See post 14.
I find the idea that successful athletes, musicians, actors and other folks who spend too much time on their area of expertise/their talent and the rest in their own little bubble would have anything worthwhile to contribute on other subjects highly amusing. Where would they find time to follow the news, read enough and all the other stuff you have to do to keep informed? When would they be exposed to people with dissenting opinions?
If I’m meeting Roger Waters I want an autograph, I don’t care about his views on Ukraine.
They’re musicians, not aliens. Every life is full of dissenting opinions.
I’ve mostly stopped listening to Clapton and Van Morrison in recent years, will add Roger Waters to that list. And I definitely don’t want their autographs.
I dropped in at Nick Mason’s humble gaff in Wiltshire, last week, to look at his collection of classic cars.
Wow, just Wow!
Of course, it was a charity Open Gardens event. Mrs i went see the gardens, but I didn’t.
It helps that the gaff in question previously belonged to Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowles (as was).
I don’t know Nick’s political opinions, but there’s one thing I agree with him about!
So much so that we are amused to death by that point, no doubt.
I don’t want his autograph because of his views on Ukraine. Because I don’t live in a bubble.
I have no idea about Waters, in particular, but from my experience on the Internet, in debates, it seems like most people who go pro-authoritarian are people who have an extreme and overriding fear of nuclear war and an ensuing nuclear winter/global famine.
To some extent, that is reasonable. In the universe where we prove to have all been wrong by having poo-pooed the idea that someone would actually go ahead and start sending nuclear ICBMs all around, to countries that pissed them off - well, the tankies may well have been right to have been telling us to have just given in and let the authoritarian dictator do what he wants.
But, in this particular case, I’m not worried that Putin is such a person. Endorsing authoritarianism, in an effort to avoid nuclear winter is simply not (IMHO) a reasonable position. Of course, though, that stops being true the day that it stops being true and we’ll never know when that day is until it’s too late.
The other argument against those controlled by their fear of nukes, of course, is simply that sometimes you need to do the right thing and face down the bad guy, regardless of the results. If someone wants to round up all of the Jews, the gays, the muslims, the Christians, or whatever-all group and murder them all - or else he’ll start nuking the whole world - at some point you have to decide what message you want to send to evil doers: If they’re evil enough, can they get away with anything they want? Or will there always be people coming for them, to end their ways, regardless of how creatively evil they try to be?
Those people are almost always surrounded by their retinue, you think they are having discussions about the merits of different foreign policy options?
Do you think they were hired for their razor sharp epidemiology analysis?
I can admire his exceptional skills in one area and ignore his shortcomings.
There’s a legitimate debate to be had about separating a person’s work from their personal beliefs (I think JK Rowling is dealing with quite a bit of this at the moment but is far from the first to experience it).
That’s a step removed from getting an autograph, which would be honoring the individual rather than the creative work. One can still appreciate and perhaps even celebrate the works of Roger Waters the artist without asking for an autograph.
How big a retinue do you think they have, 24/7? I think big stars are certainly isolated somewhat, but not the extent that they’re unchallenged.
Realistically, a successful rock star has probably had a lot more free time than your average person to read up on all sorts of stuff, meet interesting and knowledgeable people, spend time debating on the Internet, etc. Someone like Roger Waters could be very knowledgeable and constantly exposing himself to critique. Average folk, who have a job, don’t have the connections and free time to do this.
On the contrary, I could argue that the more free time you have to get knowledgeable and engage in debate, the more likely you are to turn into an obsessive with pet-theories, wild ideas, and conspiracies. And, of course, experts are usually worse at predicting the future than average folk and coin flips.
For myself - as a long-time internet warrior - I always try to assume that I’m probably wrong, to not specialize too much, and to accept that opinionating is for fun and not for serious. You shouldn’t get too attached to ideas, just methods (e.g. a method like “Trust groups of doctors but not individual doctors.” Or, “Most people are good and honest - but easily mislead and fallible.”) If you decide that you’re right and that your opinions have to be right or “millions of people will die” then you probably need to get off the internet and cool down for a while.
I wish I could at least decide for myself! But I can;t. Clapton is a racist pig, Ted Nugent is…whatever he is, and Waters has been an insufferable twat since at least The Wall. And I still listen to their music.
I listen to it less and less. I’ve also dropped my favorite classic rock station because they keep running My Pillow commercials.
I will never stop listening to Van Morrison. But I do hope he would go back to being a recluse.
After looking at the thread title a dozen times, i finally had to open it just to see what the hell it was about.
It’s not too late to ask a mod to change the title… although around here, posters seem to feel superior if others don’t understand their confusing titles.
(Don’t mind me, I’m just let down: I was just SO sure that an ex-Floyd would have recommendations for a top of the line Isolation Tank…)
Roger Waters performed The Wall in Berlin as the actual Berlin Wall was being disassembled in 1990. He is obviously missing the buzz, and supporting Putin appears to be the only way to get another one built on the border of Ukraine.
I don’t see a need. It’s a cromulent expression and easy enough to look up if you’re unfamiliar.
Just call digs a boomer and be done with it!
I mean it’s not like ‘boomer’ is some flavor of slur!
The term dates to at least 1983, so it’s not as if it wouldn’t be in a boomer’s wheelhouse.
I think I poisoned that well in the OP.