Tablet recently reran this magnificent piece detailing what Ariel Pink has been through since Mexican Summer voided his contract immediately after he was seen at a Trump rally on January 6, 2021. (But emphatically not at the capitol during the riot.) Writer Armin Rosen is incisive on Pink (using his actual name, Ariel Rosenberg) but his analysis doesn't stop three.
In retrospect, 2010 was the tail-end of the height of the final era in which American indie rock still really mattered. According to the Puritan hindsight of the present day, it was a time when the wrong things were valued and the wrong people rewarded, many of them allegedly horrible men, agents of abuse and patriarchy whose awfulness was embedded in their very music. This increasingly common line betrays a revealing need to establish the present-day’s superiority over an era when the art, the parties, the drugs, and the creative environment were all much better than they are now. A misfit record like Before Today could still crack the 160s of the Billboard chart, helped along by music critics whose analysis wasn’t hamstrung by questions of social virtue. Pitchfork once called “Round and Round” “one of indiedom’s most unifying and memorable songs in 2010.” Today, no one talks about “indiedom.” Conde Nast owns Pitchfork.
But what's revealing, and somewhat troubling, is that I've hardly seen anyone else write sympathetically about Pink/Rosenberg. The standard line seems to be more "How did such a creature walk undetected in our midst?"
Nor is this an isolated case. Consider:
- Comedian Jay Johnston was fired as the voice of rival restaurateur Jimmy Pesto on Bob's Burgers, also for attending a Trump rally, and like Pink was never accused of violently demonstrating. He doesn't seem to have found work in comedy or acting since. In general I love Bob's Burgers but have started to suspect I wouldn't want to be on-set.
- Former Jeopardy producer Mike Richards was briefly promoted to host after Alex Trebek died. Very briefly. Then podcast clips surfaced of him making jokes that weren't far in tone from Leno's Tonight material, but got him fired before his single week as host had even aired. Then he lost the producer job too.
There are a couple of similarities between at least some of these events, and others. One is more evidence that activists and activists alone are being considered at many institutions. The average Bob's Burgers or Jeopardy viewer doesn't care about the talent's politics and isn't looking to punish anyone, but no one is asking the average viewer.
But there are also ramifications of people's careers being destroyed on a whim. If you're a journalist―yes, even an entertainment journalist―there are opportunities to step back and assess, question, criticize. But by and large no one in media is doing that. You won't object to corporate bosses throwing their employees under the bus if you're the bus.
2 comments:
From this story it appears Ariel Pink has been added to what's become a fairly long list of people, many of them celebrities but not all, who have been 'cancelled' for not necessarily any good reason. I have to look some of these cases up because, other than J.K. Rowling, I don't really pay attention to who is cancelled and who isn't.
Kevin Spacey was accused by a line-up of guys but never convicted - he recently won a $40million civil lawsuit against his chief accuser Anthony Rap.
Gina Carano was cancelled for referencing voter fraud in 2020 - plus she was rude about masks.
Dave Chappelle for making jokes about transgender people, which he didn't actually do if you listen to the program. He's doing fine after being cancelled made him even more popular.
So, it would appear sometimes the damage is permanent but not always. The weird thing I've noticed is that cancellation/shunning is a longterm custom among human societies. At one time it really would mean literal death when the shaman wagged the bone finger in the direction of a miscreant. That person would die. We are social beings after all and being unseen by everyone in the tribe would be fatal. Who ever would have guessed 'cancel culture' would become ubiquitous at this late date?
The people named are a few of the famous ones. As you've noted the same thing can apply to ordinary people with bad results. Those who are already wealthy can ride out the storms but ordinary people can have their lives and careers destroyed on a whim. One can never be forgiven or prove they've learned from a mistake if they're not allowed to appear in public again. I'm reminded of the scapegoat - the poor creature who was sacrificed for the sins of the community.
We'll have to wait and see how this ends. It's just more proof our race wasn't ready for social media.
(ps: Jer was shocked to see how crude the AV Club appeaars these days. Is it still associated with the Onion?)
Rowling is an interesting case. If I recall correctly her initial offense was just hitting the like button on the wrong tweet. It would have been easy enough to step back from it, which is what a lot of other people in her position have done. Instead she's come back swinging harder. It's a more admirable trait than I once would have appreciated.
Of the three people you mention there Chappelle seems to be doing the best. He actually walked away from a successful TV show years before anyone thought about cancelling him. When he decided to come back he made sure he could do so on his own terms. That was smart and it allows him more leeway in saying what he wants.
In a society where magic and ritual are central, the shaman is given a great deal of power. To be sure some and maybe most are responsible about it. Others give into the temptation to abuse their power. God help you if you land on their bad side for whatever reason and they decide to negate your existence. And yeah, there just might be a parallel here.
The sad fact is that the court of public opinion is there to convict. Our social instincts can be bent toward the punishment of outsiders and dissidents. And this in fact happens. People will allow themselves to be worked into this punitive system without having any idea this is what's happening.
It was probably obvious to at least somebody that the Intrernet would cause havoc, that social media would start to destroy the populace.
AC Club and the Onion have both been bought out by the same company that bought up Gawker's old assets and eventually relaunched Gawker itself. Most of them are borderline unreadable now.
Post a Comment