I read/listen/watch my Harry Potter books and movies that I’ve had for 20 years because it basically kept me alive when I was in the closet and it’s a big part of me but also fuck JK Rowling.

If the content itself doesn’t reflect the creator’s shittiness, yes, but I won’t pay for it.

If I know someone is a terrible person, I can’t enjoy their work. Besides not wanting to financially support them, I like to put myself in an author’s, actor’s, writer’s shoes when I watch/read stuff.

That said, I don’t purposefully look into people’s lives; I’m not into celebrity gossip. But sometimes a person is such an outlier or just so vocal about it that it’s unavoidable.

I’m too tired to really spend my time being too correctional on what I should or shouldn’t enjoy based on the actions some people do. It really depends. Ian Watkins is an exception, a horrible person, who made it easy for me to drop everything Lostprophets-related.

I still listen to Disturbed, because there’s way too many songs I like from them. I don’t have to care about David Draiman and I don’t, because of what he did.

I will still enjoy Harry Potter, because I believe the universe is bigger than J.K Rowlings to where, anything she does or says will not knock down my enjoyment of that universe. I can and will ignore her existence.

Yes. I don’t often buy media so I haven’t yet tested if I would give them money, but I hope I wouldn’t.

I don’t have the time or energy to go through the lives of every single person involved with a game/show/movie I want to enjoy to see if anyone involved has problematic views. Like I’m going to see Project Hail Mary this weekend. If someone tells me at some point Ryan Gosling said some dumb shit while drunk or the book the film is based on has racist symbolism, I honestly don’t care. I’m watching and judging the film filled with hard work done by tons of different people.

I try to avoid giving them more relevance, but I do occasionally revisit through means that don’t give them money. I hate Dave Mustaine’s guts, so I have the best three Megadeth albums downloaded (Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction).

generally, no.

and if I do, I make sure not to share/promote it

There are a lot of fair-minded takes in this thread which is surprising for me since this is lemmy where I’ve actually seen someone tell another person they are a piece of shit for even talking about Harry Potter lore.

Yes, I think it’s okay to enjoy whatever it is you enjoy so long as doing so doesn’t harm others or yourself. I also think it’s important to be mindful what it is that makes you feel like there’s a moral quandary, and it’s also worth considering if the media you’re consuming is the work of a group of people or a single individual.

For example, I really enjoy the movie Chinatown, but Roman Polanski is a piece of shit. I don’t think his shitness diminishes the quality of the movie because it was acted well by Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway; the writing is incredible as is the cinematography; and credit where credit is due, Polanski directed the movie masterfully. He’s still a child rapist piece of shit though.

Depends, but generally yes. It’s just too hard to screen all creatives for purity, some people are only good at one thing, but so good at that one thing. So if you don’t let them do that one thing, it’s like there’s nothing left of them that is good. I probably won’t give them my money, but as far as reading or listening to their stuff, enjoying their art, yeah I can. Can admit they are good in at least one way, if they are.

It’s very difficult for me. But also I realize if you look closely enough at most any artist you can find something disgusting about them, so I don’t look into it in the first place. Like I used to love r. Kelly, but after learning about his past with Aaliyah and the whole situation that landed him where he is now, I haven’t purposefully listened to his music since.

Idk, maybe I’m a bad person and lazy but I like enjoying things and I have learned over the years that sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss.

It varies.

I often give the example of HP Lovecraft. I’m a big fan of his stories and the Cthulhu Mythos. But it remains that he was a huge racist. How do I reconcile the two?

First, an author’s works are separate from the author themselves. Second, in Lovecraft’s case, he was a product of his time and upbringing. And third, and importantly in his case: he’s dead. He has no ability to change beyond his passing in the 1930s. People can and do change all the time. If Lovecraft were around today he might have become to most left-leaning person in the world, but he never had that chance. There were indications, late in life, that he might well have changed.

But, he didn’t. It remains that he was a racist in life, that will never change, and because of it there will always be people uncomfortable with his work. That is understandable, and I won’t try to convince anyone that they should ignore it.

Not quite on topic, but I was never able to hate the situation with Werner von Braun. Space technology, both real and imagined, has always been an inspiration for me. It embodies the dream of aspiring to more and greater, can lift us humans above our roots as clever tool using animals. The science and technology is a great investment as it drags every part of society toward a better future (and I know some of y’all will come to bad-mouth this, but se la vie).

Werner von Braun developed rockets for the nazis, and I believe was responsible for the V2s that caused death and destruction in the UK. And it’s a root that has developed in some of the worst of humanity. And the us government brought him over, let him avoid any prosecution, used his work and let him build on it. But the us civilian space program brought us the dream, the challenge, the inspiration with his help. I am fine with that.

My feelings on the situation are pretty much inline with his treatment in “For All Mankind” and I even feel somewhat sad for him.

If I find out about the artist before consuming any of the art, I will generally try to avoid it.

But if I already enjoy something and find out, I’ll usually keep enjoying the thing. Occasionally I won’t be able to, but I haven’t fully figured out where the rules are yet. I think part of it is if the art is directly related to what/how they were a bad person. For example I can still enjoy ruroni kenshin, because it has pretty much nothing to do with what the creator was caught with