“Killing in the Name” is a song originally by Rage Against the Machine. It’s not about Weird Al going “right wing”, the song is criticizing politicians and blind followers and is more left wing than right, and this isn’t a parody - it’s just Portugal The Man covering the song and Weird Al is also there to help cover it. It’s a serious song.
the song is criticizing politicians and blind followers and is more left wing than right
This is easily the most bizarre take on both Killing in The Name and Rage that I have ever heard. Let’s, um, clean that up a little.
Rage Against the Machine are openly and explicitly socialist in their politics. There is nothing even slightly moderate about them. “More left wing than right” is a wild understatement.
Killing in The Name isn’t some vague critique of, like, politicians and stuff, it’s a song that is explicitly about the shockingly large intersection between white racism and police officers.
The main hooks are the lines “Some of those who work forces are the same that burn crosses” and “For those who died are justified, for wearing the badge they’re the chosen whites.”
The song and bad are both infamous for being popular with alt right, MAGA and libertarian types, but that infamy comes entirely from the fact that it’s so insane that these people are listening to music that so thoroughly disagrees with them. A bunch of MAGA screaming “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” says nothing about Rage’s politics and everything about their extreme lack of media literacy.
(This is not to say that Tom Morello / Rage agree with left wing consensus on everything; they were pretty openly against vaccine mandates, for example. But their overall political position very much sits on the far left)
A bunch of MAGA screaming “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” says nothing about Rage’s politics and everything about their extreme lack of media literacy.
100% agree with you on this, and would go a step further to say, a bunch of MAGA screaming, “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me,” illustrates exactly how fucking devoid they are of any form of critical thinking.
This actually makes a bizarre sense to me, well actually not sense but I guess I’m not surprised. In his first term, many Trump supporters said they would either vote for him or Bernie Sanders. I was like WTF? So I interpreted this as people not wanting a “normal politician.” Hilary was a normal politician so big surprise she lost (also she was unlikeable).
I think many other MAGA (and right wingers)are so stupid, they don’t know when they are being trolled. I heard a lot of people thought Stephen Colbert was serious instead of parodying. And strangely I saw a guy do an informal poll at, I think it was a state fair or something, and many self identifying right wingers and left wingers actually agreed on a lot of the problems (rich people running the world, affordability crisis, privacy issues, etc.) They just didn’t agree on which side had the solution. Personally I can see where someone might be duped at the beginning or just superficially, like maybe they just don’t watch the news much and catch a snippet of what a friend it family member says and going with right wing conservatives. But how anyone who takes the slightest interest can’t immediately see issues is beyond me.
“Killing in the Name” is a song originally by Rage Against the Machine. It’s not about Weird Al going “right wing”, the song is criticizing politicians and blind followers and is more left wing than right, and this isn’t a parody - it’s just Portugal The Man covering the song and Weird Al is also there to help cover it. It’s a serious song.
Thank you for the summary. Much appreciated.
This is easily the most bizarre take on both Killing in The Name and Rage that I have ever heard. Let’s, um, clean that up a little.
Rage Against the Machine are openly and explicitly socialist in their politics. There is nothing even slightly moderate about them. “More left wing than right” is a wild understatement.
Killing in The Name isn’t some vague critique of, like, politicians and stuff, it’s a song that is explicitly about the shockingly large intersection between white racism and police officers.
The main hooks are the lines “Some of those who work forces are the same that burn crosses” and “For those who died are justified, for wearing the badge they’re the chosen whites.”
The song and bad are both infamous for being popular with alt right, MAGA and libertarian types, but that infamy comes entirely from the fact that it’s so insane that these people are listening to music that so thoroughly disagrees with them. A bunch of MAGA screaming “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” says nothing about Rage’s politics and everything about their extreme lack of media literacy.
(This is not to say that Tom Morello / Rage agree with left wing consensus on everything; they were pretty openly against vaccine mandates, for example. But their overall political position very much sits on the far left)
100% agree with you on this, and would go a step further to say, a bunch of MAGA screaming, “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me,” illustrates exactly how fucking devoid they are of any form of critical thinking.
This actually makes a bizarre sense to me, well actually not sense but I guess I’m not surprised. In his first term, many Trump supporters said they would either vote for him or Bernie Sanders. I was like WTF? So I interpreted this as people not wanting a “normal politician.” Hilary was a normal politician so big surprise she lost (also she was unlikeable).
I think many other MAGA (and right wingers)are so stupid, they don’t know when they are being trolled. I heard a lot of people thought Stephen Colbert was serious instead of parodying. And strangely I saw a guy do an informal poll at, I think it was a state fair or something, and many self identifying right wingers and left wingers actually agreed on a lot of the problems (rich people running the world, affordability crisis, privacy issues, etc.) They just didn’t agree on which side had the solution. Personally I can see where someone might be duped at the beginning or just superficially, like maybe they just don’t watch the news much and catch a snippet of what a friend it family member says and going with right wing conservatives. But how anyone who takes the slightest interest can’t immediately see issues is beyond me.