While Sheeran claimed to be adhering to his apolitical brand, one critic argued he was really just "letting a pro-Israel billionaire choose his politics for him."
What amazes me is that hidden in a conversation like this is the implication that a billionaire’s feelings being hurt should have any weight on anything.
Hate speech is calls to violence, not someone being upset by your opinion.
If they can reduce any slur to “hurt feelings“, then they can claim “hurt feelings“ to silence your speech, regardless of how ridiculous and insubstantial the claim may be. not only is this a strawman argument and gaslighting, but it very conveniently forces most people to accept the faulty logic without question.
And with that rhetorical trick, they can equate “fuck you fa**ots” with “genocide is bad“ as equally offensive. this is what fascists do. It’s one of the things they are best at: mass manipulation through propaganda.
The same rhetorical trick is used to equate criticism of Israel to “antisemitism“. And that has worked for decades, but not so much not anymore. it turns out that when you call literally everything you don’t like “antisemitism”, it tends to dull the blade a bit.
What amazes me is that hidden in a conversation like this is the implication that a billionaire’s feelings being hurt should have any weight on anything.
Hate speech is calls to violence, not someone being upset by your opinion.
It’s the same old culture war bullshit.
The rhetorical framing is careful and deliberate:
If they can reduce any slur to “hurt feelings“, then they can claim “hurt feelings“ to silence your speech, regardless of how ridiculous and insubstantial the claim may be. not only is this a strawman argument and gaslighting, but it very conveniently forces most people to accept the faulty logic without question.
And with that rhetorical trick, they can equate “fuck you fa**ots” with “genocide is bad“ as equally offensive. this is what fascists do. It’s one of the things they are best at: mass manipulation through propaganda.
The same rhetorical trick is used to equate criticism of Israel to “antisemitism“. And that has worked for decades, but not so much not anymore. it turns out that when you call literally everything you don’t like “antisemitism”, it tends to dull the blade a bit.
Beware