Neil Young demands Spotify remove his music.

One thing I know about Neil Young is the when he was a child he contacted Polio.
He spent weeks and weeks in hospital having some really horrible treatment and eventually when released he had to learn how to walk again.
He still suffers with slight epilepsy, he has had surgery on his brain and has had 2 children with cerebral palsy.
Some doctors have linked this to his Polio in young life.
A few years after he suffered with polio a vaccine was introduced more or less eliminating the disease, a tremendous vaccine, saving many many children's lives, this is probably why he is so pro the vaccine for covid. He sees the massive benefits of vaccines.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
Neil Toung is no more a medical expert than Rogan is, so both are essentially expressing personal opinions.
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That’s an incredibly dishonest view of things isn’t it? Joe Rogan is expressing an uninformed, ignorant view on covid that he’s not qualified to give, and Neil Young is supporting a campaign stated by hundreds of qualified doctors who want Spotify to stop him spreading known and proven misinformation.
Also Spotify has made its bed by removing thousands of episodes of podcasts for spreading misinformation. So your argument that “no one is forcing them to listen” isn’t valid. Spotify have taken on editorial responsibility and are simply shirking it on Rogan because they pay him so much.
 
Bill Walker said:
No petty or childish when it comes to saving lives.
Nearly every person who is now dying of covid here in Australia is either very old or unvaxxed.
Mostly, about 80% unvaxxed.
These lives could've been saved.
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Do you seriously think anyone reading about this action will think to themselves "Shit. Neil Young's boycotting Spotify. I'd better get vaccinated?"
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
Petty & childish. If people want to listen to Rogan then they will. Neil Toung is no more a medical expert than Rogan is, so both are essentially expressing personal opinions. I've made the point many times that there is never just one way to look at things. Spotify isn't forcing anyone to listen to those podcasts or any other output (including Neil Young songs).

Van Morrison is another anti-vaxxer who has used his music to express his views. I've seen Van the Man a few times and I'll continue to listen to him, just not this recent output. But I'm not refusing to listen to any of his stuff, deleting any digital content or throwing away physical media of his.

Neil Young is also entitled to his views and if he doesn't want his music on streaming platforms then it's up to him. In fact even before this, there were times when you couldn't get some of his albums on Spotify or Tidal, then they'd appear, then they'd disappear again.

I've willingly had all my vaccine shots, plus flu and pneumonia jabs and there's certainly solid data to show that these are beneficial but that doesn't mean we shouldn't ask questions or ignore potential side-effects. Or even question the whole political handling of Covid over the last 2 years. If Young is so worked up then why not go on the podcast and debate it?

It's like Sally Rooney refusing to have her last book published in Hebrew because of her views on the Palestinian situation. Many who might have read those books would quite possibly agree with her.
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Neil Young doesn’t need to go some Ranters Podcast to establish his credibility, or to reinforce the evidence of the overwhelming majority of the medical and science communities.

Yes it’s down to choice so expressing that choice isn’t petty and childish. Putting razor blades into hospital notice boards like some of the anti-vaxxers do is lowlife thuggery.
 
domalino said:
That’s an incredibly dishonest view of things isn’t it? Joe Rogan is expressing an uninformed, ignorant view on covid that he’s not qualified to give, and Neil Young is supporting a campaign stated by hundreds of qualified doctors who want Spotify to stop him spreading known and proven misinformation.
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I also said that the data supports the view that the vaccine is beneficial, which is absolutely my view as well. But if I want to understand anything, I'll listen to experts on the subject, not ageing rockers or shock jocks.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
Do you seriously think anyone reading about this action will think to themselves "Shit. Neil Young's boycotting Spotify. I'd better get vaccinated?"
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Thats bollocks.
Neil Young has stated publicly that he does not want to be on the same platform that promotes anti vaccination.
End of story.
Joni Mitchell has joined him. I hope others do.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
I also said that the data supports the view that the vaccine is beneficial, which is absolutely my view as well. But if I want to understand anything, I'll listen to experts on the subject, not ageing rockers or shock jocks.
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That’s completely irrelevant.

The fact you don’t believe the lies and misinformation pumped out by Rogan has absolutely no relevance to whether proven misinformation should be given a massive platform and promoted without checks or rebuttal.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
I also said that the data supports the view that the vaccine is beneficial, which is absolutely my view as well. But if I want to understand anything, I'll listen to experts on the subject, not ageing rockers or shock jocks.
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I simply can't believe you are that blinkered you don't understand why he has removed himself from Spotify. It's very simple, he believes in vaccination.
Spotify promote the opposite.
 
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domalino said:
That’s completely irrelevant.

The fact you don’t believe the lies and misinformation pumped out by Rogan has absolutely no relevance to whether proven misinformation should be given a massive platform and promoted without checks or rebuttal.
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I've heard his name but have no idea who Rogan is and certainly haven't listened to him. I just googled him and certainly don't agree with some of his or his guests' reported views on covid. But if i listened to him on other subjects then there might be things he says that I do agree with.

I agree that Spotify should, as other platforms do, warn listeners against blatant misinformation that flies in the face of well-established evidence. But when you start with one party demanding total deplatforming of someone who holds the opposing view to you, then you're looking at going down a rabbit hole frankly.

And many of Young's fans may absolutely agree with his views but he's denied those with Spotify accounts the chance of listening to his music. That's plain wrong in my opinion.
 
crooky said:
Showing my age a bit (and lack of culture...) but I've honestly never heard of Neil Young.

776th most listened to artist on Spotify so I would assume there's a lot of people who haven't heard of him either.

chartmasters.org

Most-Streamed Artists on Spotify (daily update)

See the most streamed artists on Spotify. Updated daily with the latest rankings for the top 1,000 artists.
chartmasters.org
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Noel Gallagher once said he listens to Neil Young more than anyone other artist.

Here’s a good article on what Noel thinks of him:
faroutmagazine.co.uk

The only musician that left Noel Gallagher starstruck

Looking at former Oasis man Noel Gallagher and his love of Neil Young, who is his dream artist to jam with, and the only person he's been in 'awe' of meeting.
faroutmagazine.co.uk faroutmagazine.co.uk
 
Bill Walker said:
One thing I know about Neil Young is the when he was a child he contacted Polio.
He spent weeks and weeks in hospital having some really horrible treatment and eventually when released he had to learn how to walk again.
He still suffers with slight epilepsy, he has had surgery on his brain and has had 2 children with cerebral palsy.
Some doctors have linked this to his Polio in young life.
A few years after he suffered with polio a vaccine was introduced more or less eliminating the disease, a tremendous vaccine, saving many many children's lives, this is probably why he is so pro the vaccine for covid. He sees the massive benefits of vaccines.
Click to expand...
As did Joni Mitchell
 
Bill Walker said:
One thing I know about Neil Young is the when he was a child he contacted Polio.
He spent weeks and weeks in hospital having some really horrible treatment and eventually when released he had to learn how to walk again.
He still suffers with slight epilepsy, he has had surgery on his brain and has had 2 children with cerebral palsy.
Some doctors have linked this to his Polio in young life.
A few years after he suffered with polio a vaccine was introduced more or less eliminating the disease, a tremendous vaccine, saving many many children's lives, this is probably why he is so pro the vaccine for covid. He sees the massive benefits of vaccines.
Click to expand...
My 88 year-old mother was sick as a child and remembers her doctor thinking she might have contracted polio which she said was the scariest thing she can remember from her youth. Fortunately she didn't have it, but I had never heard this story from her until she brought it up last year when talking about how important the vaccine was to her.

I still don't see this as Young trying to de-platform anyone because the consequences for him were the same. "Either he goes or I do" is a trope and if you mean it you in effect are saying you are willing to give up a lot for something important to you. If Young had merely demanded Rogan be removed/silenced while knowing there'd be no consequences to him that would be different.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
I've heard his name but have no idea who Rogan is and certainly haven't listened to him. I just googled him and certainly don't agree with some of his or his guests' reported views on covid. But if i listened to him on other subjects then there might be things he says that I do agree with.

I agree that Spotify should, as other platforms do, warn listeners against blatant misinformation that flies in the face of well-established evidence. But when you start with one party demanding total deplatforming of someone who holds the opposing view to you, then you're looking at going down a rabbit hole frankly.

And many of Young's fans may absolutely agree with his views but he's denied those with Spotify accounts the chance of listening to his music. That's plain wrong in my opinion.
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I don't see it this way. If you are willing to risk being deprogrammed yourself as a consequence for them refusing you, you're giving the host a choice.

Whatever his personal beliefs -- some of which I agree with -- my view is that Rogan is an absolute whore, hosting a show that anyone could were they willing to take the moral approach that "any and all theories should be discussed regardless of truth or consequences because that sells to the broadest audience."

He's not at all dissimilar to some of the media you and others spend a lot of time decrying for expressing dimwitted anti-City views for clicks on Twitter, only a great degree more popular, with much greater distribution, taking a more wide-ranging approach to many topics.
 
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