Coming in late, as usual... but I'm not really sure what the confusion is. "Free Palestine" is something that is often, but certainly not always, said as part of antisemitic propaganda. Yes, I obviously understand that not all anti-Israel messaging is anti-Jew messaging, *especially *over the last few years, but historically most of it has been. Because of that, I would hope *all *of us could understand how a Jewish mother might get scared, not perversion-of-the-word "scared", but legit scared, if they were at a random music concert and that suddenly went political and they found themselves surrounded by a crowd aggressively chanting "Free Palestine." I'm not saying that fear is the best available reaction, just that it ought to be perfectly understandable.
I think the question, then, is how far Pink is separated from the above scenario. The stadium wasn't chanting, they were merely cheering, does that matter? There was increased fervor the more he talked about it, does that matter? Macklemore said explicitly he was not being antisemitic, does that matter? Pink wasn't there herself, does that matter? This started with Pink sharing a meme, which suggests she heard about what happened, and didn't know his exact words at the time, does that matter? All of that should probably matter, but none of it somehow magically prevents the possibility of her being legitimately scared when she heard about it. The slippery slope from dog whistles to openly antisemitic speech to violence, confiscation of goods, exile, and sometimes death, is a prominent part of the Jewish zeitgeist in any age. It's a well repeated pattern, and it is therefore very reasonable to wonder if a public figure chanting "Free Palestine" in a stadium increases the risk a white nationalist will show up with a gun at your synagogue next Saturday morning, or if your children have an increased risk of being bullied at school, etc., etc.... even if the person saying the message is also against White Nationalism. And yes, I know that the base rate of synagogue shootings is practically zero, but base rate neglect is a super-common issue that people have with determining the probability of events, and your chances of being discriminated against or bullied for being Jewish remain pretty high in large swaths of the country. I found a clip online of what Macklemore said, and honestly, if I were in the crowd I would have cheered right along with him, and I would have thought it was a positive message. That said, even while cheering, my eyes would almost certainly have been darting around the crowd more than usual, just to reassure myself things weren't headed in a problematic direction. I also would not have been at all surprised if I later found out that several Jewish people in the audience were scared by it. In Pink's statement she said: I was in the room at the Grammys in 2014 when Macklemore rapped "Same Love" and thirty-three couples, gay and straight, got married to it, and I cheered, no questions asked. Four months later Macklemore put on a hooked nose, a black beard and a bowl cut, performed in it, and called it a "random costume." Every Jew I know knew exactly what it was. The same love, it turned out, had a guest list, and we weren't on it. But he apologized, and I let it go, because that's what we do. We let it go. Then last weekend he stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn't about them. You don't get to decide that for us. That's what prompted my repost. Not "Free Palestine," and not anyone's right to say it.... You don't have to agree with one thing Israel's government does to not want the Jewish family two rows down from you to be scared or targeted at a concert. That's the only thing I'm asking anybody for. To the ones who are frightened this week, Jewish or Muslim or Palestinian or Israeli or just tired of all of it: I see you. That seems pretty reasonable. Best, Eric <[email protected]> On Mon, Sep 14, 2026 at 11:26 AM glen <[email protected]> wrote: > > > https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-pro-palestine-statements-1235625967/ > > > Pink later explained that she did not object to Macklemore’s calls for a > “Free Palestine,” but said, “I have never asked for another artist to be > silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t > need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘that > scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is > just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide > because I noticed?” > > I'm not the most empathetic person. But I try. And I simply cannot > understand how someone like Mackelmore saying "Free Palestine" could > *scare* someone like Pink. Is it that when she hears "Free Palestine", she > thinks it means "free Hamas from its restraints so it can murder Israelis". > Is that it? > > If so, I can imagine myself hearing someone like ... oh, IDK, Toby Keith > shouting "Free the Proud Boys". Would that scare me? Would it scare local > trans people because it would mean "Free the Proud Boys so they can freely > execute trans people in the streets?" Is that why "Free Palestine" scares > Pink? > > If so, I have to go back to one of my favorite quotes: "Stupidity should > be painful." I mean, yes, I do have an irrational reaction to things like > lotus seed pods. But OMG, it's *because* of that reaction that I look at > them so frequently. What kind of "fear" does Pink experience? It's just > baffling, ridiculous even. > > -- > 8647 ⊥ ɐןןǝdoɹ ǝ uǝןƃ > ὅτε oi μὲν ἄλλοι κύνες τοὺς ἐχϑροὺς δάκνουσιν, ἐγὰ δὲ τοὺς φίλους, ἵνα > σώσω. > > > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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