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Notes -
Macklemore x Ed Sheeran concert: politics cannot be ignored
Ed Sheeran (everyone's favorite dreamy male singer) is holding a big tour across North and South America. Macklemore (everyone's favorite white rapper) got kicked out after (in an earlier concert) saying "Free Palestine", playing a song with pro-Palestine lyrics, and this:
Ed Sheeran has defended himself, saying it was not his decision - indeed, one Robert Kraft graciously confirmed he coordinated venues to boycott Macklemore - though Sheeran also remarked he tries to avoid politics in general:
So far, four other performers have dropped in solidarity with Macklemore.
Interestingly, Gillette stadium which banned Macklemore is hosting Kanye West, yes, the guy who was praising Hitler a year ago (albeit later admitting mental illness).
What do you think?
First, let me address the elephant in the room: the music industry is a corrupt dumpsterfire, basically a cartel. This is what cartels do. Besides dropping his pro-Palestine friend, Sheeran must also accept Ticketmaster price-gouging attendees, limited tour dates (I overheard somewhere there used to be far more concerts), and other nonsense. He probably could just find more accomodating venues if every one wasn't owned by Live Nation.
Lots of people are discussing how politics can't be avoided, and they're right. This is an excellent case study of how the endgame of "politics" convolutes everything and makes everyone miserable. Everyone loses here: Macklemore for taking a mild pro-Palestine stance gets kicked out of venues and attacked by Palestine opposers, Sheeran for taking a pro-peace neutral stance gets his tour lineup wrecked and attacked by Palestine supporters. There is nothing these performers can do, even be completely silent, that won't get them attacked by some group.
But the other side of "every side gets you attacked" is that no side is truly best. With no obvious winning strategy, you can be truer to yourself. And as Macklemore says:
Less tyrannical cartels, more people able to say what they want and go home to their families (with careers, money, opportunity, safety, and audiences)...I can defend these by linking them to other axioms, but ultimately they just seem right to me. I think celebrities should express their politics (including neutrality), for authenticity, and moreso because they can: it widens the Overton Window as they avoid life-ruining consequences. Even Kanye and his edgy schizo-manifestations, which I (unsuprisingly) strongly disagree with, but don't hate and even sort of appreciate for some odd reason. Yes my thinking is flawed, but look, his "cancellation" gave him the Streisand effect and today he performs where even Macklemore cannot, so what is flawless?
(Also, holy shit, can news sites link to their actual sources instead of writing articles whose sole content is paraphrasing them? Credit to variety.com of all outlets, the one article I found that did, albeit in the middle.)
Jeff Maurer expresses more or less my thoughts on this whole thing more eloquently than I could ever hope to:
He notes that Macklemore claiming not to be antisemitic is nonsense when he specifically name-checked CUAD and Students for Justice in Palestine, two organisations who openly support Hamas (among other things, the former group defended a member who stated "Zionists don't deserve to live", while the latter has praised the Hamas "martyrs").
This would seem to be evidence for anti-zionism, anti-zionism ≠ antisemitism.
By this reasoning, claiming that you want to kill Jews who drink the blood of Christian babies at Passover is only evidence that you dislike Jews who drink the blood of Christian babies at Passover.
Not all Jews are zionist. There are many non-Jew zionists.
Yes, any Jew or non-Jew drinking the blood of Christian or pagan babies at Passover or outside passover should be put to death, after a trial.
The set of those I would put to death is larger but still inclusive of your set.
Not all Jews drink Christian blood either. In fact, a lot fewer Jews do so than are Zionists. Yet Jews would still perceive that as an attack on them.
Feeling threatened by a call to try child killers when you aren't one is in-group bias doing you a disservice. Same with Zionism: it's a political ideology, held by plenty of non-Jews and rejected by plenty of Jews. Opposing Iran's theocracy isn't an attack on Muslims.
Do we really need to relitigate Weak Men Are Superweapons over the exact same example as the post?
The superweapon only splashes on you if you stay in the tent with the people it's aimed at.
That's why nobody lets Nazis into big tent politics. Scott's point holds for categories you can't leave, and Jewishness is one. Zionism isn't. It's a chosen political position, and anti-Zionist Jews are welcomed in anti-Zionist spaces, not targeted.
The fix isn't to defend Zionists in self-protection. It's to keep the Jewish/Zionist boundary sharp. Blurring it is exactly what Zionists want, since it lets political criticism get filed as bigotry. Antisemites blur it from the other side too, which is one more reason not to help them.
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