Nobody Escapes The Online Inquisition

Thoughts are my own and do not represent that of Vektor.

The online inquisition claims another victim. Recently, Vektor, a sci-fi thrash band, were signed and dropped by Century Media within a few days. For context, there was a video from 2019 showing frontman David DiSanto shouting at his then-wife and throwing a pillow at her during an altercation. This video was leaked, headlines were generated, and the public swiftly reacted with contempt to the once universally praised band.

As outsiders, we are free to draw our own conclusions based on the publicly available information. But at the end of the day, the full story of that night is between those two. The leaked video is literally a fraction of the story, and the fury directed at David over the years is based on that fraction. Only three years later, after reviving the band, going on tours around the world (except suspiciously, in the US), being signed and dropped by a record label has he had to break his silence.

Before accusations get lobbied at me, let me be clear: domestic abuse is wrong. Duh. Nor am I defending any past wrongdoing. Acknowledging that does not preclude me from pointing out that abusive relationships can go both ways. And sometimes, the initial gut reaction we have towards what’s published online may not reflect the entire story. And sometimes that collective delusion should not lead to anyone being exiled out of making a living.

This cuts deeper than any specific actions by any specific artist. It’s a rotten, insidious, cancerous fundamentalist religion spread by an online inquisition within the metal scene, one which wields censorship like a sledgehammer with which it vanquishes those who stray from its moral doctrine. The foot soldiers of this inquisition are rewarded by validation from their masters, online media, which is incentivized on ad clicks, generated by outrage by their own foot soldiers. The inquisition will not stop until all heathens are expelled out of their righteous society. The metal scene, known for its counterculture, its rebellion against the orthodox, and successfully fighting censors from Washington DC, now rebels against itself.

The justification is always some derivative of “we don’t want scumbags in the scene”. Therefore we should discourage giving money to said bad actors so they would go away, and the scene is better off for it. I empathize with and even agree with the intent. However, the culture that has manifested itself and the actions it pursues to reinforce that intent leads to toxic externalities. Consider the following thought exercises in which we assume that the perceptions against David are accurate (which I am not at all implying!).

One may claim that the other bandmembers are somehow enablers of any past actions by any one bandmember. In this framework, the other members of Vektor are guilty by association. The result is to deplatform the entire band for one member’s actions. The other members are thus banned from monetizing their music. Is that just?

The first issue here is that we are merely punishing the sinner, not discouraging the sin. Boycotting an artist for a past action doesn’t undo that past action, nor does it prevent any future action. But, the righteous boycotters are making the assumption that moving forward, any and all monetary contribution to an artist is a contribution to any future wrongdoing associated with that artist.

The second issue is that of the moral dilemma to forgive. Again, assuming what David at the time was wrong, should we forgive him now? It can depend on a subjective scale of how much repenting he has done. Following that, should felons be employed? If the answer is yes, then David, who was never charged with anything, should be able to make a living. If the answer is no, consider stopping business with any of these companies.

Reputation is difficult to rebuild even if it’s destroyed by wrongful accusations. I wish I was more optimistic in the community’s ability to forgive but alas, there is no reward for forgiveness within the inquisition. Imagine you’re talking to someone who insists that Vektor stay canceled. Under what conditions would it be okay for them to be canceled? Has anyone escaped the depths of cancel hell and lived to tell the tale? Did they even like Vektor? Violate the narrative and you are given a permanent sentence for which no penance is enough. It will never be enough.

I personally believe in forgiveness. Past actions cannot be unacted, but people can change, rehabilitate, and come out better. The community would be much less toxic if it showed more compassion - imagine that!

Lastly, let’s talk about the fans. Is anyone who makes any intentional monetary contribution to Vektor, be it through buying a shirt, going to a show, or streaming a song on Spotify, also guilty by association? Should they be canceled too?

Every transaction we make is rife with ethical dilemmas. It goes beyond “separating art from artist”, an entirely separate debate. If you care about climate change, shopping, traveling, or existing contributes more to our mass extinction than buying a shirt from Vektor contributes to domestic abuse. We all choose to ignore which ethical dilemmas from every microtransaction we make, regardless of the actual impact of each microtransaction. Perhaps this lies on a collective moral spectrum, written into an intrinsic social contract that makes the boundaries obvious. Though we may reach a rough consensus of the moral spectrum, the resulting actions themselves are binary. The sentence is either censor or not censor, be in or out of the record label; there is no in between.

That is all to say that the moral pretense with which the foot soldiers of the inquisition points to in order to censor, deplatform, or de-person members of the music scene is deeply and fundamentally flawed. Despite this, there is a disturbing trend of gigs being canceled and artist reputations being ruined by an angry mob. Perhaps there could be a technological solution that protects humans from these externalities, one that allows artists to monetize their art without the fear of unjust censorship. Until then, the fight to reclaim the culture will take place on a social level. In the meantime, if you listen to fools…