MOVING TO FRONT FROM APRIL 6–SEE THE UPDATE, FOR A CONTRARY VIEW

What a disgrace.  All those Americans who failed to denounce the criminal war of aggression against Iraq and yet are still invited to perform in their professional roles elsewhere should be up in arms!

UPDATE:  A philosopher from one of the Baltic countries writes:

I am a philosopher from Estonia and I saw your post on Netrebko (the soprano banned from Metropolitan opera in America). I almost always agree with you, but I think you are wrong on this.

Netrebko is not just some "Russian soprano". She is most recognised singer in the world. More importantly, she is known by anyone who cares to google to have acted as a willing posterchild of the Russian government for many years. She has advocated for Putin and his policies, she has publicly donated to his reelection, paraded with the separatist Donetsk flag for a global audience for many years, said in interviews that she admires Putin ("I wish I had had an affair with him") etc. etc. Do you really find it abbhorent to ask somebody with this professed views and long history to distance themselves from a genocidal tyrant before being allowed to perform? Really? (Should Leni Riefenstahl have kept her gigs in America during the world war?)

You mention the people who failed to speak up against the illegal Iraq war. They should be ashamed. But not speaking up is very far away from actively giving your fame and public image to whitewash a vile dictator. And you know what: those people who did acted as a propaganda mouthpiece for the lies of Bush and Rumsfeld (like Netrebko has for Putin), they should be ostracised like she has been. Maybe you disagree with this, but I don't think it is crazy.