For me the question is whether, if I were a contemporary of an artist, I would support their work. I take voting with my wallet quite seriously as it’s arguably the most power we have in our consumerist society.
Given what I’ve learned of Christie as I got older, no, I probably wouldn’t. I love her mysteries and, as a once avid theater goer, particularly some of the excellently performed stage plays I’ve seen put on over the years. But it’s kind of like how I am about OSC. I enjoy his stories, but there are other storytellers I enjoy just as much that don’t actively support causes working against my own beliefs about right and wrong. The difference, for me and me alone, is that Christie is dead and I don’t feel bad supporting many of the good actors who continue to portray her mysteries, so for me I don’t see a conflict between criticizing her politics and enjoying her art.
But that said, how one deals with art and artists they find problematic is always a deeply personal choice. So I take a particularly dim view of people who dismiss those who choose differently than them as virtue signalling. That seems to be the new favorite fallacy, dismissing those with different outlooks and strategies of virtue signalling. I’m pretty sure I’ve been guilty of doing it myself.
Also, I feel the poll at the start of this thread is a loaded question. We can always use a good thread to discuss topics like this, but it needn’t be an echo chamber and usually isn’t despite the degree to which outsiders often sell us short as a community.
