If you call genocide "politics", yes. Some of us would say Israel's ongoing genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of children and adults is what "gets in the way of pop".
I just hope there won't be a terror attack in Malmö during Eurovision. There's a huge amount of police and security involved, but Malmö also has a problem with islamic extremism.
No, we need to be able to keep two thoughts in our heads at the same time or we are bound to repeat the mistakes. Terror and oppression is terrible regardless of what the purpetrator and the victim are called.
I'll second what @Tobberone wrote, and also elaborate.
Violence from religious extremists has been a problem in Sweden for several years now, and the war in Gaza has escalated the situation even further. I've a family member living in a larger city whom I worry about - particularly because they choose to be open about their jewish identity. There have also been threats against the university I study/work at, and against public transit - one of the many reasons that I no longer use it. As such, I tend to keep these sorts of considerations in mind.
However, I'm glad you don't have to worry about such things.
Okay? And? What's the point of worrying about what they're going to do when? You can't predict or stop it.
I live in the U.S., land of mass shootings and many religious extremists of many stripes. I don't spend my time worrying about where and when the next mass shooting will be. What's the point? What good does it do?
I don't know about you, but when I'm worried, I am more alert.
Let's say my some kids are playing in the sea, my worry will keep me looking over to see everything is OK.
So in our case, if we the individuals are worried about extreme Muslim movements/communities, we will be more alert around them and keep an eye out. This way a planned attack is harder to carry out.
So you can't actually give a real-world example of worrying having any effect on extremist terrorist attacks... unlike seat belts. Hence it being a bad analogy.
Also, I assume you won't be at Eurovision, so I am guessing your worrying about a bombing there wouldn't matter even if worrying did have an effect.
...and plenty of other attacks in the past ten years.
Furthermore, Säpo (security police) estimates there are roughly two thousand salafists in Sweden willing to use violence to overthrow democracy and institute sharia law.
For context, given the Swedish population of 10 million, that's roughly one per five thousand. Quick math makes it ten in my hometown and thirty in the city where I work/go to university - odds are that I've met at least one.
It has happened and there are plenty of people willing to perpetrate new attacks. I'm willing to bet a lot of money that it will happen again, maybe not at eurovision, but it will happen. So, yes, I worry and I take precautions (similarly to how I wouldn't walk in certain parts of town at night).
I haven't heard it at all so I can't comment, but I do know they were forced to re-write it pretty late in the game to turn down the more obvious anti-palastine political messages in it after several countries threatened to boycott this year. It might have already sucked, haven't heard either version, but a late re-write changing it can't have helped.
The original was titled "October Rain" (a reference to an October Hamas attack),
had lyrics like:
Hours and hours
and flowers
Life is no game for the cowards (most I've heard felt it in context to be saying screw Palestine, they started it and hide in their holes killing, let's bomb them all)
And the Israeli delegate to Eurovision (the board member guy, not the artist) said they were sending a song all Israelis could connect to.
So yeah, my albeit western interpretation is it was very anti-palastine, pro-israel
Very true, although I don't know that Netanyahu would be doing this if he were a person who believed in the Jewish god. I'm not saying Yaweh is peaceful, but the modern Jewish interpretation of Yaweh doesn't usually include "he wants you to commit genocide" despite what the Bible might say about the Amalekites or Egyptian children.
The biggest problem of racist libs pretending they are just following rules is that they can't claim they are just separating politics from the event. Because they broke all those rules to ban Russia.
MALMÖ, Sweden — Behind the music, color and high camp, geopolitics has never been far from the surface at the Eurovision Song Contest, be it through subtly political lyrics, boycotts or the outright ban on Russia after it invaded Ukraine two years ago.
And as thousands of people flock to the coastal city for the event, large protests are taking place over Israel’s participation in the competition, including on Thursday, ahead of Israeli representative Eden Golan's semi-final performance.
The decision by the contest’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to ban Russia after it invaded Ukraine was something she agreed with, she said, adding that she thought it was hypocritical to let Israel compete while it waged war in Gaza.
While they did not demand a ban for Israel, artists from the U.K., Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, San Marino and Switzerland signed a joint statement calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, where almost 35,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Having initially balked at the idea, Israeli public broadcaster Kan, which manages the country’s entry, eventually amended the song, now called “Hurricane,” following an intervention from President Isaac Herzog.
Yair said some artists had tried to skirt the ban on overtly political statements by using more subtle elements in staging or costume, and he said he expected Israel would try in some way to commemorate Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on the country.
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