Months ago, I deleted my Twitter account, which was long overdue. I made some great friends there no doubt, but at this point all I associate with that website is pain. Politically I’m seeing so much division and toxicity and people going off the rails on both sides, and no I’m not saying this from an enlightened/radical centrist point of view. Conservatives are becoming even more vocally hateful of LGBT people, non-white and mixed people, and people with opposing views. I’m seeing calls of jailing people for criticising Israel and deporting non-nationals who support Palestine. Even if you’re a Zionist, this attack on free speech is unacceptable and fascist. The United States is becoming more and more like a hybrid of Venezuela and Russia every day in the worst possible ways. My mother left Venezuela almost 40 years ago only to see her new home become like what she had escaped. Not to sound clichĆ©d, but we’re living in a combination of Idiocracy, The Handmaid’s Tale, and 1984. Sure, I live in England, but I know fascism is around the corner with Labour being awful. When I was 27, I wrote a whole rant about liberals, moderation, and incrementalism. I still stand by that and I’m seeing some awful out of pocket behaviour and statements from liberals, acting smug about people being killed overseas, alienating people who regret voting for Trump, and hyperfocusing on identity politics rather than class issues – the true dividers in society.
The reason I never fell into the trap of “all white people are privileged” or “all white people are colonisers” is because of my background. It is only a select few European countries that had colonial empires. Most of these are in Western Europe, and only one Eastern European country: Russia. My great grandmother was a white Venezuelan who was an orphan with little formal education, and had to work for everything she had and take care of six children and two grandchildren. She was a working class socialist. My mother’s life was much better in comparison. She grew up a lot better off because her father was a salesman and made enough money to send her to a posh private school. That’s where I learnt that money is really the differentiator in society. Most people are working class, period.
Meanwhile on my dad’s side, no one had anything to do with colonisation. They were too busy being oppressed and fighting for their lives to do anything. They were lucky to make it to the US prior to the Eastern European/Mediterranean quota of 1921. In a period of 100 years, my great grandfather went from never having met a black person to having two great grandchildren who have black ancestry. That’s what the melting pot is all about. That’s what America is all about. It’s sad to say few know about this history unless they are of that ancestry or they’re a big history nerd. A lot of Americans assume Europe is more homogenous than it really is and aren’t aware of the various languages suppressed and cultures stolen because of intra-European colonisation. You look into the history and you’ll see many similarities to indigenous people. I’m part native myself and I don’t think that acknowledging this takes away from what my native ancestors had gone through. In fact, they weren’t the first to experience this. Look at the pagans. None of the Abrahamic faiths are indigenous to Europe, yet they were pushed on us. This is why I am sick and tired of the suffering contests and the “us and them” divisiveness. History is nasty to everyone. Every country has skeletons in its closet. Racism is a huge problem, and it’s one of many prejudices in society and we shouldn’t downplay other prejudices and that’s what this rant is about.
I’ve written extensively about LGBT pop culture and history with a classic rock angle. History was my favourite subject in school and something I’ve learnt from it is pattern recognition. When you look into all the forms of prejudice in the world, they’re really not that different from each other, be it racism, be it sexism, be it homophobia, be it transphobia, be it ableism, be it antisemitism, be it classism, you name it. I know people will say, but with ethnicity you can see it, at least you can hide your sexuality. As if there isn’t mental pain in hiding who you truly are? The statistics show that LGBT people have a lower suicide risk if they have supportive family and friends.
Currently I’m working on my next big project and the first chapter is about institutionalised oppression of gay and bisexual men, but the book will have other themes talking about obscenity laws and prohibition of drugs. I remember seeing a post go viral about Anne Frank having white privilege and I was thinking well it’s not a stretch to think that they’d say that men like Alan Turing had white privilege. What privilege is it to be threatened with jail time for being who you are? What privilege is it to be told you can take a “lighter” punishment of chemical castration? What privilege is it to lose your job all because you’re attracted to the same sex? It’s still illegal to be gay in over 70 countries around the world and none of us are truly free until we’re all free to be who we are. This is why we need to teach gay history. Because not all of this is common knowledge.
Let’s talk about Chappell Roan. I’ve caught the bug, I’m hooked. I got a good impression on first listen, but it keeps getting better with each listen. Finally some new music that sounds fresh and is something I can vibe with, 80s-esque sapphic jams with a lot of gay male influence in image and sound? Love it! Currently I’ve been listening to a lot of Smiths and Kino, both bands having achillean members, Morrissey is bisexual and Kino drummer Georgy Guryanov was gay. The gay musicians of the 60s and 70s walked so the gay musicians of the 80s could run.
Scrolling on Threads, I came across this awful post. I remember the OP from Twitter and he had awful SJW-like takes. Oh Chappell Roan likes country music, I mean you can tell from her latest song “. Who cares? I listen to The Smiths and Morrissey a lot, cancel me! Morrissey was so real for writing “I was looking for a job and then I found a job and heaven knows I’m miserable now” and “In my life, why do I give valuable time to people who don’t care if I live or die?”. How surprising, a Hispanic woman loving The Smiths and Morrissey.
Look, I get it, Jason Aldean is a Trump supporter, but that’s no reason to demonise all country music. What about Dolly Parton? Patsy Cline? Loretta Lynn had some great messages too back in the day. One of the most famous drag queens, Trixie Mattel, is a country musician and she’s half Native American. Country music doesn’t have to be conservative. There’s nothing inherently conservative about a twangy sound. It has multicultural roots because of how diverse America is: Black, Mexican, and Irish.
Heck, you’d have to cancel a lot of the classic rock fandom because of Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. What happened to separating art from the artist? Or just “you do you”. I understand if you feel uncomfortable listening to musicians you find problematic, but let people enjoy art. The leftists who annoy me the most are the ones who get all judgemental and take their politics too far when it comes to enjoying art. I don’t listen to classic rock to get profound messages about socialism (although I find them sometimes). I listen to classic rock and watch movies to be entertained. Not everything needs to be serious and have a moral message. Can’t we just have art for art’s sake? I can’t imagine obsessing over every artist’s political views, purity testing, and thinking about politics 24/7 is good for your mental health. You need rest. You will burn out if you don’t take a break once in a while. You can’t advocate for others if you’re not taking care of yourself properly.
The replies to that post are ridiculous and can be summed up as people just loving to tear down a celebrity because they did something they don’t agree with. Stop this parasocial crap and stop idealising celebrities. That’s gonna be one of the big themes of my next project, it’s a commentary on the rise and fall of celebrities who end up in scandal.
Let’s break down some common complaints from the replies of that post:
“Chappell Roan is against Kamala Harris and she’s a secret conservative”
What happened to ACAB? She’s the ultimate cop. She was against legalisation of marijuana. She jailed a lot of working class men and those actions have broken up families and have robbed children of their loving fathers. She’s pro genocide, as are the Republicans. She chose to throw her support behind Israel. Trump’s disastrous no doubt with the Trump Gaza shit, but Kamala Harris would have done the same things, but with a veneer of “respectability” and with she/her pronouns and glitter emojis. She doesn’t support Medicare For All. She doesn’t care about worker’s rights, and the US is way behind all of its peers on that. She stood for nothing and she wasn’t even elected. She was coronated by the DNC. What happened to democracy?
Anyway, she did end up voting for Kamala Harris and if she lives in California, which is a blue state, what difference would it make who she voted for? What more do you want?
How is she conservative? Are you making judgements based on her upbringing? Do you not realise people aren’t their parents? Are you a carbon copy of your parents? I’m sure you aren’t. All I’ve ever seen from Chappell Roan is messages supporting working musicians and LGBT people. The fact that she isn’t a Democrat sycophant is a relief.
“blah blah something about Evangelical and growing up in the south”
One thing I think liberals really need to break away from if they want to win over the fencesitters and independents is the coastal, cosmopolitan elitism. That drives potential allies away. You want to win, right? I used to think like that too, as someone from Chicagoland who grew up Jewish and hearing liberal talking points my whole life and made a conscious choice to become an atheist at 10 years old. You’re not better than someone else because you’re from a city or a blue state. You’re not better than someone else because your hometown has hipster craft breweries, brick oven pizzerias, and overpriced burger joints that serve burgers and chips on anything but a plate. You call Trump a narcissist, yet you act like one too. Take a good look in the mirror. In the south and Middle America you have a lot of working class people who could potentially be comrades. Follow the example of Chairman Fred Hampton and reach out to working class people of all ethnicities. That’s what the rich are truly afraid of. You wanna scare Elon “Apartheid Clyde” Musk? Unite everyday Americans: Black, White, Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, Jewish, Arab, Mixed. Let’s use our diversity as strength and depose these billionaire bullies. Remember that you have more in common with a working class person of a different ethnicity than a billionaire of the same ethnicity as you.
If you don’t want people to stereotype you, stop stereotyping other people. People are complex. People are individuals. Not all southerners or people who grew up Christian are the same. All Americans deserve an economy that works for them. All Americans deserve free healthcare and education, no matter what their politics are.
“Chappell Roan is appropriating gay men’s culture/drag culture”
LGBT culture is for all LGBT people, period. And it wouldn’t surprise me if the people saying this are biphobic and will call bisexuals (especially ones in heterosexual marriages or relationships) colonisers. Both men and women borrow from each other and I see it like a ping pong match. Men who do drag took inspiration from ladies and ladies took inspiration from drag queens and did it their way. The cycle continues and the artistry has become so elevated. Besides, anyone of any gender or sex can be a drag queen or drag king. There’s no right or wrong way to do drag.
Black American culture is easily the most influential culture in the world and you see it in everything. Similarly, LGBT culture is highly influential with the number of LGBT people in the arts historically and currently. How many LGBT writers, actors, musicians, and artists can you name? Our world is integrated and I love that people take inspiration and enjoy our culture.
“X musician is fake”
The oldest trick in the book in fame is to make up a backstory. For centuries, celebrities have participated in mythmaking. It’s all about marketing, just like having a stage name is. Sure it can be frustrating to see someone fake their story, but in a way musicians are kind of like actors, they play characters. A musician is a different person on stage, when they’re in character, than when they’re in private. Do you really think they’re theatrical and dramatic 24/7/365?
But also, what if she’s saying this tongue in cheek? As if everything a celebrity says is 100% true? You know that celebrities say things to get a rise out of people, right? They say things to get attention sometimes.
Remember that this purity testing can backfire. Stop acting like you’re better than everyone else. A movement is a lot stronger when we have many imperfect people part of it as opposed to a few people doing it “perfectly”. That’s what I’ve learnt from nearly a decade being vegan. We all make mistakes, we all slip up. The best thing we can do is learn from it and improve ourselves. And I think this perfectionism and purity testing often hits women harder. We’re definitely given less of the benefit of the doubt than men are.
Liked this blog post and want to support my work and see more?Ā DonateĀ to The Diversity of Classic Rock onĀ PatreonĀ orĀ PaypalĀ or follow me onĀ Facebook,Ā BlueskyĀ orĀ Instagram, buy my bookĀ Crime of the Century,Ā click the follow button on my website, leave a nice comment,Ā send your music or classic rock related books for review, or donate your art and writing talents to the blog. Thank you for your support! If you donate any amount of money to my Patreon or PayPal, youāll get aĀ Crime of the CenturyĀ ebook, so itās basically pay what you can!Ā The best deal youāll get on the book and you wonāt find this deal anywhere else!Ā I just want to give back to my readers and say thank you for your support.
The Diversity of Classic Rock 