I think he genuinely just doesn’t see anything odd with any of his answers. Think about how different a world he comes from. I have a vaguely positive impression of Jann Wenner because of his association with the golden age Hunter-Thompson era of Rolling Stone and the genuinely good journalism that it still does today. But at the same time, the landscape of what’s permissible behavior from a big white guy in charge has changed so much that we can lose track of how much of an asshole it used to be okay to be.
My sister’s worked in a male-dominated industry for basically her whole life, and now that I’m thinking about it the stories she tells have gradually been transitioning from stuff that’s genuinely horrifying to now being simply upsetting and wrong. I think people who lived during that era are just starting to sound like everyone’s segregation-era grandparents did back in the 90s. I mean, for a lot of his adult life, women basically did live under a segregation system. In one way it’s a good sign for how much progress has been made. Not to excuse him for being an asshole - I’m just saying that it kind of makes sense that the system didn’t filter him out back then, in the way that it would today if he didn’t learn to keep quiet about what he thought about these things.
But that’s what I’m saying: Back in his day, it was all white men. He was a little outside the mold that he even would put a black person on the cover or work with women as human beings with abilities (Annie Leibovitz) instead of as machines for coffee/filing/sex. In his mind I think that’s still super progressive. But, all the people who really run shit are white men; it’s not at all weird that all the “masters” in his book are white men, any more than it’s weird that all his employees are humans. What sense would it make if they weren’t? That would be just putting someone who isn’t a master into the list for some weird other reason, not because they had important things to say.
I really have no idea about the guy, I’m just sort of guessing here. But it seems pretty plausible just based on that interview.
Jann Wenner has ALWAYS been a gargantuan prick. This was pretty well known all along, but people kept it shushed up because from its inception through at least the early 90s, getting a nod from the Rolling Stone was a career maker (or breaker). Hell there’s even a cheesy old Dr. Hook song about it.
That’s sad to me. Oh well, these things happen. If people are finding it out and publicizing it and punishing him for it (now that he’s no longer in a position to damage their careers 😐), then better late than never, I guess.
Eric Clapton, Ted Nugent, and Roger Waters
Fuck me, what did Roger Waters do? I know he supports Russia in Ukraine for some godawful reason but I thought that was some recent early-onset dementia or something. I like Roger Waters, does he have some kind of awfulness I wasn’t aware of?
You do know that’s the “bad guy” speaking at that point in The Wall, right? It’s pretty complex and this is only my take on it, but I interpret the whole album as basically a titanic struggle between authoritarianism and humanity in a bunch of different contexts and in that section the antagonist (authoritarianism) is the one speaking.
Do you have some kind of citation on him being racist? I read this just now but I’m not convinced. “The Wall” is among other things a pretty strong statement in opposition to fascism and the holocaust (which is not an especially bold stance to take), but it sounds like he’s also against Israel’s modern-day version of apartheid, which is a little more bold stance and one I definitely agree with. That doesn’t mean he’s anti-Semitic.
Why he likes Putin and Russia I have no idea. He had pretty complex feelings about WW2 because the Nazis were very clearly the “bad guys,” but also his dad got killed in the war when he was just a little kid, so he also just hates war in general. If I wanted to be charitable I could say he’s applying that logic to Ukraine (maybe there’s some kind of justice to this war, but also war is so horrible that we should just make peace with Putin and end it at whatever cost, even if Russia “wins,” so no one else has to lose their dad.) That’s not to say I justify his view – it’s just me trying to make some kind of sense of it.
So, I’m really not trying to be combative with you about this. I actually did exactly this already to find the Guardian link I sent. I’ve now read the second link, the CNN article, which says basically more of the same – that he’s potentially in trouble for playing that satirical character in “The Wall” because of Germany’s strict regulations against Nazi iconography. Also he doesn’t like Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Nothing about racism that seems at all convincing to me. There are some people who call him anti-Semitic because he disagrees with Israel’s government, but long story short those are two very different statements to me. You’re free to have a different opinion, but I read the two articles and I’m not convinced.
IDK man. It sounds to me like you’re falling back on “It’s all there, do your own research, it’s all there” and sort of talking down to me because of my viewpoint, but I feel like that’s not a fair thing to ask – if this stuff is easy to find, you’re welcome to find some and send it to me and I really will take a look. I’m genuinely open to someone showing me why I need to change my view if you’re into the idea of investing the time to do that, but I don’t feel like I should have to indefinitely search for new sources when I’ve already invested a certain amount of open-minded time into trying to research the question.
Like I say, I have actually read a few articles trying to look for the information. I see that there are certain people who think he’s a racist. I read their reasons and in my opinion they’re wrong. But you’re free to see it differently.
I think he genuinely just doesn’t see anything odd with any of his answers. Think about how different a world he comes from. I have a vaguely positive impression of Jann Wenner because of his association with the golden age Hunter-Thompson era of Rolling Stone and the genuinely good journalism that it still does today. But at the same time, the landscape of what’s permissible behavior from a big white guy in charge has changed so much that we can lose track of how much of an asshole it used to be okay to be.
My sister’s worked in a male-dominated industry for basically her whole life, and now that I’m thinking about it the stories she tells have gradually been transitioning from stuff that’s genuinely horrifying to now being simply upsetting and wrong. I think people who lived during that era are just starting to sound like everyone’s segregation-era grandparents did back in the 90s. I mean, for a lot of his adult life, women basically did live under a segregation system. In one way it’s a good sign for how much progress has been made. Not to excuse him for being an asshole - I’m just saying that it kind of makes sense that the system didn’t filter him out back then, in the way that it would today if he didn’t learn to keep quiet about what he thought about these things.
deleted by creator
But that’s what I’m saying: Back in his day, it was all white men. He was a little outside the mold that he even would put a black person on the cover or work with women as human beings with abilities (Annie Leibovitz) instead of as machines for coffee/filing/sex. In his mind I think that’s still super progressive. But, all the people who really run shit are white men; it’s not at all weird that all the “masters” in his book are white men, any more than it’s weird that all his employees are humans. What sense would it make if they weren’t? That would be just putting someone who isn’t a master into the list for some weird other reason, not because they had important things to say.
I really have no idea about the guy, I’m just sort of guessing here. But it seems pretty plausible just based on that interview.
deleted by creator
That’s sad to me. Oh well, these things happen. If people are finding it out and publicizing it and punishing him for it (now that he’s no longer in a position to damage their careers 😐), then better late than never, I guess.
Fuck me, what did Roger Waters do? I know he supports Russia in Ukraine for some godawful reason but I thought that was some recent early-onset dementia or something. I like Roger Waters, does he have some kind of awfulness I wasn’t aware of?
deleted by creator
You do know that’s the “bad guy” speaking at that point in The Wall, right? It’s pretty complex and this is only my take on it, but I interpret the whole album as basically a titanic struggle between authoritarianism and humanity in a bunch of different contexts and in that section the antagonist (authoritarianism) is the one speaking.
Do you have some kind of citation on him being racist? I read this just now but I’m not convinced. “The Wall” is among other things a pretty strong statement in opposition to fascism and the holocaust (which is not an especially bold stance to take), but it sounds like he’s also against Israel’s modern-day version of apartheid, which is a little more bold stance and one I definitely agree with. That doesn’t mean he’s anti-Semitic.
Why he likes Putin and Russia I have no idea. He had pretty complex feelings about WW2 because the Nazis were very clearly the “bad guys,” but also his dad got killed in the war when he was just a little kid, so he also just hates war in general. If I wanted to be charitable I could say he’s applying that logic to Ukraine (maybe there’s some kind of justice to this war, but also war is so horrible that we should just make peace with Putin and end it at whatever cost, even if Russia “wins,” so no one else has to lose their dad.) That’s not to say I justify his view – it’s just me trying to make some kind of sense of it.
deleted by creator
So, I’m really not trying to be combative with you about this. I actually did exactly this already to find the Guardian link I sent. I’ve now read the second link, the CNN article, which says basically more of the same – that he’s potentially in trouble for playing that satirical character in “The Wall” because of Germany’s strict regulations against Nazi iconography. Also he doesn’t like Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Nothing about racism that seems at all convincing to me. There are some people who call him anti-Semitic because he disagrees with Israel’s government, but long story short those are two very different statements to me. You’re free to have a different opinion, but I read the two articles and I’m not convinced.
IDK man. It sounds to me like you’re falling back on “It’s all there, do your own research, it’s all there” and sort of talking down to me because of my viewpoint, but I feel like that’s not a fair thing to ask – if this stuff is easy to find, you’re welcome to find some and send it to me and I really will take a look. I’m genuinely open to someone showing me why I need to change my view if you’re into the idea of investing the time to do that, but I don’t feel like I should have to indefinitely search for new sources when I’ve already invested a certain amount of open-minded time into trying to research the question.
Like I say, I have actually read a few articles trying to look for the information. I see that there are certain people who think he’s a racist. I read their reasons and in my opinion they’re wrong. But you’re free to see it differently.
Cheers mate