I wonder if it ever bums rage against the machine out that 90% of their listenership thinks their songs are about how guys who own parking lots or whatever shouldn't have to pay taxes
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I'd say it's more like a third but I guess it's funnier to say 90% "RAGING FOR THE MACHINE LOL VACCINES" Apparently you can't trust science or medicine and have to be a conspiracy theorist to be truly against the machine, or vote for an Oligarch who is endorsed by the world's richest oligarch
Ten of millions vote for a party that actively tries to destroy their lives, it’s not terribly shocking that they don’t listen to or think about any lyrics. I mean these assholes still think Fortunate Son is a patriotic song.
"...people who are offended by my politics on Twitter or Instagram, please know it’s because you weren’t intelligent enough to know what the music that you were listening to all these years was about.”
A dozen years ago, after Paul Ryan said that RAM was one of his favorite bands, Tom Morello said, "Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against..."
I mean, Zach's singing voice is clear, "some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses."
That was good that Tom came out and spoke. This world went very weird when the people who like Rage are the establishment or support it. They conned their followers and hell i even think some of them are lackeys too who have no idea who they work for.
Early in transition I was listening to the Battle of Los Angeles a lot and I started rambling at all my friends about how this band actually pioneered wokeness and if people want to hate being woke then they can’t be Rage fans cause this band was woke before the word woke was woke.
i see what you're trying to say, but in the context of Johnny Cash's Man in Black, I don't think the context agrees w/ that.
between man in black & killing in the name of, the felon/cop dichotomy of rock isn't really a paradigm that plays out to support election results liberals would've preferred.
They think rage is for them, and they think they're the rebels on starwars too when they're more like the empire. Following the word of one massive dickhead, everyone's has guns but can't shoot for shit
You mean those 1000s of dudes in uniform with no real training that die super easy? That's the only jobs they create the rest are positions always claimed by people who already had too much
I'd think that's a VERY SMALL percentage. Cause otherwise they're total idiots. Similar to the people who thought the Cobert Report was ACTUALLY Right Wing. YES, they exist, and I knew a few.
This is to music what "you're holding it wrong" was to the iPhone and what "um, Walter White was the villain" was for television.
Rage Against the Machine (the band) is super-political, but their message had little to no impact on most of their audience. That's genuinely not the audience's fault.
idk tom morello plays these days with like a giant “nazi lives don’t matter” slogan projected behind him so i have a feeling at least *his* fans know what they’re cheering for lol
Bit off topic but I got a t shirt with that slogan from his concert past summer. When I wear it in public you can see some people flash an awkward look. Funny as hell.
I think that the majority of the people he’s referring to don’t actually think they are nazis. No matter how many times you point out the similarities. 🙄
“Suddenly turned woke” is shorthand for “I really enjoy this one thing and I didn’t have the brain power to understand what it was saying, when I finally realized what it says I get scared it will reflect poorly on me so I publicly complain about it”
It’s kinda like Chris Christie being a huge Springsteen fan. These lockstep “Conservative” bros imagine themselves to be oppressed rebels, as they fight for their God-given right to crap on everyone who’s not them.
The downfall of political rock is that it can be hard to hear the words over the music. Try @billybragg.bsky.social on for size. None of his fans make that mistake.
They’ve specifically gotten angry at conservative fans, going so far as to call them out on social media so I’m going to go ahead and say the answer is yes
Yall! See, the problem with you Yankee folks is that you make the incorrect assumption of intelligence b/c of your upbringing. Southerners aren’t ignorant so much as they are swimming in pools of mediocrity, audacity and entitlement. Rich white boys pretending to be more important than they are.
They aren’t dumb, they are willfully ignorant and they do so to weaponize their own inadequacies because the truth is too fuckin pathetic. They ain’t shit. ❤️- a Southern Woman
Yeah, kinda scratched my head over all the stock brokers head banging when RATM took over the Street for an impromptu concert. Did they really not know _they_ were the bad guys?
Most RATM fans are pretty much just listening to the loud parts lyrically I think. They don't see a lot of heavily messaged music as such becuz they're not technically listening. Same for the entire genre of Punk music pmuch in the same regard.🤷🏻♀️
What radicalized me wasn't racial profiling, police brutality, crime in the city, economic enslavement of my people etc I previously thought all that stuff was "normal"
What did it tho was when white boys up in arms discovery RATM is & always will be a "political" band
🦬🦬🦬🦬
Im from Georgia. Lived here forty something years. Been harassed by dumbass cops for essentially, being a critical thinker -- I Know! Oh the humanity -- and I tell you I've never met a Leo with even average intelligence despite coming into contact with dozens of not hundreds of them throughout
That's right. I knew my experience was accurate when I saw someone suing a police force in Texas for discrimination because they didn't hire him specifically because "his IQ was over 100, and we don't want smart officers, we want people who follow orders"
Nobody likes to be the establishment. Everybody likes to think of themselves as the opposition. It becomes hard when you're a conservative, but not impossible - you just have to be intentionally obtuse
that actually makes it worse I think, if our incompetent asses were able to take over all american media and subvert the country's democracy then y'all weren't doing so hot to begin with
This will be the third time this century,republicans take over a good economy.Because of unnecessary tax cuts for corporations and billionaires.It will be the third,time they trash it.
there seem to be a bunch of dumbasses who are shocked when they discover a band with overtly left wing politics are left wing, it’s not just Rage Against The Machine that have this problem, these idiots are everywhere
Rage Against the Machine's lyrics resonate with me not because of some abstract concept of class warfare, but because they tap into a primal sense of frustration with the relentless grind of a system that often feels rigged against us.
Nah. There's a reason Rage Against the Machine is still relevant today. They're holding a mirror up to the inequalities and injustices that persist in our society. And it's not just about parking lots. It's about the struggle for economic justice, racial equality, and a fair shot
The music we love often has hidden meanings that shape our own. It's a reminder that even in the face of complexity, we can find resonance in the most unexpected places.
WHAT?
You really think people are so clueless? RATM to me is about the anger and frustration of the black man or other downtrodden people. Parking lot owners?? True there are stupid people In this country.
I also want to add I loves me some Tom Morello in all his music. Still pissed at Chris Cornell for killing himself. The world was not done enjoying his great talent.
You have to be blindingly stupid to listen to RATM and not UNDERSTAND the lyrics, but in a nation where a good chunk of the population can’t read and COMPREHEND beyond the fifth grade level, blindingly stupid people is what you get. 🤔
I disagree. Many people struggle to understand lyrics, especially when they are screamed over deep bass and distorted guitars. Most of it was unintelligible to me until I read the lyrics. Lots of people just never took that step.
Lots of lyrics can be open to interpretation. RATM lyrics? Not so much. Not understanding RATM lyrics is classic MAGATISM, in that if they even bothered to look up the lyrics, they can’t read and comprehend past a 5th grade level.
I’m referring to not being able to distinguish the words while listening to the music. Once I read them, I can then hear the actual words and comprehend the meaning. Until then, it’s just screaming in key. For a lot of people, the vocals just sound like another instrument.
I’m not talking about people who fail to understand metaphors. I’m saying for some people it’s like listening to a muffled conversation from the next room. It’s not that we can’t understand what the words mean, it’s that we don’t know what words are being sung until we read them.
Conservatives are too stupid to listen to lyrics that aren't repeated over and over, so they hear "rally round the family with a pocket full of shells" and are like HELL YEAH I LOVE GUNS AND WANT TO USE THEM ON PEOPLE
Even Though tumblr is known for its horrendous reading comprehenshion, one should always assume the average citizen has that of someone, who failed to create a tumblr blog
The truth is.. they knew what it was about as a kid, they loved it.
Then they moved to the right as they became adults, forgot about it.
Then get hella mad when their childhood music reminds them
That they became the enemy they used to rally against and they don’t like facing that
They surprisingly have a right wing audience now. When I listened to anything reactionary like that, it was always anti George W Bush going back awhile now those same people seem to like Trump. Hell even Paul Ryan said he listened to Rage.
🤔
The only person I've ever known who was really into RATM: he came from a privileged family, played on the golf team, treated women in disturbing ways, and went on to become a management consultant at an elite firm.
it does. Tom Morello keeps correcting fans via social media, and it clearly frustrates him, because he deliberately made the message blindingly obvious, and these idiots still don't see it.
yeah Fascists tries to co-opt worker lead movements which goes against capital to make it "for the nation" which capitalists are part of, class collaboration with the bourgeoisie's dominance secured like in Germany where unions were destroyed, workers rights abolished while capitalists get slaves
He sucks anyhow. Also the crust punks or the let's say wretched type bands like Meatmen are probably on the Trump side back then I still thought they sucked too. I was for TSOL all the way.
Did Henry Rollins ever publicly say anything about how those shitbags think "Rise Above" is about them? He probably meant that song for anyone who feels put down and may have let it slide but still.
You could say that about a lot of forms of media that are anti-establishment or leftist. Comic books, video games, movies, TV shows, music, lot of it talks about leftist rhetoric and when right-wingers find out they throw a fit. Case in point: The Boys.
That did cause a few tantrums on twitter and Facebook. Marvel having characters who aren’t straight, male and white in their movies seems to upset them as well.
All they hear is “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” when literally every single other lyric is talking about them and the people they support. But they cherry pick every aspect of their lives, so why not RATM lyrics as well?
This makes me think about how a good portion of Americans can’t read above a 6th grade level and that’s just an avrg so some are lower. I wonder can they listen and understand above that grade level?
And after seeing how gullible the uneducated are, they want to destroy what's left of the education system. no intelligent person will believe their lies.
Most who read at that grade level probably do everything in their lives at the 11-12 year old level. This explains everything like modern country music, adults watching monster truck shows, Larry the Cable Guy’s sold out tours. They never grew up beyond absolute base-level functional humans.
Hard disagree. Those people exist in every ability and class level in our society. Somebody is buying the $3,000 front row tickets to Jason Aldean concerts. Many are just allowed to fail upward bc of the class/status they were born into.
Spare me. You’re showing open contempt for people less educated and less intellectually capable than yourself. Focus on material condition and it relation to labor
Aristotle made that point about 2300 years ago in "Politics", when he described the tendency of tyrannies and oligarchies to fail because tyrants' kids are seldom as capable as the tyrant.
Actually, there's a lot of Politics, book 5, chapter 12 that applies these days.
This is kinda mixing culture, and such. I knew very intelligent gay furries, like the IT admin kind, who loved Larry the Cable Guy because they got his bit, and that it was a bit. There are people who say, get wrestling is staged, and still like wrestling.
"A good portion" != "Average". Specifically, <20% of adults are functionally illiterate (coincidentally, roughly the percentage who fail to graduate high school for some reason or another).
America's literacy situation ain't great, but let's not overcook it.
I know people who don't listen to lyrics very closely. They pick their music based on how it sounds and ignore the lyrics. I can't do that. I have to know what a song is about.
I still vividly recall years ago, back in high school, a very conservative classmate hearing Rage for the first time.
We thought he'd be mortified. Instead he was bopping along and gleefully singing with his own lyrics "And I do what they tell me. DumdumDumdum, And I do what they tell me.."
It's quite astonishing how these RWNJ's are like "wHeN wAs IT raGe FoR tHE MAchInE?" when the band themselves where never subtle about their left wing political message. Like did people really think the band were raging against a lawnmower?
I don't think it's 90% of their fan base, not even close. What are you basing this on, exactly? Oh fuck now I have that Eve6 song stuck in my head. What did I ever do to you?
This is the most blue lives town that ever blue lived cause some cop ate it about a day before the BLM protests of 2020 kicked off, and they play Killing In The Name on the radio
It's hilarious going to Tom Morellos Instagram page. Reading the comments especially on his more political posts. They're all mad can't belive your a communist I used to be a fan until now.. like did yall listen to the lyrics or what
Why waste your time learning "political science" at Harvard when you can get just as good of an education from reading I̶n̶f̶o̶W̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶O̶n̶i̶o̶n̶ (nope still InfoWars).
They spent so much time demonizing anything they don't like as "communist" that they can't recognize the real thing even if it jumps up and slaps them in the face.
Sadly, I have family like that. Tom Morello, who wore hats with "COMMIE" on them in the 90s. Also on the cover of Guitar magazine with a commie hat, and a Harvard degree in Political Science. And they think now he's become political.
But they will say Paul Ryan was a RINO and MAGA embodies the struggle. Killing in the Name of is clearly an anti-vaccine anthem and Bulls on Parade is about the oppression of capital gains taxes. /s
I hurt my back just watching the mental gymnastics. We all rock out to songs we don’t “agree” with. “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood comes to mind for me. Music builds bridges and maybe we need to understand and appreciate the bridges it brings us to and has us stand on.
The problem is that some of "we" will shoot the scary people they wind up standing on that bridge with and go home and buy more guns and tell their friends and family about how the Local Big City is overrun with brown thugs who've made the bridges unsafe.
Perhaps, but if music is making you stand on a strange bridge you don’t normally walk on, you should appreciate the bridge. You don’t have to like everything about the bridge, just appreciate its beauty and legitimacy and understand it is another pathway or close to a potential pathway.
Wait wait EVE6??? You guys are HERE? Loved your first cd just followed, have many great memories of listening to it when I had to drive back and forth from college to home. Surprised it didn’t disintegrate I listened to it so much
They just take what they do with the Bible and use that fuzzy logic to cherry-pick the messages they want to hear out of every piece of media they encounter. No critical thought or self reflection, just confirming their bias as fucking arseholes.
The folks who listened to the song and thought "this shit is definitely my alt-right theme song!" didn't actually pay attention to the lyrics. I was 12 when RATM came out and the album cover alone told me what they were really about. The lyrics didn't disappoint, either.
it's insane the amount of people replying to Tom Morello's posts on the other app who've apparently been in to RATM since day one but never listened to the lyrics ...
I asked my dad, 87, how many of these billionaires refuse their ss benefits every month? I’d say none. He agreed. He voted for the rights of his granddaughters and all his future descendants
Omfg for real. It's got to be a stratospheric bummer for them when people believe "fuck you I won't do what you tell me" applys to common human decency like wearing a mask in public to mitigate a pandemic. I know it sure bums me out every time I read one of those rubes going off online.
I know I am at least a bit bummed when I think about that part of the listenership who think "the Machine" means, idk, "media literacy", apparently? I guess at least they do a great job raging against it
Serj Tankian , god bless em, called out his fans on twitter who were against George Floyd protesters in 2020.
Same Serj Tankian that is my profile picture and who's discography makes doing the right thing sound cool. Doesn't seem coincidental that we don't really have artists like that anymore
Yeah, no fucking way! The fanbase clearly understands what they're RAGING at. Maybe a handful of idiots don't get it because their heads up their own ass. Clickbate post.
Hey. Idk if you remember me but I was foodstamps on Twitter till Elon nuked my account and device banned me for suggesting we feed children for free. 🤷♂️ anyhow good to see you here in the blue skies with us. Welcome.
Imagine if we got a new Rage Against the Machine album out sometime in the future. There's certainly plenty of material in our current political situation to draw inspiration from.
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I literally skipped a beat. "Huh? I know who that is (now)!"
Shit has NOT changed much and/or time is a flat circle.
https://bsky.app/profile/gibs626.bsky.social/post/3laxa3fofls22
Tom Morello
I mean, Zach's singing voice is clear, "some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses."
Some of those that hold office, are the same that burn crosses
Some of those up in congress, are the same that burn crosses
(Prophets of Rage were RATM but with Chuck D and B Real instead of Zach for those who don't know)
between man in black & killing in the name of, the felon/cop dichotomy of rock isn't really a paradigm that plays out to support election results liberals would've preferred.
Paul Ryan: Ooo that could be me
You got that stats outta your ass?
Rage Against the Machine (the band) is super-political, but their message had little to no impact on most of their audience. That's genuinely not the audience's fault.
Shouldn’t have to pay taxes
Don't take what you need, indeed.
Another band, coincidentally, *thoroughly* misunderstood by the right.
It really wasn't and still isn't
I've been a fan of RAtM AND Public Enemy because of the lyrics more than the music because both had things to say and I listened.
The music is great BTW but the message is so much more important.
https://youtu.be/kl4wkIPiTcY?feature=shared
It's more like
85%
What radicalized me wasn't racial profiling, police brutality, crime in the city, economic enslavement of my people etc I previously thought all that stuff was "normal"
What did it tho was when white boys up in arms discovery RATM is & always will be a "political" band
🦬🦬🦬🦬
“NOT Everyone has lost the plot”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9937003/Georgia-cop-posted-anti-vaxx-messages-Facebook-took-Ivermectin-dies-COVID-19.html
In which case it's not ironic, they simply aren't fighting the machine, they are lying.
You really think people are so clueless? RATM to me is about the anger and frustration of the black man or other downtrodden people. Parking lot owners?? True there are stupid people In this country.
The irony 🤣
Then they moved to the right as they became adults, forgot about it.
Then get hella mad when their childhood music reminds them
That they became the enemy they used to rally against and they don’t like facing that
The only person I've ever known who was really into RATM: he came from a privileged family, played on the golf team, treated women in disturbing ways, and went on to become a management consultant at an elite firm.
"The purpose of a system is what it does."
I’m sure of it.
I had thought that reply was a bit out of left field.
are the same that pay taxes
Are the same that own horses
Surely.
Right?
I don't remember thinking that from the first time I heard the first note.
If he were real, he'd likely hate pretty much all of republican "leadership".
Actually, there's a lot of Politics, book 5, chapter 12 that applies these days.
America's literacy situation ain't great, but let's not overcook it.
We thought he'd be mortified. Instead he was bopping along and gleefully singing with his own lyrics "And I do what they tell me. DumdumDumdum, And I do what they tell me.."
Thank you.
They'll sit back, stroke their goatee in a satisfied way and mutter to themselves "There! I had an original thought!!!"
🙄
The depths of their ignorance is unfathomable.
Same Serj Tankian that is my profile picture and who's discography makes doing the right thing sound cool. Doesn't seem coincidental that we don't really have artists like that anymore
They think voting for rich people makes them smart so uhhhhhh, good luck with that fellas.