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I would argue that the attached image is slightly more than mildly pro Palestine stance. Wage the culture war, die by the culture war. He could have gone the whole tour without mentioning Palestine on stage. It is possible. But his narcissism took precedence.
One thing that celebrities should learn is just to keep their fucking mouths shut. Which the celebrities of pre social era managed to do. He is a servant whom I pay to sing to me. I don't care what he thinks about two countries that are just a speck on the map.
For cartels - this is government job. They should break monopolies, monopsonies and vertical integration.
Politically neutral outfit for a rapper.
I think we've seen all we need to see here. Time to wrap up the investigation.
If Macklemore had donned black minstrel paint like he donned this Jew nose, he would have lost a lot more than the Sheeran gig. He would have been drummed out of the industry entirely. Half the country would spit when they heard his name.
The idea that Jews are getting special treatment is just dumb. Sure, compared to normal white people they are higher on the totem pole. But in America they are not the "chosen people". Blacks are.
I'm reminded of Scott's witches analogy. If Jews really controlled the world, you'd be afraid to say anything negative about them. But in the real world, people are constantly saying bad stuff about Jews. Its basically omnipresent in academia and Hollywood. If anything, Macklemore will be more popular after this stunt.
For the record, I am totally fine with Macklemore's jew nose. I'm also fine with minstrel paint. And I also recognize that Jews are responsible for a lot of the social justice stuff in the first place and deserve to be hoisted on their own petard. But also I just, like, don't care. I don't care about Israel. I don't care about Palestine. And I don't care that a talentless rapper lost his job for giving a sermon instead of doing his dancing monkey act. I care about my country and my people, not whatever this is.
For clarity: the antisemitic costume he wore (and that's unambiguously what it is) is from a gig in 2014.
Wow and he was able to work these 12 years through the height of cancel culture.
Can you imagine if he'd gone in blackface? His career would have been finished before he got home that evening.
Well… Reece Shearsmith had a recurring blackface part on the BBC's League of Gentlemen comedy series in the 2000s and still got a cushy guest turn on Good Omens in pre-Gaiman-cancellation days when it was still Tumblr's favorite hyper-cozy comfort food without anyone raising much of an eyebrow. Likewise Matt Lucas of Little Britain (2003-2008) getting a recurring role on Doctor Who in 2016 in the season with the first black lesbian companion and the Doctor triumphantly punching a racist. Granted these are both British actors and I'm struggling to think of an American actor who got away with something similar in that time frame, but the relevant online fandoms were well-stocked with woke Americans so I'm not sure it should make that much of a difference.
I personally find it hard to imagine that many teenage American fans of Doctor Who or Good Omens would have even heard of either Little Britain or The League of Gentlemen, never mind watched any of the episodes featuring blackface.
So? Surely most Ed Sheeran fans wouldn't have stumbled onto the fairly obscure Happy Merchant performance by chance, either. The only way it was ever going to lead to his cancellation was a social media brouhaha brought on by someone stumbling upon it and signal-boosting it, and that could happen just as easily for a problematic skeleton in a character actor's closet. It's noteworthy that it didn't.
In both cases, the fact that it didn't happen seems to be down to it just not being all that likely that a sufficiently vindictive SJW is going become aware of the obscure scandal-in-waiting and push it on social media until it gets sufficient momentum to make a real difference to the public perception of the celebrity. Hence I don't think the target of the racial caricature was the issue.
I was arguing that, had Macklemore performed in blackface in the US in 2014, his career would have been finished. I interpreted your argument to mean "these actors performed in blackface on British telly in the 2000s, and still enjoyed thriving careers in the US thereafter". But I don't think that's much of a counter-example, because the shows on which they performed in blackface are essentially unknown among the kinds of Americans who initiate cancellation campaigns.
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