[kingkirbythe....]

It's not anti- sxsw. It's just about knowing the true cost of something. Everything as an upside for someone, and a downside for someone else. So questioning the cost of something is not advocating the abolition of it. Just look at transportation funding in roads versus public transport, factory conditions in workers versus cheap products, or industrial farming in animal conditions versus food for people. Everything has a cost. Sxsw has costs. Lots of benefits, but not for everyone. It's better to know that than to pretend they're not there. My barber is downtown. He has to close for the majority of sxsw because his customers can't get to him or they perceive that they can't get to him. He loses more than a week's business every year. He deals with it. Should sxsw be closed down because of the cost of his lost revenue that week? No. But we should know that not everyone benefits from sxsw. It does cost some people and businesses a lot, and has no benefits to them. It's looking at the world we exist in with a rational thought process.