P!nk’s Delusional Victimhood (with Mohammed el-Kurd)

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A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein 1h 46m 1 speaker 8 chapters transcribed
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What sparked the Ed Sheeran concert controversy involving Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” call?

Mohammed el-Kurd 0:00
Doesn't she have a song about supergirls?
Matt Bernstein 0:02
Yeah she does.
Mohammed el-Kurd 0:03
The call is coming from inside the house.
Matt Bernstein 0:11
My intro's a little long, so you're gonna have to sit tight for a second. I apologize.
Mohammed el-Kurd 0:15
No problem.
Matt Bernstein 0:16
Um, hello, hello, and welcome back to A Bit Fruity. I'm Ed Bernstein. I'm so happy that you're here. If you've been paying any attention to the news lately, then you probably know that perhaps the biggest cultural spiral of a news cycle so far this year has centered around the concert tour of Edward. Sheerin, a sentence I thought I would never say. I also never thought I'd be listening to Macklemore while doing my makeup at eight in the morning, but Here we are. Strange times indeed. For anyone unfamiliar, here's the spark notes. Ed Sheeran, one of the richest and most popular musicians in the world, who started off making good music, shout out the A Team, but then realized he could make a lot more money writing dance floor evacuating love songs that are simultaneously for everyone and no one.
Matt Bernstein 1:07
Is nine months into his sixth concert tour, The Loop Tour. At a recent show in New Jersey, rapper McLemore served as an opening act. McLemore has been friends with Ed Sheeran for over a decade and is an outspoken anti-Zionist, which contrasts Ed's mealy-mouthed commitment to avoiding political speech at all costs. At the show, McLemore made an Impassioned speech which concluded with a call to free Palestine.
Macklemore 1:36
One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here. On stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart. Free Palestine.
Macklemore 2:00
My message is for peace, love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality. So I say free Palestine.
Matt Bernstein 2:11
Followed by a performance of Hinds Hall, a song he wrote for Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was murdered alongside six of her family members when Israel shelled their family car as they attempted to flee Gaza City. The praise and backlash was swift. Zionist groups like the ADL and Stop Antisemitism predictably labeled Macklemore an anti Semite. The chorus of controversy got louder and six days after the show, Ed Sheeran kicked his friend of thirteen years off of his tour. Ed, as it were, had faced mounting pressure from the Zionist billionaire Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and of Gillette Stadium, where Ed was set to perform. Robert Kraft rallied a number of the other stadium owners, all of whom threatened to ban Ed's show from happening if he brought McLemore on stage with him.
Matt Bernstein 3:06
Instead of using his leverage as one of the biggest living pop stars, Edward Sheer and caved, and that was that. The following day, Ed put out one of the worst PR statements I've personally ever seen, which opened with quote
Mohammed el-Kurd 3:19
I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain caused on both sides is a tragedy.
Matt Bernstein 3:28
Thank you, Ed Sheeran. Good to know. Within two hours, all of Ed's opening acts pulled out of the tour, as well as his own band, in what is perhaps the biggest showing of solidarity towards Palestine in the entertainment industry since the genocide began. But we're not really here to talk about any of that. We're here to talk about Alicia Bethmore Hart, or as you might know her, P Exclamation Point NK.
Mohammed el-Kurd 3:55
Wait, her real name's Alicia.
Matt Bernstein 3:57
Her real name's Alicia.
Mohammed el-Kurd 3:58
That's crazy.
Matt Bernstein 3:59
After McLemore's performance went viral, Pink shared to her twelve million Instagram followers a post from the right wing anti-Palestinian doxing group Stop Antisemitism. If you don't know what stop anti Semitism is, you might be more familiar with like libs of TikTok, which doxes anyone who like works as a teacher or anyone in public service really who like shows support for like queer people or is queer themselves. Stop anti Semitism is like that for Palestinians. Like they famously pressured Delta into like releasing a statement about a flight attendant who wore a Palestinian flag pin. That's the kind of group we're talking about. He reposted a uh something from Stop Antisemitism, which accused Malklemore of turning the Ed Sheeran concert into a quote political nightmare for Jewish concertgoers and called on Ed to apologize to and refund his fans.

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