Marilyn Manson - he had a slow slide from alcoholism to lecher creep to serial abuser. he spent 2009-2011 doing the worst shit to women that you can imagine.
Brand New - turns out that Jesse was a groomer of underage girls.
Arcade Fire - Win Butler is a sex pest.
Smashing Pumpkins - not at all in the same category as the others, but goddamn does Billy Corgan suck. he was always known as a first-class egotist, but he just kept being an asshole long after his prime had become a distant memory. then the weird shit started: crackpot conspiracy theories on Myspace, palling around with Alex Jones on Infowars, dropping alt-right buzzwords in interviews. the latest album is an extended allegory on cancel culture. worse, it’s mostly unlistenable.
palling around with Alex Jones on Infowars, dropping alt-right buzzwords in interviews
That saddens and actually kinda shocks me.
I would have expressed ZERO surprise to news of him going so far to the LEFT that he ended up miles beyond hippie dippie new agey and founded his own Heaven’s Gate cult (The central belief of the which was that followers could transform themselves into immortal extraterrestrial beings by rejecting their human nature, and they would ascend to heaven)…but this is…honestly weirding me out.
Wasn’t he going so far into eastern spirituality that he was recording himself reading the entirety of the Bhagavad Gita at one point or something?
Back in the day I used to love many of the fantasy novels by David Eddings (e.g. Belgariad, Mallorean) but after learning about the terrible child abuse he and his wife were prosecuted for, I can’t look at them the same way.
He was certainly above that. Hell his story "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" also known as "White Ape". Is literally a book about the "one drop rule" to the point its actually funny because of how absurd it comes off as. Its so insanely racist, it fucking becomes funny based on the character's reaction. Its not a great short story but basically he find out his great great great great grandmother was a "white ape" (which is not human per say but lets read between the lines since the white apes come from the congo region), his response to this news was pouring gasoline on himself and burning himself alive. Like yes its fiction but the fact he made a fucking short story where the focal point is discovering that you are mixed race and learning that is so mind breaking, death was the only logical option is god damn hilarious.
I'm convinced that Orson Scott Card suffered a traumatic head injury at some point. I don't know how you could go from writing something as beautiful and intimate as Ender's Game to shit like Hidden Empire, which is creepy right wing Christian disaster porn (from what I can remember of that trainwreck).
Eric Gill. Great sculptor and of course typeface designer but would be better regarded were he ‘sans’ the sex with his sister, both his daughters, and the family dog.
Like many mentioned, lots of examples. First one to come to mind for me was Exurb1a. Sarcastic and witty videos about science, philosophy, futurism, etc. I remember one video had a joke about tossing an ex out a window I found uncomfortable, but he also used a bunch of self derogatory humor etc, and his style did include exaggerated characters etc.
Then some convincing evidence came out that he was an abuser and iirc also raped someone. I don’t have the link now and as usual don’t believe stuff a random anonymous person says on the internet, but it was disappointing to say the least.
Lostprophets were one of my favourite band during my formative years, and I still love the music, but any time I hear it now I can’t get past the fact that the singer was a literal baby rapist.
Cee-lo Green. He’s brilliant, and has an amazing voice, but dude is a rape apologist and doesn’t believe that an unconscious partner is unable to consent. An article from the Guardian where he apologized, but it’s still out there.
I love Tom Cruise. The man is an amazing, committed actor. He doesn’t need flashy CGI or visual effects and he does insane stunts for our entertainment. Too bad he’s a fucking nutjob.
John Lennon was pure asshole. He abused his first wife, who he only married because his manager didn’t want one of these new starts to father and illegitimate child. And that child, he tormented and ignored. Second wife, second child, both wanted and given everything.
Not saying he’s a saint, but isn’t an alternative interpretation that he was young, inexperienced, and had a bad relationship, then grew up, learned some things, and had a better relationship later? Julian Lennon was on Bill Maher’s podcast recently and described a reconciliation between him and his dad right before he died.
Again, not trying to excuse all his bad behavior in his first marriage, but I also don’t think that a failed relationship is enough evidence to judge a whole life by, especially one that was under extraordinary pressure.
Iirc, while Beatles management did encourage Lennon and Cynthia Powell to get married, they were instructed to keep the marriage and child private for a
period of time. They were trying to lean into the “boy band” desirability, and they must have figured a married father isn’t someone young women feel comfortable pining over. Of course, Cynthia and Julian didn’t stay a secret forever though.
He himself admitted he was an abuser of people in his life. Both male and female. Sure, people see that as him atoning for those past abuses. But it is clear he wasn’t this nice person people think of when they think of his anti-war and peace stance in life.
Robert Heinlein. His works were all over the place, and it would be a mistake to assume that he believed in something just because he wrote it in a fiction novel, so on that front I think he gets a fair amount of undeserved heat. He was pushing the limits of progressivism for his time, tossing out and seemingly defending everything on all sides from fascism to anarchy to direct democracy.
If we discount his fiction, though, since it can be hard to tell from that what he actually believed, then he still falls pretty short by modern standards. A homophobe, almost certainly racist, and although he was practically a feminist by the standards of his time I would have to admit that he’s pretty misogynistic by our standards.
I wish this was more talked about, when people mention classic sci-fi. I’m an avid SF reader, particularly older stuff, and it could almost be a drinking game of how few pages it’ll take before you find an offensively outdated reference, no matter how great the book. But every time I’ve picked up a Heinlein, hoping to find more positive points in classic stuff, I’m left just…feeling ooky. An easy example being the lesser known Friday, with the “happy” part of the extremely unrealistic female protagonist’s journey: marrying one of her gang-rapists. I haven’t been able to make a dent in my stack of Heinlein’s since that nonsense. Too many other great and interesting authors that weren’t horrid shitbags.
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