A Sense of Doubt blog post #4065 - Tolerance of Intolerance? Separate Art From Artist? - OSC

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4065 - Tolerance of Intolerance? Separate Art From Artist? - OSC

This post is so old, it was set up as a HEY MOM post. This topic dates back to when the Ender's Game movie came out, which was 2013, when I was doing the T-Shirts blog, but I must have set up this post in the early years of HEY MOM here on Sense of Doubt, around 2015 or 2016.

Before the Internet and social media gave us quick access and frequent updates to people's opinions and knee-jerk reactions to unfolding events, we didn't know from looking at the art work of an artist what beliefs they held on a variety of topics.

Sure, the work could be political or in some way expressing a clear worldview that will let us know.

But the lack of gay characters in the works of Orson Scott Card (OSC) or even JK Rowling did not necessarily indicate some bigotry toward the LBGTQ community. After all, many such characters and ideologies were suppressed for years by publishers thinking of sales and film right potentials.

A certain sector of our society has become too intolerant of the views of others no matter how reasonably they are stated. The lack of respect in reactionary cancel culture is toxic and virulent.

Don't get me wrong. OSC's opposition to same-sex marriage because of his Mormon religion is nothing with which I agree in any way. I find opposition to same-sex marriage and the Mormon faith reprehensible, vile, and full of hatred.

But are the books of OSC vile and full of hatred?

And must I stop reading an author I have been reading for decades simply because we disagree on issues of basic human rights?

I mean, if OSC was gunning down people in the street that would be one thing. But he's not.

Some would argue that his opposition is just as bad as gunning people down. Granted, I get that argument.

If you take a look here at the things he's said, they are pretty vile and hateful.

http://www.verbicidemagazine.com/2013/11/07/homophobia-quotes-orson-scott-card-controversy-bigot-enders-game/

He's not just against gay marriage based on his religion, he thinks "homosexuality" should remain against the law and those laws enforced "when necessary." I am not sure when that would EVER be necessary. But out of the other side of his mouth, he claims to have gay friends in committed relationships. Are they subject to these laws he wants enforced "when necessary"?

I cannot condone ANYTHING OSC says on this topic, NOT AT ALL.

And yet, I like his books.

I realize that this argument I am making is a slippery slope. But I have always lived in the grey area. I do not like black-white thinking. The either-or argument is oversimplification, the worst of the logical fallacies. The world is complex.

Look at it another way. Yes. he's hateful and seems unforgiving, quite counter to the teachings of Christ.

And yet, can we on the receiving end of his hateful rhetoric be somewhat forgiving?

Can I rail against his hateful views and still read his books?

Now, I get it, One of my long time friends, a gay man, out of the closet late in his life, called OSC an "asshat," and I don't disagree. For him, continuing to read OSC or support his work is necessary as OSC stands against a fundamental right to legal partnership that my friend should be able to enjoy.

But I am not wrong for wanting to continue to read OSC or JK Rowling.

What galls me is that in the eyes of some I am not a REAL ally to the LBGTQ community if I continue to read OSC or JK Rowling.

That "you're either with us or against us" mentality is almost as vile and hull of hatred as the Mormon faith's disgusting denial of same sex relationships and sexual orientations.

Now some decisions are easier.

Former Pistons player Jaden Ivey was cut from the Chicago Bulls because of his hateful online remarks about gay people.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48350464/sources-bulls-waive-jaden-ivey-anti-gay-comments

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7162491/2026/04/01/jaden-ivey-career-timeline-pistons-bulls/

This one's easier. I was not a big fan of Ivey to begin with, and this seals that deal. And his remarks were far more hateful than OSC's or Rowling's.

I may lose some friends over this view, but I hope not.

The whole point of this argument is to achieve at least tolerance if not acceptance, which are the practices the Mormons should adopt.

I do not mean me. I am not tolerant of intolerance. But I just can't buy into the all-or-nothing mentality.

I am probably being selfish. I get that.

But then, it's so difficult to find integrity and goodness in our world these days.

Also, I am sure that if I were gay or trans, I might feel very differently. I am not sure I buy this argument either as I have very strong empathy. I think I might still defend my choices.

Meanwhile, unless OSC becomes much more hateful, I am going to keep reading, and I am going to watch the HBO Harry Potter show because these things bring me joy, and we have so little joy in our world these days. We need to take it when it comes.




http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2013/07/09/orson-scott-card-demands-your-tolerance-of-his-intolerance

I bet someone at Summit isn't happy about this. 

Yesterday, Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card released a statement meant to address the boycott of the upcoming film as a result of his decades-long attack on gay rights. Here's what he said: 

Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984.

With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot.  The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state.

Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.

Orson Scott Card

Well, there's a lot to discuss there. Let's take it point by point, shall we? 

"...has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984." 

This isn't the most infuriating part of his quote, but it's the most tone-deaf. The fight for equality has been around almost as long as homosexuality itself, which is to say literally forever. But let's stick to America, from where Card hails: Emma Goldman, the first American to fight openly against gay prejudice, began speaking on the subject in 1910. The first gay rights organization, The Society for Human Rights, was established in 1924. Stonewall took place in 1969. Vito Russo began organizing activist rallies the same year. Harvey Milk began publicly lobbying for equality in 1973. The first National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights, in which 75,000 people participated, took place in 1979. In 1984, the year Ender's Game was written, Berkeley, California became the first city to offer its citizens domestic partnership benefits. So yeah, the fight for gay rights existed when this book was written. 

"...the gay marriage issue becomes moot."

Actually, no, it doesn't. Right now only thirteen of our fifty states recognize same-sex marriage. Sure, with the fall of DOMA, the federal government must honor all same-sex unions that take place in those thirteen states, but that still leaves roughly 75% of our states that are turning their backs on marriage equality. We had a victory this month, but it's hardly the last victory. 

"Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute."

Well, the issue is still in dispute, but that aside: this idea that we must show tolerance of those who would deny basic human rights to someone due solely to sexual preference is the most backwards and blind weapon of homophobes. We do tolerate you, Orson Scott Card. We let you live and breathe and marry and divorce and rant and write and visit your loved ones in the hospital and receive benefits when your partner dies. That is tolerance. Tolerance doesn't mean agreeing with your hateful, narrow, ancient views. It means allowing you to live your life as the little worm you are without denying you any of the rights that any other citizen receives. 

Ender's Game meant a lot to me as a child, a little outsider who wanted to escape. I'm not going to boycott the movie, because as a lover of literature throughout the ages, I've spent most of my life learning to separate art and artist. I don't particularly want to see Orson Scott Card grow any richer, nor, for that matter, do I want to celebrate the personal lives of Roman Polanski or Charles Dickens or T.S. Eliot. I can see Ender's Game and despise Orson Scott Card. That is my right. But in the face of hatred, I will always fight back with what small means I do have: with words. 

 

 OTHER RESOURCES AND VIEWS

https://www.themarysue.com/coping-with-problematic-fave/

https://www.themarysue.com/when-bad-people-make-good-art/


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pathfinder_series


http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/end_game_for_orson_scott_card_partner/

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2604.04 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3929 days ago & DAD = 582 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.