Everyone has a primary form of entertainment.

For millions of people, that entertainment is created by others in the form of actors, musicians, producers, comedians, and so on. In today’s age of social media, it’s not uncommon to see your favorite artists publicly post on websites like Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, or Tumblr. Though this also means that these artists’ lives are much more visible to the public and it gives them a platform to voice their opinions or stances on issues that may be controversial.

Most recently, it’s the Kanye fiasco that’s in the public spotlight, in which famous musician Kanye West tweeted many Anti-Semitic statements on twitter. This event sparked outrage from millions of people and is causing people to claim that they will no longer listen to Kanye’s music. This is a common result of controversy and has happened to figures such as the singer Robert Kelly, actor Kevin Spacey, and author J. K. Rowling.

As many people who refuse to consume the entertainment from these people in light of their crimes or otherwise harmful actions and/or words, there are more who continue to consume the content. These people are separating the art from the artist. While it’s true that just because the artist is or has done horrible things, doesn’t mean that the content they produce is bad. Despite their awful actions (emphasizing awful) Kevin Spacey is an objectively good actor, R. Kelly has some incredible songs, and millions of people love the Harry Potter series.

Knowing all of this, it is still my opinion that it is wrong to consume these people’s, and those similar to them, content. It’s one thing if you disagree with a creator on a subject, but it’s an entirely different thing if that creator is committing harmful or hateful acts, or is spreading a dangerous message through social media or through their content because many of these influencers have an enormous reach on their audience and generally the world around them. Giving this type of content attention will promote it to more and more people and if the content or the creator sends a harmful message, it can cause fans of those people to also promote the message. It also could spread to new people who may not have the media literacy to be able to distinguish the harm in those messages, to spread the sentiment as well.

In addition to this, I don’t think it’s right to give any type of money to these types of creators. It could be seen as virtue signaling to some, but the thought that someone like Kanye would be gaining wealth from me listening to his music despite the long list of terrible and harmful things he’s said doesn’t sit right with me. This goes with every type of media. Therefore I do not consume media from creators that spread harmful messages, and you shouldn’t either. If you can’t POSSIBLY go without the content of someone like the people I’ve talked about or the many, many others; I recommend finding a way to consume said content in a way that doesn’t give any credit to the creator.