Leaving Neverland is maybe the most disturbing thing I've ever seen. Just the most captivating, horrifying, and disgusting four hours I can remember watching. Months after I saw it, every time I heard a Michael Jackson song in public, I would think to myself, "How can you guys possibly be playing this?" It's only relatively recently that I've finally been able to somewhat separate the art from the artist and at least find myself tapping my foot again to the beat or dancing to it at a party or whatever. But I don't know that I'll ever actively choose to listen to his music again, and I was a huge, huge fan. I for sure won't ever not be able think, "Sick ******* child rapist" the second one of his songs starts, but I just can't bring myself to veto his music completely. It's too damn good and too ubiquitous to fully "cancel."
Cosby is somewhat similar, but the only reason I haven't seen a Cosby episode recently isn't because I've vetoed them or whatever, but because they don't exist on TV anymore. I think if I randomly saw one on I could watch and enjoy it, but only because of the rest of the cast. I feel like that's what separates this situation from Jackson is that so many other amazing talents were involved and it doesn't feel fair to excommunicate them as well. I remember when I was a kid I used to only know how long something was going to be, time-wise, in terms of "Cosby shows." Growing up, it took ten Cosby shows (five hours) to get to College Station from my hometown. And when I'd ask my parents how much longer we had, they'd say something like, "Four more Cosby Shows." Mind you, I wasn't actually watching episodes in the car, but I loved the show so much and watched it so often that it became a literal measurement of time for me. So I just don't see how I could ever totally eliminate that fondness for it, no matter how sick Cosby turned out to be.
In other words, I'd say it's case by case, situation by situation for me, and more often than not I can't just completely cut something out of my life that I once loved. As has already been mentioned, yeah, I abhor everything Tom Cruise is personally involved in as well, Scientology-wise, but it has never once affected my enjoyment of his films. He might even be my favorite actor. But I've never liked R. Kelly, so it's easy for me to say, "*****that guy" and never listen to his music again. I'm sure some would consider that approach hypocritical, and I would agree 100% that it is. But art is like food in that you like what you like. You can't choose to not like something, you can only choose to avoid it, and if we had to avoid everything from every artist who was really a piece of sh*t, there wouldn't be much art to enjoy. That, and I don't believe in "good" people or "bad" people. Just "people." Sometime people do terrible, horrible things, and sometimes they actively should be "cancelled," but that doesn't mean they're not capable of making worthwhile art that we can enjoy and maybe even learn from.
Though, in general, I do agree with the shouldn't-profit-when-they're-alive thing, even though that's blurry as hell too. Again, should the entire rest of the Cosby cast have to "suffer" in terms of residuals because of Cosby's actions? The guy who played Elvin was literally caught on camera bagging groceries just a few months ago, and it became this whole huge thing. I'm not saying that bagging groceries isn't a worthwhile job or should be considered "suffering," but he was living one way when the shows still aired and then had to live another way because of something that was completely out of his control. Similarly, should the casts of every Weinstein movie be "punished" should his movies eventually stop playing on cable?
It's impossible to know where to draw the line on some of this stuff, in so many ways. Hence why I usually just go with my gut, even if that means not being consistent in how I approach each respective situation.
