He’s alright
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A rare but needed, take of the Kneecap stramash of last year. And, a perfect microcosm of why I no longer align with the Pro Palestine movement. The fact this ended up in a court is another low point for a Government seeking them out. Calling out (rightly) Israel’s killing of 1000’s of innocent men, women and children, while supporting a group that killed 1000’s of innocent men, women and children (wrong kind of victims I guess) is stupid, not criminal. Complicated history reduced to a meaningless Tik Tok morality.
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Paywall.
I just don’t think their music is any good fundamentally, but then it’s not aimed at me I suppose
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Ah that’s a shame. Not sure if this works or is allowed. If not, please delete.
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i don’t care about kneecap, never listened to their tunes, and i don’t think i’d like them. but this isn’t really about them, it’s about all the time and money spent trying to take kneecap down because they have spoken out against israel and the genocide in gaza. that’s basically it. whether they’re nice people or not doesn’t really matter to me. and so this article, basically saying that they’re thuggish with their posturing and gangster lyrics should cancel out what they’ve said about palestine, is nonsense (sorry to be blunt on this, i didn’t like the article). and is just part of the same game of trying to lock them up and loose them gigs.
so it’s hard to take seriously a critique of violence and history in music and culture when it’s woven into an attack on them, given everything else they’ve been through for raising their voice against the genocide. – if you see what i mean.
especailly coming from the new statesman, which isn’t exactly putting out this article to further the cause in a comradely manner, but rather to shore up the status quo.
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Kneecap serve a purpose for their fans to let off steam at gigs, where everyone can stick it to the Establishment, and pretend that the IRA were just harmless punks and where everyone can pretend music matters and keep up the charade that any of it is relevant to the real world. Whilst everyone cherrypicks their evil foreign bogeyman of choice to score domestic political points. One of the reasons I admire Peter Tatchell is that he exposes governments of all colours who violate basic human rights whoever and wherever they are.
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I’m 100% behind every word. They were jumped on by the media and the government and we’re now seeing the reality of the Tories Public order Act. We should all be worried about how easily this was passed into Law.
Where I find it problematic is when they have the chants/flags/social media about Hezbollah. This is where it just becomes hatred. When Bashar Alsad’s army was barrel bombing towns and cities in Syria, that was Hezbollah. Those victims don’t seem to matter though as that can’t be easily reduced to a simplistic worldview. The oppression of the Israeli government and state against the Palestinians is wrong on every level. The same is true of the victims of Hezbollah. And anyone else
Sadly a lot of the current rhetoric is similar to the sectarianism we have here in the West of Scotland.
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Even when the critique involves supporting a murderous group because they are against this other murderous group - almost like the actual victims are not the main concern.
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however much 1 might not like the people resisting israel, they are the one’s doing it right now.
the overwhelming majority of people protesting against israel right now are doing it for the right reasons. – and if people do it in crude ways, i find that understandable for a number of reason, not least because it really doesn’t matter given it’s a genocide! i don’t think the new statesman is part of the struggle, and therefore the article isn’t a comment in a comradely manner, written to add nuance and support. instead it is part of a project to delegitimise criticism, if not to outright vilify and criminalise anyone who stands up and speaks out.
whether the groups resisting against isarel also do things 1 might disagree with, sure, but that’s not what the article was about.
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sure you might not like kneecap, their music, their posturing, their pro ira stuff, whatever, i don’t rate them either. but people are loosing their jobs and being locked up and criminalised for protesting against the genocide. i don’t think we should forget that. – going to a protest or a gig or whatever is often about letting off steam, it’s often cathartic because you feel powerless the rest of the time whilst all this awful death is going on. i really don’t think it’s worth being annoyed at them or their fans for that. and it’s not about an evil foreign bogeyman, it’s a very real situation that our govt is complicit in.
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Nobody here is denying the horror of Gaza but the article was expressly about Kneecap. Yes they are trivial in the grander scheme, but they need to make up their minds if they are serious activists or not. Because if they are, they should be on that flotilla with Thunberg, Ada Colau et al and actually doing stuff rather than just milking the notoriety. I’m too old to be impressed by shouty musicians who never influence anything
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i don’t think everyone protesting has to be on the flotilla, props to anyone who was tho! that’s for sure!
essentially, i don’t rate them culturally or aesthetically, but i don’t think they need slagging off, especially when they are under attack in quite serious ways like being prosecuted under terrorism laws.
also, i didn’t know this, but they do organise as activists outside of their concerts … and in the rain. https://news.sky.com/story/kneecaps-charity-run-cheered-on-by-irish-president-13484887
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I was brought up in a very pro Palestine home due to my mum advocating, corresponding with prisoners, bringing Palestinians (from Shu’fat camp) over to Scotland (these days to Orkney) to promote awareness. We have a close family friend who managed to leave Gaza for Edinburgh, who has lost half her family in the last 3 years. And she has a very large family. I have never heard any of these people saying the kind of nonsense that is pretty widespread, especially with a younger demographic within the pro Palestinian movement since October 7th.
Comfortably shielded people in the West protesting the horrors in Gaza by supporting groups (Hamas, Hezbollah) and states (Iran) that slaughtered 1000’s of Syrian civilians with barrel bombs and chemical weapons, and in Iran’s most recent case, 1000’s of innocent Iranians (including between 10,000 and 30,000 in a couple of days), is not crude, it’s morally bankrupt.
The New Statesman has a multitude of writers with varying views. Maybe I’m old school, but that’s a good thing in my book.
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That’s a very classic ‘young people not doing it right’ kinda argument.
Sorry. but this conversation is just going on waaay too long. I hear what you’re saying but I feel like you’re not hearing what I’m saying or seeing the wider issues I’m raising around repression of pro Palestinian voices. So let’s leave it here. Cheers.
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I did say in the very first post that the attempt to shut them down is wrong and it should have been nowhere near a court. This is not a worrying trend that is new, or only applied to criticism of Israel - the Sarah Everard murder protests being an obvious example.
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Free to read now as they have lifted their paywall for a short while. Enjoy.
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Where a good place to get started with Sant Etienne? I’d slightly dismissed them first time around as being too ‘pop’. But did find myself really liking the last 2 albums, especially ’ I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’. So feels like time for a proper dive in.
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At the beginning! Foxbase Alpha!
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