For all my cringing in this thread, I do concur. I don’t like hearing that someone I like has beliefs or aligns themselves with a group I’m not fond of, but I really only care about how well entertainers entertain me. The only time beliefs really start to annoy me is if they start creeping into the entertainment.
Some of the creators of webcomics I follow regularly are hardcore conservative Christians, and for the most part I don’t care…except when they use the comic as a platform to preach. As long as Adam Baldwin just keeps doing what he’s always done on screen, it’s all good.
If the guy was a painter, or even a musician, I could probably get past it. But for an actor, it’s REALLY hard to see the character he plays without also seeing the actor behind it. It always seeps through, especially for an actor like Baldwin who tend to play pretty similar characters in everything he’s in.
I agree with the rest of your post, but only because Baldwin’s beliefs aren’t beyond the pale. Contrast this against Mel Gibson’s, for example, whose are (IMO); or if you like, imagine someone even worse, say someone who actively supports the Real IRA or some other terrorist organization.
It’s perfectly possible for someone’s real-world behavior to taint my enjoyment of their art. That can include participation in exceptionally loathsome political movements. The Tea Party movement is loathsome, IMO, but only unexceptionally so.
At least this puts the net political viewpoint of acting Baldwins somewhere in the middle. And if an actor being conservative really taints your viewpoint on an actor, I hope you don’t like Robert Downey, Jr.
I still don’t think it should, though. The reason we don’t enjoy it is because that person has done something wrong. But our dislike is not going to do anything to stop that. So all we’re doing is letting someone else’s actions keep us from enjoying something.
Our instinct to shun people who have done wrong is not always useful.
So for consistency’s sake, Sam, you might want to back off on your gibes about people on the left being “shallow and close-minded” if this revelation about Baldwin’s politics happens to diminish their appreciation of Baldwin’s art.
(Me personally, I never heard of the guy and don’t know and don’t care what Firefly is, so I won’t be making any changes in my life over this.)
You’ve got a reasonable point, if you don’t draw a distinction between merely holding a set of beliefs and specific actions you think are wrong. No one had a problem with the Dixie Chicks until they criticized the president overseas.
But I recognize that everyone draws the line in a different place, and I’ve got no right to tell them where it is. So consider my comment retracted.