In a worst case scenario, movies made to appeal to censors are thinly-disguised and not-very-good Chinese propaganda. But the more common sin these days is Hollywood’s unabashed commitment to making movies essentially as exports. Shooting a movie that will appeal to Chinese censors, rather than Americans, strips stories of any cultural specificity. Additionally, pervasive industry-wide beliefs — like that Chinese racism would tank a movie like Black Panther — can paradoxically limit diverse casting in American films that are intended to be overseas hits. Additionally, looking to address the broadest of audiences and governments with a work could only ever produce a bland, boring movie, as opposed to one that actually commits to being about something.

Discouraging movies from being made solely as vehicles that can get past a foreign government’s censors isn’t just a question of protecting some peachy American ideal about the freedom of speech. It’s also about preserving the integrity of what makes art art: a film’s specificity, say, or its ability to illuminate a precise human experience, or the derivation of a story from a particular place and time. The SCRIPT Act would require, at the very least, a reevaluation of the purpose of Hollywood movies. And while Ted Cruz and I might not necessarily agree on the why, he’s right: it’s time for Hollywood to decide the worth of its art.