Rage Against the Machine to Paul Ryan: We Don't Like You

There's always Megadeath y Ted Nugent.

 

I have 13 people on my ignore list. The only ones I remembered were bigtexxx and ronny. I'm pretty curious as to why I ignored some of them.

 

That is a profound insight.

 

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Sure you will. I'm sure I'll never hear from you again. lol.

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...-the-machine-our-music-rages-against-20120816

Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against'
Rage Against the Machine's guitarist blasts Romney's VP pick and unlikely Rage fan

By TOM MORELLO
August 16, 2012 6:44 PM ET
Last week, Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan, the Republican architect of Congress's radical right-wing budget plan, as his running mate. Ryan has previously cited Rage Against the Machine as one of his favorite bands. Rage guitarist Tom Morello responds in this exclusive op-ed.

Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

Ryan claims that he likes Rage's sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don't care for Paul Ryan's sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "**** the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

Don't mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions.

You see, the super rich must rationalize having more than they could ever spend while millions of children in the U.S. go to bed hungry every night. So, when they look themselves in the mirror, they convince themselves that "Those people are undeserving. They're . . . lesser." Some of these guys on the extreme right are more cynical than Paul Ryan, but he seems to really believe in this stuff. This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket.

But Rage's music affects people in different ways. Some tune out what the band stands for and concentrate on the moshing and throwing elbows in the pit. For others, Rage has changed their minds and their lives. Many activists around the world, including organizers of the global occupy movement, were radicalized by Rage Against the Machine and work tirelessly for a more humane and just planet. Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening.

My hope is that maybe Paul Ryan is a mole. Maybe Rage did plant some sensible ideas in this extreme fringe right wing nut job. Maybe if elected, he'll pardon Leonard Peltier. Maybe he'll throw U.S. military support behind the Zapatistas. Maybe he'll fill Guantanamo Bay with the corporate criminals that are funding his campaign – and then torture them with Rage music 24/7. That's one possibility. But I'm not betting on it.

 

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=7132300&postcount=1

 

I like Malkovitch, Eastwood, Sinise, Heston and even Selleck onscreen.

In person I would rather support Batman Jones or someone who I can sorta get down with most of their politics (but I might be rebellious and eat some beef-jerky at the after-party)

But RATM is such a polar opposite of Paul Ryan it makes one wonder. It would be like me cooing and preening after Ayn Rand.

 

Oops. I thought I recognized the first paragraph but I hadn't seen the op-ed here in its entirety so I posted it. My bad. If I'd gone back to look at the OP I would have seen the link was right there but I am not very smart so I didn't.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-in-reply-to="236528934387318784"><p>O HAI LOOK: raging fakeass commie b**** Tom Morello's net worth: $60 million<a href="http://t.co/gpRDN2xR" title="http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rock-stars/tom-morello-net-worth/">celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebr…</a> h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/jatranfo"><s>@</s><b>jatranfo</b></a></p>&mdash; David Burge (@iowahawkblog) <a href="https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/236531033640693760" data-datetime="2012-08-17T18:32:47+00:00">August 17, 2012</a></blockquote>
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Ask me how to make BIG BUX selling fake Marxism to clueless dopes with my patented Rage Against MLM system! <a href="https://twitter.com/tmorello"><s>@</s><b>tmorello</b></a></p>&mdash; David Burge (@iowahawkblog) <a href="https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/236536097889472512" data-datetime="2012-08-17T18:52:55+00:00">August 17, 2012</a></blockquote>
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I like how some disregard what an artist has to say simply because he is an artist and is not to be taken seriously. When in fact, many of these guys like matt damon, singer ruben blades who has a freaking degree from harvard law* all have attended better universities than most of texas politicians. And they actually have witnessed third world struggles.


** the only thing cooler than a singer/actor who has a law degree would be a poster who has hakeem olajuwon status and still works in the courtroom.


I like the message by rage against the machine, but it kind of loses it's purpose when they fight internally over the mighty green dollar.

 

This is similar to the Chick-fil-a deal -- I can understand the band making a statement, but if the situation were reversed and they did support Ryan I wouldn't stop liking their music.

 

I just thought it was funny since it was the first post of this thread.

 

As a musician who plays political music I am always curious about how much attention do people actually pay to the lyrics. For example we sing a few Rebel Tunes, anti-British IRA songs, and I often wonder how much the people clapping their hands and dancing along in suburban Minnesota really are paying attention to the lyrics.

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Also our drummer is pretty much a TEA Party conservative yet we play some very pro-union songs and his family seems to enjoy this one in particular.
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I'm just glad this has nothing to do with The Decemberists or **** would be blowing up like The Godfather.

 

It was indeed. And I like a good joke, especially one at my expense, as long as it's a good one.

 

You seem like the jovial type.

 

I'm going to take this moment to pimp one of my favorite political bands. They aren't as big as Rage Against the Machine though.

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My guess is people rarely pay attention to the lyrics. I mean, when Jeremy Lin had a great game last year in NY, the MSG PA system played Pearl Jam's "Jeremy"-- which is VERY far away from a song celebrating Jeremy's success on the basketball court.

On the other hand, it's hard to miss the political message in songs by Rage Against the Machine of all bands. I mean, they are pretty much all political all the time, no? It's not like they are just some random rock band who dabble in political songs occasionally. I don't know where Taylor Swift or the Killers stand on politics from their music, but Rage Against the Machine?


Anyhow, I think Paul Ryan publicly stating that he likes Rage Against the Machine is an effort to signal "Hey, I'm hip!" Tom Morello, on the other hand, doesn't want the band's name to be used for that purpose.

Also, kind of silly for some conservatives to now attack the band as pseudo-Commies or hypocrites... I mean, hey, your guy is the one who says these supposed assholes are his favorite band.