It’s an interesting question, and I don’t actually know where I would come down on choices if I were King of the World and had responsibility for what happens next.
To the extent that sufficiently coordinated and determined public talking does seem to be one of the tools to mobilize mobs, the “words can never hurt me” childhood maxim seems a bit oversimplified. Germany’s hate speech laws seem like an effort to acknowledge this functional relation and make some commitment to a public-goods kind of parameter: not everything will be squelched by the Government acting in the name of the Public, but some things can be, and the debate is where to put lines. I think, after what Europe had seen for the previous 50 years, that doesn’t deserve to be scorned either as Snowflake or other dismissive terms. It’s interesting that it is (what, nearly a century?) after Nietzche’s Last Man, who was the creature that only sought safety and for it, had given up aspiring to anything. But of the two, the post-war German government’s choices look at least as deserving of credit for pragmatically grasping some nettle, as Nietzche’s artistic characterizations that didn’t leave him on the hook for particularly anything. The above is only about the right limitations put on Government as a wielder of power over “private” individuals, since that power is supposed to be derived from the “Public” and therefore needs to be made legitimate somehow. When private actors are involved (here magnates who personally own stadiums), even the question of power and legitimacy changes. In one semi-cartoon, they should be free to offer or withdraw cooperative engagement with anybody over anything. On the other side from that cartoon, one can recognize that in societies where wealth buys agency at every level and differential power and access to institutions as well, there is plenty of room for More is Different responses to the level of wealth inequality. “Public” power of the government is not at all the only power that impinges on a single private person, and nominally-private citizens with enough wealth can easily have power that is more immediate and abusive toward some given target or group than the government is in its official capacity. Moreover, looming over it all is the capacity for social coordination at large or even total scales. The U.S. had to implement and enforce anti-segregation laws over agreements that were privately “voluntary”, if they were ever going to stop the Slave South from shutting black people entirely out of means for most dimensions of life (education, protection, property ownership, commerce). Lawsuits brought against individual cake bakers can’t claim the level of harm of being entirely shut out of a society, and therefore are argued on a slippery-slope basis to lay down a recorded precedent. I can’t bring myself to feel like the world will either be saved, or come to an end, according to whether a private stadium owner offers or rescinds an invitation to a musician to perform there, so this case gets no rise out of me. But the idea that pretty-much-whoever can get up on a soapbox and complain back and forth seems okay as public discourse. Eric > On Sep 15, 2026, at 22:29, Prof David West <[email protected]> wrote: > > My last couple of years as a professor included mandated screening of > syllabi, required reading, lecture notes, etc. for "trigger words" (or > phrases) that might "offend," "alarm," disquiet," or "remind" a student of > "past or present trauma." And, of course, it was the potentially offended > party that had sole right to state what was or was not triggering. > > "Dog whistles" that many claim are routinely used in political rhetoric are, > to me, similar. > > I know nothing about Pink nor Macklemore, and don't want to, but from what I > see in this forum, the whole thing is just an instance of "triggering / dog > whistling" with intrinsic meaning. > > davew > > > On Mon, Sep 14, 2026, at 10:25 AM, glen wrote: >> https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-pro-palestine-statements-1235625967/ >> >>> Pink later explained that she did not object to Macklemore’s calls for a >>> “Free Palestine,” but said, “I have never asked for another artist to be >>> silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t >>> need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘that >>> scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is >>> just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide >>> because I noticed?” >> >> I'm not the most empathetic person. But I try. And I simply cannot >> understand how someone like Mackelmore saying "Free Palestine" could >> *scare* someone like Pink. Is it that when she hears "Free Palestine", >> she thinks it means "free Hamas from its restraints so it can murder >> Israelis". Is that it? >> >> If so, I can imagine myself hearing someone like ... oh, IDK, Toby >> Keith shouting "Free the Proud Boys". Would that scare me? Would it >> scare local trans people because it would mean "Free the Proud Boys so >> they can freely execute trans people in the streets?" Is that why "Free >> Palestine" scares Pink? >> >> If so, I have to go back to one of my favorite quotes: "Stupidity >> should be painful." I mean, yes, I do have an irrational reaction to >> things like lotus seed pods. But OMG, it's *because* of that reaction >> that I look at them so frequently. What kind of "fear" does Pink >> experience? 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