Gaza: Why have music artists not been more vocal?

Since the US-Israel genocide of Palestinians went into full swing after October 2023, the response of the music world has been anemic. For generations, musicians have frequently taken the role as a voice of conscience but regarding Palestine there has been, as Nate Bear of Do Not Panic puts it, a “deafening silence” [https://www.donotpanic.news/p/the-deafening-silence-of-rockstars]. Bear singles out the likes of Jack White and Bruce Springsteen as hypocrites but stresses the silence is generalized and that the hall of shame should include the big name acts who go to Israel to perform.

The “notable exceptions” Bear mentions are “Paramore lead singer Haley Williams, Paul Weller, Massive Attack, Idles, Wolf Alice and Fontaines DC.” And there were the participants of the Together for Palestine concert which Eno organized in 2025, as well as the No Music for Genocide initiative [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Music_For_Genocide]. A spirit of protest can be found outside the “mainstream, arena-sized bands” with which Bear is concerned. The folkie Christy Moore released a powerful song called “Palestine” while the lesser known American songwriter David Rovics based an entire album around Gaza. More recently, Roger Waters has refashioned “Comfortably Numb” to be about Gaza [https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/07/29/vmlb-j29.html].

Considering the scale of the crime and the complicity of western governments, musicians who consider themselves serious artists engaged with the world have largely been missing in action. Beyond the genocide itself, one would think the government repression that’s seen outrageous prison sentences meted out to non-violent protesters in the US and UK might weigh heavy on their thoughts. What does their impotence have to say about the state of popular music today? Have the masses’ artists been wholly replaced with establishment shills like something out of Peter Watkins’ “Privilege”?

Other artists who have been outspoken about Gaza-- Dave Matthews, Imagine Dragons, Olivia Rodrigo.

Worst ever festival line up?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/23/police-end-investigation-bob-vylan-glastonbury-chants

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/11/kneecap-rapper-terrorism-trial-high-court-throws-out-cps-appeal

Campus protests have sure been muted since the violent Biden crackdowns

Looking at the top 10 artists on Spotify:

Bruno Mars- Was actually playing a concert in Israel on 10/7.
Justin Bieber- Posted (then deleted) support for Israel
The Weeknd- Sent 2 million dollars in food aid to Gaza.
Rihanna- Posted "Free Palestine"
Shakira- Said "We are all Israeli" in 2011.
Taylor Swift- Bravely silent.
Michael Jackson- Loves all children.
Bad Bunny- Pretty much silent.
Ariana Grande- Donated to Gaza relief through her Brighter Days Foundation.
Lady Gaga- Silent. Played Israel in the past.

Kneecap must be the band most persecuted for its stand on Palestine. It’s an inverted world we’re in when these guys are the ones labelled “terrorists.” Roger Waters has endured a campaign of defamation and harassment that predates 2023 but he was never charged with anything.

The Weeknd’s donation to food aid is admirable but Israel has Gaza under siege and wasn’t letting humanitarian aid through. The famine conditions in Gaza were imposed on it and the best way to supply any kind of relief would presumably be to stop the genocide. (https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165702). Similarly, children-focused charities may be well-meaning but are up against a military campaign of targeting children (https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/israel-continues-commit-genocide-and-other-atrocity-crimes-deliberately).

Morrissey and Radiohead are other musicians who have been criticized for playing Israel.

I'm not surprised about musicians not being more vocal, I am, however, more disappointed in the silence of music critics/writers - you'd think, for example, that something like what happened to Kneecap would make them raise their voice but nope, you'd think, I dunno, it might even merit a passing mention on Popcast or whatnot but nope

Not pop music, but this dude was certainly put through the wringer over a fairly modest gesture of support. (And MSO further trashed its reputation amongst many classical listeners.)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-10/jayson-gillham-melbourne-symphony-orchestra-mso-verdict/106898876

Didn't Björk have a bit to say?

For generations, musicians have frequently taken the role as a voice of conscience but regarding Palestine there has been, as Nate Bear of Do Not Panic puts it, a “deafening silence”

Kinda disagree with this tbh, it's boomer mythology that artists are brave truth-sayers but in practice it's always a small minority that's willing to stick their necks out. I don't think if you looked at the top20 best sellers during the Iraq war you'd get much better results than what President Keyes posted; hell, I don't know you even would if you checked out the top20 best sellers during Vietnam!

That is, tbc, no excuse and artists absolutely should speak out about Gaza.

I know he is bad and hated but when I first heard of Dave Matthews way back in the early 90s (at the time still playing college bars and frat houses to future Trump voters) never thought I’d see the day when he was based while Radiohead issues mealy mouthed ‘both sides’ drivel

a few thoughts…

i associate a lot of music related activism with being centered around raising money or awareness — thinking obv of like live aid, farm aid, telethons, we are the world and the like. there was a sense that musicians had the ability and thus the responsibility to use their celebrity to shine a light on faraway famine, or stage huge concerts to raise money thru the TV for AIDS etc. our world doesn’t function like that anymore — we don’t need celebs to expose the horrors of gaza to us, things like mutual aid have replaced the need for nationwide fundraisers and on and on. the hole that was once filled by these big concentrated group efforts of musician activism doesn’t really exist anymore

now, it feels true to me that the protest song has died out. there is no “fortunate son” or “born in the USA” for gaza. maybe i’m being too 1:1 here but i do think a lot of american protest music related to war is thru the lens of concern for the american soldier. obv in the case of gaza that doesn’t come into play; our tax dollars are helping fund the war but this notion that the american boy is being misused and treated like trash was a strong animating concept for activist rock musicians arguably even into the bush era, and that kinda storytelling framework is not present here. and then of course the need for protest songs in general to exist has been greatly reduced in a world of protest notes on instagram story. so that’s a major tool at the disposal of the musician activist that has not exactly been removed from
the bag — anyone can still write a protest song — but again the social imperative for these things to exist does not really feel like it’s there anymore

tbh i would expand this discussion beyond just gaza. there is no “american idiot” or young jeezy ‘the recession’ of the trump era nor many attempts at such. ICE has not inspired a grand wave of musician activism. not be too reductive about it, but celebs wear pins on their lapels on red carpets and then post the photos to IG and everyone knows where they stand, they get to check a protest box, the comments on the photos are supportive and not mean, there’s lots of likes, and everyone involved from celeb to fan sleeps better at night... this is the era we live in. or they repost the same infographics and viral clips on their IG stories as a dozen of your actual friends, rendering the musician’s platform indistinct from everyone else’s in america, and thus inessential

i think it's just extremely generational like the issue is more broadly

a lot of younger stars are speaking up in the same way they would on any other issue and the big disconnect is with older vocal progressives like springsteen keeping quiet

i associate a lot of music related activism with being centered around raising money or awareness — thinking obv of like live aid, farm aid, telethons, we are the world and the like. there was a sense that musicians had the ability and thus the responsibility to use their celebrity to shine a light on faraway famine, or stage huge concerts to raise money thru the TV for AIDS etc. our world doesn’t function like that anymore — we don’t need celebs to expose the horrors of gaza to us, things like mutual aid have replaced the need for nationwide fundraisers and on and on. the hole that was once filled by these big concentrated group efforts of musician activism doesn’t really exist anymore

I'd call this charity, not activism; the kind of thing mainstream musicians have always signed up for because there is no political cost to doing so, it is a straightforward Good Deed that alienates no one. And you can definitely associate the golden age of Live Aid and etc with a diminished sense of militancy and politization amongst musicians and fans alike.

There have been some fundraiser type events for Gaza of course but there would never be a big concentrated effort that resembles Live Aid simply because most of the big orgs you'd need to get onside would be violently opposed to such an initiative. The issue where I think you could have this kind of effort is Ukraine - but also, as you've pointed out, the monoculture ain't what it used to be do it wouldn't be anywhere near as huge as Live Aid.

You’re focusing entirely on famous people. There are plenty of music artists who have been and continue to be very pro-Palestine. I think the difference is who becomes famous and how, rather than specifics around Gaza.

I do have to lol at the comment about mutual aid replacing large organized fundraising…

I do have to lol at the comment about mutual aid replacing large organized fundraising…

you're willfully misreading me as you tend to do. in the context of this thread, what i mean is that one of the functions people like famous musicians used to serve was to i.e. funnel their fans to donate money to hurricane relief thru SMS campaigns. daniel_rf may "call this charity, not activism" but one of the most famous pop cultural moments of an entire generation was when kanye west, on a televised celebrity charity drive, said that george bush doesn't care about black people, which was, in his way, an act of activism. anyway, this kind of thing -- celebrity activist-charity drives -- has largely fallen by the wayside culturally and yes i think has in a real way been replaced by mutual aid donation links passed around thru social media. now in a lot of instances those links are to organizations that are functioning like charities, but it is all more in the spirit of mutual aid than the donating to corporate charities of yore. musicians will often post these kind of links too, but the chain of command has changed now, they're just following other people they see online. their leadership role in these kind of charity campaigns has largely fallen by the wayside. and yes i am talking about extremely famous musicians bcuz that's what the OP was about

think it's just extremely generational like the issue is more broadly

a lot of younger stars are speaking up in the same way they would on any other issue and the big disconnect is with older vocal progressives like springsteen keeping quiet

― ufo, Friday, August 7, 2026 5:19 AM (eleven hours ago)

i do think this is probably true. signcrushesmotorist/dead calm donated all his recent merch proceeds to charity and posted a detailed accounting breakdown of it all. jane remover just threatened to leave some festival bill over an IDF implicated band or something (don't really know the details). if you follow young artists on social media you def see pro-gaza sentiment / activism being treated as non negotiable (there was just a whole controversy w/ natanya over her manager having IDF connections or something, again don't really know the details)

not that aid donation is a bad thing, but it's a very passive voice type of activism that's not acknowledging Israeli atrocities but only Palestinian suffering, and they maybe recognize that even when someone like Ms Rachel is getting called a Hamas agent, they choose their own career and blending into the slurry of mild dissent to actually speaking out with more force. it's probably also true that the enemy being a famine, or South Africa (their policies a shameful reminder of how much America has historically sucked as well) made for a better target with less blowback, in the eyes of people who think they have a lot to lose. idk.

I’m not misreading you. Though your post actually addressed the source of my lol when you acknowledged that in many instances the donation links were to actual charities.

I will also not start a semantic argument about what mutual aid actually means.

it's a very passive voice type of activism that's not acknowledging Israeli atrocities but only Palestinian suffering

good point, hadn't really thought of it that way before. also, maybe donating relief is less of a political act than BDS or something because donors can just shake their heads and be all "what a tragedy" without having to acknowledge bigger truths or take a stand or upset their applecart or whatever.

daniel_rf may "call this charity, not activism" but one of the most famous pop cultural moments of an entire generation was when kanye west, on a televised celebrity charity drive, said that george bush doesn't care about black people, which was, in his way, an act of activism.

Don't really get this rebuttal - Kanye went offscript and said something that wasn't what the televised celebrity charity drive wanted him to. The charity drive was the backdrop for his activism, it wasn't activism itself.

charity and activism are very blurred together for famous people including musicians, as largely encouraged by society for some time now. brian eno put together a star studded charity concert for gaza at wembley arena in sept 2025, so it's not like this kinda thing just totally ceased to exist, but it's stating the obvious to draw a comparison between the scale and cultural/financial impacts of early charity concert events vs that one. and again, in relation to the type of musician activism that the OP is talking about (pretty-to-very famous rock and pop stars), i don't think that class of people has necessarily recovered the perch their collective voice held in the public sphere when technology was at a point that famous people needed to take an active role in helping funnel the public's attention and money to certain causes. putting on a concert to raise money for AIDS was absolutely activism in its time and there was a heavy societal expectation that artists would engage in activism thru such means. and i think that expectation was true for musicians up and down the spectrum of fame, and still is true to this day, there's plenty of club nights or concerts in new york that donate all or portions of proceeds to gaza, and in certain spaces there is definitely an expectation that your party or concert will include some mutual aid or charitable component. but all of this, like every aspect of life, now lives alongside a social media apparatus that has reduced the necessity for certain structural aspects of society (celebrity activist charitable drives, concerts, television specials etc) that once felt necessary

Perhaps stating the obvious, but I think any reduction in this kind of thing is in large part just a downstream consequence of the democratisation/collapse (depending on how one looks at the issue) of the channels by which information, belief and entertainment are all disseminated. Asking why there isn’t a “we are the world” for Gaza strikes me as a bit like asking why so many people aren’t reading books as much as they used to

To spell that out tediously, most people’s first response to that second question would not be “it’d because writers used to be good and now they’re not”

Just out of curiosity, did many artists speak out about Bosnia in the 90s? Like did idk Mary J Blige, Pearl Jam, 2pac and Take That have much to say? Did they donate merch sales?

u2 did (there was even a song!) in their very u2 way

the big difference of course with gaza is that support for israel was for a very long time ingrained in the us liberal establishment, and while that's rapidly changing it's still a major point of controversy, so there'd still be a lot of pressure on artists not to speak up and people who should know better just going 'it's all too complicated, i don't want to get involved in anything so controversial'

which is why it's so generational

Just out of curiosity, did many artists speak out about Bosnia in the 90s? Like did idk Mary J Blige, Pearl Jam, 2pac and Take That have much to say? Did they donate merch sales?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Help_Album

Oh that looks like an interesting record! I asked because I genuinely didn’t know, it wasn’t to be snarky or anything. Are Kneecap similar to Suede and Radiohead in the 90s? I feel like the 90s bands were bigger but they never had a movie.

kneecap are the rare act better known for their politics than their music

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Help_Album

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Saturday, 8 August 2026 bookmarkflaglink

There are treasures to be found.

"Shipbuilding" Suede 3:13

I think the nature of the conflict explains the (lack of) response. Soldiers from the West/US aren't dying in substantial numbers, so this can't be attacked from that perspective, and then the nature of the Israeli state means you might need to apply a level of nuance when you get asked about your position to say, boycott.

Just to widen this a bit - as I don't know enough about the musical response in enough detail - but filmmakers, artists have also responded badly too.

The Chinese and Serbian governments also didn’t have an equivalent of AIPAC.

i don't think it's really about the lack of american soldiers dying, it's just that there was a fairly broad pro-israel political consensus in the west (and especially in the usa) extending even to self-identified progressives & liberals, but that was already shifting a little with the general public (especially younger generations) before the current conflict, which has accelerated that trend

like steven van zandt, despite having been heavily involved artists united against apartheid, was denouncing bds on twitter a decade ago saying that it was 'complicated' and that israel was 'one of our only friends in the middle east'. completely incoherent politically but that sort of thinking is still very ingrained in some

Yes - I feel like a pretty succinct microcosm of this is (and/versus was) the general standing of the Anti-Defamation League on the centre-left - which is far as I can tell was “broadly positive” until a few years ago

I will say I thought it was interesting to compare the music industry’s boycott of South Africa in the mid 80s with what’s happening now. It’s hard to imagine a project like this being made in the music business around this issue: https://auralretentive.com/2021/08/28/revisiting-the-sun-city-album-1985/

I know there was considerable sympathy for apartheid South Africa amongst Western govts in the 80's but was it as potent/widespread as the Israel lobby?

not to the same degree and certainly not within the centre-left establishment by that point

I know there was considerable sympathy for apartheid South Africa amongst Western govts in the 80's

Obviously there was in the UK under Thatcher but was there much sympathy elsewhere?

The U.S. Senate overrode Reagan's veto of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. Many Republicans joined Dems, including....Mitch McConnell.

(I'm not responding to you, Tom D, just adding context)

The Queen famously fell out with Thatcher over South Africa.

It would be pretty hard to claim McConnell isn't a racist given his life's work, but he did marry Elaine Chao so I guess he's at least not *that* kind of racist?

These efforts only gained him seven more votes than the total that opposed the bill in August. All 21 votes to sustain the veto were cast by Republicans, but the key to the outcome today was that 31 Republicans, including many conservative allies of Mr. Reagan, were not persuaded by his arguments.

A good example was Mitch McConnell, a first-term Republican from Kentucky, who said he was casting his first vote against the President on a foreign policy issue with ''great reluctance.'' But on this question, the lawmaker said: ''I think he is ill-advised. I think he is wrong. We have waited long enough for him to come on board.''

Mitch is nothing if not canny, he probably just realized there were subtler ways to maintain a racial hierarchy than apartheid.

I know most of ILM wrote him off as corny a long time ago, but Alabaster dePlume comes to mind as a musician who has been extremely vocal about Palestine, e.g.: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/dear-children-of-our-children-i-knew-epilogue

As with almost everything that DePlume has put forth in recent years, the connection of all these works to Palestine is deep. The Cremisan EP itself was recorded in Palestine. Dear Children incorporates field recordings and samples of children playing and of normal life in the West Bank, and its cover art depicts wheatpaste posters of a drawing made by a 13-year-old boy from Gaza (used with permission). The inscription on the cover art says, in Arabic, “Dedicated to the mother of the martyr/witness Obaida Ahmed al-Qiram. May you rest in peace. From your student, the artist, Hasan Jawad Abudayyeh.”

That's his third Palestine-focused release.

otm

Other artists who have been outspoken about Gaza-- Dave Matthews, Imagine Dragons, Olivia Rodrigo.

Muslimgauze! I think he was something of an outlier though. Also he died in 1999.

Obviously there was in the UK under Thatcher but was there much sympathy elsewhere?

Honestly I just knew about Reagan and Thatcher, and had assumed the rest of the West followed their lead to some extent because that's the craven behaviour I have gotten used to...but it's true that this was not always so, even as recently as Iraq.

Speaking personally— musicians may be somewhat more discreet/conservative about expressing their position re Gaza not because of the spectre of AIPAC but because of very real hasbara-vomiting psychopaths built into the framework of society who get angry and threatening in the face of even the mildest expressions of solidarity with Gaza

There is a uniquely powerful weapon that can be used against critics of Israel which didn't exist in the case of, say, South Africa.

dolphins with bombs

also I saw a house recently here that was flying both rainbow and Israeli flags

Apparently there is a documentary celebrating the 30th anniversary of the tibetan freedom concert juggernaut

"For generations, musicians have frequently taken the role as a voice of conscience but regarding Palestine there has been, as Nate Bear of Do Not Panic puts it, a 'deafening silence'"

Kinda disagree with this tbh, it's boomer mythology that artists are brave truth-sayers but in practice it's always a small minority that's willing to stick their necks out. I don't think if you looked at the top20 best sellers during the Iraq war you'd get much better results than what President Keyes posted; hell, I don't know you even would if you checked out the top20 best sellers during Vietnam!

To defend my statement a bit (or at far too much length, sorry): True the sales charts don't show much but they're not a good yardstick. Rock musicians don't write that many "message" songs. For one thing because they're difficult to write without sounding mawkish or like agitprop. (Take listen to John Lennon's Some Time In New York City, for example.) It's a job best left to the folkies. Rock musicians tend to express concern by donating their time or money or just by speaking out. Notably, the grand gesture of a splashy international star-studded benefit concert became a vehicle for expressing concerns of social conscience. Perhaps the original one was George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh (supporting refugees) in 1971. They started becoming more common in the late 70s with No Nukes (safe energy) and the Secret Policeman's Ball which eventually morphed into the long series of Human Right Concerts supporting Amnesty International. They became major cultural events with the likes of 1985's Live Aid (famine relief) and Farm Aid (relief for US farmers), and the sprawling international Live 8 concerts staged as an anti-poverty protest directed at the 2005 G8 Summit. There have been any similar extravaganzas in support of vulnerable youth charities, freeing Nelson Mandela, AIDS awareness, first responders' charities, hurricane and earthquake and wildfire disaster relief, fighting climate change, scholarships, promoting social distancing during the pandemic (that one was on-line), medical charities, and so on. These events may not have produced hit songs but they confirm that a social consciousness became an expected feature of the rock music scene.

A pointed note about 1979's No Nukes concerts: there was backlash against Peter Tosh for wearing what were called "Palestinian" clothes and he was censored from the movie and even from the audio release.

There have been, too, many one-off records for specific causes such as We are the World (famine relief) and Sun City (opposing apartheid), both 1985. We are the World sounded like a Pepsi ad to me. Not that it’s relevant to anything but my musical tastes run more to the 1984 ep The Last Nightingale (with Henry Cow and Robert Wyatt, for relief to striking miners) and last year's cover of Dylan's Hard Rain by the Kronos Quartet and company to mark the 80th anniversary of the first detonations of nuclear weapons.

Regarding the Vietnam and Iraq wars, "message" records by rock bands would have been superfluous. There was plenty of awareness of and opposition to Vietnam just thanks to conscription. The war was on television and antiwar protests popped up everywhere. Rock music and the theme of peace were core to the youth culture or counterculture of the day. Forget about the Top 20—the best known Vietnam song was Country Joe's Fixin'-to-Die Rag which did okay in Scandanavian countries but stateside the big hit was the flag-waving Ballad of the Green Berets by Barry Sadler (who later killed a guy then planted a gun in his victim's van; he served 28 days in the county workhouse for it and later died by gun violence himself). Similarly, the Iraq War saw what I believe were the largest protests in history to that point so a pop record wouldn't have accomplished much. But music adds cultural cohesion to protest movements. What developed in the 1960s was that popular music began to be seen as an adult art form into which all manner of thoughts and experiences could be poured, and there was a base of young protesters who embraced it as their own. While artists of all disciplines had long expressed their ideas on society and politics, it wasn't until the rock era that social awareness became typical of popular music (though you could complicate the argument by saying the song of the folkies were actually popular music.)

i associate a lot of music related activism with being centered around raising money or awareness — thinking obv of like live aid, farm aid, telethons, we are the world and the like. there was a sense that musicians had the ability and thus the responsibility to use their celebrity to shine a light on faraway famine, or stage huge concerts to raise money thru the TV for AIDS etc. our world doesn’t function like that anymore — we don’t need celebs to expose the horrors of gaza to us, things like mutual aid have replaced the need for nationwide fundraisers and on and on. the hole that was once filled by these big concentrated group efforts of musician activism doesn’t really exist anymore

Point taken that the information landscape has changed. But while the goal is often to spread awareness (and raise money), the artist is also there to buoy people's spirits, stand for humanism, and confront trauma through their works. Musicians are still necessary because social media can displace art but it can't replace it.

Yeah, I just don't think it makes sense to compare things like We Are The World, Farm Aid, even The Concert For Bangladesh with the situation in Gaza - no one was risking sponsorship deals by fighting famine in Africa, no one risked alienating half their audience by supporting the farmers. It's just a very different magnitude of moral courage required, which is not to say those other initiatives were bad or useless (others you mentioned, like No Nukes and Sun City, I'd put somewhere in the middle). At any rate, if a big charity concert is what you feel was missing, as Jordan said we DID have one of those, organised by Brian Eno at Wembley.

As to the top20 thing, I wasn't talking about songs, but rather saying that if you looked at the best selling artists of the Iraq era, as President Keyes did with current ones, it would probably pan out similar - some artists against the war, some in favour, most not commenting on it either way. If those best sellers aren't who you're talking about though, the argument becomes much more difficult; there are absolutely tons of indie and cult artists who have come out for Palestine. Just not aging rock stars like Bono and Springsteen.

i don't think it's really about the lack of american soldiers dying, it's just that there was a fairly broad pro-israel political consensus in the west (and especially in the usa) extending even to self-identified progressives & liberals, but that was already shifting a little with the general public (especially younger generations) before the current conflict, which has accelerated that trend

― ufo, Saturday, 8 August 2026 bookmarkflaglink

like steven van zandt, despite having been heavily involved artists united against apartheid, was denouncing bds on twitter a decade ago saying that it was 'complicated' and that israel was 'one of our only friends in the middle east'. completely incoherent politically but that sort of thinking is still very ingrained in some

― ufo, Saturday, 8 August 2026 bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, there would possibly be a divide between US and Europe here. When I was younger I expected at least some musicians to navigate these issues.

I've seen a lot of paralysis.

bono did actually say something and it was about as middling, both-sides-y and naive as you would expect from bono given that there's actual 'controversy' but he ultimately comes down on the right side of things

"Think of the former Paul Hewson as the first self-created one dimensional man (all front, no back). Browne's dug past the PR and the rhetoric and found… a Mad Men cliché for our times."

The recent Dave Marsh talk unearthed his great review of Harry Browne's The Front Man: Bono: Mascot of Neoliberalism
https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/08/the-banalities-of-bono/

Roger Waters has endured a campaign of defamation and harassment that predates 2023 but he was never charged with anything.

The Weeknd’s donation to food aid is admirable but Israel has Gaza under siege and wasn’t letting humanitarian aid through. The famine conditions in Gaza were imposed on it and the best way to supply any kind of relief would presumably be to stop the genocide.

Yeah, Waters is a Greyzone tankie weirdo.

Macklemore makes some reasonable comments on the genocide in Gaza, Pink isn’t a fan of such lies.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1w8lu1i/macklemore_gives_propalestine_speech_before_ed/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1w8tyx0/pink_shared_a_story_that_said_ed_sheeran_should/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-pro-palestine-statements-1235625967/

so I guess that's one answer to the question

I'm not shocked that Ed Sheeran is a spineless coward, but I can still be disappointed

Macklemore has been talking about Palestine onstage since basically Oct 7th, there's no way Ed didn't know what he was about when he was booked as the opener, if you aren't prepared to stand up for him when the Zionist takedown campaign starts, then why bother, fuck you

sounds like one very overzealous venue owner rallied other rich-stadium-owning dudes into threatening to cancel the shows? legally, i'm surprised they would have the leverage to cancel a show based on their personal feelings, but i guess just typical worst timeline stuff.

Kind of reminds me of Kid Cudi or whoever kicking MIA off the tour, or that Americana dipshit who kicked the Satanist country band off his tour--did they not know anything about these acts before asking them to tour?

wait what was the last one lol?

I saw on bsky that one of these stadiums owned by a rich dude has a Kanye show booked

Charlie Crockett, kind of a cosplay outlaw country guy, kicked this "Satanic doo wop" band called Twin Temple off his tour, he seems like a complete loser.

(also ftr Twin Temple is embarrassingly bad)

Jack White then put TT on his tour and him and Crockett are "beefing"

just lame shit all the way round

Macklemore has been talking about Palestine onstage since basically Oct 7th,

the strangest part of all of this imo. like... say what you want about his music but he's been pretty steadfast. when he made headlines recently for basically saying, "free palestine from genocide" i wasn't surprised at all to hear that coming from him. they actually fucken fired him though?!! holy hell, obvious villains are obvious.

Ed Sheeran dodn't want to take this guy on

The New England Patriots’ 81-year-old owner, Robert Kraft, writes seven-digit checks to the right-wing Israeli lobbying machine AIPAC, but his personal, political, and financial ties to Israel run deeper than the occasional donation. The multibillionaire married his late wife, Myra, in Israel in 1963 when Kraft, then 22, was older than the nation itself. Together they set up numerous business, athletic, and charitable ties to Israel, a record of which is proudly proclaimed on the Kraft company website. In particular, the Kraft Group boasts of its “Touchdown in Israel” program, where NFL players are given free, highly organized vacations to see “the holy land” and come back to spread the word about “the only democracy in the Middle East.” (Not every NFL player has chosen to take part.) Kraft also attends fundraisers for the Israel Defense Forces, currently—and in open view of the world—committing war crimes in Gaza.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/robert-kraft-super-bowl-commercial/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/robert-kraft-prostitution-charges-dropped-florida-prosecutors-n1240964

lol @ Bob Kraft being involved in this

Macklemore’s response very measured, which just makes the whole thing more acutely embarrassing for Sheeran (which may have been Macklemore’s intention, IDK). The easiest thing in the world would have been to cancel the relevant shows if the stadium owners insisted on the boycotts.

i'm still curious how a venue owner can do that legally

america, baby

I’m not sure what law it would be breaking even if the denial of services in commerce on political grounds wasn’t (weirdly) protected by freedom of speech in the US. I think this kind of coordinated boycotting is only illegal collusion under the Sherman Act if it’s done to increase profits, market share etc. But I’m Australian so what do I know.

i guess i meant without violating a contract, not so much illegal. like there's going to be a written contract for the performance at the venue; and i don't imagine "he said something i didn't like" is a legit reason to terminate that deal

Haha you’d be surprised then

say what you want about his music but he's been pretty steadfast

He released Hinds Hall 2 two years ago this week, and the original four months before that.

america, baby

... and Israel.

Sheeran: I am not complicit.

"There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics- my audience often includes young people"

lol yeah young people famously don't want to hear anything about genocide.

"I am not complicit" is hall of fame dumb PR clean-up.

He also uses his platform "to keep conversations open" by...not saying anything.

Other support act Aaron Rowe has withdrawn from the tour https://www.instagram.com/p/DdUW1LPgsrb/?stkn=MXM0aTlxenQwMzZ0OA==

Aaron Rowe, who had been opening for Ed Sheeran, just dropped out of the tour.

Just a little slow there on my end

“I would never let down the fans who had made plans, nor would I abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living.

Kraft and the other stadium owners want to make money from Sheeran shows, and maybe I am wrong but Sheeran could have at least threatened to cancel the tour unless the bill stayed the same in his conversation with Kraft but he didn't

But that would have been shutting down the conversation.

BEOGA and Finneas both withdrew from Ed’s tour too.

Ed Sheeran's loop pedal has also decided to withdraw

I was going to make a joke about him getting AI classic rock acts to support him but there's a non-zero chance of that.

Lukas Graham now out -- that's all the openers, I gather.

Yeah that’s all of them. Let’s see who opens for him now, or who volunteers.

maybe P!nk, white people need their own Usher/Chris Brown tour

I'm being told Boy George has just arrived with a six pack of lager, a bucket of chicken, and a fishing rod

Ed will open the shoes under his alter ego Fed Sheeran

I know there are many obvious reasons to dislike Sheeran (mainly the music), but a couple of things stick in my mind about him. I've still never forgiven him for teaming up with painfully unfunny sausage roll obsessed YouTube Tory grifter twat Ladbaby on a quickly re-worked version of his Chrismas song in 2021. I didn't appreciate them telling me, "I know there's been a lot of pain, but it's time to let it go". I lost my dad in the pandemic and they're/his words offered me no comfort.

The other one is when he went after the Christmas number one in 2017 with that dreary Perfect song. A year after George Michael died, there was a campaign to get Last Christmas to number one at last with all the money going to charity. He released three different versions of that fucking song that week. I remember him openly saying, "it's close but I've still got another trick up my sleeve" just before the last version came out. Even a couple of years before that Justin Bieber (or whoever was running his Twitter at that point) had the decency to encourage people to buy/download some NHS charity single instead of his that week. Sheeran just couldn't let them have it.

I know people have done way worse things than that, but screw him and his nice guy image.

I found it interesting at the time that he wanted to top "Last Christmas" as George Michael was also a borderline obsessive chart watcher.

I do remember him saying how he really wanted that fourth number one in 1984 with Last Christmas, but instead of worrying about it too much he had the decency to feature on the Band Aid song and then gave all the proceeds from the Wham single to the same charities. He had class that Sheeran could never have.

Yeah. And George Michael was also a man of the left or at least leftish.

Pretty telling that these smaller openers that I’m sure could really use the money have principles enough to leave the tour but the dude worth 100s of millions is a punk bitch

and his backing band! maybe they're living comfortably as bigger-than-I-realize stars in Ireland, but i would assume this is a pretty important paycheck and bit of exposure them.

their statement gave me goosebumps. good for them.

this is going extraordinarily poorly for Ed.

lmao his *band* quit?? that's hilarious good going Ed you really played this well

crazy he wouldn't even take the temperature of the guys on stage with him on this, I mean openers I guess can be replaced, good luck with all this now hahahah

Ed Sheeran's loop pedal has also decided to withdraw

Pretty much lol

what a cunt

Their PR crisis room for this must be bonkers right now

and his backing band!

incredible

hey at least he stayed out of politics

Sheeran: I am not complicit.

― mick signals, Tuesday, September 15, 2026 1:21 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is one of the funniest things to say unprompted

Esp. since the current theory is that he meant “complacent”

Actual Fox headline:

Michael Rapaport cheers Macklemore getting dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour, says 'f--- you'

Nobody’s beaten that guy to a pulp yet?

Holy cow... He's just going to stand there by himself singing over pre-recorded tracks is he?

What an amazing show of solidarity by everyone else though

Holy crapola this is good news

offering up "I am not complicit" is like starting your statement with "I am not a racist" what a fucking idiot

"i pity inanimate objects", but it's about ed's loop station.

Holy shit, I missed that his actual backing band quit too. LMAO you fucking muppet.

Now I feel bad for unintentionally disparaging the good name of Muppets with that comparison.

Sheeran: I am not complicit.

― mick signals, Tuesday, September 15, 2026 1:21 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is one of the funniest things to say unprompted

its so hilariously close to the dril "i'm not owned" tweet

"i'm not complicit!" i insist as i shrink and transform into a corn cob my entire tour quits

didnt really know anything about sheeran before this including that he was popular enough to play stadiums but ive been reading up and hes from england but has irish ancestry and i guess considers himself irish and is into the culture as evidenced by surrounding himself with irish musicians on this tour, so all of them citing irelands history of oppression by the english in their resignation letters is pretty interesting

Rapaport posted something on his instagram the other day which was a photo of a bombing, I'm guessing in Gaza, and his accompanying text was merely "Every single one of them." anyway, definitely a complete POS.

fascinatingly horrible statement from ed

He pushes his head out of the muck and says some stupid shit every few years just to remind us he’s there. A real ingrown hair of a person.

yeah crazy how macklemore gave this heartfelt statement called sheeran his brother and sheerans is like macklemores contract was with the promoter not me just so you know

he literally used the phrase both sides in it

a called the crisis management firm one day too late type situation

He pushes his head out of the muck and says some stupid shit every few years just to remind us he’s there. A real ingrown hair of a person.

― Cow_Art, Tuesday, September 15, 2026 6:12 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

unfortunately its not every few years its pretty much constant, people just usually ignore him

I wonder if the Spanic Boys are available

echoing carne asada, what i wouldn't give for a listen to his team's conference calls on this. what an absolute wildfire.

xpost Excellent deep cut.

echoing carne asada, what i wouldn't give for a listen to his team's conference calls on this. what an absolute wildfire.

Probably just a bunch of loud bros shouting.

ok i listened to half an ed sheeran song, i gave it a thumbs down and not just because of the gaza stuff i also didnt like the song

Odds on the tour cancelling completely in 48 hours time...

Thing is, Ed's made his bed... even if he were to somehow now come around and "make a stand" - it would sound so hollow and capitulating.

bad break for Ed, but hey at least he didn't get involved in politics

Ed Sheeran: why does he always look damp in a clammy way?

I'm being told Boy George has just arrived with a six pack of lager, a bucket of chicken, and a fishing rod

― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Tuesday, 15 September 2026 21:12 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Lmao

didnt really know anything about sheeran before this including that he was popular enough to play stadiums but ive been reading up and hes from england but has irish ancestry and i guess considers himself irish

An awful shower altogether - vote for the worst member of the Irish diaspora

Roger Waters weighs in:

A message to @edsheeran regarding @macklemore . pic.twitter.com/1bi8OsVPWd

— Roger Waters ✊ (@rogerwaters) September 16, 2026

tbh, Kraft apparently saying he could not just get the concert stopped at the stadium he owns but coordinate with other owners to get the entire tour cancelled seems like the bigger story than Sheeran buckling to the pressure.

That's true, and Mackelmore was very smart to center that. But we don't have as much Kraft material.

The statements from the acts that quit the tour, collated:

https://consequence.net/2026/09/ed-sheeran-tour-openers-drop-out/

I love how old Reg weighs in like anyone gives one single shit about what he thinks.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/coronationstreet/images/b/b3/Reg_holdsworth_1993.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120404100500

one thing I'm thinking about this morning is how Ed felt the need to point out that Macklemore asked to open for him, which might be true, probably is true, but to point it out in this context is dirty, dirty work, what a piece of shit

xp dunno what Dick Cheney has to do with it, he's sadly not around to weigh in

xpost There was a sentence in Macklemore’s statement that made it pretty clear that Sheeran didn’t want him to go public about the Kraft call. I read Sheeran’s statement in that light, throwing some shade at Mac for not going along with the PR plan.

dont look behind the curtain nothing to see there

ya Kraft is definitely the bigger villain here, maybe it's not great to let 80 year old men on the Epstein list decide who does and doesn't get to perform at football stadiums

how about they both fucking suck and are both the biggest villains, Kraft for reasons stated and Sheeran for having the money and leverage and still deciding to be the coward

wonder if kraft really had the power to cancel the concert or sheeran just rolled over

bringing things full circle I just learned Kraft's wife is on the board of the Kennedy Center

Rolling Stone is suggesting that Kraft organised seven other stadiums to block concerts where Macklemore was scheduled to appear, which aligns with Kraft’s own claims.

The argument seems to be that the venues are able to bar ‘hate speech’ and Macklemore saying ‘free Palestine’ would fall within that. idk if it would hold up legally but I wouldn’t be shocked if he would have been willing to cancel the concert and take his chances in court.

would've been crazy if they had gone down that path. I mean Pink's statements still read as absolutely wild to me, like did you actually hear what Macklemore said? what part specifically is making you so goddamn scared and why?

haha yeah I had to check more than one source for his speech because I was sure I missed something after reading her statement

These are people who think that the second the word "Palestine" is uttered, mobs of antisemites are activated to carry out pograms near the merch booth.

maybe because they view the Palestinian people as expendable so naturally they expect everyone else to be like them. just a guess

The fucked up thing is these stadiums are fucking taxpayer funded

Yep, and one is directly owned by the state of Indiana iirc. Good to see Warren Gunnels and others highlighting that element.

the stadium kraft owns was privately funded fwiw, tho he no doubt got some bespoke tax breaks and whatnot

was double checking on that and on the wiki it says boston is the only city that has exclusively privately funded stadiums, tho gillette isnt actually in boston or that near to it but you get the idea

Sheeran is supposed to play in Philly on Friday (one of the stadiums that wanted Macklemore dropped.) I hope no local band jumps in to be the opener.

An Evening With Edward Sheeran Presenting Solo Acoustic Performances of Thoughts & Prayers

wonder if we'll be lucky enough to get the sight of sheeran making this facial expression

not to derail but can anyone succinctly relate wtf the story is with the macklemore jewish costume thing? w/a bit of googling i can find a million photos of it, commentary about it, etc but nothing that explains wtf was actually going on in the first place when he did that. is there something i'm missing or did he really just go out and perform in that costume like "thisll be funny"? i'm so confused by that.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-27483970

He explained that he randomly chose the elements of the outfit so that he could disguise himself and move freely around during the secret show.

"I acknowledge how the costume could, within a context of stereotyping, be ascribed to a Jewish caricature," he wrote.

the only redemption I can possibly see working atm is for him to say, "I was given bad advice and I'm truly sorry, we're gonna have a series of concerts with the proceeds going to Gaza aid."

But why takes sides? Half the proceeds go to Gaza aid and the other half goes to robot attack dogs for the IDF.

he's not going to do any of that, but he should fire his current PR team and hire me is what i'm saying

he'll probably make a pivot to the right (i.e. get Ed Pilled)

Yes I think what is most likely to happen is he stands on the side he was really on the whole time but explicitly

it would be very entertaining to see Sheeran go full fash but i don't think there's any way that happens.

a couple of pass-agg songs about "don't believe everything you see in the media" feels like the plausible outcome

In six months there will a GQ interview titled "Ed Sheeran Doesn't Care What You Think."

I am not sure it’s plausible that someone books Macklemore in 2026 without being at least privately somewhat sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, tbh. It’s a risk very few major stars would take in the first place.

i assumed they were booked together because they both peaked commercially around the same time (early 2010s) and that the promoters were not thinking about palestine at all

Apparently Sheeran’s personal decision when Macklemore offered to support. idk if a professional booker is making the same call given that he’s pretty much only associated with Palestine activism these days.

Yeah, I think this is less about what is in Ed Sheeran's heart than his pitiful caving to Kraft.

doubt the moron with the lip ring knows or cares about much of anything

I am not sure it’s plausible that someone books Macklemore in 2026 without being at least privately somewhat sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, tbh. It’s a risk very few major stars would take in the first place.

― ShariVari, Wednesday, September 16, 2026 1:52 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

also hes surrounding himself with irish musicians who clearly feel strongly about it he identifies as irish and ireland has a long history of solidarity with palestine, i think he prob does just hold some incoherent lib both sides type view wants to be everyones friend wants to keep making lots of money and have lots of fame etc, but all things considered i doubt hes a pure ride or die israel guy

tho tbf in america at least most libs have gotten off the both sides train by now, apologies to the libs

It is kind of nice to see one these Swift-style non-risk takers get a public trouncing for spinelessness. All that will happen though is that main acts will make their openers sign agreements not to make political statements on stage.

I kind of enjoyed this video that was like "Fuck Ed Sheeran, but also fuck Macklemore"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3ITmQBWCK8

MB
@sugarcubedog.bsky.social
· 4m
Macklemore just announced he’s donating the $1 million he made from Sheeran’s tour to 6 organizations to support Palestinians and he’s asking Robert Kraft to match it. This is just the first part announcing it.

This all feels like somewhat of a dam breaking moment, just one of those odd confluences of situation and parties involved that resonates in a way that was maybe unpredictable for all those parties.

Just years of bullshit, people being told not to believe their own lying eyes, perfectly reasonable statements speaking out against atrocities being called hate speech, and everyone just being sick of it.

otm

All my homies and even my ops hate genociders

As I posted on Bluesky just now: Okay so Defector has had an odd glitch since the site redesign a couple of weeks back where the wrong photo and headline are often put together on the main page and I was going to ask them about fixing it but this just happened and as far as I'm concerned they have to leave it as is.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kqdyhnklmmv34nmml6btyqv6/bafkreib46jpm7bjqwurlv77qutnu57rqhu6pd6jao6qars7j4idhv7dhuq

lol

i think there is also a class war thing happening here that ed deeply misread. if you strip everything away his ultimate position on the concerts is that he had a duty to soldier on because he has a crew and band to pay, and even before the band quit i just don't think there was any tolerance among the public, when everyone is getting gouged at the grocery store, for one of the biggest musicians in the world claiming that his hands are tied by the economics of the situation. nobody believes he is the powerless one here, and indeed if he had said "these rich guys want to cancel all my shows so i'm going to pay out my crew and band and book new venues in these cities so my fans can see me" he would be in the exact opposite position he's in now

Agree nobody seems particularly sympathetic to the argument but idk if it would be conceivable to find new venues capable of getting close to 500k+ capacity over the course of the tour, particularly at any kind of short notice - and if he’s blacklisted from stadiums. Cancelling the tour would have been the right moral stance and would probably have led to fewer people being mad at him, on balance, but I’m not sure there was ever going to be a middle path.

well sure he couldn't play stadiums but if ed sheeran wanted to book 3 concerts in philadelphia this weekend so he could say that he wasn't stiffing his fans i'm pretty confident he would be able to make that happen. his statement uses his crew, his band, and his fans as a human shield but the truth is that all of those problems are easily solvable. he could pay out his crew, he could idk... cancel the shows, and book a stadium in europe and live stream it only to people who pay a fee that goes to jewish and palenstinian causes. artists cancel tours all the time, apologize to their fans, and say they'll be back soon, and the world doesn't stop. the idea that his hands were tied in any way beyond the ability to perform in the stadiums in question is just playing into his gambit

and i think everyone in the public intuitively understands that. aside from the political aspect of everything, he picked one of the worst times ever to be a rich person asking the american public for forgiveness. read the news, man

I think you are grossly underestimating the difficulties involved in load-in/load-out logistics and venue scheduling

guys ed sheeran is one of the most famous musicians in the world who plays entire stadium shows w/ an acoustic guitar and loop pedal, he could show up in philadelphia tomorrow and book a show that night. please

Tons of money helps you solve lots of problems but it doesn’t let you go back in time to recapture the proper lead time to secure a venue, map out routes, secure adequate hotel space, etc

I mean the bigger picture here is billionaires are like, look ill make your life hell. I don't think it would "just" be a difficulty with this one tour.

who remembers that moment when peak twitter-running-public-opinion-era the dude from netflix basically just fired a trans employee who protested platforming dave chappelle ... that felt like a real sea change in billionaires being like, yea i'm not going to blink on this with twitter activists. and im curious what the actual leverage is sheeran sees these guys having over him because i'm sure its NOT just a couple shows he has to rebook

i'm not saying this to defend ed sheeran, btw, just that ofc there's a level beyond public opinion where these guys feel they have impunity to ignore it

ah yes ed sheeran would not be able to book a hotel room in philadelphia this weekend, just wouldn't be able to figure that one out. did you guys consult on his PR statement?

Like if your argument is “Ed Sheeran could play at a coffee house” I’m sure you’re right, but that’s not the scale of concert we’re talking about here. Plus, even with his money/pull, his current tour was not booked at the last minute; why are you so certain he could magically make something even at half-scale happen at the last minute?

To be clear, I don’t give a shit about Ed Sheeran but I do give a shit about sloppy magical thinking

im curious what the actual leverage is sheeran sees these guys having over him because i'm sure its NOT just a couple shows he has to rebook

― ok (D-40), Wednesday, September 16, 2026 5:28 PM (one minute ago)

i'm sure he thought about this alas his calculus regarding how the public would react to his conundrum was extremely incorrect

I’m mostly amused that you think people would be totally copacetic with him saying “I’m cancelling the show where many thousands of you could see me but fear not, I’ve booked a 500 person venue”

he's pissing people off so he can get the number down to 500

Sheeran is at a level of success and fame and fanbase size where he could have conceivably been a litmus test for calling a billionaire's bluff, but as far as i can ascertain he was like, welp not much i can do. but that's because he's more like them than he is like anyone in his audience.

lol

I’m mostly amused that you think people would be totally copacetic with him saying “I’m cancelling the show where many thousands of you could see me but fear not, I’ve booked a 500 person venue”

― DJP, Wednesday, September 16, 2026 5:31 PM (eleven seconds ago)

but by "people" you mean "his fans" and so you are making the same mistake he is, which is to prioritize his fans over public opinion. if he played a 500 cap venue in philadelphia this weekend in protest of political collusion he would currently be hailed as a hero in the public. yes he might have some fans who are mad that they couldn't get into the new concert but you gotta be able to see the forest for the trees here.

You have a surprising amount of faith in people

anyway my point is not really about what is logistically possible but what he should have done to salvage his reputation. can't book a venue? show up to a park w/ an amp. that gets shut down? move into the street. that doesn't work? set up a camera in your hotel room and play on instagram live. the idea that there is anything standing between ed sheeran and his fans would be to grossly misread, as sheeran did, the media and social media environment we live in. the hero's story was staring him dead in the face but he couldn't see it

I would fully expect a large number of people to be like “I paid $400 to see this fucker and he turned his show into an exclusive benefit I can’t get into, fuck him”

Canceling and offering refunds seems like the best option, which is not what he decided to do

you keep using the word "people" when you mean "fans of ed sheeran" and i have to reiterate that fans of ed sheeran are at best a tertiary concern in this dilemma, even from the purely cynical perspective of protecting ed sheeran

I agree it would have been practically difficult for him to rearrange things on the fly, but I don’t see how that wouldn’t have been a further point in his favour PR-wise. The more things were screwed up by the stadium owners’ stance, the better he would have looked.

i know social media isn't necessarily the entirely best barometer of society as a whole, but this seems like a complete unforced error in the sense that it's doing an enormous amount of damage to his career, more than him taking the "hero's story" path would have done. he's gone from innocuously disliked mid guitar guy to despised tool of the billionaires, and made people focus on his previous affiliations and associations. and just to give an idea in the other direction, Aaron Rowe went from approx 115k instagram followers to 337k in 24 hours, after dropping off the tour.

its pretty funny when things go wrong for the super wealthy theyve got years of impunity under their belt just totally comfortable, like of course hed side with kraft thats the easy route nothing bad could possibly happen

fans of ed sheeran are clearly not people

meanwhile the mackle is boxing robert kraft into donating a million bucks to palestinian charities he's pantsing these guys from a PR perspective it's incredible

truly high level mackeling i had no idea he had it in him

I don’t think Kraft cares about PR. He cares about exercising power. This makes him look terrible to most normal people. Killing the tour would have made him look worse. He’d almost certainly have done it anyway. If he donates a cent to Palestinian causes I’d be astonished.

of course kraft cares about pr, the fact that public sentiment has turned against the super wealthy is driving them insane, they want to be adored, they deserve it

the PR isn't about Kraft donating it's about Macklemore turning it around on him and taking the narrative back to where it belongs, it's of course had an amazing streisand effect.

kraft prob assumed his backroom machinations would stay in the backrooms because thats what usually happens but then some guy with a macklemore haircut just tweeted it out

There’s no way he wasn’t taking credit for Macklemore being dropped, imo. He’s enormously proud of it. The important thing isn’t getting him cut from the tour, it’s reminding everyone that he and his friends can still bring the hammer down on anyone speaking out about Israel.

i mean he didnt take credit for it

kraft family has taken some major Ls soliciting prostitution arrest, choosing belichick over brady, dropping out of the mayoral race, looking like a fuckin koala, losing a rap battle to macklemore

robert kraft is inoculated from PR insofar as his wealth is not going to be threatened by this controversy but that's a lot different than saying he doesn't care about PR

The big gap here, of course, is between those who believe the financial hit or threat of taking a financial hit will shut people up, and those who think the financial hit is worth taking this stand.

The fundamental difference between people who think more money is the most important thing, and those who think more money is not a big deal, and even making a little less is cool too.

The fundamental difference between people who think more money is the most important thing, and those who think more money is not a big deal, and even making a little less is cool too.

anyway Sheeran didn’t have to try to reschedule shows for the exact same dates on short notice, he could gave been “i’m canceling and coming back in sox months to different venues”

yeah he couldve done all sorts of things but pretending he was carrying on for the rest of the musicians on the tour then having them all cancel the next day didnt work out that good

he shouldve asked them first lol

These guys want to take credit for stuff like that in the 1% social circles they run in but not in the headlines. I'm sure Kraft was expecting it to go down like "Macklemore drops off Sheeran tour due to illness", and then Kraft gets to brag to his dinner companions at Mar A Lago "you know what really happened? I was talking to my good friend Ed Sheeran and..."

Well, there ya go. "I was totally going to do it earlier, really."

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4d7w4ylnasmg7oayamznsznp/bafkreibs34pdxzlsf2l5n3tbhbexaxeqxik36iq2oggesumcbphkkobg24

businesses, jobs, relationships

ah very interesting

lol came here to post that statement

insert that John Early/Kate Berlant/Katie Couric "which foundations" video here

Paywalled but

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/music/the-40-minute-phone-call-that-left-ed-sheerans-tour-hanging-by-a-thread-99e07984

He noted that Macklemore had previously been accused of antisemitism in 2014 for wearing a costume that featured Jewish stereotypes such as a beard and oversize hook nose.

I had forgotten about this lol

Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, Israel’s response has become a political hot button everywhere from the campaign trail to Hollywood awards shows and pop concerts.

One side killed 1200 people, the other side has been a hot topic around town.

Prince otm:

https://bsky.app/profile/anildash.com/post/3mvogdol6o22x

I bet there's a whole lot of stuff from the years since he passed that we are glad we never had to know Prince's opinion on

yea I think he would've broken a lot of people's hearts during the pandemic

ultimately I agree with the take above that people are just fed up. fed up with billionaires, fed up with being lied to, fed up with Ed Sheeran. who decided that guy ought to be a star. whenever I hear the word "goober" that is the exact face that pops in my head

reggie miller tho

XPOST - am very glad i didnt have to hear princes opinions on covid, gaza, and many things. tbh one of the things i most disliked about prince as he got older is that he became more vocal about things i never needed him to be vocal on, ever. his thoughts on katy perry and ed sheeran being 'rammed down peoples throats' is a bit rich considering people could have said the same about him at one point too.

If Prince was ubiquitous in the '80s, it was because he had a ten-year run of singles and albums that remains almost unparalleled in its brilliance. Sheeran and Perry, by contrast, have between them released almost nothing of even middling artistic value.

Also, I do think Prince would have recognized the truth of what has happened in Gaza. He was always on the side of the oppressed.

i love prince, i think he was brilliant, but without the push of a major like warners, i doubt as many ppl would have noticed.

im sure prince would have recognised the truth of gaza, but i also imagine a few anti semitic comments might have slipped out too.

could we perhaps stop Ouija board-ing what Prince would have thought on etc in 2026 pls thx

Prince would probably agree with you.

Prince would be too busy suing everyone who let his music be uploaded to streaming services to have time for anything else

prince would be calling me saying we are friends im quite sure

"We Are Friends, I'm Quite Sure."

wouldn't it be "eye'm quite sure"

Philly Palestine Coalition and other groups are planning to protest outside the Sheeran show at Lincoln Field.

youre right thats prob what he would say xp

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has come out in support of Ed Sheeran now.

Ouch.

You don't say---but if we're going to condescend to this kind of response, why is a song so much better?

Gaza has been blockaded since 2006 and Israel decides how much food gets in, calculated down to the calorie. Food deprivation is used as collective punishment and keeping aid out has been an ugly story. Several times, Israel has illegally attacked aid flotillas in international waters (https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260430-israel-conducts-farthest-ever-strike-in-long-history-of-attacks-on-gaza-humanitarian-aid-flotillas/), in the process reportedly torturing and sexually assaulting activists (https://freedomflotilla.org/2026/01/02/ffc-condemns-sexual-assaults/). In one attack, the IDF killed ten activists—and that was well before the genocide’s current phase. Wikipedia has an article about the aid situation during the “Gaza war” begun in 2023 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_aid_during_the_Gaza_war).

The US has decisive economic leverage over Israel and could presumably stop the genocide quickly if that fit its plans. Public awareness and pressure on western governments could have an effect, depending on the extent to which we have functioning democracies. Songs and even spectacles like Ed Sheeran stepping in shit could be positive contributions in this respect.

And Roger Waters' "support" incl. concerts feat. a doll/dummy sporting a Star of David *and* a swastika, speaking of both sides (now). Also he's dressed up like a parody-Nazi onstage, razzing Germany's concern with this kind of thing. In related news, when a Rolling Stone interviewer showed him footage of Russians attacking in Ukraine, he was like, "Yeah---no," couldn't accept it.

Roger Waters’ shows incorporate theatrical use of fascist and other symbolism to express an anti-authoritarian message—and have done since the 80s, I understand—but to hear them described you’d think he was holding Nazi rallies. Charges of antisemitism have been following him around like the storm cloud over Joe Btfsplk (and, interestingly, are often blended in with asides about his reputed love of Putin) and I can’t think another musician who’s had as much mud slung at him as a consequence. When he toured Germany in 2023, a chorus of elected officials and other elite voices rose up to denounce him and try to ban his performances in Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Berlin. Among the memorable quotes, the Mayor of Frankfurt called Waters a “Jew-hater” and said his concert was a “breach of civilization.” The anti-Semitism commissioner of the Social Democratic-Left Party-Green Senate (state executive) described him as “one of the loudest voices in the music business spreading anti-Israeli anti-Semitism” who should not be given a stage. The European Commission coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life tweeted she was “sick & disgusted by Roger Waters’ obsession to belittle and trivialize the Shoah & the sarcastic way in which he delights in trampling on the victims, systematically murdered by the Nazis. In Germany. Enough is enough.” The US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism chimed in in agreement, condemning Waters’ “despicable Holocaust distortion.” The weekly Jewish paper Jüdische Allgemeine wrote about “Jew hatred on tour” and Waters’ “tirades of hate.” Berlin police even initiated a criminal investigation into Waters.

The slander from on high and calls for censorship continued in the UK when his tour went there. The Campaign Against Antisemitism group produced a 37-minute defamatory “documentary” called The Dark Side of Roger Waters. In the US, Waters was banned from physically participating in a literary festival on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Later, at a McCarthyite congressional hearing interrogating university presidents over alleged antisemitism, one Representative asked “why in the world would you host someone like that on your college campus?”—meaning Waters who had “desecrated the memory of Anne Frank” and so on. This continued in the Latin American tour where the musicians had to commute between Brazil and neighbouring countries Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia because they were denied hotel rooms. There were legal challenges to the concerts. Waters’ categorically denies the accusations and I’m familiar enough with his body of work to not give these smears credence.

it seems like Waters is just old and dumb, but that nobody should be looking to him for political guidance in the first instance?

I don’t think Kraft cares about PR. He cares about exercising power. This makes him look terrible to most normal people. Killing the tour would have made him look worse. He’d almost certainly have done it anyway. If he donates a cent to Palestinian causes I’d be astonished.

Yeah, Kraft is a longtime Zionist hawk, patron of Benjamin Netanyahu, and a major player in the US Israel Lobby. Among his many activities, he was instrumental in quashing genocide protests at Columbia University, and Kraft's Gilette Stadium hosts an "antisemitism command center" which monitors billions of social media posts daily for antisemitic content (https://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/take-a-look-at-the-antisemitism-command-center-inside-gillette-stadium/). It's inconceivable that this guy would donate to genuine aid to Palestinians, though I could imagine his money going to the ridiculous Board of Peace.

"There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics- my audience often includes young people"

Sheeran actually does express political opinions when they’re convenient: “he performed at the Concert for Ukraine in 2022, signed an open letter to Theresa May about Brexit, endorsed Jeremy Corbyn and supported the equality act in the US” (https://www.theguardian.com/music/commentisfree/2026/sep/16/ed-sheeran-macklemore-loop-tour-support-acts-quit-robert-kraft). Nate Bear, in the column mentioned at the top of this thread, cited Sheeran as a hypocrite for being silent on apartheid and genocide.

ed sheeran’s statement tonight before beginning tonight’s show: 🚨 pic.twitter.com/FFmZZZq3Dq

— court 🏠 (@concertcourt) September 20, 2026

Lol at the Philly idiot yelling “Macklemore is a bitch” over and over.

I guess Kraft and other NFL stadium owners will be ok with what Sheeran now has said about Gaza because of the rest of his phrasing (and they want to make money from his shows mostly). Here's part of it -

"What happened in Israel at the Nova music festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic, unjustifiable, and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians' lives, of children's lives. And the systemic injustice we're seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.
"I am already speaking to people across the spectrum to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times, and listening and learning because I do not know enough.
"I honestly am so grateful that you're here tonight with me. This concert is still a place where everyone is welcome, and everyone here can stand beside people that have opposing views. Everyone here can stand by people that they don't agree with on everything, and they can all agree on singing these songs. And these songs are about love, hope, and unity."

all his songs are about "Ed Sheeran is horny"

hard to see anyone having a problem with that statement

can't tell if that's sarcasm

both sides bullshit aside, he can prove his contrition by apologizing to Macklemore and call Kraft's bluff by inviting him back

stand in love, hope and unity with people who support genocide, got it

Saturday Night Live UK had Sheeran not taking sides in a human vs robots war to annihilation (Sheeran enters at around 3.20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DVIESl8OFE.

well that sounds heelarious

(it’s not the real Sheeran)

(I don't really think it sounds funny)

I didn’t expect anyone to think SNL(UK) literally had Sheeran on and making fun of himself. I just found interesting that even SNL was calling him out for both-sides-ing genocide, and that such a big deal has been made of the Mackelmore-Sheeran story that it’s become a pop culture reference. If only cable news gave this much attention to Gaza itself.

Yeah, but they did it without mentioning Gaza at all.

On a positive note, Making Time festival (also in Philly) had a table for DJs Against Apartheid again this year, pro-Palestine merch and statements everywhere around the festival, and after Boiler Room was sold, Dave P. cut ties with them.

This really is a generational thing, I think. Encountering young people who are loud Zionists these days is like encountering young people who are loud Republicans— yeah, they’re there and they’re loud, but there actually aren’t that many of them.

Yeah, but they did it without mentioning Gaza at all.

That’s the limit of their boldness. Naming names would likely have gotten the show pulled off the air given the state of the UK (which, for instance, views criticism of Israel as antisemitism, following the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition). And making a blatant joke about Gaza probably wouldn’t have gone down well with anybody.

I'm not a habitual defender of SNL UK or anything, but this weekend update segment got a bit more specific:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFMq4bw2cW8

The funniest aspect of that Weekend Update is how they skirt the central issue. The writers must assume their audience is better informed than the television censors want them to be. Otherwise the audience is just hearing there’s some sort of “conflict” between Israel and the Palestinians.

Yeah I don't enjoy SNL UK at all but it is pretty funny how they regularly touch the stuff the US version never would. Despite these good political instincts, though, it is still a SNL, so not funny.

The writers must assume their audience is better informed than the television censors want them to be.

Considering the young demographic they're trying to court it is a pretty safe bet they'll know exactly what's being talked about yes.

Commentary about the Macklemore-Sheeran episode continues, and the Fourth estate continues to run interference for the US-Israeli genocide using slurs and distractive controversies (such as the resurrection of the photo of Macklemore supposedly dressed as a Jewish caricature). A recent ploy by a Spiked editor casts supporters of “Free Palestine” as a cult. Substacker Jonathan Cook has a piece addressing such “courtier journalism” and the meaning of Sheeran’s “neutrality.”:
https://substack.com/@jonathancook
or
https://scheerpost.com/2026/09/25/ed-sheeran-does-provide-a-safe-space-for-the-billionaires-who-own-him/

“supposedly”?

He later apologized for that 2014 costume, although he first apparently tried to muddy the waters about what the costume represented. Thankfully he’s stayed away from such wear since.

music world continues to be better than the visual art world on this issue at least

https://hyperallergic.com/frieze-owner-ari-emanuel-criticizes-macklemore-over-pro-palestinian-comments/

https://thelooker.thedailybeast.com/live-forever-billionaire-ari-emanuel-65-admits-stomach-churning-live-worms-diet

“supposedly”?
He later apologized for that 2014 costume

Macklemore denied the costume was a caricature from the start. He said he bought the beard and witch's nose off the rack and that some people thought he looked like Ringo. His contrition seemed genuine so I gave him the benefit of the doubt with the "supposed."
https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/macklemore-explains-controversial-costume/story?id=23792455

admittedly, whatever the intent, it looked (and looks, it you look it up) really really bad. even given the extreme benefit of the doubt is evinces a tone deafness that arguably crosses a line.

but, i do not think it proves that his criticism of israel is driven by antisemitism.

*it, sorry

The charge of antisemitism levelled at critics of the bloodbath is typically a canard to get people talking about something other than the genocide. I suspect the same is true with Macklemore. When cable news does a segment on the Sheeran controversy, one is more likely to see that Macklemore photo than images of the slaughter in Gaza.

There are atrocities on both sides, a genocide on one hand, a questionable costume on the other.

ari emanuel being an example of the visual art world seems like a reach. didn't even realize he had any holdings in that space

yeah not really known as an art world guy

“I don’t believe the word genocide is the proper word for what happened in the West Bank,” Emanuel told host Jon Stewart without once making mention of Gaza

lol almost impressively absurd way to dodge the question

it reminds me of when hasbara argues that Israel can't be an apartheid state because of the existence of Palestinian citizens of Israel

there's deffo a ton of antisemitism in the online mix, some good old-fashioned haters of jewish people smuggling themselves into the conversation on social media, posting juice box emojis and whatever else they can sneak in there. lots of people thinking it's their time to shine, and i'm guessing large numbers of them give zero shits about Palestinian people except as a means to their own end. i see it all the time and it's hard to ignore. it's of course a completely separate issue from what Israel is doing as a fascist murderous regime, unless you want to look at it as part of what Israel is doing to make everyone else less safe. Macklemore's costume definitely wasn't screened by anyone before he walked onstage but i sorta trust he's not the kind of guy to have been that genuinely awful. he has been contrite on the subject.

one "funny" thing about conflating criticism of israel with antisemitism is one reason some ultra orthodox groups arent zionists dating back to before the creation of the state of israel is they felt like jewishness would be subsumed by nationalism and thats just what happened, those religious freaks were exactly right

omar otm on all counts there, the casual social media anti-semitism is gross and disturbing

I heard of "pinkwashing" yesterday. Is this term commonplace? Using the argument that Islam hates gay people and Israel likes gay people so why should the LGBTQ community not support Israel?

Our rabbi did this during Yom Kippur and I couldn't wrap my head around where this came from or why he was saying it. Later I realized it was an Israel talking point.

yeah ive heard that one before

Oh yeah. I’ve heard people who went on Birthright visits to Israel say they were introduced by their handlers to gay Palestinian-Israelis who tell them about how they’d be murdered if they lived in Gaza.

Gee, I guess it's good that there were no gays in Gaza killed during the current genocide.

nah, Israel's weaponry is sophisticated enough to (not) target people by sexual orientation

I heard of "pinkwashing" yesterday. Is this term commonplace? Using the argument that Islam hates gay people and Israel likes gay people so why should the LGBTQ community not support Israel?

Our rabbi did this during Yom Kippur and I couldn't wrap my head around where this came from or why he was saying it. Later I realized it was an Israel talking point.

― Art Cow (Cow_Art), Saturday, September 26, 2026 4:12 PM (twenty-two minutes ago)

the "lgbtq community" lol

i've observed that people who make that argument generally don't include me in whatever they call gay "community"

it's also worth noting that "Islam" is not a country, and that its prohibitions on homosexuality don't strike me as being more severe than, say, Leviticus 20:13.

idk, i'm a goy but whatever your rabbi is saying sounds kinda sus to me

which is to say that there are like a billion or so muslims in the world today and to say "islam hates gay people" seems _slightly_ reductionist

there's that old saw, "first they came for x, and i said nothing, because i was not x"

which is all well and good but uh it's _extremely obvious_ to most of the queer people i know that we're next on the list. as someone who belongs to a group that's increasingly acknowledged as being under the threat of genocide, i don't have any idea why anyone would think i would support anyone who's perpetrating a genocide, even _if_ they say they're cool with me. because here's the thing, i kinda have a hard time taking someone seriously if they're perpetrating a genocide and lying about it, you know? frankly i consider it kind of insulting.

Oh yeah, I made up my mind then and there that the rabbi is an absolute shithead.

Sorry, I guess this is moving away from Macklemore, but at this point I fucking hate hearing "oh, it's complicated, these people have family that live in Israel blah blah blah," it's really not complicated right now. There's a genocide happening and if you're cool with that or downplay it then you're a piece of shit.

Yes this discourse will always bring out the antisemites and the islamophobes to dehumanize the people on either side. I don’t care about Abrahamic religions. They’ve done more bad than good for the history of humanity if you ask me and I don’t know if both sides will ever be able to coexist after so much trauma in both sides but they don’t stand a chance when Netanyahu and his ilk try to constantly make this about religion. This isn’t about religion. This is about morals. Netanyahu is a fucking criminal.

xp I thought it was autistic people who were up next.

It’s unbelievable to me how speaking up against genocide has been transformed into a right vs left fight. I have no respect for celebrities that are afraid to speak up as to not offend a certain fanbase or the owner of the corporation hiring them. You’re not speaking up against the jewish religion, you are speaking up against genocide ffs. History will not be kind to them.

If we can’t all agree that you shouldn’t pick sides on a genocide and we can’t call war crimes for what they are we have failed as humans.

Humanity probably failed around the time we genocided the Neanderthals.

It’s unbelievable to me how speaking up against genocide has been transformed into a right vs left fight.

That's how corporate media in the US particularly frame and trivialize every discussion. It's patently ridiculous to call genocide/human rights/international law a political issue. Try to imagine the same apologist arguments having been made about the Holocaust—that it's a political issue, or that both sides have their arguments, or that identity politics should determine whether or not to support it.

Another hiccup in the pinkwashing argument is that the genocide is an American-Israeli operation with the US charge being led by christian nationalists who also are hostile to human rights for gays. That "first they came for x..." stuff is worth remembering.

there's deffo a ton of antisemitism in the online mix

The idea that genocide protesters are antisemitic and online antisemitism may be separate discussions. Racist meatheads have thrived on the internet probably since its beginning, but I don't believe those are the people out protesting, feeling the police response, and being denounced. The bigger racism story in this should be that of apartheid Israel but it appears to be beneath notice over here. Israeli newspapers and politicians make blatantly racist and genocidal statements while public support for ethnically cleansing Gaza is high. There's online hate too as I recall that when the final assault started there were social media videos of Israelis mocking grieving Palestinians and IDF posting videos of themselves gleefully destroying homes. There's a definite wellspring of hate which goes unmentioned while our elites make the protesters of genocide out to be the racists.

Would anti Israel sentiment be more of a niche leftist cause without anti semitism

not that I’m saying there isn’t the occasional Republican put off by genocide on its own

i think anti-israel sentiment would obviously have less uptake on the right without antisemitism but it wouldn't really change things on the broad centre-left where it's already well beyond the niche leftist cause it used to be

Would anti Israel sentiment be more of a niche leftist cause without anti semitism

If I understand the question, the short answer would be “no.” Again, genocide isn’t a political issue and opposition to it shouldn’t be called “anti-Israel” or “anti-American” any more than post-WWII disarmament and partition would be called “anti-German.” Those against this genocide can’t be called “niche” or “leftist” unless that circle includes the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Palestine, South Africa which brought a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice along with other countries which moved to join the case (Turkey, Egypt, the Maldives, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Cuba, Bolivia, Ireland, Belize, Brazil, and Belgium, and others which have voiced support for the case), the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory which made a finding of genocide, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, human rights monitors, striking unions, mass demonstrations, and the many journalists and health workers targeted and killed in Gaza.

lol “if I understand the question” is doing a lotttttt of work there

There's antisemitism on the US right (and the left ofc) but if you want to explain the current political moment, antisemitism is a small tributary stream, the giant river is neoconservatives losing all credibility with the voting public.

many on the right are antisemitic and pro israel where the left tends to be committed antiracists and anti israel, guess you could make the whatabout argument why are people so interested in the jews when other bad things are happening in the world too no one cares about sudan etc, btw macklemore in his speech that started all this was like i care about sudan etc too which he is a dork lol, its def true that people are disproportionately interested in the jews which is antisemitism and is part of the context of the whole thing i mean who knows maybe there wouldnt even be an israel if people werent so interested in the jews, but ultimately when your government is shoveling weapons into a genocide people are getting arrested and fired for saying that its bad and israel and its defenders recklessly calling principled opposition antisemitism thereby rendering the term less meaningful by the day whatre you gonna do you know

^^^^^

Leaving the US aside, most of the world has been pretty onboard with the Palestinian cause for decades. The only countries, other than US dependents, opposed to an independent Palestine are Argentina and Hungary, and Hungary would probably vote differently today. One of the most famously pro-Palestine countries, Ireland, has never had a left-wing government. The idea that the centre and centre-right is strongly pro-Israel is probably not much than 20 years old.

Within the US, I’d guess a lot of people who are broadly moderate but not particularly interested in foreign policy see not only the abhorrent behaviour of the Israeli government in Gaza but the model of flagrantly corrupt, populist ethno-nationalism corroding a notional democracy and think ‘no thank you’.

Leaving the US aside

Good luck with that one.

Also, in Europe at least, it's the far right that's most rabidly pro-Israel these days - if you can take them at their word, which you can't, of course.

Within the US, I’d guess a lot of people who are broadly moderate but not particularly interested in foreign policy see not only the abhorrent behaviour of the Israeli government in Gaza but the model of flagrantly corrupt, populist ethno-nationalism corroding a notional democracy and think ‘no thank you’.

― ShariVari, Sunday, September 27, 2026 9:32 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah israel really fucked up by being psychotic enough that americans noticed

Leaving the US aside, most of the world has been pretty onboard with the Palestinian cause for decades. The only countries, other than US dependents, opposed to an independent Palestine are Argentina and Hungary

― ShariVari, Sunday, September 27, 2026 9:32 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this might be true but they clearly didnt care too much

and fwiw americas stated policy has for decades been an independent palestine aka the two state solution, didnt matter much tho

I don’t buy that there are many antisemitic leftists but there are def pro Israel libs

I didn’t say it would *only* be a niche leftist concern without anti semites just *more of one*

That said I’d like to think Theo Von is genuinely principled in his anti genocide stance rather than on some freak racist message boards but *flips coin *

i dont think theo von has object permanence

Having seen Theo Von’s season of Road Rules, I agree with lagoon

I'm probably never going to watch a Theo Von comedy show but apparently his entire shtick of having a podcast/interview show where he just goes "damn that's crazy" is much more successful than his stand-up career. I guess he just riffs about whether he should be able to say the n word, a topic he seemingly returns to regularly

the joe rogan model

Humanity probably failed around the time we genocided the Neanderthals.

― The Deer-Smellers of Haunted Mountain (President Keyes), Saturday, September 26, 2026 10:33 PM bookmarkflaglink

Excuse me

Oh yeah, we kept one alive so it wouldn't be a "real" genocide.

Robert Del Naja arrested again under UK terrorism laws for protesting against the genocide:

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/9/27/massive-attack-singer-arrested-over-pro-palestine-protest-in-uk

Zach Bryan Dons “Free Palestine” Shirt For Concert At Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium

Gotta salute the UK Zionist PR programme that thinks arresting Robert Del Naja and calling for MSF to be banned is a way to win the battle of public perceptions.

locking up Banky for anything that isn't Crimes Against Art would be like getting Capone for tax evasion

Zach Bryan Dons “Free Palestine” Shirt For Concert At Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium

― coffee-themed romance ads (Eazy)

Yeah we already knew about the hypocrisy when openly antisemitic Kanye who literally released a song called Heil Hitler is doing a stadium tour in stadiums that banned Macklemore from performing.

Pretty defiant and cool of Zach Bryan

I'm a fan of Zach Bryan, seen him twice (second time like just last week), but I did not see that coming

honestly salute to him and his bandmates, that is close to a (Dixie) Chicks level of alienating your fans, even though his fanbase probably skews more "liberal" than the Chicks' in the 00s, I'm guessing a large portion of his would still prefer him to be apolitical even after the whole anti-ICE controversy from last year

more context:

Emily Gorcenski
@emily.gorcen.ski
· 9h
Zach Bryan came out saying FREE PALESTINE in the first show at Gillette Stadium since Ed Sheeran and Robert Kraft silenced Macklemore, AND he played a new, still unreleased anti-AI song and some of y’all are still sleeping on the liberatory potential of Americana

The rest of Zach’s shirt was the Pine Tree Flag, which most of you discovered in 2020 from Stop the Steal, but that’s a recent retcon of the flag’s original meaning.

The flag’s origin is in Massachusetts, where it was first used to muster troops to support overthrowing the corrupt king.

One more detail I overlooked until just now: Zach’s walk on song last night?

Bruce Springsteen’s “The Promised Land”.

Who the fuck is Zach Bryan?

He was in High School Musical you probly don't know him

he's pretty popular
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Bryan

He's written about an album's worth of music I like but, damn, he's the Drake of country folk.

I'm a fan of Zach Bryan, seen him twice (second time like just last week), but I did not see that coming

honestly salute to him and his bandmates, that is close to a (Dixie) Chicks level of alienating your fans, even though his fanbase probably skews more "liberal" than the Chicks' in the 00s, I'm guessing a large portion of his would still prefer him to be apolitical even after the whole anti-ICE controversy from last year

― Murgatroid, Saturday, October 3, 2026 8:29 AM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Again though it’s not, because there is a sizeable base of anti semitic as well ass, presumably, principled anti-genocide right wingers who have kept this issue from being straight partisan polarized

Listened to a song. Pretty mid but I appreciate his lyrics, at least they rely on actual images rather than cliches and social media slang. “something in the orange” could certainly have been written by Springsteen.

(very much not my thing but i get why its popular)

*as well as

explain it to me like I'm 10, I don't see how "antisemites and anti-genocide conservatives exist" invalidates my basic point, that his fans might be more welcoming of this message than the DIxie Chicks' fans were of what they said in 2003

I didn't put on a FREE PALESTINE shirt to please everybody. I wore it because some things are bigger than music, fame, and public approval. You're free to disagree with me, but I'm not going to pretend I don't care just to keep everyone comfortable. ❤️🇵🇸

— Zach Bryan (@ZachBryankip) October 3, 2026

Ugh never mind, that’s a fake account.

Chuck D just said Free Palestine at the Power to the People concert Tom Morello put together at Merriweather Post Pavilion near DC

would have expected no less, actually, and it’s obviously a friendly crowd.

zach bryan sticking his thumb in robert krafts eye is pretty funny and great

explain it to me like I'm 10, I don't see how "antisemites and anti-genocide conservatives exist" invalidates my basic point, that his fans might be more welcoming of this message than the DIxie Chicks' fans were of what they said in 2003

― Murgatroid, Saturday, October 3, 2026 9:41 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I think there’s a much larger subset of his core fans who support Palestine than country fans who were against Bush

I don’t buy that there are many antisemitic leftists

but there are def pro Israel libs

Would anti Israel sentiment be more of a niche leftist cause without anti semitism
[...]
I didn’t say it would *only* be a niche leftist concern without anti semites just *more of one*

Thanks for the clarification. That quick list of international bodies who have called out the genocide shows it was never going to be a niche or partisan issue but rather that it’s already generally understood to be a historic tragedy.

To the list should be added the Norwegian Nobel Committee who just awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay who was chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In September 2025, the Commission of Inquiry determined that Israel had committed genocide during the Gaza war. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Pillay stated that the world has an obligation to prevent genocide, including "halting the transfer of weapons and military support used in genocidal acts, ensuring unimpeded humanitarian assistance, stopping the mass displacement and destruction, and using all available diplomatic and legal means to stop the killing". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navi_Pillay

The original question is difficult to parse as being against Israel’s genocide doesn’t mean being “anti-Israel.” Conversely, some of Israel’s biggest supporters are antisemitic. I believe it’s always been that way, from the Balfour Declaration to today’s xtian nationalists who pine for apocalyptic war.

Other artists who have been outspoken about Gaza-- Dave Matthews, Imagine Dragons, Olivia Rodrigo.

There are some examples of comments about the occupation from before 2023. In 2011, the ad hoc band OneWorld released “Freedom for Palestine,” which drew endorsements from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ken Loach, Alice Walker, Massive Attack, Lowkey, Sami Yusuf,Billy Bragg, Coldplay, and others. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_for_Palestine)

Peter Perrett’s terrific 2019 album “Humanworld” has the track “48 Crash” about Ahed Tamimi—a Palestine teenager caught on video slapping IDF soldiers after her cousin was shot in the head—and about his feeling of helplessness in the face of it.

Deke Leonard’s final album had the optimistic “Palestine.” Robert Wyatt’s lyrics referenced Palestine a couple of times.

That quick list of international bodies who have called out the genocide shows it was never going to be a niche or partisan issue but rather that it’s already generally understood to be a historic tragedy.

I’m afraid you may not recognize the extent to which stateside those international bodies are viewed as like cosmopolitan international elites & not widely representative of popular sentiment. Regardless of how “consensus-formed” it may seem to those of us who consider that perspective batshit