The Empire Has Accidentally Caused the Rebirth of Real Counterculture in the West
Everyone’s still talking about Bob Vylan, and rightly so. A crowd full of westerners happily being led through a chant of “Death, death to the IDF” at the 2025 Glastonbury Festival was a historical landmark moment for the 21st century, and the group’s persecution at the hands of western governments is once again highlighting the way our society’s purported values of free thought and free expression go right out the window wherever Israel is concerned.
But one thing that’s not getting enough attention is the fact that many, many other acts also spoke out in support of Palestine at that same festival, and that the crowd was full of attendees waving Palestinian flags. Supporting Palestine and opposing Israel’s genocidal atrocities is just what’s cool now.
This is a massive cultural development, because it means we are seeing the emergence of actual, meaningful rebellion in western counterculture for the first time arguably since the Vietnam War. The artists and their fans aren’t just talking the talk of sticking it to the establishment anymore.
For generations the ruling class has been successfully stomping out all politically relevant counterculture, first in the form of direct frontal assault by official government operations like COINTELPRO, and then by the way all major platforms and studios are owned by plutocrats who benefit from the imperial status quo and refuse to elevate anyone who might pose a threat to it.
There have of course been countless artists in every generation who put on a rebellious face and give the finger to authority, but they’ve never presented any kind of threat to real power. Punk rockers who sing “fuck the man” but never advance any actual tangible causes. Satanic panic bands and shock rock superstars scaring church ladies and stirring culture wars. Bands voicing criticisms of the Iraq invasion but making it about
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