No, Ai Weiwei, Lego Refusing To Sell You Bricks In Bulk Isn’t ‘Censorship’ Or ‘Discrimination’
Some idiot artist is whining that the Lego company is discriminating against him and censoring him because they don’t want to sell him bulk legos for a political demonstration.
Well he’s a moron.
Here’s the story from the BBC:
Artist Ai Weiwei has accused Lego of “censorship and discrimination” after the company refused to let him to use its bricks in a new exhibition.
Lego refused a bulk order for bricks that were to be used in a new artwork about political dissidents as part of an exhibition in Melbourne, Australia.
Toymaker Lego said it never sold directly to anyone wanting to use its product to make a political statement.
The artist has since been deluged with offers of Lego from supporters.
Ai used Lego last year to create portraits of 175 dissident figures who had been jailed or exiled, from Nelson Mandela to Edward Snowden, on the site of the former Alcatraz prison near San Francisco.
He planned a similar work for the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, but a bulk order placed by the museum was rejected by the Danish company.
The Chinese artist said the company told the museum its bricks could not be used for artworks containing “any political, religious, racist, obscene or defaming statements”.
Now look, what he’s doing is an honorable thing, I guess (except for the Snowden business), but Lego has absolutely NO obligation to help him stand up to oppressive governments. Maybe it should. But it doesn’t have to, and it certainly isn’t “censorship” or “discrimination.”
Censorship is usually when government keeps someone from voicing their opinion – not only does this have nothing to do with government, but the Lego company isn’t preventing him from any speech, they just don’t want to participate in it. And if he could prove that they treated him differently than anyone else, then it would be discrimination, but he can’t so it isn’t.
In an Instagram post, he wrote: “As a commercial entity, Lego produces and sells toys, movies and amusement parks attracting children across the globe.
“As a powerful corporation, Lego is an influential cultural and political actor in the globalized economy with questionable values.
“Lego’s refusal to sell its product to the artist is an act of censorship and discrimination.”
Ugh, shut up you stupid whiny little artist. The world doesn’t owe you anything. If you’re a real artist you can use your magical imagination and work around it. Notice that the Lego company doesn’t even say that he CAN’T do what he’s doing. They just don’t want to aid him because it would look like they’re taking a stance on a very controversial political subject. Well, that’s their right as a company and Ai Weiwei should stop whi-whining about it.
(Full disclosure: I love legos.)