Book Burning 2020 edition

So it's come to this again. In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd we've seen various signs of complete insanity. From burning down entire neighbourhoods, to looting stores, to Antifa creating their own autonomous zone in the middle of Seattle, there's no shortage of madness to go around. And while I think this was likely caused more by the stress induced by the Covid-19 lockdown, I would have to be in another reality not to see the issue of police brutality on full display and that the anger at the death of George Floyd is completely justified. Even if the actions resulting from the anger are not.

At first I was in support of the protests but, like with everything humans create, it eventually spiralled out of control and now the protests have moved so far away to what they were supposed to be about that they've become little more than a whirlwind of destruction. Now the protests are trying to fight racism in every form and facet. And one of the targets of their wrath is “offensive” art.

It never truly goes away does it? From it's very inception art has been attacked by those it inevitably offended. In the 1980's various religious groups would get together for mass book burnings wherein they would set books ablaze that they felt offended their deeply held christian values. You know like the Narnia books which are based on stories from the Bible, truly the work of a spawn of Satan. It was stupid, really fucking stupid. The idea that art should conform to your specific worldview is asinine. Unfortunatley, while the religious right was and still is a massive issue, the far left have shown themselves to be just as bad. Don't believe me, well let's compare. Back when Harry Potter first came out and made it big it was condemned by the religious right for “condoning witchcraft”. It was a position that was roundly mocked and derided by everyone including the left. Then, very recently, J.K Rowling made some controversial statements about transgenderism on Twitter which sparked outrage on the left. She did not apologise and has since doubled down which has caused those on the left to go after her and, by extension, the Harry Potter books. Same exact arguments. This work/author offends my worldview so it must be eradicated.

I could probably go on and cite numerous other examples but I feel like by doing so would be missing the forest for the tree's. The problem isn't that the left and right wings are guilty of the same thing, though they absolutely are, no the real issue is that even in 2020 people are still so sensitive that a piece of media or a statement from a creator will send them into such an utter tism fit that they will endear to silence them if they step out of line.

HBO Max recently removed Gone With the Wind from their catalogue because of racist depictions of African Americans, in spite of it containing the first African American to ever win an oscar, and for “glorifying” the pre civil war southern America. Now they have since brought it back with a disclaimer at the beginning but that's not the point. They shouldn't have removed it in the first place. Really, what did removing Gone With the Wind accomplish? It's not like removing it stopped racism or changed the history of racism in the American south. All removing it did was ignore that the history existed, and when you ignore history you are doomed to repeat it.

A similar thing happened in the UK where Little Britain was removed from the BBC Iplayer because of depictions of black face. Full disclosure, I hate Little Britain. It's a comedy that hasn't aged well at all and it's shocking how it became as popular as it did. But, despite that, removing it from the Iplayer in this way is ridiculous.

My main contention with all this censorship going on is how it's a subtle way of insulting the audiences intelligence. If I watch a sketch in Little Britain that involves black face, I'm probably going to know that it's wrong. I'm not an idiot. It's Always Sunny in Phildelphia had scenes of black face too and it was wrong there as well, though it was portrayed as being wrong in the show itself for comedic effect. To remove racist depictions of African Americans in old cartoons or movies, to remove depictions of black face, is to imply that the audience is so brain dead that they will not know that such protrayl's are wrong. People are smarter than you give them credit for.

Censoring art does not help fight racism. Removing racist depictions of the past does not help to fight racism in the present. It accomplishes nothing. Worse still, to remove these depictions of racist stereotypes from these old movies and cartoons is to imply that these stereotypes still exist. The crows from Dumbo are often criticised for being racist depictions of African Americans but let me ask you this. How many black people do you know that act like the crows from Dumbo? I don't know any because the stereotype the crows supposedly perpetuate no longer exists. They did exist when the film came out, but in 2020, far removed from the cultural context from when the film first released, the crows are little more than funny talking animals. They aren't racist depictions in 2020 because they depict a racist stereotype that does not exist anymore. No child is gonna watch the crows from Dumbo and say “hey mommy look at the funny crows, they sound like that black man that lives up the road,” because no black man talks like the crows from Dumbo. All they will see are talking animals. How can they see race, when animals don't have a race? The only way the crows are still racist is if you keep telling people they are racist. They are the Schrodinger's cat of racism.

Speaking of Disney, let's talk about Song of the South. This is a movie that Disney want to ignore exists because of it's depictions of African Americans. I remember watching it on VHS when I was a kid but it has never been released on DVD or blu-ray. In spite of Disney wanting to ignore this movies existence, one of their most popular rides at Disney Land, Splash Mountain, is based on characters from the animated segments of the film. Or at least it was until just recently as Disney have announced that they would be retooling the ride to remove the theme and replace it with something else. Disney, for the love of god, stop ignoring the movie. We know you made it. You know you made it. So stop ignoring the films existence, own up to your past and release the movie again you fucking cowards. James Baskett's performance as Uncle Remus is amazing and you are robbing an entire generation of people from seeing it. Release the movie you cowards!

But to get back on track, why would we enforce our own modern standards on the past to begin with? Times change and so too does art. Used to be that mages of naked children wasn't seen as pornagraphic, nowadays not so much. Or are we to tear down the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel because of all the naked cherubs on it? You can't enforce modern standards on art from the past because to do so is pointless. You can learn from the mistakes of the past but that's all you can do. You can't change it.

It's not just racist depictions from the past that are underfire either. Due to the killing of George Floyd having been commited by a police officer, now any and all depictions of police in media are being removed too. The long running reality show Cops just got cancelled and there are calls for Law and Order to be removed as well. It's got to the point where even Paw Patrol is getting shit because it's main character is a police dog and I can't tell if they're being serious or if they're joking. We've transcended Poe's law at this point. I get that people are angry at the police, which is completely understandable given their reprehensible actions, but removing police from media doesn't help fix that. Fiction should show us the ugly side of our shared existence but it should also not shy away from the good or hopeful side too. Show more good cops on TV. Show us how they should act. Don't just remove them entirely.

Art doesn't exist to agree with you. It doesn't exist to conform to your perception of reality. Do you feel uncomfortable watching Cops? Good. Art shouldn't exist to make you feel good, it's merely a form to allow an individual to express themselves and everyone, left and right no matter how extreme their views, has the right to be heard and to create. If you don't like it you don't have to engage with it. If you remove offensive views, how can we learn they're bad? We shouldn't censor art because it's a mirror we put up to ourselves to see everything beautiful and ugly about ourselves.

I will now show you a clip from one of my favourite shows of all time, Duckman. The context of the clip is that a politically correct comedian has become popular and led to comedy becoming blander and inoffensive. I highly recommend watching the full episode, Joking the Chicken, because it's excellent but here's the clip and while your watching this try replacing the word comedy with art and Duckman basically spelling out everything better than I can.

Cancel culture, this modern day book burning, needs to die. It accomplishes nothing but destroying and rewriting the past, prevents voices from being heard and doing so leads to nothing but disaster. We cannot allow it to continue. If art offends you, if an artist says something you disagree with, then just do what everyone else does. Take a deep breathe, suck it in, and move the fuck on. Because if you ever resort to the same tactics of those religious puritans from the eighties then you are just as bad as them.