I very much agree with your take. I wish mature-thinkers had more influence on contemporary politics, instead of the populism and black-and-white moralising that seems to be dominating our world.
Also, the quality of discussion on lemmy is surprisingly good!
Yeah, the point that the musicians seem to be making, from the very brief quotes he shares (I haven’t been following this independently), is about the efficacy of music boycotts as a tool for political change. You can object to a nation’s political actions and still think that performing music for your fans in that country will make things better.
The author just insists that Israeli government genocide is bad and that the ordinary citizens are complicit. I think the implicit logic must be: bad people should be punished, depriving them of music punishes them. While it might satisfy a craving to hurt the bad guys, I think it’s much harder to claim that this would help stop the genocide.
I think the musicians have a stronger case that actually performing would be more likely to change people’s minds and improve the situation. Plus the broader benefits of keeping music and art apolitical, rather than trying to make everything in life a tool for political manipulation. I’d have actually been really interested to hear some substantive arguments about those points, but was disappointed to discover that, as you say, it was just a hit piece.
Wow, what a terrible article. The author doesn’t engage with any of the substantive points Radiohead and Nick Cave are making, he just disparages them and insists on his obvious moral superiority. It’s dressed up in some, admittedly, very nice writing, but this is just childish name calling.
Still, interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, it’s very different. It’s the difference between having a kitchen full of tools to make whatever you want (but you need to learn to cook), versus going to a restaurant where things are made for you, but you can only order what the chef decided to put on the menu (and they secretly spy on everything you do, sell information about you, “reset” your table on their whim, etc.).
A lot of people have put a lot of work into making Linux much more accessible than it used to be, but that’s just a thin veneer over a much more complex machine.
Do you like taking things apart and seeing how they work? Switch to Linux.
Have you ever tried programming? Did you hate it? Stick with windows.
Do you want to spend hours twiddling with your computer, eventually getting it to do exactly what you want, the way you want it? Switch.
Do you want to just learn which button you’re supposed to press to make things run and never have to think about it again? Stick.
I’ve been using Linux for about 25 years. Love it. Highly recommended. But it’s not for everyone.
[citation needed]