12 hours ago, MigL said:

Music is not an instrument; it is a composition.

... or an interpretive performance of that composition, maybe?

My comment was directed at a pretty abysmal pedagogical method - akin to how I was taught to play the recorder at age 5 by having the edge of a ruler crack my knuckles whenever I played a wrong note. Your reply seems non sequitur. A misunderstanding perhaps?

12 hours ago, MigL said:

You would be surprised what a former member of Depeche Mode could do with a Casio in 1982, along with Alison Moyet.

I was thinking more of this minimalist masterpiece

12 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Music is the art and can be expressed in any form. You don't have to be an artisan/craftsman with some instrument to make music. A person that can create perfect copies is not an artist, even though their skill may be immense; s/he is a technician. Skill alone does not make an artist.

Ditto, really.

Though if the performer lacks the basic technique a piece demands, it's really difficult to make it a musical experience for the audience.

Florence Foster Jenkins springs to mind.

Yeah, I know what you meant.
It is the use of the instrument that matters, even a 'lowly' Casio.

To me these kinds of conspiracy theories are more in the disturbing (that people promote them and believe them) but kinda amusing category. End of the world from Earth going out of orbit, contrails are a delivery system for mind control substances, arrival of aliens, presence of secret aliens etc.

It is when conspiracy theories have strong media and political support that they are problematic, eg that global warming science is something made up by enemies of freedom and national sovereignty and legitimate businesses or vaccines are dangerous, should not be mandated and their use discouraged. Those kill people and, distressingly, can and will do so in large numbers.

14 hours ago, Ken Fabian said:

It is when conspiracy theories have strong media and political support that they are problematic, eg that global warming science is something made up by enemies of freedom and national sovereignty and legitimate businesses or vaccines are dangerous, should not be mandated and their use discouraged. Those kill people and, distressingly, can and will do so in large numbers.

Ties in with what was discussed earlier - attacking the credibility of legitimate science and people losing trust in it, opening the door for the conspiracies to spread. Media becoming entertainment and going for “clicks” rather than quality journalism makes that worse.

2 hours ago, swansont said:

Ties in with what was discussed earlier - attacking the credibility of legitimate science and people losing trust in it, opening the door for the conspiracies to spread. Media becoming entertainment and going for “clicks” rather than quality journalism makes that worse.

Plus, especially younger folks are getting less information what traditionally counted as media. For quite a large swath social media such as tiktok are the main source of information. I.e. these things spread without traditional journalistic routes.