In 2022, Snider tweeted about the use of the song by right-wing activists, "ATTENTION QANON, MAGAT FASCISTS: Every time you sing ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ remember it was written by a cross-dressing, libtard, tree hugging half-Jew who HATES everything you stand for. It was you and people like you that inspired every angry word of that song! SO FUCK OFF!
All the cool people of history are woke.
In November 2023, after the October 7 attacks, Snider was asked if he agreed with Israel soldiers using “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as a battle cry. He replied, “Oh, hell yeah. You know what? Israelis, the assault on the Israelis, people are losing sight of something. People saying that, ‘Oh, the response is gonna be too intense for what happened.’ Well, you don’t get to decide on the response when you do heinous things to civilians. You don’t get to say, ‘Oh, that’s enough, that’s enough retaliation.’ No, it doesn’t work like that. When you cross that line, you’re burning people, you’re slaughtering people, you’re raping people, you’re just killing people, after what happened at that festival you don’t get to say, ‘Okay, your revenge can be this much.’ No. Payback’s a mothereffer. And I come from that school. You cross that line, you know… shit’s gonna happen. Sing it out, boys.”
Everyone’s problematic
Playing devils advocate for Snider, November 2023 was right after October 7th and I don’t think there were nearly as many people pointing out and shouting about the ethnic cleansing Israel was using the attack as an excuse to partake in until we got into 2024.
Indeed.
I know “Well, you don’t get to decide on the response” certainly aged like milk, but I think folks in 2023 could be forgiven to be thinking “IDF is going to strike Hamas and Hamas brought them on themselves” as the wanton collateral harm largely wasn’t on folks radar at the time. Some folks with more nuanced understandings sounded alarms and were dismissed, but having to respond to that situation mere weeks after October 7th… That’s going to be a tough scenario for most people to come out looking ok.
Only naive people and people who had no clue what they were talking about. In 2023, israel had been a settler colonialist genocidal ethnostate for half a century already
I think that response was more insightful than he realised. Every Extremist planning something should take into account that the reaction might be much more than anticipated. But that also goes for the people doing the reaction. Israel likewise can’t control what people’s reaction to their actions will be.
Reminds me of that video of magats rocking out on RATM Killing in the name of, having absolutely no idea what the song is about
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crossesah, the cryptic lyrics were too opaque for the conservative brain
Makes you wonder about tech oligarchs who read scifi and always misinterpret it. Rather than warnings of unbridled power, they seem to view stuff like 1984, Snowcrash, Dune, etc as guides.
Media literacy final boss are MAGAs. Same goes for some Christians praising Take Me to Church as a song of worship. You see this also a lot with video games and superheroes. No, Batman would NOT be on your side and games like Fallout have ALWAYS been political.
Batman is a billionaire beating up environmentalists. Sounds pretty MAGA to me.
There’s a comic arc where Batman tries feverishly to get rid of his fortune not through philanthropy but really by selling and giving away everything. The system is so rigged that he is still stupidly filthy rich by the end of it all and the systemic inequalities and corruption make it so that all his money is being squandered and used to further abuse victims instead of helping. So he ends up beating up people in a black suit anyway, as the only real way to fight corruption.
Also, there’s a literal supernatural curse over the city anyways. It will always be evil and corrupt.
Where did the supernatural curse come from?
It depends on the universe and story arc. In one Batman is literally fighting a god that lives as a bat at the core of the city. One has an evil warlock from 40000 years ago sleeping under the city. My favorite one is that there’s a literal portal to hell in Arkham’s basement.
literal portal to hell
Where’s my Batman/Buffy crossover? I just want to see Alfred and Giles talking.
Rich people, probably.
Yeah although usually it’s Superman they’re obsessed with anyway. Usually they like to complain that the current iteration is too woke, even though it’s exact same character from the 1960s
Batman can be viewed as a violent force of the status quo and if you fry your brain with post 9/11 propaganda you could even get the stupid idea that this is a good thing. Looking at you, Frank Miller.
But the idealized or, to be even more pretentious, platonic idea of Batman is everything but.
I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
Emphasis mine.
For some songs (like “We’re not gonna take it”), only knowing the chorus explains why many people might miss the point. “Take Me to Church” doesn’t even offer that saving grace.
Maybe they listened to one of the covers that seemingly obliviously changes the line to “the shrine of your light”
…of course that would be a thing. What’d they make of “so you can sharpen your knives”?
I don’t think the people who do things like that actually pay attention to what they’re doing. It’s like a subconscious reflex for small-time Christian singers, or something.
No, Batman would NOT be on your side
Neither would Punisher, despite the bullshit thinblueline skulls and that stupid orange-diddler combover variants.
Gerry Conway (RIP) literally took back over the book specifically to have Punisher threaten a cop for using his symbol. “You don’t do what I do. Nobody does. […] If I find out you are trying to do what I do, I’ll come for you next.”
Reminds me of the time Tom Morello made a political statement and magats got into a huff, saying that he is a musical artist and should stay out of politics. My favorite comment online was “What machine do they think they were raging against, the toaster?”
This is almost as bad as thinking RATM was on their side. I say almost, but holy shit, how do you listen to one of their songs without comprehending or even thinking about a single line of the lyrics. Actual dementia
“Bulls On Parade? Bulls are basically donkeys with horns, so clearly its talking about democrats.”
“Know Your Enemy? Well I know my enemy, liberals!”
“Some of those who work forces are the same who burn crosses? Hell yeah!”
Who are these people? They don’t read the bills they sign, no rudimentary understanding of music, and they talk about it as such like it’s normal.
The answer is they don’t care. Facts are a plaything for conservatives.
What matters to them is power - and for that you don’t need to be right, you just need to be convincing. That’s why they engage so much in misinformation, blatant ragebait, etc…
Crossdressing and anti-authoritarianism aside, didn’t Dee Snider literally have to defend his work to Congress when Tipper Gore founded the PMRC?
Dee Sider’s testimony before congress. It’s 36 minutes long so buckle up. Best part of the whole thing is Al Gore’s response when Dee said that the sadomasochism, bondage, and rape Tipper finds in his songs is because she went looking for it.
Yes, I belive Dee and Zappa testified.
Jello Biafra too!
If only that kid didn’t go to the Cincinnati Zoo in 2016.
MAGA seem to be made up a lot of individuals with no patience to sit down and listen to song lyrics.
Is the bulk of them struggling with ADHD? cuz it kinda sounds like a trait of ADHD
Sounds like you don’t understand ADHD.
At the risk of being a real killjoy, please don’t use a real disorder to excuse fascists being fascists.
hello this is a legitimate concern i have. not a joke.
bigots can be preying on people with such a trait to get them to follow with little effort.
how are you not concerned that traits linked to a disorder can be a vulnerability that is manipulated?
especially on social media.
have you talked to a MAGA mind? have you listened to how they speak about their denials? i exclusively only run into it with family members that are suffering with adhd are almost exclusively white, cis male and suffering with an inability to concentrate on information for any length of time. they are diagnosed with adhd.
neighbor has two kids that have adhd and one is following some cult about eating raw meat and the other got kidnapped and manipulated by a gang.
i believe this is an overlooked disorder when it comes to cult hive minds and how easy it is to hijack someone who might have issues with concentration and difficulty in fitting in with a society that relies heavily concepts of survival by social gregariousness but little tolerance for neuro divergence and tend to too easily isolate away people in such circumstances.
leaves perfect hunting ground for predatory cult like thinking.
I‘m not american so I have no contact with american fascists. Sadly I have/had contact with european fascists and (even more important) I have read history books about who and why people joined the fascists and I know many neurodivergent folk (including myself).
There are and were neurodivergent fascists but their neurodivergence is not the reason for them being fascists and I know many neurodivergent people who are anything but fascists and are even crucial parts of anti-fascist groups and organisations.
In short, stop giving fascists excuses for their actions. They know what they are doing and only themselves are to blame.not at all excusing facists.
and while we are getting comfortable tossing demands around at strangers online while hiding behind a screen: dont excuse cult leaders from having culpability of manipulation.
we wouldnt be here without manipulation of masses
Manson didnt have to get his hands bloody to do the time. master manipulators buy in on obtuse fools to be overlooked.
Other songs about America that conservatives have grotesquely misunderstood:
“Born in the USA” Bruce Springsteen “American Woman” The Guess Who “Pink Houses” John Mellencamp “Independence Day” Martina McBride
Indepenence day wasn’t really misunderstood, right? Like, there’s not even any undertone or wordplay in that one, it’s literally just ‘momma burned down the house with daddy in it because he was an abusive asshole.’ No tongue-in-cheek, no sly wink with the emphasized word… how the fuck did that one sneak past anyone?
I can kind of see some of the others, since in true good artist fashion there’s a lot of words to the song that people wouldn’t even catch, but independence day is one of those really easy, every word is heard songs.
Would you call fortunate son ‘subtle’ in its criticism? It still strikes me as bizarre how Trump and his guys could have ever thought of using this song.
Not really subtle, but it’s different, right? With fortunate son, there’s this weirder dynamic where you have to actually string the entire thing together to gather the meaning. I would say unless you went and asked someone to repeat the lines to you after the song is over and tell you what they meant, they would never really ‘get’ what the song is saying.
I was going to reply to the uwu pawb about that, but it’s really difficult to put it into words. There’s something about a really catchy song with really good flow and rhythm and melody and composition that does sort of turn your brain off. It ‘bypasses’ the logical language part of your brain’s comprehension and just gets you grooving. If I were a bettor, I would put money on it being the same reason that people with stutters can often sing without issue: it’s the same part of the brain (Broca’s area, if you want to pull out my neuroscientist days) that issues the commands to the muscles of the mouth and tongue and such, but the area that is directing Broca’s area is different (there’s an area called Wernicke’s area that is really heavily involved in the comprehension of language; it’s on the left side of the brain, while a great deal of your musical appreciation bits are in the right side of the brain [and I’m definitely getting far out of my knowledge base here, it’s been a great while since I did brain and specific tasks]). If you just listen/sing to the music, and never pull it up out of the memory banks and into your ‘logical’ part of the brain, you’ll never really engage with the meaning of the music/song.
Anyway. I don’t know quite how to describe it, but like nicki said, if you just sing the chorus of independence day, you’d probably not get the song’s imagery, but the verses are more straightforward and easy to comprehend in mcbride’s song than in creedence’s. I’m just more surprised about it being misunderstood than fortunate son, I guess, more than I’m totally surprised.
