Ben Rhodes says using wealth to suppress dissent will backfire
Writer and foreign-policy commentator, former deputy national security adviser, posting on X
“When your only response to dissent is to use power and wealth to make it go away, you are going to have the opposite effect. People can see what’s happening in the Middle East with their eyes and don’t want to be told what they’re allowed to think by people who own stadiums.”
Source and context
Original post
About this source
Read directly from the post. The account is Ben Rhodes’s, with a bio identifying Pod Save the World and his authorship. The post quote-posts a Consequence report on Sheeran losing his supporting acts, which ties it explicitly to this dispute rather than to the conflict in general.
Before the quotation
Consequence had reported hours earlier that Sheeran was left without any opening acts or a backing band after the four supporting acts withdrew.
After the quotation
Rhodes does not name Macklemore, Sheeran or Robert Kraft. His reference to “people who own stadiums” tracks the venue owners at the centre of this dispute, and his characterisation of events in the Middle East is his own.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” speech and removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to Macklemore’s MetLife speech and his removal, Rhodes casts the response to that speech as an attempt to use power and wealth to make dissent disappear, and rejects the idea that stadium owners should determine what audiences may think. He defends the speech and criticises those who pressed for the removal. The quote-posted item about Sheeran losing his supporting acts establishes the connection to this dispute rather than to the wider conflict.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Macklemore
Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” speech and removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour
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