I have been thinking about this:
Besides, at this stage in the game I'd just rather not know the political beliefs of people I otherwise hold in high regard for their contributions elsewhere.
That falls under the category of “your problem, not theirs”.
I regularly use things made by people whom I personally despise. If I didn’t, then I would need to boycott >99% of all things in the modern world. Including almost every product of the tech industry. Including the Internet. Should I render myself powerless and irrelevant, while people whom I despise make things that give them power, influence, prestige, and wealth? I think not.
On the flipside, if I ever create something of significant value
(which, thanks to the benefits of anonymity and pseudonymity, you may or may not ever know), then I would personally appreciate if you would
please refrain from contaminating my pure and sacred creation with your grubby little hands. You, and a few billion others. At least, that is how I
feel: I wish for anything that I ever create to
only be touched (or even seen) by people whom I approve politically, morally, and culturally. But if I have a purpose for giving others something of value to them, then I am not inclined to defeat myself by throwing a hissy fit, grabbing my toys, and running away.
What about whatever productive work you may do? Do you lie awake at night wondering if somebody you dislike may enjoy something that you have done? To any creative personality, is that not infinitely more important than the personalities who made things that you consume?
I think that this point needs a salutary object demonstration.I
hate simply cannot resist the opportunity to ruin this for you: Dr Wernher von Braun, the chief architect of the rocket that put man on the moon, was a NSDAP member and SS officer who attained the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer. I have no doubt that deep in his heart, he wished to put a swastika flag on the moon instead of the American flag. And he was not the only like mind on the moon mission team; to the contrary!
I have a longtime pet theory that the “moon landing hoax” nonsense is motivated by this well-known fact on a very deep level. It is a way of declaring Dr von Braun “cancelled”.To help you cope with “the political beliefs of people [you] otherwise hold in high regard”, why don’t you open a P&S thread Revealing The Truth: The so-called “moon landing” was a hoax concocted by an underground Nazi conspiracy to glorify the Third Reich!
Now, here and there on the Internet, you may have seen what
appears to be PROOF that the moon landing hoax was done by Jews. But of course, as a cover story in case the hoax was discovered, the Nazis had to create a
meta conspiracy theory blaming the hoax on Jews. Just because logically, Jews are exactly the people who would
want for an SS officer and his fellows to be forever remembered in history as the builders of the first moon rocket. That’s a typical Jewish thing! It all makes sense!
Connect the dots, people!Perhaps I myself should make such a thread. The aforestated theory
is more sensible than most of the stuff in P&S.
Lest delicate liberal brains actually, literally, physically explode, I will not mention the various opinions of numerous poets, artists, scholars, scientists, and philosophers throughout history—e.g., what Voltaire said about blacks and Jews. If, nutildah, you really want to apply some sort of a political correctness litmus test for “the political beliefs of people [you] otherwise hold in high regard for their contributions”, then more or less your only option is to go hide in a cave.
Poll
