I just spent the last week at the Ozora Psytrance music festival in Hungary and it was a pretty amazing experience, especially as it was the first music festival I've ever been to.

What I was not prepared for however, was the gobsmacking amount of Israeli propaganda just absolutely everywhere, and it only got more and more blatant as the week went. I'm being made to understand that this is actually fairly normal and apparently "Israelis love colonizing festivals". Apparently they also really love psytrance festivals, and used every opportunity to invoke the memory of the NOVA psytrance festival that was caught in the crossfire on Oct. 7th.

I posted a direct response about it in the festival subreddit here, but I feel like there is so much left unsaid.

The whole thing being rooted in psychedelics just adds several additional points. First, it is straight up baaaad vibes, in place where "vibes" are super important, the constant barrage of blatant propaganda just absolutely pollutes the headspace. I found myself being unable to ignore it at multiple levels of tripping. The propaganda spanned from the more mild but still blatant "in remembrance of" sorta stuff, up to straight war propaganda including what I can only describe as "Star of David Totenkopf" which is probably the most disgusting thing I've seen in awhile (I'll attach it as the main image).

It's a psychedelic hippie festival, everyone wants to be yoga, free love, and good vibes, no one wants to escalate or fight the Israelis, so they go entirely unconfronted on their disregard for everyone around them.

I'm also trying to process how psychedelics revolutionary potential appears to be completely captured, how they were meant to be a tool to free the mind from fascism, but then here it appears to be made near totally inert, incorporated into this new sort of "Candy Fascism". I get how a type of nihilistic hedonism is part of fascism, but how this has actually developed boggles me.

  • Philosophosphorous [comrade/them, null/void]
    ·
    3 months ago

    anyone doing LSD or shrooms for recreational purposes is a fucking moron. lol yeah i'd like to 'dance' (aimlessly wander and wonder wtf i'm supposed to be doing with my body) in public with a bunch of drunks while i have the worst muscle soreness ever while re-living every single instance of trauma in my entire life while in psychic communion with the grass i'm walking on listening to it sing a song about focusing on fun stuff instead of sad stuff and then finishing it all off with an 18 hour long crying session in my bed thinking about my dead mom and contemplating self harm and suicide while everyone else i know is somehow asleep despite taking the same sleep-preventing drugs. sounds like a fucking blast better invite the bros.

    • Philosophosphorous [comrade/them, null/void]
      ·
      3 months ago

      i should specify i think psychedelics can be useful to self reflection etc. in controlled circumstances far far away from alcohol and strangers and with appropriate preparations (i wouldn't advise doing LSD for example immediately after a workout or during an event where you will perform an unusual/unprecedented amount of physical activity, and i would also personally advise against any greasy or sugary snacks or foods or any beverages other than water or maybe tea)