‘A maelstrom of his own making’: how Ed Sheeran’s tour turned into a full-blown culture war

It’s not always otherwise he wouldn’t have done this. However he did fuck this up.

Tbf odds are usually in favour of playing it safe, big spiralling scandals are the edge cases.

It is better to stand something from a moral point of view though, for sure.

he was gauging which way the wind was blowing(i think he intended to support israel originally because of kraft is a zionist. he was better of saying nothing, or cancelling his show.

It’s billionaires vs artists not culture war crap

That upsets other people, culturally, who feel entitled to rape, pillage and seize the lands of others.

It’s wild to me that people talk to strangers

Propaganda, very effective propaganda…

There’s a weird thing in evangelical circles that espouses undying support for Israel because in Revelations (I think) says that Jesus will come back when all of “God’s chosen people” return to Judea. So you get a lot of traditions lifted from Judaism, like the passover feast and shofars. I grew up in the Assembly of God church and all of the Deacons, my dad included, owned a shofar and would blow them when “the spirit was moving”. That’s where almost all of the Israeli support in the US comes from, in my opinion.

Speaking as a 47 year old former lib: The propaganda worked quite well on me until recently, like ten or so years ago.

If you do not look into it and educate yourself on the reality, it is easy to believe the idea that Israel is allowed to “defend itself” because, after the Holocaust, the Jews got together and decided not to take any more shit. The idea is that they occupied an empty desert in Palestine, called it Israel, and got attacked from all sides by the surrounding Arab states and would happily stop shooting if the Arabs stopped attacking them.

The second layer of propaganda says that it’s not that simple, that Israel kills more in response to these attacks than they should, but it’s still a complex situation and we westerners shouldn’t meddle with it because we are ignorant.

The truth finished landing on me around Oct 7, since I’d spent years at that point listening to actual Palestinian people, studying history, etc and knew that Israel was a brutal colonial project of apartheid that was becoming a proper theocracy, but was momentarily fooled by the false reports of brutality by Hamas fighters.

The first hospital bombing ended all sympathy for Israel.

You know what’s funny? It didn’t fully click to me just how methodical and devious Israel is until I realized that there were cookbooks in the 30s to teach European women moving to Palestine how to cook Palestinian food. How “Israeali” food is the only valid example of cultural appropriation I have ever heard. Literally erasing a people down to their fucking cuisine.

I mean what kind of people do that? How sick do you have to be? Yeah, genocide I know of course. The settlements of course. But to coopt food? I mean that is fucking sick in the head to a new level. I can’t explain it. I know it sounds ridiculous compared to lives being lost and land stolen. But there is something just so calculated in that simple act of taking something mundane even and calling it your own.

I’m suspicious that there’s been a long term campaign to whitewash Israel for decades in western media. I don’t think I was really around for most of it, but the way that mostly older people I’ve spoken to regarding this with otherwise perfectly rational options on human rights get really weird about Israel. Most people my age or younger either don’t care or are horrified at what’s going on.

It feels like I’m encountering people that have a lot of unearned good faith in Israel and figure their actions must have justification. Part of it obviously would be WW2, but there’s a big weird unaccounted for goodwill that I could only assume would be a large scale whitewashing campaign.

Ukraine doesn’t have the equivalent Palestine>Hamas>Terrorism>Antisemitism cognitive chain established in most of the west.

So yes, as simple as racism, at base.

There are people I personally recall saying things like “filthy israeli” and calling non white people regardless of their ethnicity “[nationality] terrorist” with usually the wrong nationality being called out, all the stereotypical jewish slurs, etc. yet now loudly “stand with israel” or call standing up for basic human rights antisemitism even though they never gave half a shit in the past and hated them just as much as everyone else different from them. Israel really played the long game.

Biblical prophecy? They don’t give an actual eff about it otherwise.

You are glossing over the fact that Hamas killed and kidnapped Israelian civilians. As far as reasons for war go “We want to free the hostages” is a pretty convincing one. Such a reason did not exist for Ukraine. Also I believe Ukraine is supported by “the West”, that is, a large part of the world does not care about Ukraine.

Obviously supporting the Israelian genocide in Gaza is stupid. But picking either Israel or Palestine as a side is problematic, especially if you assume Gaza to be controlled by Hamas: Both sides want the complete destruction of their “enemy” (although only one side has the means to actually achieve that). People don’t want to be affiliated with Hamas either.

The side I would like to pick is the one against nationalism, religious zealots and mindless revenge. If both countries could get rid of the war mongers that continue to pour oil on the fire, the people could actually live in peace.

Just to be clear: I support a two state solution with a free Palestine and a free Israel coexisting in peace.

My daughter is going to her first concert with her Gramma, she picked gorillaz for the first, and now I couldn’t be happier 😁

Even noted cunt Damon Albarn gets it

Just saw Gorillaz on their first show of The Mountain tour.

That can’t be. I saw them on The Mountain back in June. But yeah, Damon’ll show them how it’s done.

It’s just that simple to not be a bitch.

It is for most people. But it’s also 100% reasonable to say his position is more complicated. Let’s say Ed Sheeran goes out there with a Palestinian flag. Venues would overwhelmingly pull their location for the tour, doing so would likely violate contracts, the tour would ultimately be cancelled, and who knows how many people just lost the income they were depending on. He did not handle the situation correctly, but calling it simple is absurd. This was also all expressed in the article.

the defeated and cancelled zionist entity sheeran loves to mysogynise the intifada and thanks you for your hard work

folk rock has never been more relevant. the first stop on the gaza metro is intifada circus

Calling it a culture war is so depressing. It’s basically making explicit: yes the genocide is happening, but politics is about how you feel about it and what words you use.

so how often do you do some jewish fancy dress?

considering who kraft supports, he would have to do the same hting.

I could see that argument being used in the weeks after the October attacks, but after nearly three years of intensive systematic genocide?

Fuck off with that shit.

You can’t be for and against genocide. Either you are evil or you are not.

Yeah, hiding behind a job is nonsense. Imagine me saying “sorry man, I don’t talk about big issues because I drive a forklift Monday to Friday”.

I don’t think a grown adult can be absolved of responsibility because of that either, though. Everybody who speaks up takes on risk and losses. He’s better positioned than most people on the planet.

But yeah, good to be aware of Wasserman.

he took too long to say anything, he was gauging which way the wind was blowing(he was likely only banking on supporting “israel” if his fans remained loyal.