Artists become brands when the system can use them. Then there is a trade up for access, money, celebrity and power. In exchange, the artist's brand normalizes and markets what should be confronted and exposed. Impressive piece from Fatima Bhutto.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/27/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-hillary-clinton-liberal-literati-coddling-powerful?CMP=share_btn_tw …
Also, I think another aspect of it is that once you are "accepted" by somebody (in this case, an entity of power), they act like your friend, and humans're wired to be "nicer" to friends. It feels near sacrilegious to publicly confront somebody who just praised you...complexity.