Would someone's extreme political views prevent you being in a band with them, or working with them?

[Grooverjr]

I was in a band, many moons ago, where the singer professed himself to be racist. His best mate was black, our drummer was Indian. Guitarists were both in relationships with women born abroad as well. He got along with them all fine. We pointed out the obvious but he said "no they're alright, though". In other words, he wasn't really a racist he just kind of thought he was or he was a 'social bigot' who just aped what his family thought. If he had

[TimR]

2 hours ago, SimonK said:

 

The thing that ruined facebook for me was when they switched to more "intelligent" algorithms rather than just putting in sequence whatever your friends happened to be posting. Straight away this destroyed what originally made facebook a good idea, which for me was getting in touch with people I hadn't seen or heard from for ages. Now it's just bland rubbish (albeit quite bass focussed for me). Sadly most people I found interesting to be in touch with left facebook many years ago.

 

You can switch your feed to Friends. 

 

It still has adverts, but not all the other nonsense. 

[Cat Burrito]

I'm not ignoring the original post but I do worry that with algorithms, we are fed our own narrative and this has in some way contributed to a huge divide amongst people. I have friends who hold the polar opposite of my views and I genuinely value the banter we have. 

 

In terms of somebody being racist, sexist, homophobic (& I would add prejudice against the disabled), I couldn't be in a group with them. Especially as extreme views often come with the "everyone is entitled to my opinion" view. Given the lyrical themes of my originals band, I think it's unlikely those sorts of people would be knocking down the door to work with me. 

 

I have made music with people who vote very differently to me and I have focused on the overall person, their musicianship, enthusiasm, passion and whether they are good company. Generally though, most of my band mates seem to hold similar views to me. 

[SimonK]

 

It's a nice sentiment that social media makes people sound more extreme, but I made the mistake of listening to a LBC radio phone in yesterday while driving... breathtaking both the views of the presenter and the people who called in. If anyone needs an argument against democracy a radio phone in provides it.

Edited 40 minutes ago by SimonK

[tegs07]

42 minutes ago, SimonK said:

 

It's a nice sentiment but I made the mistake of listening to a LBC radio phone in yesterday while driving... breathtaking both the views of the presenter and the people who called in. If anyone needs an argument against democracy a radio phone in provides it.

Democracy does appear to be in its death throes. For much of history there were basically two political parties in most democratic nations. As a gross simplification one party supported the needs of the working majority and sought to level the playing field and re-allocate resources. The other was motivated by the concept of deregulation, free trade and represented the interests of the owners of production.

 

The sorry state of politics now is largely down to these peripheral ideological differences that do nothing to address the problems that most of us are experiencing. Wake up people you’re being manipulated and your pockets are being picked. The circumstances that are conspiring against you are not caused by anyones gender, religion, passport or sexuality and likewise focusing on these things will not pay for your groceries or pay your rent.

Edited 28 minutes ago by tegs07

[Cat Burrito]

40 minutes ago, SimonK said:

 

It's a nice sentiment that social media makes people sound more extreme, but I made the mistake of listening to a LBC radio phone in yesterday while driving... breathtaking both the views of the presenter and the people who called in.

I agree. To be clear, I was referring to everything online, not just social media. It stands to reason that if someone only watches GB News or only reads the Guardian, they are getting that one perspective. Whilst I am sure that most intelligent people get their information from a range of sources, there are plenty that only get fed stuff from Facebook or the Daily Mail. 

[Leonard Smalls]

There is the other side of the coin though...

A few years ago I was in a funk-metal band (!), and the guitarist was what you would call an ordinary geezer. Great player, but liked to make risqué jokes about "birds". Nothing to off-colour, or Bernard Manning but some might find it a touch offensive.

Which our drummer did...

However, he was considerably more right-on than yow, had virtually zero sense of humour and took offence at absolutely anything, especially if he thought there might be some sort of imagined slight against the Welsh. And he'd constantly have a go at guitarman as well as telling us both what we should be thinking.

Eventually Mr Guitar left, and that was the end of the band.

Which was a shame as he was good to play with , but drummerboy had a poor sense of timing and kept doing overblown and out-of-place fills that he insisted were from "The Rudiments" but always ended at least a beat late and usually much more...