Yeah, I think you’re right: I’ve seen the argument (I read the ADL page), and I just don’t agree with it. In particular I didn’t like how we’re back to saying that he “paraded around on stage wearing an SS Nazi uniform.” It makes about as much sense as those people who attacked the actress who played Skyler from Breaking Bad (or more accurately if they attacked her when the entire thesis of Breaking Bad was how Skyler was a bad person and it’s a terrible thing to let yourself become like Skyler.) I mean, it may be that the ADL simply didn’t give enough time to the situation to really understand it and misunderstood the intent of that uniform in that particular show, because they do have genuine Nazis to deal with who show up in genuine Nazi garb.
I have Jewish ancestry myself, and I see the actions of the Israeli government pretty similar to how Roger Waters sees it. Being anti-Semitic and wanting a particular group of Jewish people to stop committing crimes are two very different things; if you define being anti-Israeli-apartheid as being racist, then I’m racist too. Furthermore a person who uses racism as a shield against someone who criticizes their actions for reasons that have nothing to do with race, I think hurts their ethnic grouping in the long run a lot more than they help it.
Yeah, I think you’re right: I’ve seen the argument (I read the ADL page), and I just don’t agree with it. In particular I didn’t like how we’re back to saying that he “paraded around on stage wearing an SS Nazi uniform.” It makes about as much sense as those people who attacked the actress who played Skyler from Breaking Bad (or more accurately if they attacked her when the entire thesis of Breaking Bad was how Skyler was a bad person and it’s a terrible thing to let yourself become like Skyler.) I mean, it may be that the ADL simply didn’t give enough time to the situation to really understand it and misunderstood the intent of that uniform in that particular show, because they do have genuine Nazis to deal with who show up in genuine Nazi garb.
I have Jewish ancestry myself, and I see the actions of the Israeli government pretty similar to how Roger Waters sees it. Being anti-Semitic and wanting a particular group of Jewish people to stop committing crimes are two very different things; if you define being anti-Israeli-apartheid as being racist, then I’m racist too. Furthermore a person who uses racism as a shield against someone who criticizes their actions for reasons that have nothing to do with race, I think hurts their ethnic grouping in the long run a lot more than they help it.