re: kneecap

hello, friends!

honestly, i didn't expect myself to write anything on here until late may, since i have exams next week and am still panicking horribly (my first ones are both history exams and i got 63% on one paper in my mock exam because i was scared of the time limit and i know i haven't done enough timed practice and will probably feel the same in the actual thing. i mean, it was still an a and i did very well on the source paper, but my mum still screamed at me for that and i feel like this is only going to get worse) and the summer will afford me time to spend researching stuff (i will need to do some background reading on the soviet union before joseph stalin, however, because i will be studying him in history next year, which i'll probably not share on here since, contrary to popular opinion (i.e. my mum, who, for some reason, has always assumed i am interested in russian history due to being aware of the fact that i'm interested in history, but being unaware of the history of what exactly, and even once told my history teacher that i'm interested in russian history, which, frankly, he was probably surprised to hear since i'd literally spent that year infodumping him about communist albania), i've literally never been interested in russian history and don't really have any enthusiasm for researching it because i don't want to attract nationalists to myself when discussing it (but allt, you're interested in the yugoslav wars-" "shhh! this is exactly the reason why (though, there's also my grandpa, who'd probably become really curious if i ever told my grandma about it (i infodump her a lot about history because she likes it and, in fact, last month, i told her about the troubles! safe to say, were one step closer to getting her out of liking margaret thatcher (she rightfully found her response to the maze prison hunger strike abhorrent)!) and i feel really uncomfortable around him because he's, well, a massive russian nationalist (a lot of this was instilled into him by the army, since he fought in the afghan-soviet war. he holds a lot of, frankly, questionable views because of that (like, for example, my grandma once told me that they once had an argument about whether it is fair that richer people tend to get higher-up positions in the army more quickly or even instantly when they join. my grandpa, who was a taxi driver and casually listens to soviet marches, said yes). anyways, none of that really matters. fuck militarism))!"), but i can also use the fact that i'll be learning about the zapatista uprising in politics next year to learn more about the mexican dirty war, which i've been meaning to research ever since i heard "tllatelolco '69" on that shortwave radio station ill, unfortunately, likely never identify, last year (also, when the summer holidays come, i'll be able to keep a less regular sleep schedule so expect more shortwave radio shenanigans!). i’ll also need to do a bit more reading about the northern ireland peace process, which is what i'll probably start with, actually: spacehey friend whom i'm infodumping right now, you know who you are and there's still a lot of massively interesting things i haven't told you). i'll also be working for the first time in june and also want to start teaching myself r (since a few courses i'm thinking of applying to include a heavy statistics element), so there's plenty to look forward to there. but that's not what this blog entry is about, so let's go back to the present.

i’ve started to listen to the news again, which i haven't done in about a year ("allt, but you do a-level politics!" "i know, i know...") since i only really used to do it in order to be the one to say "i know what you're talking about!" when my history teacher talked about current events when he taught me in years 10 and 11 and because i, unfortunately, don't speak greek, most of the news i am surrounded by non-online that i can understand concern the british army (ah, bfbs... it's still so bizarre to me how normalised it is that there's literally two british military bases here. i'd absolutely love to see more large-scale protests against them soon, especially since most of britain's participation in the current genocide of palestinians is enabled through the fact that there is an raf base at akrotiri). though, the main thing that made me, and still makes me really disinterested in a lot of news media is the fact that i, frankly, don't care about most of the stuff they report on (like, alright, tony blair's saying limiting fossil fuels is doomed to fail and promoting carbon capture? am i supposed to act surprised or what? he's a war criminal, a neoliberal and his think tank's funded by the oil and gas industry). however, there is something i heard about on multiple stations today that i'd like to talk about a bit and it's kneecap.

alright, i'm being honest here, kneecap are a band i used to like. i've been interested in northern ireland since march of 2022 and, back then, their musical utput mostly consisted of hip-hop about drugs and loved the fact that it existed because, despite the fact that i don't speak irish, i still appreciated the fact that at least someone was making irish-language music not targeted towards an audience of gaeltacht-dwellers over 50, even if it sounded like something the edgy boys in my school would listen to (is this a massive problem concerning all minority languages, since i told one of my friends about this and they told me that the situation with cypriot greek is exactly the same, with most of the output consisting of comedy songs and traditional music? they were, in my opinion then, properly provocative. i mean, would i have not liked a band who chanted "brits out" at their concerts and dressed like what you'd imagine the very people who'd do exactly as their name states would to them (the fact that most street violence and drug dealing-related matters in republican areas of northern ireland were taken up as part of paramilitary vigilante policing is actually one of the reasons the ira broke the ceasefire they had between 1994 and 1996, because, even if their "official" military activities were suspended, they would still carry on with this because there's your stereotypical gang of teenage boys that could replace them just didn't exist because it didn't need to, which concerned maire geoghegan-quinn, then the irish minister of justice, and thus made the prisoner release the ira wanted to happen be out of the question. a lot of ira "splinter groups" exist for exactly this reason, which is also why we now have "non-political" paramilitaries like republican action against drugs) back then?

when their music's subject matter turned to politics, i began to distance myself from them more and more. it's not like i have massive disagreements with them over anything republicanism-related (though, i'm not northern irish, so don't take my word for this), since their criticism mostly focuses on the british establishment and british rule over northern ireland and not the average (likely also traumatised, though it's correct to point out that none of kneecap have ever lived through the troubles and probably wouldn't think of this) protestant civilian (to what extent it's class conflict though is debatable. if working-class people in northern ireland get the help they deserve, the main pillar of loyalist identity ("being a protestant settler is the little privilege i have and i will make myself feel worth something through embracing it") will indeed collapse, but it's still important to consider that most unionists are settlers and, thus, likely won't be involved in the struggle against, for example, the military base in lisburn or psni) and i do want a free palestine, but i couldn't lap these things up continuously for entertainment like their increasingly middle-class american audience began to do. and, i mean, sure, actually well-supported current action that can be taken against the current occupation won't make a catchy song ("stormont! stormont! westminster! westminster! give us a date for the referendum!" definitely won’t be making it into the charts anytime soon), but as i learnt more and more about the peace process in the summer of last year, when their film came out (endorsed by irvine welsh, which is funny and unsurprising to me because, if you didn't know already, he's a landlord) and every irish radio station seemed to be talking about them, their work seemed to land more like an oppression cosplay than anything else. and then i learnt about the fact that the band, despite calling themselves pro-palestine and speaking out about the genocide in concerts or whatever (because i don't care about what they do at this point), decided to play the great escape festival, which was being boycotted, with their justification being that "everything's connected to one of these companies in some way" and that not playing the festival will "de-platform them".

to which my response is, uh, excuse me? my friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's (this is such an odd string of connections, but yes, i am four handshakes away from a member of opus kink) was on the setlist originally and their listenership numbers are one-twentyfifth of kneecap's and they still withdrew? kneecap are definitely not the ones to complain about not having a platform and the "everything's connected to one of these companies in some way" just sounds like an argument i'd hear from the reform uk supporter from my politics class whenever boycotting is mentioned (i mean, the thing is, most large boycott movements and boycott-adjacent movements (i am talking about things like veganism), if completely eliminating is not possible, of course, focus on minimising the oppressor’s profit. sure, the two pounds you gave to the shopkeeper might go into an account in lloyds' bank, but double the amount of that would have went to found israel's genocide in palestine if you spent them on a dairy milk, for example). also, the other thing about boycotting that i absolutely love that i feel that a lot of people don't consider is that it is not only an anti-specific oppressor, but also an anti-consumerist and alter-globalisation tactic because, when you stop buying israeli produce, for example (of which there's a lot here), you're going to focus on buying local stuff, right, and maybe you'll go to the farmer's market? that'll probably make you be more aware of what fruits and vegetables are in season in your country at different times of the year and, if you can do it, gasp, perhaps you'll start growing your own food!) kneecap are doing something that i feel, unfortunately, too many people are doing: sure, they might think these things, they say things, sure, but are they doing anything? the answer is clearly no.

so, hearing about the fact that their concerts in germany have now been cancelled following a pro-palestine statement at coachella and that this has also incited the british police to now investigate them (i really don't care about whom they support or what they think of the conservative party, as much as i hate them, now, so i really can't say anything about that) brings truly mixed feelings to me. on one hand, the fact that doing, comparatively, so little, can still get you investigated is horrifying and truly says something about the british and german (also, you've heard they're deporting pro-palestine protestors now, right?) establishment, as unsurprising as this is, but, on the other, i don't feel like they're people that should be praised for this. sure, that letter musicians are signing now is cool and, perhaps, this'll lead to more media attention of the genocide (as little as genuine resistance fighters care about that (that's a point as well)), but is this showing that kneecap are doing anything genuine at this point?

no.

but it’s a reminder that we can.