We should not bow to the outrage of the Internet.
Perhaps it is because we are so comfortable in the west, so blase about the culture we live in and intellectually fattened by the freedoms that we enjoy, that so many of us have just stopped thinking clearly. Why would New York’s Guggenheim Museum collapse under the pressure of a few animal rights protesters this week? Half a million petitioners whinging on the flimsiest of grounds forced the removal of three pieces of art featuring animals, because apparently the people tasked with managing the great legacy of Solomon Guggenheim, of running the “temple of spirit” conceived as a vital beacon of enlightenment culture, have forgotten the very purpose of art.
Most modern art is pretty dire, frankly. However, the thrust of the argument here is how willingly people bow to pressure from the mob baying for blood on the Internet – usually Twitter. What usually follows is a craven apology and a withdrawal of the “inappropriate” source of the offence. The correct reaction to the mob is to tell them in sufficiently robust terms that there can be no mistake that we are not going to submit to their demands, exactly where they can stick their outrage and that if they don’t like it, no one is forcing them to watch. If they find it “inappropriate”, well, boo-fucking-hoo, get over yourselves and grow up. No one – and I mean, no one – is obliged to pander to your sensitivities and no one owes you an apology and no one is obliged to remove content that you find offensive. If you are offended, well too bad.
Art must stand up to and challenge orthodoxies, and we must all learn to stay calm in the eye of a storm. We need to develop some backbone when faced with protests, or we will only make the threat of the mob worse.
You can replace art with whatever you like here. If you wear a colourful shirt that upsets the feminazis, or say something that is lighthearted, but the leftist humourless lemon suckers dislike because they think it is sexist, racist or some other “ist”. “Go fuck yourself” is the appropriate response to these people and we need to keep saying it until they get the message. Or, as the article points out, they keep coming back for another bite. There is only one way to defeat this particular monster and that is robust, vigorous resistance combined with ridicule.
Yes ! ‘Go fuck yourself’ should be the immediate response to these easily offended tosspots. Lucky i never meet any of them. I’m still getting over seeing all those vile cretins outside the Tory Party conference. These left wing fascists need dealing with hard.
It’s only fair after all. All those blue rinse Tories protesting and threatening violence outside the Labour party conference. Oh, wait…
What’s the saying now gathering momentum? “Just because you’re offended, it doesn’t make you right.”
And even if you are, so what?
Complaints of this sort lack validity anyway. A vistor to a museum might have an unhappy experience, resort to twitter and the rabble joins in by reacting to that tweet, not from personal experience.
Why does a museum even need a Twitter account FFS? They should close thier account in protest. There! That showed you TwitterNazis!!
Surely the easiest thing to do, is to ignore Twitter? There… that was easy wasn’t it?
Works for me.
Do tell-
how many have safely withstood the mob ?
It’s online. Ignoring it is remarkably simple. Don’t look at Twitter or Facebook. Block people if necessary. Anyone can survive if they have the gumption to stand up to these people.
Remember that daft woman that wanted more women on bank notes? She couldn’t keep away from twitter. It’s a bit like joining in with an argument in a pub – don’t do it unless you are up to taking a glass in the face.
Quite. She could have just ignored it.