Smith has a small, valid, scary point: The song’s been coopted by conservatives. If St. Ronnie said it’s a patriotic song, then is, facts be damned. All they need are their leaders’ lies.
The conservative claim on "Born in the USA" is all of a piece with their world view. Sure, Springsteen says it's not a conservative anthem, and the lyrics say it's not a conservative anthem, and the audience says it's not a conservative anthem. But fuck all that! It's conservative because we demand it be so.
And this is just an extension of all the rest of the reality denial they indulge in. Whether it's Jonah Goldberg retorting that, "sure, the dictionary says I'm wrong about what fascism is, but that just proves my point" or Donald Trump seeing adoring fans when looking out the window of Marine 1 at vast crowds of people carrying signs that are all variations of "Fuck You, Trump!", conservatives do not see the world as it is.
See, now, that's not fair. Conservatives do not want us all in chains and covered in dung. That would be totally unacceptable for the household help. Maids, butlers, cooks, valets, and personal servants would be forced to bath and dress according to station.
Gotta bring up one of my favorites: Around the time "Born In The USA" was charting, some advertising genius did a clever splice job of Creedence's "Fortunate Son," and used if for a blue jeans commercial. The, "OH, THAT RED, WHITE, AND BLUE" lyric was pushed to the forefront, while a montage of flags, and closeups of designer labels flew past.
It was one of those great, "Did I just fucking see that?" moments that happen from time to time.
This was in the era of feuding Fogertys, and Fantasy Records lawsuits, so there was plenty of ugly to go around.
I picture a bunch of marketing shits spitballing ideas to sell these crappy pants. To make it interesting someone says, "What is the most loathsome thing we can come up with? Offensive, yet subtle."
I saw Stanley Clarke’s cover of this song exactly *once* and never again (back in the Age of Music Video, this was) and it definitely put some punch in the message.
Smith’s take on “Born in the USA” is like Reader Response Theory for dummies—the sort of thing you’d expect from Stanley Fish if he were a gibbon with a typewriter
And Trump's rally theme song is "You Can't Always Get What You Want." I'm beginning to think this is all some kind of mass Stanley Milgram experiment, where diner patrons in MAGA hats administer shocks to normal people while Trump and his wingnut toadies wear the lab coats.
It's definitely some kind of mass social experiment, only with the entire world as unwitting participants. It's like someone came up with what was supposed to be a thought experiment:
"What if someone ran for President of the United States and based his campaign on the premise that he is a conman? And he was upfront about being a complete fraud and that he was going to deceive everyone as much as possible? How many people would actually vote for such a man?"
But the thought experiment escaped the lab and, well, here we are.
<<Like the New York Times editor who said, “Let me control the headlines, and I shall not care who controls the editorials”>>
Uh-huh. And no doubt the journalist went on to add “and the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we’ll hang them,” and cackled. These really are the fscking mole people, as Pierce is wont to observe.
Yeah, I googled that quote to find its provenance, and it doesn't seem to have any that predates this goober typing it. MY GOD, THE LIBERALS HAVE SCRUBBED THE INTERNET!
Will and Smith and the other pseudoconservative culture warriors totally suck at trying to make patriotic Cristal out of embittered wormwood, but it could be worse. They could be applying Cabalistic Numerological Symbolism to the lyrics of Billy Joel.
Their M.O. reminds me of high school when my Christian friend spent a year working to convince me that his shitty Christian rock bands were every bit as good as Van Halen, Aerosmith, and Led Zeppelin. There was no reality to it -- but he wanted it to be true. So he insisted it was. "Here, listen to THIS. The guitar on the new Petra album is musically on the exact same level as anything by Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page, or any of those guys you worship."
There's also the time Lee Iacocca offered Bruce $12 million to use the song in a Chrysler commercial. Legend has it Bruce's response was "No thanks, mister."
Or maybe it's that they don't do honesty. Veterans of Roy's place know I've been saying this for years: they don't write to persuade. They write, not "it's true that...," but, rather, "you could say that..." They write thought experiments and academically-plausible-even-if-demonstrably-false bullshit just to keep their phony-baloney jobs while qualifying for wingnut welfare. Smith is no different.
After all, who is their audience? Like-minded nitwits, fantasists, conservatives-except-when-not, the deluded and the resentful--none of whom are in the market for reasoned argument and none of whom need persuading. Roy's (excellent) patrol of this beat has less to do with correcting errors and pointing out fallacies, than marveling at the witting mendacity and/or unwitting stupidity of what we laughingly call America's conservative movement.
I believe that what you are saying would translate in their lingo as 'They don't argue, they do apologetics.' and they would be fine with it, the word having reached its greatest use in debates over Christian doctrine. At least as I understand it, apologetics let you use any proof-text regardless of doubtful provenance or meaning-altering context, <em>as long as the text appears to support your doctrine</em>.
I linked to the 50 Greatest Conservative Rock Songs because I had not read it in years and I had forgotten how jaw droppingly awful it was.
There are 6 songs listed that he counts as anti-abortion (although he left out 2 songs that would better illustrate the conservative sensibility towards abortion: Slayer's "Silent Scream" and Dying Fetus's "From Womb to Waste")
2 songs bitching about having to pay taxes (because only conservatives don't like paying taxes)
3 songs about the pain of divorce (because only children who are also conservative are sad when their parents split up)
1 that he totally gets the message of the song wrong (the tongue-in-cheek "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" by The Georgia Satellites is put on the list because of "lyrics that affirm old-time sexual mores.")
3 for reasons that he pulls out of his ass ("Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones for being "The Screwtape Letters of rock" (??!??), "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin because it contains the lyric "the tyrants face is red" which he calls a "cold war metaphor", and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden because it is "inspired by a literary classic").
And 2 for the all to familiar petty conservative resentments (Lynarnd Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" made the list because the song is a "tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loath" and for "taking a shot a Neil Young's arrogance", and Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man" because "Hillary trashed it---isn't that enough?")
The rest of the songs on the list are on there because he likes the songs and they are, therefore, conservative.
I don't remember if it was on the original list or if Jonah the Fail suggested it after the list came out, but "Englishman in New York" was considered a top conservative song. At least until someone pointed out that it's about Quentin Crisp.
Any song criticising something bad which is not explicitly something conservatives support, e.g. absolute property rights, is a conservative song, because to this sort of conservative everything good is conservative.
Japanese holdout soldiers. I have always loved this image analogy. I pledge to use it more often even in conversation when talking about right-wing hacks.
I was thinking that the song which should be used at Trump rallies is "Sixteen Tons," because although it seems to be an attack on the company, which has literally stolen the workers' souls, it's actually an uplifting tale of how despite this the persona remains a badass, ready to murder anybody who doesn't step aside for him and "ain't no high-toned woman make me walk the line": Michelle can't tell HIM to eat his vegetables!
Smith has a small, valid, scary point: The song’s been coopted by conservatives. If St. Ronnie said it’s a patriotic song, then is, facts be damned. All they need are their leaders’ lies.
O'Brien: How many fingers do you see?
Winston Smith: Four
O'Brien: If the party says there are five, how many are there?
OK, five. Five! Just get that fucking rat away from me!
The conservative claim on "Born in the USA" is all of a piece with their world view. Sure, Springsteen says it's not a conservative anthem, and the lyrics say it's not a conservative anthem, and the audience says it's not a conservative anthem. But fuck all that! It's conservative because we demand it be so.
And this is just an extension of all the rest of the reality denial they indulge in. Whether it's Jonah Goldberg retorting that, "sure, the dictionary says I'm wrong about what fascism is, but that just proves my point" or Donald Trump seeing adoring fans when looking out the window of Marine 1 at vast crowds of people carrying signs that are all variations of "Fuck You, Trump!", conservatives do not see the world as it is.
". . .conservatives do not see the world as it is."
Because the world they see isn't people in chains and covered with dung. *That's* the world they want.
See, now, that's not fair. Conservatives do not want us all in chains and covered in dung. That would be totally unacceptable for the household help. Maids, butlers, cooks, valets, and personal servants would be forced to bath and dress according to station.
Gotta bring up one of my favorites: Around the time "Born In The USA" was charting, some advertising genius did a clever splice job of Creedence's "Fortunate Son," and used if for a blue jeans commercial. The, "OH, THAT RED, WHITE, AND BLUE" lyric was pushed to the forefront, while a montage of flags, and closeups of designer labels flew past.
It was one of those great, "Did I just fucking see that?" moments that happen from time to time.
This was in the era of feuding Fogertys, and Fantasy Records lawsuits, so there was plenty of ugly to go around.
I picture a bunch of marketing shits spitballing ideas to sell these crappy pants. To make it interesting someone says, "What is the most loathsome thing we can come up with? Offensive, yet subtle."
I saw Stanley Clarke’s cover of this song exactly *once* and never again (back in the Age of Music Video, this was) and it definitely put some punch in the message.
Smith’s take on “Born in the USA” is like Reader Response Theory for dummies—the sort of thing you’d expect from Stanley Fish if he were a gibbon with a typewriter
Ten points for any Stanley Fish reference.
I have always thought the solo acoustic versions of the song fit the lyrics better.
And Trump's rally theme song is "You Can't Always Get What You Want." I'm beginning to think this is all some kind of mass Stanley Milgram experiment, where diner patrons in MAGA hats administer shocks to normal people while Trump and his wingnut toadies wear the lab coats.
I thought he picked it for the line "practiced at the art of deception."
It's definitely some kind of mass social experiment, only with the entire world as unwitting participants. It's like someone came up with what was supposed to be a thought experiment:
"What if someone ran for President of the United States and based his campaign on the premise that he is a conman? And he was upfront about being a complete fraud and that he was going to deceive everyone as much as possible? How many people would actually vote for such a man?"
But the thought experiment escaped the lab and, well, here we are.
Smith writes:
<<Like the New York Times editor who said, “Let me control the headlines, and I shall not care who controls the editorials”>>
Uh-huh. And no doubt the journalist went on to add “and the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we’ll hang them,” and cackled. These really are the fscking mole people, as Pierce is wont to observe.
Yeah, I googled that quote to find its provenance, and it doesn't seem to have any that predates this goober typing it. MY GOD, THE LIBERALS HAVE SCRUBBED THE INTERNET!
Will and Smith and the other pseudoconservative culture warriors totally suck at trying to make patriotic Cristal out of embittered wormwood, but it could be worse. They could be applying Cabalistic Numerological Symbolism to the lyrics of Billy Joel.
Their M.O. reminds me of high school when my Christian friend spent a year working to convince me that his shitty Christian rock bands were every bit as good as Van Halen, Aerosmith, and Led Zeppelin. There was no reality to it -- but he wanted it to be true. So he insisted it was. "Here, listen to THIS. The guitar on the new Petra album is musically on the exact same level as anything by Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page, or any of those guys you worship."
There's also the time Lee Iacocca offered Bruce $12 million to use the song in a Chrysler commercial. Legend has it Bruce's response was "No thanks, mister."
Conservatives don't do irony.
Or maybe it's that they don't do honesty. Veterans of Roy's place know I've been saying this for years: they don't write to persuade. They write, not "it's true that...," but, rather, "you could say that..." They write thought experiments and academically-plausible-even-if-demonstrably-false bullshit just to keep their phony-baloney jobs while qualifying for wingnut welfare. Smith is no different.
After all, who is their audience? Like-minded nitwits, fantasists, conservatives-except-when-not, the deluded and the resentful--none of whom are in the market for reasoned argument and none of whom need persuading. Roy's (excellent) patrol of this beat has less to do with correcting errors and pointing out fallacies, than marveling at the witting mendacity and/or unwitting stupidity of what we laughingly call America's conservative movement.
I believe that what you are saying would translate in their lingo as 'They don't argue, they do apologetics.' and they would be fine with it, the word having reached its greatest use in debates over Christian doctrine. At least as I understand it, apologetics let you use any proof-text regardless of doubtful provenance or meaning-altering context, <em>as long as the text appears to support your doctrine</em>.
What insights might he have into "Streets of Philadelphia" ?
He was unrecognizable to himself.
It was a "faithless kiss" because HOMOSEXUALS ARE INCAPABLE OF TRUE CONJUGAL LOVE
I linked to the 50 Greatest Conservative Rock Songs because I had not read it in years and I had forgotten how jaw droppingly awful it was.
There are 6 songs listed that he counts as anti-abortion (although he left out 2 songs that would better illustrate the conservative sensibility towards abortion: Slayer's "Silent Scream" and Dying Fetus's "From Womb to Waste")
2 songs bitching about having to pay taxes (because only conservatives don't like paying taxes)
3 songs about the pain of divorce (because only children who are also conservative are sad when their parents split up)
1 that he totally gets the message of the song wrong (the tongue-in-cheek "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" by The Georgia Satellites is put on the list because of "lyrics that affirm old-time sexual mores.")
3 for reasons that he pulls out of his ass ("Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones for being "The Screwtape Letters of rock" (??!??), "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin because it contains the lyric "the tyrants face is red" which he calls a "cold war metaphor", and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden because it is "inspired by a literary classic").
And 2 for the all to familiar petty conservative resentments (Lynarnd Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" made the list because the song is a "tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loath" and for "taking a shot a Neil Young's arrogance", and Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man" because "Hillary trashed it---isn't that enough?")
The rest of the songs on the list are on there because he likes the songs and they are, therefore, conservative.
I don't remember if it was on the original list or if Jonah the Fail suggested it after the list came out, but "Englishman in New York" was considered a top conservative song. At least until someone pointed out that it's about Quentin Crisp.
Any song criticising something bad which is not explicitly something conservatives support, e.g. absolute property rights, is a conservative song, because to this sort of conservative everything good is conservative.
Japanese holdout soldiers. I have always loved this image analogy. I pledge to use it more often even in conversation when talking about right-wing hacks.
George Will should be compelled to open his veins in a warm bath while a slave recites Attic poetry.
Do we have anyone in mind for the slave? Victor Davis Hanson, maybe?
Lindsay Graham
I was thinking that the song which should be used at Trump rallies is "Sixteen Tons," because although it seems to be an attack on the company, which has literally stolen the workers' souls, it's actually an uplifting tale of how despite this the persona remains a badass, ready to murder anybody who doesn't step aside for him and "ain't no high-toned woman make me walk the line": Michelle can't tell HIM to eat his vegetables!