Moment of reckoning for ‘Mr Nice Guy’ of music, who embraced Macklemore’s political cred only for pro-Palestine rapper to be dropped under pressure from billionaire
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.
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.
This is what finished all doubt for me:
https://aoav.org.uk/2025/shot-in-the-head-american-doctors-bear-witness-to-the-atrocities-committed-by-the-idf-against-gazas-children/
Jesus christ, this is why Chaim Potok’s Chosen used to be mandatory high school reading