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rynlingEvery year, UPenn has a Humanities Forum meant to showcase the value of the Humanities to critical real-world issues. The topic of this year's forum is the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
To be clear: Free Palestine!!
As part of the forum, they've invited Roger Waters, the former lead singer of Pink Floyd. Waters is somewhat infamously a not-so-secret antisemite who recently did a pair of concerts in Berlin in which he wore a Nazi(-like) uniform and displayed Nazi(-like) symbols onstage along with more contemporary dogwhistles (such as pig people, lizard people, the number 88 used as a code for Heil Hitler, etc). He gave these concerts in Berlin after a months-long legal battle in which it was decided that he would be allowed to perform with Nazi imagery as long as this imagery wasn't "historically accurate."
I get that Waters seems to think that he's protesting the Israeli occupation of Palestine. But maybe that's not the best way to do it? And even if you're okay with hating "the Jews," maybe there are other problems with Nazis? Idk, it seems like the concept of state-sponsored eugenics isn't great. Nazi imagery is threatening to all sorts of people, from queer people to disabled people to mixed-race people to people who support women's right to make choices about their own bodies. And of course, here in the United States, Nazi imagery is used to threaten Black people as well. It's just deep rancid vibes all the way down.
What's going on with Waters is that he has a profound fascination with fascism. This is what got him kicked out of Pink Floyd in the 1980s, and he's spent the past forty years being wealthy and unhinged. In terms of how this manifests in other arenas, he's been extremely vocal in his support of Putin, specifically his invasion of Ukraine. As Rogers told the UN in February, "it would be fucking insane to believe that the invasion wasn't provoked," by which he apparently meant that Putin is a hero for trying to shut down adrenochrome factories (that supposedly produce magical anti-aging medicine from the fear of children). You know, basic QAnon redpilled bullshit.
For the record, the court in Frankfurt wouldn't allow Waters to perform in their city, and Poland didn't even let Waters go to court. They were like, "Fuck Nazis, and fuck you specifically." But now he's coming to UPenn, I guess.
ETA: Sorry, this is something that goes without saying for me, but perhaps it's best if I do indeed say it out loud: The vast majority of Israelis find the occupation of Palestine to be wretched and vile and want it to end as soon as possible, so the problem with inserting antisemitism into pro-Palestinian activism means that you're refusing to cooperate with the millions of Israelis who have a direct stake in the matter and are capable of taking more direct action (as they did in gigantic sustained nationwide public protests this past summer). In other words, it's counterproductive and betrays an attitude that Palestinian lives are only valuable inasmuch as they exist as symbols. Also fuck Nazis.
To be clear: Free Palestine!!
As part of the forum, they've invited Roger Waters, the former lead singer of Pink Floyd. Waters is somewhat infamously a not-so-secret antisemite who recently did a pair of concerts in Berlin in which he wore a Nazi(-like) uniform and displayed Nazi(-like) symbols onstage along with more contemporary dogwhistles (such as pig people, lizard people, the number 88 used as a code for Heil Hitler, etc). He gave these concerts in Berlin after a months-long legal battle in which it was decided that he would be allowed to perform with Nazi imagery as long as this imagery wasn't "historically accurate."
I get that Waters seems to think that he's protesting the Israeli occupation of Palestine. But maybe that's not the best way to do it? And even if you're okay with hating "the Jews," maybe there are other problems with Nazis? Idk, it seems like the concept of state-sponsored eugenics isn't great. Nazi imagery is threatening to all sorts of people, from queer people to disabled people to mixed-race people to people who support women's right to make choices about their own bodies. And of course, here in the United States, Nazi imagery is used to threaten Black people as well. It's just deep rancid vibes all the way down.
What's going on with Waters is that he has a profound fascination with fascism. This is what got him kicked out of Pink Floyd in the 1980s, and he's spent the past forty years being wealthy and unhinged. In terms of how this manifests in other arenas, he's been extremely vocal in his support of Putin, specifically his invasion of Ukraine. As Rogers told the UN in February, "it would be fucking insane to believe that the invasion wasn't provoked," by which he apparently meant that Putin is a hero for trying to shut down adrenochrome factories (that supposedly produce magical anti-aging medicine from the fear of children). You know, basic QAnon redpilled bullshit.
For the record, the court in Frankfurt wouldn't allow Waters to perform in their city, and Poland didn't even let Waters go to court. They were like, "Fuck Nazis, and fuck you specifically." But now he's coming to UPenn, I guess.
ETA: Sorry, this is something that goes without saying for me, but perhaps it's best if I do indeed say it out loud: The vast majority of Israelis find the occupation of Palestine to be wretched and vile and want it to end as soon as possible, so the problem with inserting antisemitism into pro-Palestinian activism means that you're refusing to cooperate with the millions of Israelis who have a direct stake in the matter and are capable of taking more direct action (as they did in gigantic sustained nationwide public protests this past summer). In other words, it's counterproductive and betrays an attitude that Palestinian lives are only valuable inasmuch as they exist as symbols. Also fuck Nazis.
