Cancel Culture vs. Metallica
This is not an offensive blog post
I, along with others, have been clear about the damaging effects of so-called 'cancel culture'. Especially considering how, as a metalhead, my big musical passion has seen much more than its fair share of ignorant judgment and persecution through the years.
The reason I'm bringing it up again is because, as you've probably all long noticed, Metallica have gotten in the crosshairs of those entitled wussies who choose to take offense at anything and everything on any ol' paranoid whim of theirs.
The reason this time? Well, some 30 years ago, James Hetfield allegedly made a racist remark, according to one Axl Rose. And yes, from what he allegedly said, I'll gladly be the first one to say that it would look pretty bad.
... That is, if it's true. Because all I've been able to find is this video, which doesn't document any racist remarks. But it could very well be interpreted as Axl, being the well-known queen of drama and confrontation that he is, simply turning that drama and confrontation button up to 11 because he's butt-hurt about Hetfield rightly pointing out his primadonna ways.
But okay. I wasn't there, and I'm willing to grant that it did happen. So let's just assume that Hetfield did make a racist remark 30 years ago. Then how is it that so far, nobody seems to care about the fact that for almost 20 out of the 30 years that have passed since then, Hetfield has been sharing his stage, rehearsal room, and quite probably also meals, stories, memories, and child-raising tips with this guy from fucking Mexico?!?
But then there's this other issue of James and Lars Ulrich having once done a nazi salute, and having been photographed next to Slayer guitarist Kerry King, who's wearing a t-shirt with a confederate flag on it.
And again, yes: Kerry King is probably pretty far right, being a declared homophobe and all. Wouldn't surprise me if I met him and found him to be an all-round horrible human being. And his deceased bandmate Jeff Hanneman didn't seem a lot better. More than anything those two seem(ed) like all-round misanthropes. (How a warm, cheery Christian dude like Tom Araya can get along with people like that is anyone's guess. But that's beside the point.)
... So, should Lars and James somehow not have had that picture taken with Kerry King back then??
Should Metallica have cut all ties with Slayer, even though those two bands grew up alongside each other as pioneering peers of an emerging musical movement?
Or should they just have somehow limited all contact to any members of Slayer who, by today's SJW standards, held all the correct opinions about any and all matters which, by today's SJW standards, are important enough??
I mean, how is anyone supposed to be accountable for not only their own words and actions 30 years ago, but also the opinions of their peers?? I mean, I have friends with whom I most strongly disagree on certain topics. Am I supposed to weed out any friends of mine who don't hold the same opinions as a current SJW, lest I get 'canceled'?
I'll become a hermit on a deserted island before that happens. Shit, I even have friends who are into Limp fucking Bizkit.
Should Metallica have somehow limited all contact to any members of Slayer who, by today's SJW standards, held all the correct opinions about any and all matters which, by today's SJW standards, are important enough??
"But the nazi salute! They did a nazi salute, Andy! How can you justify that?!"
Okay. So let's say that I were to stretch out my arm and hold it in a downward-pointing 45° angle to my legs. Could everybody be cool with that? Not doing the nazi salute. – Hell, if anything, it's more like the opposite.
What if I raised it just a tiny bit to 50°? Or 60°? Still not even close. Would anybody have a problem with that? And would it necessarily mean anything in terms of any political views of mine?
What if I held out my stretched arm in a straight 90° angle from my body. Would that be problematic? If you'd wanna do the nazi salute, your arm would have to be raised higher than that. But it couldn't be ONE certain angle that's allegedly "problematic".
So where do you draw the line? How far up or down am I allowed by the grace of online Generation Z to hold my outstretched arm before they deem it "problematic" and start to "cancel" me? And do any of my body movements necessarily say anything about how I think politically?
The point is, making a certain gesture with your body, in and by itself, doesn't mean shit. For crying out loud, it's a fucking body movement. If you wanna inhibit what people are doing with their own bodies and nobody else's, YOU'RE the problem. And no, that is not an offensive point of view. Stop being offended. Everyone, just stop it.
Sure, I can easily understand why Germany as a nation is more touchy about doing that nazi salute than other countries. But just hypothetically...
What if nobody got offended?
What if people didn't feel the need to be offended?
What if, instead of our own little delicate feelings, we could start to look at other relevant factors to take into consideration when assessing a statement or a bodily gesture by someone? Factors like...
- What context surrounds the statement/gesture?
- What's the honest intent of the person(s) making the statement/gesture?
- What's the real-life effect of the statement/gesture – rather than any perceived effects?
- How much do we actually know, and how much is hearsay and/or our own subjective interpretation?
- What's our own attitude and predisposition like in general? Do we, just maybe, tend to look for things by which we or other people might choose to take offense?
Fascism, by definition, is to dictate what people are allowed to say and do, and not say and do. If you're trying to dictate what people can and can't do and say, YOU'RE the true oppressors and fascists – by the very definition of those words.
And no, I know: In practice, there CAN be no such thing as 100% unbridled freedom of expression, because my freedom stops where your freedom begins. We're all on common ground; we all have to be able to get along, and that takes some compromise on behalf of everyone.
... But then why am I plainly confronting cancel culture and taking the side of Metallica here?
Because, me being a metalhead or not, cancel culture, political correctness, wokeism, the whole SJW phenomenon, whatever you wanna call it, has long gone too far.
These are people who are not only trying to oppress their fellow human beings by dictating what they can and cannot say and do. They're even actively ganging up and ending the careers of not only authors and entertainers, but also normal, everyday people like teachers and electric workers. People like you and me, whose lives and families get demolished.
There's a fitting term for this kind of vigilantism; it's called mafia practices.
If you wanna inhibit what people are doing with their own bodies, YOU'RE the problem. And no, that is not an offensive point of view. Stop being offended. Everyone, just stop it.
And it goes beyond having people fired and 'canceled'. We've long passed the point where university students have personally begun detaining, interrogating, and even physically attacking their fellow students because of certain books being on campus, and because of certain words that they said.
This has to stop. It's lunacy, and it's long gone beyond simply being "problematic". It's fucking destructive.
Let's stop pretending that things like context and one's actual intentions don't count for anything, and all that counts is apparently the flower-delicate, nitroglycerin-triggered emotions of a bunch of spoiled, angry kids who expect the world to constantly rub them the right way and who think they can bitch and whine their way out of any perceived problem because they're used to getting participation trophies and having constant digital stimulation at their fingertips.
I'll give the last word to Bill Maher, who, like him or not, hits the nail on the head when it comes to these matters:
"If you spend your time combing through old TV shows to identify stuff that, by today's standards, looks bad, you're not "woke", you're just a douchebag.
Obama was against gay marriage until his second term, but I don't think we need to pretend he never existed.
You can't enjoy any music, movies, or TV from back when for any length of time before seeing something we just don't do anymore.
But aren't we adult enough to separate what we like about an old movie from what we don't? We can watch "Big" as a movie about a kid who becomes an adult, and not as a movie about a grown woman who fucks a 12-year-old".
Sources / further reading:
https://www.loudersound.com/news/why-are-some-stranger-things-fans-now-trying-to-cancel-metallica
https://www.businessinsider.com/barack-obama-slams-call-out-culture-young-not-activism-2019-10
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-behind-behavior/202007/what-is-cancel-culture
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/julie-irwin-zimmerman-i-failed-covington-catholic-test/580897/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/evangerstmann/2021/03/22/what-is-cancel-culture/?sh=633fa694bd55
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-mental-health-effects-of-cancel-culture-5119201