#harry and politics

[twopoppies]

Brad Pitt famously once said: “You shouldn't speak until you know what you're talking about. That's why I get uncomfortable with interviews. Reporters ask me what I feel China should do about Tibet. Who cares what I think China should do? I'm a fucking actor! They hand me a script. I act. I'm here for entertainment. Basically, when you whittle everything away, I'm a grown man who puts on makeup.”

He’s right. I don’t want to hear rich entertainers’ opinions on important world issues, H included. I love him, and I respect him for staying quiet.

Hi, love. Personally, I feel the same. I don’t care to hear celebrities’ opinions on world news. It can be very hard to enjoy a person’s creative output when you know too much about them as a person. Brad Pitt is a good example. He’s a very good actor, but I dislike many of the things he’s done as a person and it’s hard to separate that from who I see on film.

We used to know very little about celebrities beyond what the studios/labels wanted us to know. I’m not sure it’s a good thing that that’s all changed with social media and everyone having a camera in their pocket. There’s an expectation that just because you have “a platform” you’re required to use it in ways you may not be well-informed enough to do so (and run the risk of being “canceled” when you’re on the “wrong” side or show your support clumsily).

The fact that so many people rush to vilify anyone who publicly makes mistakes often leads to paralysis and fear of saying anything that might lead to public shaming. It’s just not as simple as “speaking up for what’s right.”

But I can understand that others feel differently. And I can understand wanting information to be shared by someone who has millions and millions of followers and whose fans will follow their lead.

[daisiesonafield-blog]

Harry is on a mission to piss off conservatives and right wing America and I am living for it

~~ IrReLeVaNt PoP sInGeR ~~

[larrylimericks]

2Oct22

In Texas, abortion’s unlawful Cos Abbott’s a massive twatwaffle. H emblazoned support For the present O’Rourke— May he win by a margin colossal.

[28whitepeonies]

yeah 100% agree like… I know harry is in america right now but we just elected another homophobic, racist piece of shit with no pandemic to distract her from bringing back section 28 & abusing trans people. not to mention the amount of working class persons in his hometown/city/region suffering more than they ever have. the cost of living is sky high, even households that lived comfortably just a few months ago are having to visit food banks & are facing a freezing winter with no heating. and he is stood on stage doing the bare minimum for a country he doesn’t even live in.

I think that we make a big mistake in expecting famous people to speak on political issues in a manner that shows any depth of understanding. The idea that musicians like Harry must have a well developed political view that’s worth hearing is part of where fans go wrong I think.

Harry is great at saying vague things, and that applies to his politics too - he’ll say things like ‘end gun violence’ with no understanding, or interest I think, in expanding that. Who should end gun violence? How? Then he says slightly more specific things like ‘no-one can tell you what to do with your body’ that shows no understanding of reality - and shifts the focus away from where the issue is, it’s not women letting folk tell them what to do that’s the problem, on the most basic level it’s state control send governments legislating on it that’s the issue. Harry’s reality and my reality are very different, and that’s to be expected, but for my own selfish sake I wouldn’t mind if he stopped saying things so I can find him less infuriating.

My other issue is, and is going to continue to be, that only really talking about US politics (even in these sometimes vague terms) and not acknowledging the reality for the people that live down the road from you in London, or share the same British Govt with you, gives the impression that he thinks British politics are fine. That knife crime in London is okay but gun crime in the US is not, for example. Or that access to safe abortions in Ireland (and in a different way, Scotland) or the reality faced by trans people isn’t an attack on body autonomy. To endorse a Governor of Texas candidate and say nothing about the UKG Prime Minister elections is close to unforgivable for me, politically, but that’s why I think it’s worth bearing in mind that he’s really just a bloke. But it’s this pick and mix that I find probably most infuriating of all.

[buckleydiazmp4]

oh 2022 we're really in it now

[chuutoro]

the queen is dead: an internet round-up (plus: argentinian journalist celebrates her death)

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

hey so remember those new protest laws that make peaceful protest illegal? yeah? wanna see them in action?

[alt text:]

Head of UK’s leading anti-monarchy group arrested at coronation protest

Republic’s Graham Smith held at protest on King Charles III’s procession route in central London

Daniel Boffey Chief reporter, Sat 6 May 2023 08.31 BST

The head of the UK’s leading republican movement has been arrested at an anti-monarchist protest on King Charles III’s procession route.

Graham Smith had been collecting drinks and placards for demonstrators at Trafalgar Square when he was detained by police on the Strand in central London.

It is understood Smith was detained after bringing a megaphone to the demonstration. The Met police had tweeted earlier this week that they would have a “low tolerance” of those seeking to “undermine” the day.

Harry Stratton, a director at Republic, who arrived as Smith and the others were detained, said: “They were collecting the placards and bringing them over when the police stopped them.

“The guys asked why and they were told: we will tell you that once we have searched the vehicle. That’s when they arrested the six organisers. We asked on what grounds they had been arrested but they wouldn’t say. It is a surprise as we had had a number of meetings with the police. They had been making all the right noises”.

full article

dont you love it when your government decides to not even bother hiding the fact the fascist tendencies theyre leaning more and more into?

[destielmemenews]

"In a stunning and unprecedented decision, the Colorado Supreme Court removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, ruling that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”"

source 1

source 2

source 3

[mysharona1987]

[cyarskaren52]

I read that earlier, shook my head in disgust & scroll on by

The folk behind her look just as through

She’s evil for that!

[twopoppies]

Re Harry and Gaza, i just want to add that he hasn't publicly said anyting about Russian invasion on Ukraine in his social media and also was criticised for it but then it turned out he worked with Ukrainian director on his music videos, invited Ukrainian refugees to his concert and waved Ukrainian flags during SOTD couple of times.

It's not all black and white, people love hating him for everything he does or doesn't do, but in the end I'm sure he has his own ways to support Palestine that we don't have to know about (yet)

Yes. That's what I was saying earlier about people wanting everyone to show their support via social media and not accepting that that's not how everyone does things. People want "proof" that you're a good person or that you're speaking out on the issues they personally find most important and expect that you do it in the way they think is most acceptable. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to ever do it all in a way that you'll never receive flak. I already see people being criticized for focusing on Palestine but not putting the same energy toward the genocide happening in Sudan and Congo.

The world is a mess. Focusing on what someone else is or isn't doing isn't how I want to expend my energy.

[weepylucifer]

it is tempting to assume btw that harry is "the most mentally ill man in the world!!!!" or whatever, but he's probably the average level of mentally ill for people in his situation. he isn't this uniquely monstrous wreck who abuses more substances than anyone else ever has. in martinaise alone you can meet like 5 people who are doing even worse than harry. kim says several times that he's seen much worse than day one harry and i BELIEVE him. i think harry wasn't immediately fired from the police after the unsolveable case bc this stuff is relatively normal for cops to do in precinct 41. disco elysium isn't pointing at harry and going "gawk at this uniquely awful man for no reason!! isn't he horrible in a clownish way!!" they're making a point abt the effects of capitalism and imperialism on the disenfranchised poor

[rejectingrepublicans]

[28whitepeonies]

hey why do you think harry's political stand is problematic? am i missing something?

Hi anon

I’m not really keen on ‘problematic’ it’s not how I would usually frame any of my thoughts on someone’s behaviour or views. I don’t think Harry’s politics are worse than a lot of peoples, it’s simply that his politics when he shares them aren’t very good and most of the time they show a very different world view than mine.

I can give you a couple of examples but I think it’s worth thinking about what matters to you, and this shit both matters and is of great interest to me so I like to talk about it.

Harry’s political views are on the most basic level, conservative (small c) and individualistic - which is not a political view I share. The things he has said over the years point to limited to no understanding of how social change happens or the reality of the world in which I, and most of his fans, live.

I find his political statements when he makes them both surface level and infuriating. ‘End gun violence’ is not radical, I think most celebrities would agree and probably a large chunk of his fans, and I find that kind of statement close to meaningless.

‘No one can tell you what to do with your body’ is both incorrect and shifts the focus onto the individual and away from the state which is legislating and mandating on what you can do with your body. It’s not a ‘rallying cry’ or whatever other nonsense someone has tried to suggest.

When Harry frames these issues, he never acknowledges that there is a fight going on, or that collective action is how you can achieve change. Instead he tells individuals that no one can tell them what to do, despite governments making it socially, legally and economically impossible for them to access healthcare that they want or need.

He wears t-shirts that say things like ‘women are smarter’ or goes on BLM marches and says he’s reading books by Black women but continues to write misogynistic song lyrics and make business choices that benefit almost only White men, and he’s never addressed the mocking picture he took in a Native American headdress. He brings Union Jack’s on stage and asked fans to have a round of applause for the Queen after she died a few weeks ago.

And the last thing I’ll say, I grew up working class in a little mining village in Scotland with a grandparent who was a miner and four siblings born in the 70’s/80’s whose lives were shaped by the miners strike and the subsequent closures and the impact that had the local economy and jobs. It’s not just mines, Scotlands steel industry was destroyed and unemployment grew, the police response to the miners strikes in Scotland under her government and the callousness with which people were treated is as unforgivable today as it was in 1985. That’s without starting on the poll tax which was introduced a year earlier in Scotland than England, or wider than Scotland the response to Hillsborough, introduction of section 28, response to HIV/AIDS and miners strikes across the UK, and the police brutality that came with it. I could talk about Thatcher all day, that’s not what you asked - but Harry has done nothing to suggest to me that he wouldn’t repeat his ‘RIP Baroness Thatcher’ in some form if she died again today.

There’s plenty more I could go on about but I’m going to stick to what I said yesterday, Harry is far more likely to vote Tory than I ever am so we’re never going to be close to being in the same book nevermind on the same page politically x

[odinsblog]

x

[akonoadham]