Billy Bragg. Again

[PurgatoryOfPotholes]

Billy Bragg saw some Holocaust memorials today; the type known as a Stolperstein, which literally translates as stumbling block. They are made by hand, and each one is to a specific person or household; it bears their name and is placed to mark the last place they were known to been voluntarily, before they were taken.

They are heartbreaking things, but some feel their placement in pavements is disrespectful to the people whose lives they seek to memorialise. So they are banned in some German towns and cities. That's not an argument I've ever had an opinion on, because it's not my place.

However, I never saw this coming. This is how Billy Bragg has reacted to seeing them today. He's used them in an argument about flipping trans activism. How low can you go?

Billy Bragg, tweet 1: Yeah, like white supremacists can argue that they’re not anti-Black, they’re just pro-white. And guess what? They also complain that, for taking that view, they’ve been subject to a smear campaign for years.

Other Person: Desperate argument but oh kaaaay.

Billy Bragg, tweet 2: I’m in Hamburg atm In the pavements are small brass plaques bearing the names of Jews who lived in the building opposite the plaque who were murdered by the Nazis. That began with people deciding they could define someone by their biology alone.

Followed to a wikipedia link about the purpose of a Stolperstein

Billy Bragg being repugnant

Wtf is he on. Utterly infuriating argument.

God, he's a moronic arsehole.

This sort of thing makes me scratch my head a little bit - do his type think that the lessons of history are that we had to get everyone to pretend that Jews and blacks are not different types of human from the normal type?

And that therefore we should also pretend that women aren't a different type of human from the normal type?

He might possibly have grasped the wrong end of the stick about racism and anti-semitism there.

The Bard of Barking Mad.

Being Jewish is not biology, it's culture and religion.

At this stage I think expecting any level of sense from Billy Bragg is a waste of time.

At first I thought he was just misguided and trying to be kind. Now I’ve come to the realisation that he just hates women and this is a great way to channel that hatred while still remaining “liberal”.

Bragg has form.

Billy Bragg has said that British Jews have “work to do” to rebuild trust with the Labour party.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/billy-bragg-jews-need-to-rebuild-trust-with-labour-9n9gmgdrm

He has also likened LGB alliance to white supremacists because of the absence of T. Yep, a straight man lecturing same sex attracted people on who they should include in their groups.

I was under the impression that claiming not to 'see' race is in face racist. And just a handy way to ignore race and racism.

And the Nazis didn't reduce people to biology. They ascribed a whole set of negative stereotypes to race and religion.

Is he desperate for attention or what?
Clearly negative attention is better than none...

Fairly certain that's it. I mean he said, "That began with people deciding they could define someone by their biology alone."

I can't see any way to interpret that other than an assumption on his part that to be Jewish is to have a different "biology" from other people. A difference in biology so significant as to be akin to the difference between males and females of our species? That's pretty damn different.

The Nazis, with all their phrenological head-measuring, turned biology into mumbo-jumbo pseudoscience to justify defining Jews as untermensch (sub-human) and 'Aryan' Germans as ubermensch (super-human).

Bragg, by claiming that the Nazis defined Jews by their 'biology' is supporting a totalitarian ideology.

Not surprising, really, when you consider how he suspends any capacity for rational thought by supporting another totalitarian ideology.

“Billy Bragg has said that British Jews have “work to do” to rebuild trust with the Labour party.“

What a line!

The sound of ideologies clashing, alright. Very disappointed with Billy (sadly, not for the first time).

Another example of Mr Bragg getting it wrong. Interestingly, The Guardian chose some of the (very many) comments critical of his piece for their "Guardian picks":
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/10/free-speech-young-people

As a Jew I find this very upsetting.

Just ignore the gobshite.

What he says is rubbish. However, there is a biology aspect to being Jewish. Israel considers anyone who has a Jewish grandparent to be Jewish and entitled to live in Israel, regardless of whether they believe in the religion or follow any Jewish practices. You can be both Jewish and an atheist.

He's the lowest of the low. He crossed a line with that tonight. Absolutely vile.

Israel doesn't claim that having a Jewish grandparent has given anyone different biology. Just that it imparts a right to live in Israel.

I'd rephrase that as, "having survived the holocaust, those who founded Israel (who included camp survivors) drew up immigration legislation that would make Israel an accessible refuge for all those who would need it."

Of course they weren't going to have tight definitions of jewish that excluded people who were explicitly targeted for being of jewish descent. That would be absurd.

When anti-semitic far right nationalists start being really selective about who they target for being jewish, then Israel may tighten up its entry criteria too.

I'm not surprised. His behaviour tonight has scraped the barrel, broken through the bottom of it and scraped a subterranean oubliette below. Where I hope all his music - past, present and future - falls in!

The ratio is immense.
Of his 300k follower, around 105 have liked it so far. But over a thousand have retweeted to tear him apart. The comments are full of fury.

Will he back down? Nope.

But it's heartening to see how many people just aren't accepting this.

And Jonathan Ross has replied: 'what a prick', which is nice

Think Bragg has just joined the irredeemable fuckwit club (Along with Creasy, Lammy, Nandy, Cohen, Kelly , Jones etc.)