For this particular situation, some (orthogonal) beliefs are more important than others.

In particular, I consider the rights of women and minority groups (especially LGBT people) to be, perhaps, the most important factor. If someone can't respect those people, then I can't support the person.

On the other hand, someone's belief about the minimum wage, or about how progressive (or not) taxation should be, would not likely affect my decision to support someone. I also don't consider the religion to be *too* important, though it can influence other attitudes of the person.

I *can* enjoy the works of bigots, provided that bigotry does not influence their work. (It is worth noting, however, that it sometimes does in subtle ways; consider the role of women in a work of literature; if the creator doesn't respect women, the work will lack strong women (or, like the first two Bard's Tale games, lack women entirely (that princess in BT2's starter dungeon doesn't count).)

It is worth noting that the creator of Bard's Tale 1 and 2 was not involved in Bard's Tale 3, and you can definitely see the difference, with Bard's Tale 3 having female characters and multiple gods, whereas BT1 (and maybe BT2?) had some strong Christian references in it.

Ooh, gonna need some cream for that burn. This thread is getting interesting.

nice save -ing throw

Obligatory:
http://i.imgur.com/gljHX0N.gif

Check out this link about H.P. Lovecraft:

http://heretical.com/miscella/hplc-dr.html

Yes, as long as they don't shove their political, religious or sexual agendas down my throat.

I try to not let it, but sometimes I cant help it.

This affected my enjoyment of Fez.
Greatly.

No. But it can.

One should try and separate the artist from the work, but in the case of complete twats like Palmer Luckily, one cannot separate the twat from his work, seeing as he donated 10,000+ smackers to Nimble America.

"Should" in what sense? Does it? For some people absolutely. The more that one is able to detach their moral/ethical or other judgments and criticisms of someone else's beliefs from their views and objectivity over the person's artistic output the more unbiased their opinion is likely to be with regard to that person naturally. They may or may not do this with every situation however.

For example, I grew up greatly enjoying the Mad Max movies, Lethal Weapon series and other movies which Mel Gibson starred in, and in later years movies he directed/produced. To date I've enjoyed all of the movies I've seen him in and enjoyed his acting and the characters he has portrayed. I very much enjoyed Apocalypto as well, and other stuff he's done. I'm not particularly fond of his opinions and beliefs in the real world however and greatly disagree with him strongly on some of his world views which I think are deplorable. I can still fire up a movie with him in it and enjoy him presenting his form of art however. I may or may not be able to be as objective about it with other celebrities or artists however, it's an individual situation however I do tend to be able to separate the person from the art more often than not.

Should I? Who is to say either way other than myself? There is no right or wrong answer, the question itself is subjective. :o)

What if you found out they're gay, bi, or asexual?

I wouldn't make any difference, how I like their character will determine it for me.

PS. My GoG reply notification isn't working anymore for some reason.

Agreed, the details of the person in question and the specifics of their beliefs, actions or any controversies they are involved in enter into it. It also depends on the observer's own beliefs, values and convictions and other factors.

I agree. It can be very difficult at times though too. There's a well known popular American heavy metal band that I would say I am historically a fan of. I had enjoyed their heavy riffs and their unrelenting sticking to form counter to industry trends over time throughout the 90s long after metal was supplanted by Alternative and other music in the mainstream they kept putting out heavier "fuck you" type albums that were just metal, metal and more metal, refusing to change their style whatsoever to adapt to modern trends. I really respected that and hoped that they would continue to do so, and they did all along until the band eventually split up some time ago.

The sad part is that just last year I watched some videos on Youtube where that band's well known singer was caught on camera saying various racist white supremacist comments that shocked and surprised me, then another video, and another one. Turns out he's just more or less a big racist prick, and that really affects me now going back and listening to their music now, as I hear the emotion in their music from a completely different angle. Not only that, someone with the conviction he has could not likely become friends and play in a band with all of the other guys unless they too had similar convictions or they would be diametrically opposed to each other on such a controversial topic. I don't have any direct knowledge the other band members felt the same way as he, but I have to assume some level of guilt by association, and even though they are not all with us anymore and they're no longer collectively a band for some time now - I now see their music in a way that is difficult. I still have some enjoyment of the actual music, but can't listen to it without thinking about it through a lens of the singer's racist viewpoints in my mind.

I already own any of their music I ever planned to buy, so it doesn't affect my decision making much going forward, but if they were still an active band, I would have to make a decision about whether I wanted to spend money on their art in the future, effectively funding a world view I disagree with, and I'm not sure I could do that in that case.

Indeed, Buddhism is a form of philosophy rather than religion, and it has much much more in common with science than with any religion. The Dalai Lama once said something along the lines (paraphrasing) "If science one day shows evidence that is contrary to what Buddhism believes to be true, then Buddhism must change.". The Dalai Lama himself is schooled in science, as are many of the monks and followers of Buddhism.

I myself am an atheist, however I do investigate and learn from the various beliefs and philosophies that others hold around the world, and as I investigated many such systems I was actually quite surprised to discover that even as an atheist I had more in common with the philosophies of Buddhism than not. I sometimes jokingly think that Buddhists are merely organized atheists in disguise. :o)

Unlike almost all of the world's religions and many other philosophies that make me want to barf in my mouth to listen to, I could listen to someone like the Dalai Lama, or Karmapa speak publicly for hours on end even through a translator and not only not get bored, but actually enjoy listening to them and even learn something or feel a bit uplifted by their positive attitude, temperance and tolerance of all other cultures and world views. I've definitely got a large respect for the Buddhists.
This. Very well said.
Um, that was Richard *Dawson*. I presume your tongue hanging out is intentional word play on the name similarity though. ;) I don't think Richard Dawkins goes around kissing everyone in sight even though he too has a British accent. :o)

Funny you mention him, he's definitely a controversial figure in terms of celebrity. I'm a fan of some of his classic rock tunes and can enjoy some of them and play them on guitar as well, such as Stranglehold, Cat Scratch Fever to name a few. But - the more I hear come out of his non-singing mouth in interviews and concerning matters of public interest, the more I find him at odds with my personal world view. If only he put more effort into producing forms of art nowadays as he does commenting on public policy etc. I might be aware of something he's produced artistically in the last 20 or more years and have to come to terms with a decision... :)


What if you run uBlock Origin to block all advertising, along with NoScript and other addons to strip tracking and other demographics/analytics collection? :)

I still enjoy watching old Seinfeld episodes even though the Kramer actor gave racial slurs when he got fed up with some dark-skinned viewer during his performance. (I am unsure if he really is a bigoted racist, or did he just want to come up with something to hurt the feelings of the person in the audience who had hurt his feelings...).

His outburst certainly wasn't classy at all, but then maybe he just had a bad day, his car got broken and the cat peed on his pillow.