The State of the Nation Has Been Weighing On Me
Ok, I really don’t want to make this blog so focused on stuff outside of music. But at the same time, I really need to talk about some stuff relating to what's happening in the USA right now. Currently, as this is being written, the DNC is taking place and controversies and protests are taking hold in Chicago, and across the nation.
#Trigger Warning (politics, murder, current issues: Gaza + AI) probably
So What is this?
Good question, I want to talk about two main things that have been on my mind recently.
- Taylor Swift AI problems
- Protesting for the end of the violence in Gaza
Ok, I’ll try to keep it brief and explain what I think the issues are currently.
What happened to Taylor Swift?
Ok, this is crazy but the Donald Trump twitter account along with Trump supporters have been promoting AI generated images of Taylor swift supporting his campaign thanks to recent developments with the Grok 2 (Twitter's AI). This new AI can generate images with less restrictions than other generators like ChatGPT which try (very, very badly) to prevent misinformation. While they claim that this AI has “limitations” on what it can do, it has already been used to create political propaganda and compromising photos of celebrities. Taylor Swift, a sworn enemy of Trump supporters, has somehow become their top model for AI deepfaking recently. From my understanding, she is looking into a lawsuit, but strict protections of free speech along with her celebrity status make many legal professionals see this case as a difficult one to make. (Not to mention political campaigns' skills at shifting blame away from their leaders). So likely Trump won’t face punishment without a smoking gun, even when some of those posts came from his page. Seemingly, it's not enough at the moment.
All we can hope for is that people stop distorting her image for political (and sexual too, yeah it's gotten worse) motives and in the process protect all of us from the same fate. Things are getting WAY too dystopian for me to feel comfortable right now.
What about Gaza?
I want to state first that murder is wrong, and terrible. Netanyahu needs to face punishment for what he is doing, and the conflict needs to end soon in order to stop the killing. However, due to recent protests and a surprise appearance of protesters on Stephen Colbert’s live show, I have been thinking about the more nuanced parts of this protest.
There is a lot going on right now politically with both the election on the horizon and the ongoing war and violence in Israel and Gaza. The political situation is much more complicated than a lot of protesters might think and I would offer a suggestion to focus protests on after election day.
Why do I say this? This only prolongs the conflict? Well, unfortunately yeah, but I don’t think anything major is going to happen before the election regarding the US and its support of Israel.
Why is that? Well…
Prime Minister Netanyahu knows that while many Americans want a ceasefire in Israel, there are democrats who still support Israel and don’t want the US to stop sending support to them. If Biden acts to cut off support (which he most likely does not want to do), or if Harris says she will stop the weapons from being sent to Israel (which she might not believe, although there is a perception that she might be harder on Israel than Biden), some Democrats, or Independants who otherwise may vote for Harris, could turn to Trump. Netanyahu most likely understands this to some extent and is using this to keep arms flowing to them (despite the fact that they would have weapons for a while even without US support). Don’t get me wrong, there is US self interest involved as well, a lot of Democrat politicians support Israel for the benefits it brings the US, which in this case, promotes more death (that's really bad guys).
But if that alone was the issue, if it was only some democrats wanting to work only for the interest of the US, the protests should continue as they are now, and regardless, they can continue. But not much will likely be done, or even have the chance to be done, until the Democrats don’t have to worry about alienating voting groups from their side in the election. It’s a sad truth, but the party is going to prioritize its victory before working on resolving this conflict.
If they act decisively now, which they might not do at all, it will almost certainly hurt Kamala Harris’ shot at the presidency.
Ok so what does this mean at all? What about the protests?
These protesters (the peaceful ones) are passionately taking their time to help save peoples lives on the other side of the planet. People they haven't met, but want to protect. This is one of the greatest things you can do as an American. I really think that advocating for good causes is very important, especially right now. But, based on what I previously said, (and I could be wrong, and things could change), the election will most likely remain the priority, so you may just have to wait until after the election for change to happen, so don’t get tired out now, don’t give all you’ve got while only getting 2 minutes on TV due to the DNC going on. Have a peaceful protest after the election, get together and peacefully advocate for ending the conflict after Kamala has won. This way, some of, (not all of), the barriers that are stopping Democrats from doing the right thing currently can be moved out of the way and there will be a greater shot at peace.
I find it unlikely that Netanyahu will agree to peace unless he can find another way to maintain power, because if the conflict is resolved peacefully, he might find himself out of power and in prison thanks to the growing dissenting voices in Israel like Minister Benny Gantz.
I’m still trying my best to wrap my small, individual mind around this massive global issue which involves not only the long and historic conflicts surrounding Israel, Palestine, and religious wars in that region, but also American politics and divisions within party lines.
The End
This is all very frustrating because there isn’t a clear realistic solution in sight, I want it all to stop so badly, but with what is going on, it seems so far away. That along with the concerns over the AI stuff, and I’ve been having a pretty bad time recently. I just want peace, people to understand each other, not fight, not die in vain. But what can I do about it? What can we do? We can protest, but in the face of an intense and divided election, one of the most chaotic ones in history and it hasn’t even happened yet. Not to mention the international aspects, which a protest can do little to change besides the actions of the country we reside within. But the US has the power to stop this, and there are politicians who do want it, and prioritize it. Once the scandal, gossip, and anxiety around the election clears up, I do believe action will start taking place. We all need to come together to help make that change, not with anger or rage, but with a genuine desire for humanitarianism and compassion for all people around the world.
Sorry this is another heavy one (this may keep happening), but my next post will be music related.