Art and Culture #58: Reflecting on Censorship 2021
-For the Uncensored!
If Music and censorship was a twentieth century problem, it’s a worldwide problem. If Tipper Gore and the Republicans moved together and said, “Music needs a parental advisory sticker on it” the average person would say, “No way.”
Yes. It was true. Tipper Gore and C. Delores Tucker were both at the forefront of banning modern rap music. Yellah, a member of the group NWA (Niggaz with Attitudes), claimed, “It was the suburbs [who] bought our music. We wouldn’t be talking if they wouldn’t have bought it.”[i] When yellah mentions suburbs, he means white suburban kids. Yes, white people bought their music. It’s odd to say this, but even I, as white as I can be, bought their music. More like my parents did for me. So, for people like Tipper Gore, who was a democrat to condemn rap music for “being violent” is just exemplifying hypocrite behavior. But the advent of censorship is nothing new, no matter what political party in power can do.
In 2PACs single “How do you want it” off his last album, “All Eyes on Me” 2PAC claims, “Delores Tucker you a motherfucker/instead of help a nigga you destroy a brother. Bill Clinton/ Mr. Bob Dole/ you too old to understand how the game go.”[ii]
The millennial American right has given up attacking music and entertainment, at least for my generation. Entertainment is subjective. There are those on the right who are repeating the same old patterns the right has done before. I don’t condemn Candace Owens for calling out Cardi B for her hit song “WAP” and such as the generation before her has done, now are being repeated once again by the right, too.
When people take on a crusade, there swords are not yet covered with blood. A knight has to take on a single path. When culture warriors do have to take on modern culture, they are heading to slay a dragon. To find the true piece of the cross. But on the road to the cross, the Knight is formed by how bloody there blade is.
It may start with just censoring your enemies, who you think are stains upon society. What censorship, if it was a blade, it would be a blade that talks to us. Like Elric of Melnibone’s mythic sword, as each soul inside the blade can talk to Elric. But considering that the blade of Censorship, if one is so diametrically opposed to self-criticism, can only be used on their enemies. Making the sword of Censorship ineffective. It’s why authors look at censorship as a blade that starts out with good intentions.
Like King Arthur and Excalibur, it’s set to aide Arthur, but Arthur is imperfect. But the way censorship then turns against your allies and friends then becomes a hard subject to bear. Then it turns the Knight, the Crusader, into a hypocrite. By trying to vanquish and silence your enemies is what Tipper Gore and the Right Wing Gen-Xers and Boomers fell into. Trying to be everyone’s parents.
But the American Left, as they unified under Barack Obama, then became the moral superiority. They attacked musicians, but in the most deceptive way possible. Through corporate buy outs. To buy out the rock stars who said, “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” as it was a lyric posed by Rage Against the Machine, but now, “Fuck you do what they tell you” is how musicians turn to corporate greed and accept censorship.
They not only censor their enemies but themselves. What good is a musician if they live by self censor rules. This is what happens when animosity turns against itself. The artists you once knew turned into the hypocrites they raged against. Dee Snider, who was brought into court in the 90’s, ended up speaking out against Iced Earth leader for “taking part in Jan. 6th” but for a finger wag.
It’s not surprising to me that musicians sell out. They do it all the time. But the American left, no matter what Max Brooks says on History of Horror Uncut Podcast, “the left are disorganized and ineffective” when they move against their enemies. That is unmistakably false. Censorship lies in who remains in power. Censorship is a cause of concern for anyone who is an artist of any caliber. Cancel Culture was and is always real and it was perpetrated by the American Left in corporate and social media’s targeting musicians who spoke out for Donald Trump from 2016-2021[iii].[iv] As side note, Max Brooks did reflect on China censoring World War Z, because it criticized the Chinese government, and they politely asked him to “take out” the offensive chapters, and he refused twice. Thus banning World War Z in China.[v]
But censorship lies in what cultural power remains. The American Left are an abysmal reminder that once the heroes of the day, like Rage Against the Machine, Dee Snider, Tipper Gore, C. Delores Tucker, Candace Owens, all end up becoming hypocrites, it then turns out that everybody is at fault. Carrying the Bloody sword of censorship.
But let’s be fair. Candace Owens criticizes Cardi B, but she doesn’t ask for them to be censored. Lawsuits are fair game, and if people on the right don’t start suing tech companies for there gross mistreatment of slander, then the left won’t stop pursuing censorship. Everyone I have mentioned played a part in advocating for censoring entertainment at one point. Censorship since 2016 has become a grim reality in America. If censorship is bought out by corporations, and then artists can’t say what they think, then scientists are no different.
As a meme once said, “I believe in the science,” and the response to that is, “You believe in the television.”
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[iii] No telling by the time this article may be published what horrors will occur, but the American Left has now turned full fascist against the American Right and Independents. Hopefully by the time they will change their ways, but time will tell.
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[v] See Source 5 for original claim.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 19 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Our Freedom Book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/thereallouistbruno17. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His next series, City of Sand is out now:https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/louis-bruno/city-of-sand/hardcover/product-rke9jz.html?page=1&pageSize=4. Also, if you can’t subscribe so that you can get members only content, please be sure to share the articles, as well. Subscribe as well so you can get my articles in your inbox every time. Every little bit helps in the war against Big Tech. Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, and also get updates sent to your email, so you can tell substack what’s worthwile. Let me know what you think in the comments section.