Huge respect for putting your head above the parapet ironically to be shot at for supporting Dignity, Respect, and Human Rights equally applied. I’ve loved your work since I was a kid. Very gratifying to know where your heart is on this fundamental issue. Respect, Toby
What a disgrace. They’re all white supremacists .. how anyone feels affinity and allegiance to a racist colonial project is SO BIZARRE. We should feel allegiance only to humanity
Right! Cause nothing quite screams "white supremacy" louder than Zionist Israel and its supporters of any background.
Maybe we should cool it with the racist smears. Especially since anyone who supports the Palestinians are already being smeared no matter what their race. Smearing back just leads to more mudslinging. Who needs that?
I appreciate Roger's courage. I do, however, beg to differ on his timeline for the perfidy of the occupation of Palestine. When Israel declared itself a state in 1948, it had no right to do so. Palestine and its people were a matter of fact at that point and before. The founders of Israel in the main had no intention of letting the indigenous people stay. So to say that the occupation started in 1967 is a lie of omission.
Hello Roger. Can you shine a light on the ‘letter from Jonny’ mentioned by Thom in his response? Does it offer an insight into his or Radiohead’s thinking on this matter?
Thank you for speaking out and taking the unwarranted abuse.
Johnny's wife, Sharona Katan, is from Israel and thus might be heavily influenced by this. Maybe you can find the letter on the internet, I think I have read it some years back.
You could happily live in the empyrean of living legends, instead you are among the few who still fight to show the reality behind the very thin yet impenetrable veil.
It is disheartening to note how hardly anyone follows you.
Aider, that kills me too, because I have loved the music of Radiohead, and of Thom Yorke. But I have loved Pink Floyd more; I remember being 16, lying in my bed, closing my eyes, listening to Wish You Were Here, The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon, or Animals--my favorite albums. I used to lie there and think about how Roger Waters was my favorite poet; it gives me infinite satisfaction to now see that he is a person of integrity
You know Kelly, I am going to say something obvious, but I am of the opinion that when art separates from the artist who generated it, it starts to live a life of its own: there is little point, in my opinion, in continuing to perceive it, in all senses, trying to interpret the artist, while also assessing his morality.
I once met Thom Yorke on a train from Plymouth to London in 2010, when I'd upgraded to First Class to escape screaming kids in my booked pleb class seat. I pretended I didn't know who he was, which was great fun, and we had a nice chat. BTW, regardless, Roger, I'm with you on this. Need a keyboard player? I'm your man. steveswindells.bandcamp.com
Beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing your struggle with us, Roger. It's OUR struggle. Collectively, Pink Floyd and Radiohead are in my top three all-time favorite bands (along with Zeppelin), and it's fascinating to get a look into this.
Time is a great healer and perhaps in due course, Thom will learn to live with the reflection in the mirror. It's not for us to judge or throw stones, his conscience will see to that. We stand with Palestine and applaud Roger and others who are not blinkered by the shekels. In time, the dollars and trinkets will lose their lustre and Biden and Necronyahu's jackboots will be lifted off our conscience and Palestinian necks. Free Palestine 🇵🇸!!
Time is a great healer and in due course, Thom may well look at his reflection in the mirror. It's not for us to judge him or throw stones. Despite our desperation for everyone to see and speak the truth, these dark days will come to pass. In the meantime, we march on until Biden and Necronyahu's jack jackboot is lifted. Free Palestine 🇵🇸!!!!
Roger, you know you’ve got them on the ropes, when the only thing they ever come back with… are cowardice snide remarks, ad hominem attacks and straw-man arguments. Thom York to me, doesn’t appear to possess a great deal of character, nor respect, Roger! Hell, you were shakin’ ‘em up in Baghdad when he was still in his dad’s bag! With you all the way on this, ole mate!
You wouldn’t think trying to stop the corporately backed slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children in hospitals, food shelters and humanitarian safety zones would be this difficult?! But, as it stands… it would appear the bulk of the world’s population now stands firmly on the side of globalised hegemonic tyranny!
Keep up the great work, Roger! And great to see you on Substack! (the least censored social media platform in the world.)
"You wouldn’t think trying to stop the corporately backed slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children in hospitals, food shelters and humanitarian safety zones would be this difficult?!' - So true John! And thanks for pointing me toward Roger's Substack - Roger's a good man who cares deeply about the world he lives in. And a man who is so unfairly persectuted for his caring!
(Funny..? I already replied to your comment?... It appears Roger presently has two Substacks)... Anyway, here's what I wrote....
Pleasure, Josh, and thank you! Yes... Roger was not only the true heart and soul of the great, Pink Floyd!— but a man with a working moral compass and a steely conviction to do what's right! Regardless of the potential consequences of doing so!
So sorry you seem to be completely in denial about how Zionists have in the past and are now treating Palestinians currently! Also you fail to observe and acknowledge that it was Bibi Netanyahu and Likud who made sure that Hamas was installed and funded in Gaza to keep Palestinians from having an independent state! What is going on currently in Gaza is wholesale slaughter! Not to mention the absolutely disgusting treatment of Palestinians in the WestBank at the hands of internationally acknowledged illegal Zionist settlers and the Israeli military. The current government in Israel has managed to make Israel an international pariah State in the eyes of most of the world! Massacring 100000 defenseless people (they have no planes or tanks or any real army) of which at least 25000 are children has its consequences! I am including in the estimate those still buried under rubble, unacknowledged and disregarded! Bombing refugee camps, hospitals, schools and religious sites while attacking UN buildings, emergency response teams (ambulance workers), charity workers, doctors, journalists and poets is not the way to befriend the world. Also protesting for the “right” to rape prisoners whether they be doctors or enemies is not a particularly good public relations strategy!
Trigger alert: Don't read on if you're not able to accept anything different from what you stand for and believe with all your heart. Words below will hurt those who have Palestinian friends or believe Israel is the same thing as nazism.
You've all been duped by a well oiled propaganda machinery.
'Slaughterhouse #5' is how slaughter looks like. That is what for more than a year Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are trying to do to Israeli people. (Rockets launched day by day...) A genocide could have been happening if Jews weren't smarter this time.
Please, look for data outside of your comfort zone, even though it hurts so badly.
'Even' Muslims protest against Iran and the violent-jihad agenda. You may think they're afraid. I think they know all to well the Muslim world and they read much more news in Arabic, seeing quite clearly who is the oppressor, who is the victim (if you like such words), and who is lying and creating 'evidence' so gruesome in its nature that no European would believe such things could be made up, that such videos could be fake. Such lies are not only very painful to watch, but also harmful to all humanity as they present the 'divide and conquer' ideal. And once they got you, you're already lost fighting for a cause you think you understand, because they make you think so, but it so very different from what you think. It's horrible because they use our compassion to control us. One lie we believe is enough for us to lose the grip of reality...
All who read thus far: thank you, I wish you all the best. Only through acting human can we live in a world where humanity can thrive and not be deemed a thing of a past or a threat to existing powers.
I've seen what you posted when it was first released. It's over, now, whence lies have taken over the discourse. Once misinformation is presented as the one and only truth and you are not allowed to question the one and only opinion that is supposed to be a humanitarian approach, then you dehumanize the ones who don't agree, because maybe it happens to be that they know something you are not allowed to know, because you believe someone crying, but you don't believe those who cry for all the others. Genocide would be happening if Israel wasn't prepared for it. In order to prevent it Israel had to deal with Hamas which controlled and terrorized Palestine. Imagine if you lived in Palestine with your family: would you be able to say 'no' to the military organization armed with guns which came and told you to keep an Israeli 'hostage' for some time?
Do you want Israelis to die, or would you rather transport them all somehow somewhere where bloodthirst couldn't be satisfied? Before WWII Polish nationalists had a brilliant slogan "Jews on Madagascar", but guess what? During the war and after, at last there were almost none left to anger anybody. Oh, yeah, 1968 was another antisemitic craze which forced almost all of the obviously Jewish Poles to flee from hate, if they weren't protected somehow by the 'socialist' government. The ones who stayed had to have really strong ties in order to survive. Most weren't known to be Jewish. And if it wasn't about money and possessions, then maybe it was some kind of intrinsic hate, something off, based on jealousy?
Now, we need to solidarize with Palestinian civilians as they are the ones hurt more than one can imagine. But blaming Jews for what is happening isn't as fair as Al Jazeera presents and many British media follow. Rockets are fired into Israel day by day, they have an app to alert when rockets are coming: Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran... Doesn't matter, they're attacking civilians. And so the public knows. But if we buy into any kind of imperialistic propaganda, don't we lose parts of our sensitivity, our humanity?
Should I, would I harm you reminding you of what happened 433 days ago? Do you need to listen to testimonies of innocent people who went to a festival and instead of listening to music they were hunted by bloodthirsty, vengeful monsters, not attacking military targets, but killing everyone they could find. Is it justified? Because Israel shouldn't exist? Is Thom Yorke really that bad of a person that he doesn't respond to quite a rude display of one-sided, 'I'm with Palestinians, because I have friends from Palestine'/'I don't accept Israel, because before there were people who were relocated by force'? Ok, I see. But it's 2024. Do you have all the facts? Are you qualified enough to decide what has to be done with the Jews? Doesn't this remind you of one thing? If you've studied the history of what is called the Jewish Question you'd see some disturbing patterns. Disturbing in a sense, that nowadays we tend to believe some narratives, while dismissing other - we are learning that the media lies. In Poland what was being said about Jews, rumours about ritual killings and other hideous ideas fueled hate to the point of letting people commit crimes: pogroms. Now it is different. But some patterns still exist. And it is our duty not to look down at any of the nations or ethnicities of which the fate is in our hands. If we are privileged people, descendants of those who remembered how it was before, and we have access to different sources can't we condemn the use of arms, not the ways of survival of people who are not funny happy people(in all honesty I hope they are), but survivors constantly living a warzone. We do not know how it is. And we don't know how it is to identify as a member of the young country of Palestine. The videos show us something, but we are still only believing what somebody is telling us. I'd listen to those who know there are good Palestinians and bad Palestinians, good Israelis and bad Israelis, good Muslims and bad Muslims, good Jews and bad Jews. Etc. If we dump everything into one container, It'd disturb me greatly to be mistaken about one peraon who got mistreated and misjudged. In the end, one day it could happen to you...
'judge not, lest you be judged'
I wasn't ever a fan of Radiohead, but now I have to admit: I listened, I liked it, because the letters we read here don't show much - other than one musician obliged enough to some people so deeply engaged in some kind ideological warfare rooted in Yasser Arafat's legacy, which if one reads a little proves to be not that heroic of a persona, to be trying to coerce him using not very kind words into letting down his supporters, his band members, his managers and probably even quite justifiably accused of antisemitism, so that - wait, what was the reason. Music has the incredible of bringing peace. 'Another Brick in the Wall' is a masterpiece. And it works in this setting too... One of many in Pink Floyd's repertoire. As to the poem published above: the quality is undeniable. I would only argue, that being a fan of oral history, speaking to many a people of so different origins and letting them say what they stand for, the ones who weren't already giving up their own lives for some dead cause, all wanted and looked for peace and quietude, and no, it wasn't too much rope, they've gotten already - quite the opposite. Their eyes were saying 'give us enough rope', 'trust us, we'll manage, just don't send us more weapons, just give us a chance' maybe even 'give peace a chance'.
Huge respect for putting your head above the parapet ironically to be shot at for supporting Dignity, Respect, and Human Rights equally applied. I’ve loved your work since I was a kid. Very gratifying to know where your heart is on this fundamental issue. Respect, Toby
Amazing determination to have this difficult conversation Roger. Respect.
As I get older I think less that some people "can't handle the truth!" and more that they just don't want it.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair
Shorter and more to the point Thom Yorke is an asshole, always has been, always will be, he was born that way, it’s genetic.
https://youtu.be/rPa1VV-NC3s?feature=shared
Israeli media doesn't lie
'give peace a chance'
Well, that's another band I won't listen to ever again 🤷♀️
Pretending it ain't there won't make it go away, Thom.
What a disgrace. They’re all white supremacists .. how anyone feels affinity and allegiance to a racist colonial project is SO BIZARRE. We should feel allegiance only to humanity
"They’re all white supremacists."
Right! Cause nothing quite screams "white supremacy" louder than Zionist Israel and its supporters of any background.
Maybe we should cool it with the racist smears. Especially since anyone who supports the Palestinians are already being smeared no matter what their race. Smearing back just leads to more mudslinging. Who needs that?
I appreciate Roger's courage. I do, however, beg to differ on his timeline for the perfidy of the occupation of Palestine. When Israel declared itself a state in 1948, it had no right to do so. Palestine and its people were a matter of fact at that point and before. The founders of Israel in the main had no intention of letting the indigenous people stay. So to say that the occupation started in 1967 is a lie of omission.
Some people have so much money stuck in their ears that they cannot hear anymore. Leave him to it and shine on.
Hello Roger. Can you shine a light on the ‘letter from Jonny’ mentioned by Thom in his response? Does it offer an insight into his or Radiohead’s thinking on this matter?
Thank you for speaking out and taking the unwarranted abuse.
Johnny's wife, Sharona Katan, is from Israel and thus might be heavily influenced by this. Maybe you can find the letter on the internet, I think I have read it some years back.
Thanks Chris.
You could happily live in the empyrean of living legends, instead you are among the few who still fight to show the reality behind the very thin yet impenetrable veil.
It is disheartening to note how hardly anyone follows you.
Aider, that kills me too, because I have loved the music of Radiohead, and of Thom Yorke. But I have loved Pink Floyd more; I remember being 16, lying in my bed, closing my eyes, listening to Wish You Were Here, The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon, or Animals--my favorite albums. I used to lie there and think about how Roger Waters was my favorite poet; it gives me infinite satisfaction to now see that he is a person of integrity
It ain't a matter of whom I like, it's a matter of who speaks the truth.
I didn't know I was a Macklemore fan, but "Hind;s Hall" spoke more truth than many an artist whose music I loved.
You know Kelly, I am going to say something obvious, but I am of the opinion that when art separates from the artist who generated it, it starts to live a life of its own: there is little point, in my opinion, in continuing to perceive it, in all senses, trying to interpret the artist, while also assessing his morality.
Thom is a shill of a human being.
A green plastic watering can
For a fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth
That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself
It wears me out
---
Thom should listen to his own songs...
The ones that brought the fake Chinese rubber trees to us... and the work to china...
Are the Jews... the Authority... who wear us all out by throwing us under the bus.
I once met Thom Yorke on a train from Plymouth to London in 2010, when I'd upgraded to First Class to escape screaming kids in my booked pleb class seat. I pretended I didn't know who he was, which was great fun, and we had a nice chat. BTW, regardless, Roger, I'm with you on this. Need a keyboard player? I'm your man. steveswindells.bandcamp.com
Steve you cheeky bugger, if you get the gig and need a keyboard roadie I’m your man.
Beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing your struggle with us, Roger. It's OUR struggle. Collectively, Pink Floyd and Radiohead are in my top three all-time favorite bands (along with Zeppelin), and it's fascinating to get a look into this.
thom yorke is miserable soul. thanks, roger. consciousness is a process. we need to know what's behind the music. love to you and bds.
Time is a great healer and perhaps in due course, Thom will learn to live with the reflection in the mirror. It's not for us to judge or throw stones, his conscience will see to that. We stand with Palestine and applaud Roger and others who are not blinkered by the shekels. In time, the dollars and trinkets will lose their lustre and Biden and Necronyahu's jackboots will be lifted off our conscience and Palestinian necks. Free Palestine 🇵🇸!!
Time is a great healer and in due course, Thom may well look at his reflection in the mirror. It's not for us to judge him or throw stones. Despite our desperation for everyone to see and speak the truth, these dark days will come to pass. In the meantime, we march on until Biden and Necronyahu's jack jackboot is lifted. Free Palestine 🇵🇸!!!!
Roger, you know you’ve got them on the ropes, when the only thing they ever come back with… are cowardice snide remarks, ad hominem attacks and straw-man arguments. Thom York to me, doesn’t appear to possess a great deal of character, nor respect, Roger! Hell, you were shakin’ ‘em up in Baghdad when he was still in his dad’s bag! With you all the way on this, ole mate!
You wouldn’t think trying to stop the corporately backed slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children in hospitals, food shelters and humanitarian safety zones would be this difficult?! But, as it stands… it would appear the bulk of the world’s population now stands firmly on the side of globalised hegemonic tyranny!
Keep up the great work, Roger! And great to see you on Substack! (the least censored social media platform in the world.)
Love, John
"You wouldn’t think trying to stop the corporately backed slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children in hospitals, food shelters and humanitarian safety zones would be this difficult?!' - So true John! And thanks for pointing me toward Roger's Substack - Roger's a good man who cares deeply about the world he lives in. And a man who is so unfairly persectuted for his caring!
(Funny..? I already replied to your comment?... It appears Roger presently has two Substacks)... Anyway, here's what I wrote....
Pleasure, Josh, and thank you! Yes... Roger was not only the true heart and soul of the great, Pink Floyd!— but a man with a working moral compass and a steely conviction to do what's right! Regardless of the potential consequences of doing so!
So sorry you seem to be completely in denial about how Zionists have in the past and are now treating Palestinians currently! Also you fail to observe and acknowledge that it was Bibi Netanyahu and Likud who made sure that Hamas was installed and funded in Gaza to keep Palestinians from having an independent state! What is going on currently in Gaza is wholesale slaughter! Not to mention the absolutely disgusting treatment of Palestinians in the WestBank at the hands of internationally acknowledged illegal Zionist settlers and the Israeli military. The current government in Israel has managed to make Israel an international pariah State in the eyes of most of the world! Massacring 100000 defenseless people (they have no planes or tanks or any real army) of which at least 25000 are children has its consequences! I am including in the estimate those still buried under rubble, unacknowledged and disregarded! Bombing refugee camps, hospitals, schools and religious sites while attacking UN buildings, emergency response teams (ambulance workers), charity workers, doctors, journalists and poets is not the way to befriend the world. Also protesting for the “right” to rape prisoners whether they be doctors or enemies is not a particularly good public relations strategy!
Trigger alert: Don't read on if you're not able to accept anything different from what you stand for and believe with all your heart. Words below will hurt those who have Palestinian friends or believe Israel is the same thing as nazism.
You've all been duped by a well oiled propaganda machinery.
'Slaughterhouse #5' is how slaughter looks like. That is what for more than a year Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are trying to do to Israeli people. (Rockets launched day by day...) A genocide could have been happening if Jews weren't smarter this time.
Please, look for data outside of your comfort zone, even though it hurts so badly.
'Even' Muslims protest against Iran and the violent-jihad agenda. You may think they're afraid. I think they know all to well the Muslim world and they read much more news in Arabic, seeing quite clearly who is the oppressor, who is the victim (if you like such words), and who is lying and creating 'evidence' so gruesome in its nature that no European would believe such things could be made up, that such videos could be fake. Such lies are not only very painful to watch, but also harmful to all humanity as they present the 'divide and conquer' ideal. And once they got you, you're already lost fighting for a cause you think you understand, because they make you think so, but it so very different from what you think. It's horrible because they use our compassion to control us. One lie we believe is enough for us to lose the grip of reality...
All who read thus far: thank you, I wish you all the best. Only through acting human can we live in a world where humanity can thrive and not be deemed a thing of a past or a threat to existing powers.
Peace
Love
Understanding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmDnpV4eFik&t=550s
https://youtu.be/bsbKy4qbpl8?feature=shared
I've seen what you posted when it was first released. It's over, now, whence lies have taken over the discourse. Once misinformation is presented as the one and only truth and you are not allowed to question the one and only opinion that is supposed to be a humanitarian approach, then you dehumanize the ones who don't agree, because maybe it happens to be that they know something you are not allowed to know, because you believe someone crying, but you don't believe those who cry for all the others. Genocide would be happening if Israel wasn't prepared for it. In order to prevent it Israel had to deal with Hamas which controlled and terrorized Palestine. Imagine if you lived in Palestine with your family: would you be able to say 'no' to the military organization armed with guns which came and told you to keep an Israeli 'hostage' for some time?
https://youtu.be/ej8zgAk1HOI?feature=shared
If one feels like crying today...
Do you want Israelis to die, or would you rather transport them all somehow somewhere where bloodthirst couldn't be satisfied? Before WWII Polish nationalists had a brilliant slogan "Jews on Madagascar", but guess what? During the war and after, at last there were almost none left to anger anybody. Oh, yeah, 1968 was another antisemitic craze which forced almost all of the obviously Jewish Poles to flee from hate, if they weren't protected somehow by the 'socialist' government. The ones who stayed had to have really strong ties in order to survive. Most weren't known to be Jewish. And if it wasn't about money and possessions, then maybe it was some kind of intrinsic hate, something off, based on jealousy?
Now, we need to solidarize with Palestinian civilians as they are the ones hurt more than one can imagine. But blaming Jews for what is happening isn't as fair as Al Jazeera presents and many British media follow. Rockets are fired into Israel day by day, they have an app to alert when rockets are coming: Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran... Doesn't matter, they're attacking civilians. And so the public knows. But if we buy into any kind of imperialistic propaganda, don't we lose parts of our sensitivity, our humanity?
Should I, would I harm you reminding you of what happened 433 days ago? Do you need to listen to testimonies of innocent people who went to a festival and instead of listening to music they were hunted by bloodthirsty, vengeful monsters, not attacking military targets, but killing everyone they could find. Is it justified? Because Israel shouldn't exist? Is Thom Yorke really that bad of a person that he doesn't respond to quite a rude display of one-sided, 'I'm with Palestinians, because I have friends from Palestine'/'I don't accept Israel, because before there were people who were relocated by force'? Ok, I see. But it's 2024. Do you have all the facts? Are you qualified enough to decide what has to be done with the Jews? Doesn't this remind you of one thing? If you've studied the history of what is called the Jewish Question you'd see some disturbing patterns. Disturbing in a sense, that nowadays we tend to believe some narratives, while dismissing other - we are learning that the media lies. In Poland what was being said about Jews, rumours about ritual killings and other hideous ideas fueled hate to the point of letting people commit crimes: pogroms. Now it is different. But some patterns still exist. And it is our duty not to look down at any of the nations or ethnicities of which the fate is in our hands. If we are privileged people, descendants of those who remembered how it was before, and we have access to different sources can't we condemn the use of arms, not the ways of survival of people who are not funny happy people(in all honesty I hope they are), but survivors constantly living a warzone. We do not know how it is. And we don't know how it is to identify as a member of the young country of Palestine. The videos show us something, but we are still only believing what somebody is telling us. I'd listen to those who know there are good Palestinians and bad Palestinians, good Israelis and bad Israelis, good Muslims and bad Muslims, good Jews and bad Jews. Etc. If we dump everything into one container, It'd disturb me greatly to be mistaken about one peraon who got mistreated and misjudged. In the end, one day it could happen to you...
'judge not, lest you be judged'
I wasn't ever a fan of Radiohead, but now I have to admit: I listened, I liked it, because the letters we read here don't show much - other than one musician obliged enough to some people so deeply engaged in some kind ideological warfare rooted in Yasser Arafat's legacy, which if one reads a little proves to be not that heroic of a persona, to be trying to coerce him using not very kind words into letting down his supporters, his band members, his managers and probably even quite justifiably accused of antisemitism, so that - wait, what was the reason. Music has the incredible of bringing peace. 'Another Brick in the Wall' is a masterpiece. And it works in this setting too... One of many in Pink Floyd's repertoire. As to the poem published above: the quality is undeniable. I would only argue, that being a fan of oral history, speaking to many a people of so different origins and letting them say what they stand for, the ones who weren't already giving up their own lives for some dead cause, all wanted and looked for peace and quietude, and no, it wasn't too much rope, they've gotten already - quite the opposite. Their eyes were saying 'give us enough rope', 'trust us, we'll manage, just don't send us more weapons, just give us a chance' maybe even 'give peace a chance'.
It begins in our heads.
All the best to all humans
No more bloodshed!
Peace