For those who don't know, Orson Scott Card is a famous sci-fi writer and bigot. He's best known for his sci-fi/kid-lit novel "Ender's Game," which is about to be a blockbuster movie. He's only slightly less well known for his wild-eyed ravings against homosexuals and gay marriage in particular. He quite literally said that any government allowing same-sex marriage was his "mortal enemy," which he would "act to destroy." He's also a typical right-wing nutcase when it comes to loathing Obama and feeding on the Benghazi paranoia.
Normally, when an artist of any sort says things that crazy or vile, I don't have trouble squaring it in my head. Typically, reactionary celebrities are third-rate hacks, or wildly overrated, so there's no great gulf between their schlocky output and their brain-dead commentary. If Chuck Norris, Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, or Michael Bay want to say something atrocious, well, it's not like their "art" hasn't already disparaged them in my eyes far beyond the ability of a little political lunacy to add or detract. Even David Mamet's neoconservative ramblings pose no challenge for me, because I always found his stuff to be shallow, stylized, self-indulgent twaddle, appreciated by critics only for providing foul-mouthed material for scene-chewing actors. But Card is in another class. Like few others I can think of (Clint Eastwood, I suppose), I have trouble squaring Card's work product, which I respect tremendously, with his personal beliefs.
If you haven't read "Ender's Game," pick up a copy. Like the Harry Potter books, it's aimed towards kids, but is good enough to engage adults. And, unlike the Harry Potter books, it has an intense and thoughtful view of human nature, and a couple characters who are fully realized in a way that is rare outside of great literature. It is one of the few true masterpieces of the genre. I just have trouble wrapping my brain around the idea that something that good could have come out of such a clown.
It occurs to me that this must be a FAR more common form of cognitive dissonance for those of you on the right. Assuming you aren't dead inside, you must regularly find yourself deeply loving artistic products made by people whose political views you can't stand. Most great artists, after all, have a decidedly liberal bent. Nearly all the great modern musical acts are fairly conspicuously lefty. Most of Hollywood's talented directors, screenwriters, and actors are liberal. Painters and sculptors have nearly all been well to the left of the societies of their time. With only a few prominent exceptions, both the great literary writers and the great popular writers of our time tend to lean well to the left of center. I imagine you conservatives must just be much more practiced at disconnecting your thoughts about the product and the person than we liberals.
