“Artists, by their free expressions, encourage others to be free. This is the quality that makes works of art enduring.”
-Marty Rubin
#freespeechmatters 20.12.2021
Has anyone ever realized that freedom of speech does not seem to be of concern to President Joe Biden, his administration, or any Democratic members of Congress? The Democratic Party was once the party that supported the arts. They loved the arts so much, in fact, they created public funding for arts programs in public school.
What is art if artists don’t feel like they can freely express themselves? Art has always been synonymous with freedom to me. The best art has always been produced out of honesty and authenticity. The left has a chilling effect placed on both.
While the government hasn’t officially placed a chilling effect on speech with anti-First Amendment rhetoric, they seem to be applauding private efforts of censorship. Not long ago, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted that the White House colluded with officials from Meta (formally Facebook) to combat COVID-19 misinformation.
If you place the misinformation campaigns aside, the left has been awfully silent as crowds of people call for cancellations of artists who use their platform to freely express. Dave Chappelle, who is by far my favorite example, is a well-known black comedian who made jokes regarding the transgender community during his recent Netflix special “The Closer.” While many people do not agree with Chappelle’s point of view, they were able to laugh and get a glimpse of how the world’s greatest comedian sees the world.
Chappelle’s success is worthless to the left if he’s not repeating back their dictated script. The left is no longer interested in art, or perhaps they never were. They are only interested in creating public icons for the masses to worship. They expect these public icons to campaign their messaging on their behalf. Once anyone strays from the script, they are removed from the public.
You cannot support the arts without simultaneously supporting free expression and free speech. Artists who cannot freely express due to a chilling effect on their expression, regardless of where the chilling effect is coming from, are not producing art. They are producing content that has been scientifically measured to garner public approval. That’s not art.
Every work of art is not intended for everyone in the general public. Some people may enjoy Country music while others thoroughly enjoy Hip-Hop. Cancel culture has been demanding conformity in the arts for years. As a result, we have gotten comedians who basically do TED Talks in lieu of stand-ups, musicians who pose as experts, and actors who demand what actions we as Americans can take. If the left was serious about art, they would start by addressing and destroying cancel culture.
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