SELLOUTS??! SHUT THE F#CK UP!! MODEST MOUSE HAVE JUST WENT FROM TALKING HEADS INTO MUCH BETTER THAN TALKING HEADS

I really have no problem if artists want to sell their work to a commercial interest. Its their music, they can do what they want. I'm in no position to judge their motivations. But I really wish people would drop the completely false assertion that capitalism has built this perfect meritocracy where the "hard-working" succeed and the "lazy" fail. Capitalism, or more accurately corporate-powered capitalism in America, has messed up the lives of millions of people.

When an industry is outsourced to a different country leaving hundreds of thousands of people out of a job (and with sparse replacements of equal value) is it because those workers were too "lazy"? Or is it because the attainment of ever-better profit margins have become truly mercenary. If it were all about "hard work" why are so many hard workers doing so badly?

"Almost every non-homeless person in America is over-privileged, at least in a global sense."

Compared to starving children in the third world, or political dissidents in China, sure. But is that a fair comparison to make when critiquing the level of "privilege" in America, by comparing it to the very worst cases in the world? Why not compare it to the very best cases in the world? With all our affluence why are so many millions without health care? Why is our infant mortality rate plummeting to third-world levels? Why are corporations almost completely unchecked and given legal status equal to a living being? This line of argument seems very close to "you don't know how good you got it, so shut up". A defense of American capitalism that the ever-growing ranks of working poor are most likely fed up with. But then, perhaps they are too lazy and uncreative to deserve success.

From my experience, the best defense against cries of "sell out" is to make transcendent art that renders such criticisms meaningless. If you can't manage that, perhaps you aren't working hard enough.