12:13:22
Ariel Pink on cancel culture, the online destruction of his career, and the Jan 6 “insurrection” which Pink was accused of attending—he did not. He attended the Trump rally not the so called riot that happened on Capitol Hill afterwards. I had no idea this had happened to him. Strangely, I’ve been listening to some of his music again lately. Pink says that cancel culture has made “everyone feeble and a passive enabler.” Pink is “deplorable” because he is a Trump supporter, but child pornography is not a cancellable offense. As Balenciaga has demonstrated, child exploitation (have we forgotten the testimonies of child stars?) is quite literally, a crypto-fashion that people can wear and promote. Interestingly, Pink found out that he was cancelled by his record label via Instagram—no phone call. John Mous apparently abandoned his friendship with Pink, even though he was the one who actually attended the Capitol Hill protest, as I understand it. When Pink says the following line, my heart sank because I feel the exact same way now: “I don’t think I would ever encourage somebody to go down the path of self-expression in this climate. I never thought I’d ever say that. I never thought that the first amendment was up for debate…as if it has anything to do with partisan politics…Everything flows from the first amendment…So if you throw that out, I don’t understand what you think you have after that. I thought it was one of those pillars of American democracy.”
This interview really tore me up. His distress. I love Pink’s depth and lack of cynicism. Like when he asks, in earnest, and to Francis’ and Konstantin’s bewilderment, if we know digital technology is barreling towards AI, why don’t we stop it? Why don’t we turn it off then? Why don’t we turn around? Can’t a direction be changed once we know the darkness we are heading into? “I don’t think we should make a virtue out of change.” This is my question every single day. It’s all I ever want.
What is the point—or hope—of art if the people making it believe in conformity, censorship, self-censorship (though I think most people simply have nothing interesting or truthful to say anymore, so we’re perhaps beyond that), and enslavement? As someone I know once put it, “Never believe the applause of your audience.”
