Summer music festival season is approaching (assuming the diesel is available to run the generators), and one of the artists who’ll be gracing stages across Europe and the US is Jack White.
Cat Stevens aka Yusuf is one of the few who've spoken out against the genocide in Palestine from day 1. It's a relief when one of our old favorites speaks out, unlike so many others for whom we completely lose respect.
Singing (literally and figuratively) the praises of Ukraine is high status. It costs literally nothing. . It even has a feel-good story of plucky underdogs fighting evil oppressors that audiences lap up, even if it's all 169% pure weapons grade bullshit.
Doing the same for Palestine is a great way to get deplatformed, cancelled and to lose endorsements and recording contracts.
Woody Guthrie's guitar had a sticker on it that said, "This Machine Kills Fascists". If you're supporting the Banderite Nazi narratives about Ukraine and Russia - while even just being silent about the Genocide of the Palestinians (much less, performing in stolen/occupied Palestine) - then you should get a sticker for your guitar that says, "This Machine Assists Fascists".
I appreciate this post. On a personal level I find the silence or complicity of my former musical heroes really painful. Nick Cave has been one of the worst. Like Thom Yorke, he's turned calls for him to condemn or boycott Israel into an ego trip. He refused to cancel his Tel Aviv dates in 2017, got into a spat with Brian Eno and Roger Waters over it, criticised BDS, and has gone on quite a lot about how victimised he has been for his support for Israel. He recently wrote this on his Red Right Hand blog in response to a reader question:
This one reminds me of your eye opening article on Steph Curry. You should consider a series of articles outing celebrity Zio collaborators. It's fascinating reading.
Everyone remembers those Americans that fell in love with the Nazis in the 30s. Time to start keeping the history of the Zio Nazi collaborators today. History will certainly want to know every dirty detail.
I used to feel bad for Jack White (collapsed career, lost the girl, etc). He's clearly a tool that deserved it.
Generally speaking, the kinds of people with that level of money, power and influence have a rather closed circle and limited exposure to anything less than an echo chamber.
And supporting the "right" causes, in line with power and money, is easy and brings support and invitations.
They are, simply, out of touch.
This is why it's important to use care in who you elevate or extend hero status to.
They rarely can live up to the hype, and are often involved in shall we say, less than admirable groups and circumstances.
They know exactly what’s going on better than anyone but will lose part of their fan base if they speak out. It’s an issue of being a popular artist or even not popular (like me, but I speak out obviously) in a country propagandized to believe in its rotten two party theater of democracy and to support Israel for decades. Your fans and big money backers will include a substantial portion who will hate you for taking the most basic moral stance anyone can take.
These cowardly rockstars hopped aboard typical liberal causes because there was no risk, if anything grandstanding, but will forever be remembered for their cowardice on Israel. We ought to make them bear this cost as you have with this article. And Macca, what a shame.
This is probably racist, sexist and homophobic, but I always thought that it took more courage for Lynyrd Skynyrd to release "Saturday Night Special" than all the sixties protest ballads and punk rock anthems ever put out.
Keep in mind that Skynyrd's target audience was young southern males, many of whom are mighty attached to their guns.
There is also no doubt a money issue. Since I started posting about social justice and Palestine I lost some fans. Including some big supporters who thought nothing of throwing a few hundred pounds onto one of my book Kickstarters. As soon as I posted anything showing sympathy with Palestinians ... bang, supporters gone. Some months are a struggle now, as a creative. But I wouldn't change it. I'd rather do the right thing than the thing that makes me money.
Yup, and it would be very easy for rockstars (and really, everyone) if they understood that the real protest is against U.S. hegemony (world control). As soon as everyone understood that, then it would immediately become clear to put both the Ukraine disaster and Gaza genocide on the same side of the ledger... both totally funded, controlled or created by the United States (using their vassal states... in these two particular cases, Ukraine and the "euphorically" willing/aligned Israel).
Maybe I'm missing something but it seems sort of simple to figure out how the U.S. conducts their aggression against their "hit list" of countries that they want to see gone or under their control. It goes like this... if that country does not have nuclear weapons, they can be attacked directly, but if they do have nuclear weapons then they get their vassal states to attack that country thereby giving the U.S. plausible deniability of involvement. What our/U.S. power structure fails to realize though is that most countries/people on the planet (except for the U.S. and their vassal states, of course) are not falling for that bullshit anymore, and can see right thru it.
Popular music is the cradle of resistance to oppression and has a fine tradition of standing up for the oppressed. I cut my musical teeth on the guitar back in the ‘60s playing and singing the ‘protest songs’, some of which were traditional and some modern (In particular I remember ‘If I had a hammer’ by Pete Seeger).
So for modern performers to turn their back on this fundamental social role is to condemn popular music to an exclusively commercial wasteland where only money matters. This soulless approach - an essential quality of Zionism which seeks to kill the spirit of everything - is effectively the swan song of the ‘popular’ part of popular music. All we have left is the kind of industrial shite we see each year now at that wretched event called Eurovision.
Cat Stevens aka Yusuf is one of the few who've spoken out against the genocide in Palestine from day 1. It's a relief when one of our old favorites speaks out, unlike so many others for whom we completely lose respect.
The man is a prince!
Singing (literally and figuratively) the praises of Ukraine is high status. It costs literally nothing. . It even has a feel-good story of plucky underdogs fighting evil oppressors that audiences lap up, even if it's all 169% pure weapons grade bullshit.
Doing the same for Palestine is a great way to get deplatformed, cancelled and to lose endorsements and recording contracts.
Yup, for sure. And the commonality for both results is where one is lined up on support for the U.S. power_structure/hegemony
There are still a few who have stood up including Rage Against the Machine, Grandson, Roger Waters, and Flobots.
It is absolutely shameful that more do not stand up to open the eyes of more people with their influence and power.
Kneecap. Bob Vylan.
Blonde Redhead. Massive Attack. Shockingly, Macklemore and I was angry to see my local newspaper claiming he was a violent anti-semite for that.
I’m with you Bear. Silence on Palestine is failure as artist and worse as man.
Woody Guthrie's guitar had a sticker on it that said, "This Machine Kills Fascists". If you're supporting the Banderite Nazi narratives about Ukraine and Russia - while even just being silent about the Genocide of the Palestinians (much less, performing in stolen/occupied Palestine) - then you should get a sticker for your guitar that says, "This Machine Assists Fascists".
Or, “This Machine Kills Innocents.”
I wonder what ol’ Pete Seeger would say.
I appreciate this post. On a personal level I find the silence or complicity of my former musical heroes really painful. Nick Cave has been one of the worst. Like Thom Yorke, he's turned calls for him to condemn or boycott Israel into an ego trip. He refused to cancel his Tel Aviv dates in 2017, got into a spat with Brian Eno and Roger Waters over it, criticised BDS, and has gone on quite a lot about how victimised he has been for his support for Israel. He recently wrote this on his Red Right Hand blog in response to a reader question:
https://www.theredhandfiles.com/i-am-a-musician-who-has-been-booked-to-play/
Can't listen to him anymore.
This one reminds me of your eye opening article on Steph Curry. You should consider a series of articles outing celebrity Zio collaborators. It's fascinating reading.
Everyone remembers those Americans that fell in love with the Nazis in the 30s. Time to start keeping the history of the Zio Nazi collaborators today. History will certainly want to know every dirty detail.
I used to feel bad for Jack White (collapsed career, lost the girl, etc). He's clearly a tool that deserved it.
Unmask them all!
Generally speaking, the kinds of people with that level of money, power and influence have a rather closed circle and limited exposure to anything less than an echo chamber.
And supporting the "right" causes, in line with power and money, is easy and brings support and invitations.
They are, simply, out of touch.
This is why it's important to use care in who you elevate or extend hero status to.
They rarely can live up to the hype, and are often involved in shall we say, less than admirable groups and circumstances.
It's the Epstein and Diddy class.
They know exactly what’s going on better than anyone but will lose part of their fan base if they speak out. It’s an issue of being a popular artist or even not popular (like me, but I speak out obviously) in a country propagandized to believe in its rotten two party theater of democracy and to support Israel for decades. Your fans and big money backers will include a substantial portion who will hate you for taking the most basic moral stance anyone can take.
Then they have chosen their god of money and serve it.
So absolutely true… what a great comment.
These cowardly rockstars hopped aboard typical liberal causes because there was no risk, if anything grandstanding, but will forever be remembered for their cowardice on Israel. We ought to make them bear this cost as you have with this article. And Macca, what a shame.
This is probably racist, sexist and homophobic, but I always thought that it took more courage for Lynyrd Skynyrd to release "Saturday Night Special" than all the sixties protest ballads and punk rock anthems ever put out.
Keep in mind that Skynyrd's target audience was young southern males, many of whom are mighty attached to their guns.
One exception is Macklemore (Hind's Hall). Also Lowkey.
There is also no doubt a money issue. Since I started posting about social justice and Palestine I lost some fans. Including some big supporters who thought nothing of throwing a few hundred pounds onto one of my book Kickstarters. As soon as I posted anything showing sympathy with Palestinians ... bang, supporters gone. Some months are a struggle now, as a creative. But I wouldn't change it. I'd rather do the right thing than the thing that makes me money.
Lowkey is a fount if inspiration for me. Seeing him fronting Double Down News is like watching him grab the bull by the horns.
Integrity is who you are when there’s no one clapping.
Yup, and it would be very easy for rockstars (and really, everyone) if they understood that the real protest is against U.S. hegemony (world control). As soon as everyone understood that, then it would immediately become clear to put both the Ukraine disaster and Gaza genocide on the same side of the ledger... both totally funded, controlled or created by the United States (using their vassal states... in these two particular cases, Ukraine and the "euphorically" willing/aligned Israel).
Maybe I'm missing something but it seems sort of simple to figure out how the U.S. conducts their aggression against their "hit list" of countries that they want to see gone or under their control. It goes like this... if that country does not have nuclear weapons, they can be attacked directly, but if they do have nuclear weapons then they get their vassal states to attack that country thereby giving the U.S. plausible deniability of involvement. What our/U.S. power structure fails to realize though is that most countries/people on the planet (except for the U.S. and their vassal states, of course) are not falling for that bullshit anymore, and can see right thru it.
Popular music is the cradle of resistance to oppression and has a fine tradition of standing up for the oppressed. I cut my musical teeth on the guitar back in the ‘60s playing and singing the ‘protest songs’, some of which were traditional and some modern (In particular I remember ‘If I had a hammer’ by Pete Seeger).
So for modern performers to turn their back on this fundamental social role is to condemn popular music to an exclusively commercial wasteland where only money matters. This soulless approach - an essential quality of Zionism which seeks to kill the spirit of everything - is effectively the swan song of the ‘popular’ part of popular music. All we have left is the kind of industrial shite we see each year now at that wretched event called Eurovision.
Soft power. Yup.
Trump a Geminii Fire Dog.
Matt Bellemy Gemini Earth Horse.
What these have in common. yes yourve gussed it. CHANGING THEIR MINDS.
On practically everything It doesn't make them a bad person, just a Gemini who can't help themselves..
(Some have said that the image of spilled food was AI generated.)
Yes, Zionists have said a lot of things to call into question the idea of Palestinian suffering.
Indeed they have, but also, if this image really was AI-generated, they will use that to discredit this Substack.
Nothing they claim can be trusted. Even if they happen to say a truth, it's not for righteous reasons.