Morrissey's Critics Apply Political Standards to Art, Abandoning Aesthetic Judgment
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Morrissey Is Too Big to Cancel | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." March 13, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that music critics who used to love Morrissey now hate him not because his music got worse, but because they've started judging art by political correctness instead of artistic quality. He compares this to how Communist regimes treated art as political propaganda rather than appreciating it for its own sake.
Conclusion
Critics who once praised Morrissey now condemn him not because his artistic quality has declined, but because they have abandoned aesthetic judgment in favor of political orthodoxy, mirroring historical Communist approaches to art as propaganda
Premises
- The same critics who praised Morrissey in the 1990s for controversial lyrics now condemn him for similar content in the 2020s
- Current music critics explicitly tell people not to listen to Morrissey's music based on his political views rather than artistic merit
- Historical music critic Lester Bangs evaluated music on artistic grounds without regard to musicians' political opinions
- Communist Party doctrine historically treated 'art as a weapon' rather than valuing 'art for art's sake'
- Modern critics' approach mirrors the Communist Artists International manifesto that art should be 'wielded as a weapon' and serve political purposes
- Morrissey's actual artistic sensibilities, as shown in his references to Keats, Yeats, and Wilde, represent refined aesthetic taste rather than political utility
Assumptions
- Artistic merit should be evaluated independently of an artist's political views
- Critics' past praise of Morrissey was based on genuine aesthetic appreciation rather than political alignment
- The Communist approach to art as propaganda is inherently inferior to aesthetic-based evaluation
- There is an objective standard of artistic quality that transcends political considerations
- Critics' current condemnation is primarily politically motivated rather than based on declining artistic quality