Thursday, September 2, 2010

The whole Machete story

OK so you've heard about my recent conflict with certain people regarding the boycott on the film Machete. I was about to give-up-the-ghost until thankfully Keith Preston stepped in and told me his thoughts and encouraged me to continue. (Thanks Keith.)

Well this is a link to the story if anyone needs to know: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/08/machete_protest_robert_rodruiguez_white_nationalist.php

OK, that out of the way, I really should say that (and Keith and Troy Southgate are on my side here) I'm really against this protest. I think most people are intelligent enough to make their own minds and I think no one should dictate what movies, books or music they should consume. If this movie is really about a race war, as BANA claims, will life imitate art? I wouldn't know. I know that alot of the music and literature I read/listen to is questionable -- just because I read Peter Sotos or listen to Whitehouse or the Brainbombs doesn't make me a potential serial killer. I'd never do things like that (although if I had kids I wouldn't have them exposed to such things IMO...) Some people like to listen to Skrewdriver (a band I don't care for) but not all their fans are Nazis, are they? Same thing with Death In June (who I do like...)

The thing about this is, the protest is getting to the point of being a censorship issue, and that's just something I cannot embrace. Trying to prevent people from seeing a movie that is seen as being questionable, especially when the facts I've read about it so far are not so straight, I think is not quite right here. I really should have made that point clear at the time.

But I wouldn't necessarily prevent BANA from having their protest, as wrongheaded as I think it might be. Just don't expect me to support it.