Once upon a time in the 80s Metal's greatest enemy was the PMRC, led by Al Gore's wife Tipper , whose Filthy 15 placed bands like Judas Priest, Motley Crue, W.A.S.P , AC/DC, Mercyful Fate, Black Sabbath, and Venom. This ended up with the Parental Advisory stickers being placed on albums which, increased sales. But music is controlled much differently now. In ways that affect the artist more adversely through demonetization or bans and suppression of algorithms. Punk rock and metal should of course be against censorship, but instead at times find themselves pandering to cancel culture rather than giving it the middle finger.
When it comes to censorship, and asking what should or should not be given a platform form, how are we deciding what is the moral compass we are using? All too often it defaults to societies shaped by religion. Then which god is choosing here? Jevohvah, Odin, Inanna, Set, Shiva, and Satan all have different scales by which they judge actions, who are we to say which one is right? Some of these we brand as terrorism if that is the narrative it fits. We live in echo chambers where we assume ours is the only way.
Thus every villain is the hero of his own story. The trend which has largely lost steam in the past year, was to cancel everyone who did not pander to the will of the popular narrative. Terms like "Male gaze" clashed with the resounding hypocrisy of those who lamented "slut shaming", At the end of the day it boiled down to a childish paradigm of don't do what I don't want since I should be allowed to do what I want. It all yielded nothing but a distraction.
But it did give tech companies ideas to censor platforms based on their vision of the greater good. They feel justified in doing so since cancel culture created a puritanical vibe. While I no longer live and die by social media to market my content that has gained traction in markets outside of America, it also made me more visible to them, so something like a post where Yolandi Visser's body gets a post taken down and restrictions applied. Being unwilling to bow to any system, I ignored it and kept on with my business, rather than grovel and appeal, I ignored them and they have no power. We have seen this in artists who refuse to allow themselves to be canceled, like Marilyn Manson and Morrissey. They state their truth with no apologies and continue
What's the solution? Knowing that this is the road to the kind of dystopia Orwell and Bradbury wrote about, you can get out of your echo chamber and investigate perspectives you don't agree with. I am in opposition to Christianity, but I watch Christian Youtube videos as I at least want to hear perspectives I do not agree with to research what I do believe in I need that data too. The stand I take is just not covering any Christian bands here since the mission statement is to spread sonic darkness. I am not going to pitch you by saying to smash the like button or share my posts, or whatever the standard marketing things are, but share articles of blogs like what I do here to support Free Media, and have an alternative to what the approved censored media wants as the narrative.
pst11
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