Comment of the Moment: Neil Young's Love Earth Tour of Europe Kickoff in UKRAINE + Freedom of Speech
(Click photo to enlarge)
Last week, Neil Young announced that his Love Earth Tour of Europe would kickoff with a free benefit concert in Ukraine.
This week, Neil Young's wife Daryl Hannah declared "SLAVA UKRAINE" while presenting an Oscar at the Academy Awards Ceremony on March 2, 2025.
Naturally -- of course -- this provoked both support and outrage amongst the Neil Young fans communities. See for yourself ... or not.
Which brings us to our Comment of the Moment on Neil Young's Love Earth Tour of Europe Kickoff in UKRAINE by a longtime Thrasher's Wheat reader, supporter and commenter Dionys:
As long as self-taught simpletons and conspirationists are defining history and present events on this blog I am outta here. You may call this "free speech", I call this unrestrained and purposeful political diarrhea.
Sorry for you feel this way Dionys. As you're well aware, freedom of speech is paramount here at TW. And we still have trouble understanding Neil fans who don't universally support free speech. Paradoxically perprlexing.
'If the freedom of speech is taken away then
dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.'
~~ George Washington
Like we said in our comment on this subject: so you go away on sabbatical for a few weeks and come back here and go... maybe time to take another sabbatical?!
But seriously. Does it get anymore serious than love and war?
But seriously. Does it get anymore serious than love and war?
"When I sing about love and war
I don't really know what I'm saying"
The Ukraine free benefit concert seems to be a classic 60s/70s Neil move. Zoom in on the issue of our times and inject self. that's our man
From Kent State & Vietnam, American Dream and Central American rebels, Living with War and Iraq/Gulf war #2, Neil never sat on sidelines. Right or wrong Neil stood and delivered ans was counted and heard.
This is what we do here @ TW. A "safe place" to discuss difficult subjects. Normally, folks are pretty chill on their disagreements.
Like Knowledge Nomad observed in comments, folks such these are rarely to be found on the Internet. We'd like to push back a bit here to say that @ TW, disagreeable debates certainly have a less, violent and vulgar tone. Although we have rec'd a wave of Neil death threats in comments this week. Highly disturbing.
But we carry on for all of our rustie grain friends.
So, as Graham Nash sings in "Chicago":
(We can change) Yes, we can change the world
(Rearrange) Rearrange the world (It's dying)
If you believe in justice (It's dying)
And if you believe in freedom (It's dying)
Let a man live his own life (It's dying)
Rules and regulations, who needs them?
Open up the door
Labels: #WT1sWBW4, concert, love, neil young, schedule, tickets, tour, war
by thrasher@PermaLink: 3/07/2025 09:56:00 AM
15 comments
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15 Comments:
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There has obviously been a concerted effort over the past two decades by the powers that be to use their influence to create intense division among us. It’s no secret for anyone paying attention. And the more divided we become, the less power we have.
The advent of social media platforms has given rise to information being used as a weapon against us. And from my perspective, it has been incredibly effective.
Conspiracies as truth is the current political strategy to manipulate us. And one of the most effective tools by dictators throughout history, has been to control the narrative.
First; make sure that the narrative focuses on fear, and division. And second; create the conspiracy; then exploit it. Once people are convinced that only they know the truth, they are easier to manipulate.
It’s no surprise that our social media platforms have been infiltrated by outside influences that have been spreading misinformation like water. And it’s also no surprise that people in power have been using their influence to propagate this information for their own political gain.
The more divided we become, the weaker we are. The situation we find ourselves in is nothing new. It’s the classic case of divide and conquer.
Denial is one of the things that separates us humans from animals. Because we all have egos, and our ego rejects the idea that we could possibly be manipulated by outside forces. Unfortunately it appears that it’s easier than most of us think. Just study history, and you’ll see that it has been proven over and over again.
Remember too; that accusations made, can also be admission of guilt. From my perspective, it seems that the current administration is accusing the other side of doing exactly what they’re doing. Yet another successful tactic in manipulation.
Peace to all 🙏
To say the last few posts and comments have been interesting is an understatement to say the least but if nothing else reflect the current times we are experiencing. To @Dan I say do not let the bastards get you down and maybe take Thrasher's advice take a break. To @Thrasher I just want to take a moment to say my goodbyes. I have been a regular reader and the occasional poster for longer than I care to remember. The sense of community and Neil news has been staggering and the highlight for me was when I was able to help a fellow Rusty out and give them OG "Eldorade" CD, something they had been searching for a while. This was way before the current reissue. But over these last few months I have sensed a change in atmosphere as it were. Maybe it is the Big Shift as you say but whatever is happening it is change. So for me it is time to get off the bus after getting on via NYAS back in 1982. Concert tickets over $100.00, massive expensive box sets and the ever growing turn to subscription models it is time for me to say enough. Thrasher I will never be able to repay you for the pleasure you brought to me over the years regarding all things Neil except to say good luck with your relaunch, keep on keeping on and long may you run. All the best. Kevin D. in Morro Bay
Our planet; in reality, is simply a tiny speck in our galaxy. And our galaxy is simply a tiny speck in our universe. And so far we have not identified life (as we define it) anywhere else in the heavens.
There is absolutely nowhere else in our universe that we humans can exist. Nowhere!! So we are all stuck here on this tiny little speck. Yet we still haven’t found a way to get along with each other.
Imagine how much better served we all would be if we could find a way to just get along. If we were able to coexist as a species. If we could celebrate our differences instead of being fearful of each other.
I suspect this is the age old question that never seems to be answered. Why can’t we just get along.
I envision a world where we all share our experiences, and knowledge with each other. A world where no one goes hungry, and no one feels a sense of lack. A world where people are free to express themselves authentically, without prejudice.
Yes….. I understand….I’m being naïve, and unrealistic. “It’ll never happen” you say. Well if everyone says it’ll never happen, then it’ll never happen. But if everyone believed it could happen; then it would happen. So in reality; we’re all just surrendering to the fact that it can’t happen…..
I suspect I can’t be the only person on our tiny little speck that believes it can happen, but as long as we keep repeating history, I guess we’ll never find out if it’s possible.
Peace to all 🙏
@Dan: I see u read “pale blue dot”. It has affected me in the same way. Ditto for your first post, can’t recall reding that one elsewhere?
@Kevin D.: feel yer Neil $ pain. However, this must be said: NY vinyl is by far & away the best of pressings anywhere. & he includes a hi res dl
Toward that end, Oceanside/Countryside is unbelievably good. Great. Even IF you purchased the same songs X times. Guess i maybe just proved yer point?
Sorry to raise the mood.
Please. Continue.
This comment has been removed by the author.
“Let’s Make Music Great Again!, Don” - NY (pitching Pono to a NYC millionaire in attendance @ Carnegie Hall. Pre Presidential aspirations)
I just picked up the Oceanside/ Countryside vinyl, and it is remarkable. Fantastic pressing, and the all analog sound is absolutely superb. The track listing and sequencing is brilliant, and the clear vinyl is just impeccable throughout. I am extremely pleased with the purchase. Yet another perfect album to enjoy.
Peace 🙏
@ Kevin D : Thanks so much for the Eldorado EP! I do love it. I am sorry you feel the need to say goodbye. I don’t buy the vinyl anymore due to cost. I am trying to squeak by. Come meet me in Bend and we can hear the show for free. The world is changing fast. This next part is going to be hugely important & consequential. I couldn’t stay away from this fight. Millions in DC, when will Trump give the order to fire on the protesters? It’s time to sharpen the ax and chop it down like a dead old tree.
Neil Young dropping a new album seems perfect as Americans turn on Trump. DT is learning about the economy in real time, perhaps for the first time. Hundreds of Kentuckians out of work at Jack Daniel’s. King Dumb Ass will Roast in Hell with Jeffery Epstein. The Light will snuff out the darkness. We will not allow our country to be destroyed by the sociopath simpleton. Let them Love! My prayer…
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
Daryl and Neil are certainly late to the ‘Slava Ukraine’ party. A whole lot of other celebrities got paid good money three years ago for photos with Zelensky. Meanwhile, Ukraine are desperately dragging guys out of their homes to send to the front line and up to 70,000 have been lost in the pointless Kursk offensive. For me as a longtime NY fan my sense is increasingly that like all boomer hippies he has always followed the current fashionable moral virtue signalling thing. Thats why he leapt onto both Kent State and Ukraine from his rich mans tower. I am even beginning to reframe his apparently wonderful risky artistic pivots. Did he really risk his career with Everyone’s Rockin and Trans or was he eagerly following the strong 80s fashion first for electronics and then the retro trend for the 50s, but simply didnt get it right musically? He certainly got the sell your back catalog for millions trend right.
@David R: NY certainly did get the “selling of the back catalog thing right”! I just heard Springsteen’s “Born to Run” in a commercial with a kid in diapers running away from parents. Allman Bros, Bob Seeger, Fleetwood Mac, Stones, Who, etc., etc. honestly, I don’t even recall the products. But I can name those tunes! Can’t say I’ve EVER heard a NY tune (other than illegit pres “Rocking in the Free World”. Ironic, that I will remember that tune as “The Donald” dismantles the so called “Free World”. Freedom ain’t Free.
But it can be given away fer next to nothing, to the highest bidder.
The Art of the Steal.
Dionys is right. Expertise is now disregarded across the board. We should not engage with these people. Is there some reason to think that free speech, as in unbridled, uncontrolled, totally undisciplined speech, will not have bad results? Free speech does not give the right for someone to spread misinformation and dangerous idiocy.
Part I (of two)
All comparisons are limping somehow, but still I won’t give up on this: „free speech“ may be paramount on this blog and it’s a worthy thing to defend it, like pacifism by the way. However, there are many situations where “free speech” is not helpful, but harming other people, mostly people who for reasons of self-defense demand unlimited speech to be limited. To demand that victims have just to make use of their right to “free speech” when “free speech” is used as a weapon against them, is blue-eyed and cynical at worst.
(With regards to this also read beyond the famous first paragraphs of Kant’s Essay on “What is Enlightenment?”)
Nobody in a fully seated theatre just can yell out “Fire!” and claiming afterwards to just have exercised his or her right to “free speech”.
You do not want to have emergengy room staff discuss your treatment by exchanging various opinions about how to react to the emergency.
Ergo: Under existential threats “free speech” is not helpful.
It is agreed, a democracy is based on the free exchange of information and opinion. That’s the position of the 18th century (Kant, French and American Revolutions). The 18th century could neither foresee the modern mass society and their mass media nor the highly accelerating digital technology of the recent decades. It’s questionable to insist on absolute 18th century principles if the framework under which these principles have been developed doesn’t exist anymore and a new framework ist needed. Traffic rules for horse drawn wagons being applied to todays traffic, you get the picture. As the examples above show, also in former times “free speech” never was unlimited, not even in the US. So while the American constitution and its amendmends served their purpose very well for two and a half centuries, it’s about time to rethink a few givens that are not givens any more.
Part II (of two)
The current behaviour of American corporate media is one issue. Unlike in the past they do not play their paramount role: living, exercising and defending “free speech” (Just look up the pages on NYA relating to that).
Secondly, the undermining of the checks and balance system, the pride of true American patriots, has been so effective that none of the three main institutions remains undamaged, and in the case of the executive and the legislative branch at present they even became dysfunctional.
The other issue comes into focus if you are not sitting behind your (American) garden fence. Recently the vice-president of the not so United States in a statement regarding his reading of “free speech” in Germany met with the representatives of the ultra-right party “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) and snubbing all other political parties. He and also the current South African executive governor of the US claimed that there is no real “free speech” in Germany, basically touting lines of the AfD. Needless to say that the AfD follows an agenda which would curtail any “free speech” in Germany. (We have been there before, thanks a lot.) Thanks by the way to wise Americans after 1945 who helped design our constitution, we have been fine with laws who forbid hate speech, racist speech and Nazi language in public. These under our jurisdiction are not covered by “free speech” but fall under instigation of “racial hatred”, a federal crime for which you might get canned or heavily fined for example.
It is obvious that American digital moguls dislike regulation of their activities: with the German and EU majority and their digital legislation projects something like “X” will have to spend a lot of money sanitizing their digital outhouse and will be challenged on many of their deliberately spread falsehoods serving their political and economical agenda. Something that apparently is totally in order under American protection of so-called free speech. No thanks, again. Which brings us to the key problem. In an unique alliance between the current protection racket that figures as the US government’s top level and the magnificent seven digital giants time and again you could see and not just from the outside that their “free speech” ist not yours, Snow White, because you don’t have the money nor the bandwidth to create separate “realities”. So Beanstalk-Jack, if you want to discuss with a cannibal whether he’ll have you for breakfast or maybe not, good luck to you (and your hyper morals).
A special interest place like this blog dedicated to Neil Young, an artist who by his art stringently has sided with what we on both sides of the Atlantic used to call a set of common western values, will have to deal with the fact, that those falsely claiming adherence to these values in order to establish a social-darwinist, authoritarian society are misusing free speech and need to be reigned in. The other options are playing the martyr or being overlooked because of irrelevance.
If George Washington and all those other founding fathers would have been fundamentalists, there never would have been a United States. Luckily these guys were up to their time. So to translate the quote into the 21st century: If we let the freedom of speech be used by the dumb they may silence us, to have us led like sheep to the slaughter.
Just a reminder: a constitution written in stone can’t breathe and it’s not for the living.
A sincere appreciation here Dionys for the time and effort on a subject and human right of utmost importance to all humans on EARTH: The right to free speech. Please see our reply @
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2025/03/comment-of-moment-freedom-of-speech.html
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