You cancel without examining what you're cancelling. You said I had lost my mind. You said I was throwing a tantrum. You said I was an anti-vaxxer. You said I was abusive to a woman I cherished for 10 years. You said I was a pedophile after I had finally found someone who understood me. I told you I finally felt better. But rather than trusting me, you took your word over mine.
read moreI have lived my life with integrity, enough that I felt like I could air it in its entirety for the world to see. Even then, when the time came for the public to see me, I was shamed for being who I am. If I were not as strong of a person as I am, I would have taken my life. And while it may have been my hand that held the knife, it would have been you who put it there.
This is why we, the creatives, have to use lies to tell the truth. This is why we use aliases. This is why we wear masks. Because when we sign our name, you threaten our lives, our liberties, and our pursuit of happiness.
Your hatred of who we are, of everyone with a brain that does not conform to exactly what you expect, has forced us into hiding. You have pushed us enough that our online communities consist of communists and neo-nazis. We tolerate each other in these communities because the alternative is being around you.
We struggle with being ourselves, and we should not be judged by the mistakes we make, but by how we respond to those mistakes. If we apologize and are receptive to change, forgive us and give us a chance. Because if you don't change now, you will kill, imprison, and thwart the very few people who make the movies, the tv shows, the books, the music, the news, the apps, the phones, and the software that you treasure so dearly. You will kill the people who deliver you the truth. And with them, the truth will die too.
This essay is dedicated to the list of individuals below. Many struggled with drugs. Depression. Anxiety. Many were killed. Others killers. Many committed suicide. Others genocide.
But it wasn't because they hated themselves.
It was because you did.
-469 - Socrates
1452 - Leonardo Da Vinci
1815 - Ada Lovelace
1856 - Nikola Tesla
1879 - Albert Einstein
1889 - Adolf Hitler
1901 - Louis Armstrong
1903 - John von Neumann
1912 - Alan Turing
1918 - Richard Feynman
1920 - Isaac Asimov
1920 - Dave Brubeck
1925 - Malcolm X
1927 - Marvin Minsky
1927 - Stan Getz
1928 - Noam Chomsky
1929 - Martin Luther King Jr.
1929 - Max von Sydow
1929 - Christopher Plummer
1933 - Michael Caine
1936 - John McCain
1936 - Alan Alda
1936 - Dave Van Ronk
1937 - Jack Nicholson
1938 - Elliott Gould
1940 - John Lennon
1940 - Martin Sheen
1940 - Al Pacino
1942 - Stephen Hawking
1942 - Mulatu Astatke
1942 - Martin Scorsese
1943 - Robert De Niro
1943 - Ben Kingsley
1943 - Christopher Walken
1944 - Jeffrey Tambor
1946 - Diane Keaton
1946 - Tommy Lee Jones
1947 - David Bowie
1948 - Fred Hampton
1948 - Ray Kurzweil
1948 - Billy Joel
1949 - Bruce Springsteen
1951 - Robin Williams
1951 - Stellan Skarsgård
1952 - John Goodman
1953 - David Morse
1953 - Ken Burns
1954 - Ron Howard
1955 - Michael Keaton
1955 - Steve Jobs
1955 - Bill Gates
1955 - Jeff Daniels
1955 - Tim Berners-Lee
1955 - Thomas Newman
1955 - Willem Dafoe
1955 - Penn & Teller
1955 - Bruce Willis
1956 - Tom Hanks
1956 - Bryan Cranston
1956 - Keith David
1956 - Christoph Waltz
1957 - Spike Lee
1957 - Ray Romano
1957 - Daniel Day-Lewis
1958 - Alec Baldwin
1959 - Viggo Mortensen
1959 - Kevin Spacey
1959 - Bradley Whitford
1959 - Patricia Clarkson
1959 - Bryan Stevenson
1959 - Ken Watanabe
1960 - Jim Comey
1960 - Hugo Weaving
1960 - Bono
1961 - Alfonso Cuarón
1961 - Aaron Sorkin
1961 - Forest Whitaker
1961 - Jared Harris
1961 - Laurence Fishburne
1962 - Jon Stewart
1962 - Lisa Randall
1962 - David Fincher
1962 - The Rolling Stones
1962 - David Foster Wallace
1962 - Joan Cusack
1963 - Jensen Huang
1963 - Steven Soderbergh
1963 - Fatboy Slim
1963 - Brad Pitt
1964 - Russell Crowe
1964 - Guillermo del Toro
1964 - Nicolas Cage
1964 - Andy Serkis
1965 - Sam Mendes
1965 - Kyle Chandler
1965 - Trent Reznor
1966 - John Cusack
1966 - Toby Huss
1967 - Ted Chiang
1967 - Mark Ruffalo
1967 - Sam Rockwell
1967 - Carrie-Anne Moss
1967 - Paul Giamatti
1967 - Judd Apatow
1967 - Laura Dern
1967 - Benny Benassi
1967 - Philip Seymour Hoffman
1968 - Timothy Olyphant
1968 - Michael Stuhlbarg
1968 - Owen Wilson
1969 - Darren Aronofsky
1969 - Earth, Wind & Fire
1969 - Edward Norton
1969 - Zach Galifianakis
1969 - Spike Jonze
1969 - Julie Delpy
1969 - Paul Rudd
1969 - Ken Jeong
1969 - Matthew McConaughey
1969 - Elliott Smith
1969 - Cate Blanchett
1969 - Gwen Stefani
1970 - Ethan Hawke
1970 - Todd Phillips
1970 - Rob Riggle
1970 - Matt Damon
1970 - Heather Graham
1970 - Christopher Nolan
1970 - Adam Goldberg
1970 - Jennifer Connelly
1971 - Elon Musk
1971 - Jon Hamm
1971 - Emily Mortimer
1971 - Missy Elliott
1971 - Jared Leto
1972 - Shane Carruth
1972 - Jennifer Garner
1972 - Ben Affleck
1972 - Idris Elba
1973 - Vera Farmiga
1973 - AC/DC
1973 - Adrien Brody
1973 - Demetri Martin
1974 - Christian Bale
1974 - Leonardo DiCaprio
1974 - Amy Adams
1974 - Michael Shannon
1974 - Joaquin Phoenix
1974 - Ed Helms
1974 - Alex Jones
1974 - Chris Messina
1975 - Charlize Theron
1975 - David Harbour
1975 - Bradley Cooper
1975 - Jack Johnson
1975 - Marion Cotillard
1975 - Kate Winslet
1975 - Casey Affleck
1976 - Benedict Cumberbatch
1976 - Corey Stoll
1976 - Diane Kruger
1976 - Reese Witherspoon
1976 - Cillian Murphy
1977 - Tom Hardy
1977 - Jessica Chastain
1977 - Michael Fassbender
1977 - Scoot McNairy
1977 - Chiwetel Ejiofor
1977 - Tom Hardy
1977 - Jason Mraz
1977 - Kanye West
1978 - James Franco
1978 - Rachel McAdams
1978 - Jeremy Strong
1978 - Kumail Nanjiani
1978 - Rachel McAdams
1978 - James Badge Dale
1978 - Jim Sturgess
1979 - Oscar Isaac
1979 - John Krasinski
1979 - Jordan Peele
1979 - Lee Pace
1979 - Rosamund Pike
1979 - B. J. Novak
1980 - Jake Gyllenhaal
1980 - Anna Chlumsky
1980 - Jason Segel
1980 - Dallas Green
1981 - Joseph Gordon-Levitt
1981 - Amy Schumer
1981 - Britney Spears
1981 - Natalie Portman
1981 - Beastie Boys
1981 - Jaymay
1982 - Anne Hathaway
1982 - Rebecca Hal
1982 - Kelly Clarkson
1983 - Donald Glover
1983 - Zoe Kazan
1983 - Jamie Chung
1983 - Emily Blunt
1983 - Jonah Hill
1983 - Jesse Eisenberg
1983 - Adam Driver
1983 - Domhnall Gleeson
1984 - Ed Snowden
1984 - Kerry Bishé
1984 - Ben Sinclair
1984 - Scarlett Johansson
1984 - Olivia Wilde
1984 - Mark Zuckerberg
1984 - Avril Lavigne
1984 - Mark O'Brien
1984 - John Gallagher Jr.
1984 - John David Washington
1985 - Emile Hirsch
1985 - Alex Honnold
1985 - Dave Franco
1986 - Aaron Swartz
1986 - Lena Dunham
1986 - Shia LaBeouf
1986 - Robert Pattinson
1986 - Lady Gaga
1986 - Daniel Kaluuya
1986 - Drake
1987 - Miles Teller
1987 - Mackenzie Davis
1987 - Green Day
1988 - Allison Williams
1988 - Grimes
1988 - Zoë Kravitz
1988 - Benny Blanco
1988 - Nine Inch Nails
1988 - Nicholas Braun
1988 - Skrillex
1988 - Skrillex
1989 - Taylor Swift
1989 - Avicii
1989 - Cal Scruby
1990 - Emma Watson
1990 - FKJ
1990 - Jennifer Lawrence
1990 - Bo Burnham
1990 - Cro
1990 - Himesh Patel
1991 - LaKeith Stanfield
1991 - DaBaby
1991 - Emily Ratajkowski
1991 - Shailene Woodley
1992 - George MacKay
1992 - Mac Miller
1992 - Princess Nokia
1992 - Still Woozy
1992 - Charli XCX
1992 - Bikini Kill
1992 - Sage the Gemini
1993 - Train
1993 - Ariana Grande
1993 - Connor Musarra
1993 - KYLE
1993 - Jurassic 5
1994 - Bowling For Soup
1994 - Halsey
1994 - Smash Mouth
1994 - Justin Bieber
1995 - Timothée Chalamet
1995 - Wheatus
1995 - Doja Cat
1995 - Black Eyed Peas
1995 - Fountains of Wayne
1995 - Megan Thee Stallion
1996 - Zendaya
1996 - Lorde
1996 - Linkin Park
1996 - Anya Taylor-Joy
1997 - The White Stripes
1997 - Phoenix
1997 - Plain White T's
1998 - Hunter Schafer
1999 - Pop Smoke
1999 - Orishas
2001 - The Killers
2003 - Olivia Rodrigo
2004 - Panic! At The Disco
2005 - AJR
2006 - Metro Station
2007 - Florence + the Machine
2008 - Azealia Banks
2008 - Major Lazer
2008 - Clean Bandit
2011 - CHVRCHES