The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest: Winners & Stand Outs Pt.5

This is best read as a continuation of Part 4; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-2018-eurovision-song-contest_19.html

Hungary: This year they were represented by AWS with the song; "Vizlat Nyar (Goodbye Summer).

AWS are a heavy metal band formed in 2006 with three albums to their name. A recurring theme of their work is juxtaposing images of celebrity and wealth with images of violence and poverty. This puts them in the Situationist school of art.

With its roots in Surrealism and Dadaism Situationalism centres around subverting a situation. In order to make the observer question the situation itself and how they think about it.

One example I'm particularly familiar with is; "Guerrilla Gardening" which emerged as a form of environmental protest. It involves things like planting flowers in the cracks in the pavement in order to bring the natural world into the urban environment. Thus forcing the observer to explore the way that man is encroaching into and damaging the natural environment.

Situationalism has enjoyed a long relationship with Graffiti art. One of the largest examples I can think of is the artists Banksy's "Walled Off Astoria" project. Between Israel and the Palestinian West Bank there is a massive security barrier. In the shadow of this big concrete wall Banksy has built a hotel based on the famous Waldorf Astoria. It's a luxury hotel in a place that absolutely no-one wants to visit.

Here AWS have been trying to examine the Song Contest's relationship with the gay community and gay rights issues. By bringing a song which has quite homophobic undertones to an event which is widely considered a beacon of gay rights within Europe.

February and March saw the 2018 Winter Olympics and Para-Olympics held in PyeongChang in the Republic of Korea (RoK/South). As the big, global social/political event this frequently referenced the Eurovision Song Contest. As Europe's big social/political events.

One of the big topics of discussion at the 2018 games was the practice of making false claims of foreign aggression in order to rig elections.

Ahead of the RoK's 2012 Election the incumbent President Lee Myung-bak decided that there was a threat of foreign interference in the election. Specifically from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK/North). This allowed Lee to task the RoK's equivalent of the FBI with setting up a special unit to rig the election in favour of Lee's designated successor Park Geun-hye under the guise of protecting South Koreans from foreign interference.

Ahead of the US 2016 Election the incumbent President Barack Obama decided that there was a threat of foreign interference in the election. Specifically from Russia. This allowed Obama to task the FBI with setting up a special unit to rig the election in favour of Obama's designated successor Hillary Clinton under the guise of protecting Americans from foreign interference.

Obama's attempt to rig the 2016 Election of course failed. Hillary Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump. So the FBI's work quickly morphed into an attempt to overthrow the elected President Donald Trump in the form of an investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Needless to say Mueller's anti-democratic and treason efforts were widely trashed at the 2018 games. Particularly by the US' closest friends and allies.

So during the games - on February 14th (14/2/18) - Mueller's FBI team 'forgot' to intervene to stop a young man shooting up the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This resulted in the deaths of 17 students.

Obviously in the midst of such a tragedy suddenly no-one in America was watching what was going on at the Winter Olympics. Through retired agent Kevin Hogg and his son David the FBI teamed up with the Democrat Party to keep this distraction going. Through a series of marches and political campaigns which continue even now.

So while the world was watching Mueller and his claims of foreign interference being torn apart America was focused entirely on the issue of gun control. Particularly the April 20th 1999 (20/4/99) shooting at the Columbine High School in Colorado. That resulted in the deaths of 13 students along with the two perpetrators.

In the nearly 20 years since the Columbine shooting the US has become extremely good at profiling and stopping the type of troubled teens who would carry out a school shooting. This is true of the federal level right down to front line teachers.

That makes it extremely hard to explain why the FBI failed to act to prevent Nikolas Cruz carrying out the Parkland shooting. Despite being warned about him and the threat he posed on no fewer than 23 separate occasions.

Columbine though was really the first mass school shooting. As a result it triggered a sort of mass panic in America as people scrambled to work out what would drive otherwise nice boys from good families to commit such an horrific act.

One theory popularised by the religious right is that they had been brainwashed into it by the demonic heavy metal music. Specifically the music of Marilyn Manson.

At the time Marilyn Manson was dating Rose McGowan who has recently become very famous for her activism in bringing Harvey Weinstein to justice. So that conversation road is certainly open, if you want to take it.

In societies where homophobia is still widespread such as Russia or Hungary people feel the same moral panic over the Song Contest.

It is the gay music which is brainwashing otherwise nice boys from good families to commit these horrific and shameful acts. Therefore you must pass laws banning this type of gay propaganda and brainwashing.

The video in support of the song clearly highlights this issue. It juxtaposes AWS performing with home movie footage of them growing up. It reveals quite a happy and prosperous upbringing with the boys horse riding, sailing and crucially being very active in the Church. Making you wonder what went so wrong that they would start playing this angry music and want to appear at a gay event such as Eurovision.

In tackling this type of homophobic attitudes the Song Contest really doesn't do itself any favours. As the beacon of gay rights in Europe it does have a tendency to present itself as a sort of brainwashed cult.

It involves people gathering together in an arena to wave flags and chant repetitively while all listening to the same music. Due to the unspoken convention that during Eurovision you can only talk about Eurovision it even seems to have its own secret language which outsiders need to be initiated into.

The music issue was particularly bad in the early 2000's when the competition was opened up to all the new eastern European nations. They saw the Song Contest as a way to boost their profile and establish their national identity. As a result they all entered the type of song that they thought Eurovision fans would like in an effort to win.

This led to the Song Contest becoming essentially the same gay pop song being played 41 times on a loop.

One interesting thing I've noticed is that as homophobia has reduced within societies it has led to the dispelling of this myth of; "gay music." Gay people now seem to have the freedom to come out and say that actually they don't like listening to Kylie Minogue and they don't like listening to show tunes. They'd much rather listen to something like this or the Netherlands' Country inspired entry.

Eurovision fans also seem to be obsessed with homosexuality. At the expense of all other issues. This has led to the sort of errors of judgement which at best make them appear feeble minded and at worst mentally ill.

The prime example is Eurovision fans support for Shamali Province as a way to spite Russia and its anti-gay propaganda laws. Created from the ruins of Ukraine Shamali Province is run by Nazi groups who fought as the 1st Galician Division of the Waffen SS. With their pink triangles and death camps Nazis are certainly no friends of the gay community nor supporters of gay rights.

Of course what makes Eurovision fans resemble a strange cult is not that they're mentally ill people who've been brainwashed into homosexuality. It is that they are a sub-culture brought together by a shared interest.

You could level the same charge against football fans during the recent World Cup. They all gather together in arenas to wear the same clothes, wave the same flags and chant the same songs.

They too have a sort of secret language that newcomers need to be initiated into. What I like about the World Cup is that I can talk to someone in Nigeria about a match between Mexico and Japan being played in Russia and we'll instantly understand each other.

Obviously though it can be difficult to get people who have not been initiated into the sub-culture and don't want to be to understand that.

At the 2018 games one the nations that was most critical of Mueller was the Netherlands.

In July 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Shamali Province. Under Obama the US attempted to blame Russia. The implication being that it was a deliberate act in retaliation for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 during the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia.

The Netherlands who conducted the MH17 investigation very strongly disagreed with the US on this. They concluded the main cause of the crash was the US instructing a passenger aircraft to be flown into a combat zone where aircraft were being shot down on a regular basis. The Dutch also rejected electronic evidence provided by the US regarding the missile launch site. The implication being that this had been falsified by the US.

During the 2018 games the Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra resigned. He had claimed to have attended a meeting in which Russian President Vladimir Putin had claimed he was trying to build a new Russian Empire in eastern Europe. Zijlstra was forced to resign after it emerged that he had simply made this up.

In the week following the 2018 Song Contest the new Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok made his first visit to the US on May 18th (18/5/18). This event was marked by yet another school shooting. This time at the Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas resulting in the deaths of ten people.

As with the Columbine shooting the Santa Fe shooting was carried out with a shotgun. Revealing the futility of Mueller and the Democrats campaign to ban all semi-automatic rifles in the wake of the Parkland shooting. It also drew a response from Kelly Clarkson at the Billboard Music Awards held on May 20th (20/5/18). Kelly Clarkson was of course part of the inspiration behind Israel's 2018 winning entry.

Stef Blok's difficult visit to the US led to a reversal of the Dutch position on MH17. On May 24th (24/5/18) the Dutch dropped their objections to the US' electronic evidence being included in the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) report. Despite that 'evidence' being thoroughly discredited more than a year ago.

Ironically within Russia the moral panic has moved on from concerns about homosexuality and gay propaganda. It is now obsessed with the actual Columbine shooting and so-called; "Columbine Communities."

These are a predominately online subculture that has emerged among Russian High School children. They glorify the Columbine shooting and venerate the shooters as some sort of heroes. They have triggered a rash of copycat style school attacks including three in the space of a week in January 2018.

On July 10th (10/7/18) the Russian Parliament passed a bill to empower the police to more effectively track and shutdown these Columbine Communities and crack down on what is being referred to as; "Suicide Propaganda."

That is just one of a few Columbine related stories which have been buzzing on the wires recently. In the UK on Friday (20/7/18) two High School boys were jailed for plotting a Columbine inspired attack.

This seems to have pricked a guilty conscience getting Mueller's team in the US worried that the net might be closing in on them over the Parkland and Santa Fe shootings.

On July 15th (15/7/18) the US arrested Russian national Maria Butina on charges of being a covert and therefore illegal Russian agent.

Founder of the Russian political group; "Right to Bear Arms" Butina has introduced herself to people and been filmed introducing herself as a representative of the Russian Federation. 

She operates a website in which she introduces herself as a representative of the Russian Federation. It details her life growing up in Soviet Siberia and operating a chain of furniture shops before moving to Moscow and then the US advocate for gun rights.

Today it is is being reported that Butina appeared before the US Senate Intelligence Committee in early 2018. There she introduced herself as a representative of the Russian Federation and provided details of  how her political group was funded by Konstantin Nikolaev.

In short the allegation that Butina was some sort of covert Russian agent is utterly bogus. 

However it does serve to take the pressure of Mueller's team by linking people asking difficult questions about the Parkland and Santa Fe shootings to this supposed vast Russian conspiracy.

16:45 on 23/7/18 (UK date).