Outraged by Outrage

I had a moment, reflecting in the car on a long drive. I haven’t yet mastered the new car’s operating system and somehow kept flicking the CD player onto the radio. One one burst of broadcasting, I heard the words ‘appalled by comments at Glastonbury Festival…’

Kneecap and Bob Vylan are on the thick end of it.

Kneecap showing solidarity with the colonised – in this case, Palestinian people – and Vylan too.

I observe my feelings here, and while acknowledging that Vylan’s comments calling for death to Israeli Defence Forces were strong, and perhaps self-defeating, I find it hard to see it any other way than making artists easy scapegoats.

Can anyone credibly point the finger at young musicians speaking out about genocide when far darker participation in these horrors is at play on the same shores?

We can all remember a certain Marshall Mathers in these shoes back in 2000, can’t we?