Tuesday Dec 19, 2023

Salomé Sibonex: Are Artists Really Free to Express the Truth?

“If you have blood, you’re allowed to have an opinion.” As a young multi-disciplinary artist who spent her early years on Tumblr, Salomé Sibonex witnessed firsthand the beginnings of the current wave of cancel culture where ideas that are deemed offensive are shut down and people are denied the right to speak based on their immutable characteristics. Now that this trend is firmly in the mainstream, Salomé uses her voice to push back against censorship and wokeness, question the status quo, and promote freedom of speech.

Freedom, after all, is integral to making great art and you can’t be free when you’re afraid. By fearlessly expressing herself and sharing ideas through her writing, she connects with readers who feel similarly but are afraid to speak for themselves for fear of being attacked or maligned.

Her search for the truth began at a young age. Growing up in Miami as a Cuban American, her family practiced a hybrid of Catholicism and Santeria, a folkloric religion similar to Voodoo, both of which inspired a good deal of skepticism and a lot of questions about what was real and what wasn’t. Initially, she took for granted the freedoms afforded to her as an American, freedoms that her Cuban grandmother escaped poverty to afford her. She eventually learned to appreciate her privilege without allowing anyone to use it as an excuse to dismiss her opinion.

This passionate young lady is boldly speaking for a generation whose worlds exist more online than they do in the real world and must learn how to navigate its pitfalls. On today’s episode, she and Bart discuss the consequences of free speech, the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome, and whether women are truly interested in a seat at the table.

Quotes

“It guided my life at this point. I had to overcome a lot of self censorship when I was younger. And I think that it's something that young people have to navigate a lot. Now, this culture, that's really hypersensitive, hypercritical, a lot of bad faith attacks against people, we're not really trying to get to the truth of something, or understand the other person's perspective. We're trying to dunk on them. We're trying to dismiss them without ever giving any chance that they might have a reason for their perspective.” (2:23 | Salomé Sibonex)
Because in my opinion, there is no percentage of blood that allows you to have an opinion on something. If you have blood, you're allowed to have an opinion.” (5:39 | Salomé Sibonex)
Yeah, I mean, my family comes from Cuba. So it's like, my family came from nothing. My grandma didn't have running water. She wasn't allowed to learn how to read. Then, she came to this country. And so in comparison...yeah, I'm actually privileged.” (15:40 | Salomé Sibonex)
“Play is freedom to me, because you can't be playful, if you're afraid.” (13:16 | Salomé Sibonex)
“And I've had pushback for that. I've had push back for my criticism of the idea that we should rank people based on their immutable characteristics, rather than actually listening to the individual and then ranking them based on whether their ideas are actually good or not.” (16:54 | Salomé Sibonex)

Links

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Connect with Salomé Sibonex

https://www.salomesibonex.com

https://www.instagram.com/salomesibonex

https://twitter.com/SalomeSibonex

Connect with Bart Baggett

https://instagram.com/bartbaggett

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