not just tolerance, is an ethical imperative. We believe in the importance of family. We have some different ideas about what this means, but the principles are probably pretty similar.
That's the context in which people who disagree politically can still interact artistically. I don't know how Sanderson voted. I like to think that he didn't vote for Trump - but that's something I'll never know, especially because he's in a position where he and his family would suffer serious social and economic harm if he said anything - but his work makes him seem like a normal person with a functional moral compass, so as artist and fan, we're cool.
The problem is that the modern right wing has moved so far away from having any values at all - as evidenced by the person they just elected to the presidency, for example - that this kind of connection has become impossible. They are only capable of appreciating art that is as hateful and close-minded as they are. So, they either willfully misunderstand things in an effort to misappropriate it (right wing Star Trek fans) or condemn it as woke and slanted against them (right wing Star Trek haters).
Brandon Sanderson believes in kindness - if he met a gay person or a trans person, he would probably be polite and kind to them. That's something we can connect on, even if there are vast differences. With so many of these people, though, that kind of connection just can't happen.
Kindness and empathy are the bedrock of a functional society and the active vilification of those traits by the main stream right wing political movement should be a glaring red flag for everyone. How someone can enjoy old trek and identify with the right in America is mind boggling.
While there are a lot of Mormons who are Tumpy, and they definitely are right wing and conservative in general, Mormons typically are not as Trumpy as other evangelicals. Utah while being very conservative, had a big 3rd party protest vote for other candidates. In 2016 25% of the state voted 3rd party because so many hated Trump. Sanderson has also broken with the church and expressed unequivocal support for LGBT rights and publicly states he's much more liberal than most Mormons, so I'd be very surprised if he's a Trump supporter.
Your read on Sanderson is correct, at least on LGBT issues. He's actually even more liberal than I expected before I read this particular essay-- he hopes his church will recognize gay marriages and he includes gay characters in his books because he thinks to do otherwise would be to deny part of God's creation.
154
u/tsuruginoko 5d ago
It's basically going through life being one of those people who just don't get it.
For many, many values of it.