Has an actor or musician's politics ever changed your opinion of his work? (So long, Pete Seeger)

No, I don’t consider political views when I listen to or appreciate an artist. Does anyone think they worry about my views? RIP Pete.

I used to love the Terminator movies but Arnie became banned in our family after the horrible things he did to other family members who worked for the state.

Conan the Republican is okay with me, but I might be prejudiced because I taught him the word “Cramp”.

@filmfann Okay, I’m missing the “Cramp” reference. I have a family member that said she used to love Melissa Etheridge until she found out she was gay. Huh?

@Adirondackwannabe No reference. I actually taught him that word many years ago, when he was autographing a book on body building. He was writing nice messages to everyone, and not scribbling his name. I told him that I was surprised he hadn’t gotten a cramp doing that, and he looked at me funny, and said “Cramp? What is cramp?” I explained they were muscle knots, from overuse, and he stood up and flexed, and said “Oh, yes! Many cramps today!”

@filmfann Nice.

Pete Seeger is one of my true heroes because his work and his politics were intertwined and because he always, always was on the front lines standing up for what he believed.

No, I pay no attention to their politics. I will miss Pete Seeger.

@filmfann I thought you were talking about Conan O’Brien!! because I didn’t know he was a Republican and then you mentioned the Body Building Book and I thought you were being ironic to be funny… and then I realised when you described the story with his broken English who it really was you were talking about. I’m laughing very hard about that now.

I’ll miss Pete Seeger, too. In his case, his politics was one of the reasons I liked him. His songs gave voice to the voiceless.

I am one who will sometimes let a performer’s politics color my view of them. Same if they have an intolerant religion that they insist takes precedence over everyone else’s belief.

I was a wannabe folksinger in Chicago when the Weavers were there in the sixties. I will always love Pete.

I’ve never given a shit about the personal lives of musicians/actors/sportspeople I admire.
If they’re good at what they do, their job…& it keeps me entertained, then that’s all that matters to me.

I have to admit that yes, an artist’s personal life and politics influences the way I look at their work. Often it brings greater breadth and depth of understanding, especially with authors of fiction, as in the case of Silvia Plath. Her work stands alone, but it is greatly enhanced once the backstory is revealed. Sometimes it brings a film of disgust, like in the case of Hemingway. After an initial fascination with his life, I began finding anecdotes, accounts, both in print and among contemporaries of a cowardly braggart, a disgustingly insecure person I would never have anything to do with if he were a contemporary of mine. And now, as I read his characters’ interaction with women and others, it all leaks out and, although American literature may owe a debt to his terse style, I find him hard to read just as I would find it hard to spend any time at all with this type of person.

In the case of Pete Seger, he has long been one of my heroes in light of his work and music during the Vietnam War and later along the Hudson River Valley. I wasn’t much of a fan of American Folk Music until I listened closely to him and his friends’ work during the war, which led me forwards to Baez and Ochs and backwards to Woody Guthrey and a mother lode of the kind of American history which isn’t taught in school.

Good night and thank you, Pete.

@Espiritus_Corvus I’ll see him in my dreams.

I was never a huge Pete Seeger fan, but I’m sad that he’s left us. As for changing my political views because of an artist’s work, not that I can recall… and I’m reminded of the wonderful lyrics of John Mayer’s song, “Belief.”

I keep politics and entertainment separate unless the entertainer is making a total ass of themselves .for example i am a left leaning moderate but i like Clint Eastwood and actor James Wood because of their craft regardless of what their political beliefs are.

Generally I don’t care, unless it affects their performance.

For example: Metal band Lamb of God. My first experience with them was a live show, during a festival, and I found them boring and repetitive. Second time, same thing. Willing to give them another shot, I sat through their live performance at Mayhem Fest for a third time. They actually stopped to talk in between songs, in order to make a huge speech about the troops and the war and supporting the troops and politics and blahblahblahblahblah….

Dudes, I go to metal shows to get away from all that current events bullshit. If I want to be preached to, I know where to find a church. They’re on every street corner.

I’m with Anberlin below.

“Entertainers have no place in dictating someone’s personal opinion. I feel like it’s our job to encourage fans to step out of that grey area and pick a side,” he stated flatly. “I don’t care what it is, it just needs to be your own opinion, and not because this fancy poster was drawn by your favorite artist, therefore you need to vote this way or that,” Christian added in reference to artist Shepard Fairey’s notorious Obama “HOPE” posters. “It’s our job to push people towards the information. It’s their job to solidify their own opinion.

“You’re just an entertainer. Shut up! I mean, honestly,” he continued, speaking theoretically. “You didn’t even go to college. The odds of you being a PhD in politics and truly understanding what’s going on is just asinine. Reading Karl Marx doesn’t make you the best liberal just like reading Ann Coulter doesn’t make you a conservative. If you want to create change, go volunteer with Habitat For Humanity and shut up.”

http://kroq.cbslocal.com/2012/10/08/anberlins-stephen-christian-to-politically-outspoken-entertainers-shut-up-you-didnt-even-go-to-college/

And to answer your question, I would never, never go to a Mel Gibson movie now although I used to like his performances.

I don’t agree with Clint Eastwood’s politics or his predilection for talking to furniture but I do respect his acting and directing ability and would continue to view his works.

And I would sleep with George Clooney only because of the high respect I hold for his values.

I understand exactly how @Espiritus_Corvus feels. When my knowledge of an artist’s politics, racism, chauvinism or other undesirable (to me) traits informs and colors his work, then it’s harder – sometimes impossible – to appreciate “the work” as much.

It took me a long time to get past Richard Wagner’s anti-semitism and appreciate the works that I do know of (I haven’t listened to all of his works) that I do enjoy. But because of his strong anti-semitism I’ve never cared to investigate the works that I don’t already know; I don’t want to know “the man” any more than I do.

I guess that the way I’ve reconciled those feelings – appreciation for the work and revulsion for the person – is to deliberately split my conscious appreciation of each from the other.

For example, my father absolutely detested Frank Sinatra for his criminal associations and actions as a young man. In my adoration of my father as a child I more or less followed what I learned from him, unthinkingly, as most of us do as children. As I grew and got exposed to more music than what my father played, though, I realized that Sinatra was a pretty good singer. (It helped that he was my Mom’s favorite – a fact that she never hid from Dad.)

If we were going to hate the artistic endeavors of everyone who did anything because of their human foibles, then we’d live pretty drab lives, I think.

So to the extent that I can, I divorce everyone’s personality, politics and unwelcome ideas from the things that I like, and try to find my own appreciation of “the work itself”, unless the work itself is explicitly political, nationalistic or racist, and then take that into account in my appreciation – or lack thereof.

That works both ways, too. I try not to manufacture appreciation for someone’s work just because I happen to agree with his or her politics. The work has to stand on its own.

And how did I fail to mention Tom Cruise?

In the 1960s and 70s I enjoyed listening to the music of Cat Stevens (“Peace Train”, etc). But since he changed his name to Yusaf Islam and reportedly supports Hamas & possibly other terrorist organizations, as well as being denied entry to U.S. and U.K., I’m not so enamored of his music anymore.

RIP Pete Seeger— I’ll listen to HIM forever!

Pete Seeger’s politics was heavily intertwined with his work; if it wasn’t for his political beliefs we wouldn’t have most of the songs he wrote at all. In his case it was a good thing. In some other cases, not so much.

I used to think Janeane Garofalo was a funny stand-up comedian and actress until she became a raging political activist.

I don’t think so. I like Seeger as a person, sometimes even agree with more controversial parts of his politics, but his songs are naive and often irritating. He had some good ones, and he was obviously a talented musician, but by and large I have trouble listening to him. If I want to listen to prole folk music, I much prefer Woody Guthrie for his more soulful voice. On the flip side, people like Meat Loaf and Ted Nugent aren’t exactly even clever or talented, but I thought that before I knew their politics.

A better question is how their personal politics color or reflect actors’ or musicians’ talents.There are some talented to brilliant right-wing actors (e.g., Jon Voight, Kelsey Grammer, Robert Downey Jr., I guess Robert Duval), many of whom are also nuts. It even happens with some, though probably fewer, musicians and writers.

What you are almost certain to never is a funny right-wing comedian. This is because good comedy requires attacking and undermining authority, and being right-wing is about enforcing authority. Adam Sandler is a good example of this phenomenon; he’s pretty much incapable of being funny in his own right, but he’s a pretty talented dramatic actor.

@janbb ‘s reference to Mel Gibson works for me. I greatly admire his skills before and behind the camera, but I am repulsed by his positions. I understand where he stands on it, I just can’t abide it.
I will see any film with him in it, or behind it though. That guy understands story structure.

I never knew how many great songs he wrote, like one of my all-time favorites, “Disneyland was made for you and me.”
RIP, dude.

@kritiper Woody Guthrie wrote that, along with House of the Riding Fun.

@filmfann That’s what I thought. The news said otherwise. NEVER TRUST THE NEWS!

House of the Rising Sun is an older folk song.

Pete Seeger did Little Boxes.

@bolwerk Yes, but it wasn’t written by him either. It was written by Malvinia Reynolds.

@janbb: yes, I was careful not to say “wrote” (wasn’t sure). But that’s probably his most famous attack on consumerism.

Pete Seeger was a folk artist and used his music to spread a message. That is what that type of folk music is and it is/was absolutely part and parcel of his politics and beliefs. If we didn’t hear his message about his politics in his music, I’m sure he would feel he failed as an artist. THAT being said, some music and art is to simply entertain and be a escape from life and some music and art is to share the artists message and not ‘preach’ but perhaps enlighten us and point at something in the world and say, ‘HEY! Everyone! Come and look at this differently and see what you think.’ Personally, I like the both kinds.

Now, if someone in the entertainment industry, like Mel Gibson or Tom Cruise, display their private beliefs that are, to me, so obviously ignorant or make stupid mistakes like Hugh Grant did, I do look at their work differently because that stuff is always in the back of my mind, but I’m sure they would rather it not be. (Unlike Pete, who WANTED people to think about life and politics reflected in his music.)

Yes, quite often of late. Madonna discussing bombing the White House is far too much to bear. That is barbaric and should be punished. I will never listen to her or watch her, since she is so barbaric. I boycott Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Robert De Niro. Kathy Griffin, Jennifer Lawrence, etc. I never have watched football, but I advise everyone to boycott the NFL because the kneelers force their naïve political views upon anyone who watches their games. If you ask them why they are kneeling, they give incoherent answers.

I should have said “NEVER TRUST THE NEWS %100.”