XTC singer Andy Partridge has been accused of anti-semitic tweets following an exchange about Middle East politics.
The songwriter runs the official XTC account, and often veers into areas such as religion and politics.
Discussing the Middle East, one follower accused the state of Israel of attempting to engineer a "one world banking and government system" which they would control.
A classic anti-semitic trope, Andy Partridge seemed to support this, leading to criticism from some onlookers.
Andy Partridge of famous English rock band XTC sees Jewish conspiracies everywhere, even if he won’t name them as such. When called on it by a Jew, Partridge asks him why he won’t just become an atheist. pic.twitter.com/PgI1mOFr4Z
— John-Paul Pagano (@johnpaulpagano) May 15, 2019
The singer went on to clarify that he meant the "current regime of Israel".
Here’s Partridge’s explanation. He could simply be lying, but remember that conspiracy theories and the evil elites they identify are narratively fungible and polysemous, respectively. Partridge could quite sincerely believe he isn’t being anti-Semitic. He’s wrong. pic.twitter.com/j2ndul2iuf
— John-Paul Pagano (@johnpaulpagano) May 15, 2019
The conversation then swung towards the topic of Syria and Assad's actions, leading to this tweet:
You are incorrect. Don't tell me, those brave WHITE HELMETS put you up to it? https://t.co/wkO4Zz2eaP
— XTC (@xtcfans) May 15, 2019
The conversation quickly became emotive, with Andy Partridge strongly denying being anti-semitic:
Sadly had to block a few abusive people today.
Look if I want to criticise a country, my own included, that does NOT make me Anti Protestant. Likewise criticism of other countries doesn't make me Anti Buddhist, anti Jewish, anti Catholic, anti Muslim. ALL religion's stupid to me— XTC (@xtcfans) May 15, 2019
However he still came in for strong criticism from fans, with many believing that his explanations and apologies did not go far enough.
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