Povert

I have to share this.

A cousin of mine sent out an interesting email. It had this article. Read it. It’s good.

My uncle, whom I used to get in fierce political arguments, replied. He basically complained that these scientists are scum-sucking liberals, that they are wrong, etc.

I died.

My response was something along the lines that I wasn’t sure if he was being sincere, ironic, or ironically sincere. Or any other combination of sincerity and irony.

Made my day.

You really have to read the article to get it. Too perfect.

I seem to be following up on previous posts a lot lately. Meh.

Anyway, I mentioned that I picked up American Idiot from iTunes.

First, I should say that I generally don’t like overtly political albums. Never have. Ask Chris. I’ve never much liked Rage Against the Machine, for example. The music itself is fine, but… I dunno. I’ve just never much liked hearing excessively political music. A political song here or there is fine; I just think Zack de la Rocha should have written a few love songs or something. Mix it up a little.

I do like Audioslave, though. Hmm… I wonder why?

However, I do like American Idiot. It is quite political, I think. I don’t pick up on lyrics too quickly, but this is the general impression I get. They don’t seem to dwell on it too much, though.

“Whatsername” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” are particularly good, I think. They give me goosebumps. Actually, I like all the tracks. Those two just kind of stand out for me, though.

This has got me thinking about other people’s reactions to politically-themed music. Specifically, conservative-type people. They tend to hate the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, whatever, because they’ve expressed their beliefs in public. These people often say that they don’t want their entertainers to express political beliefs, because it somehow ruins the experience. However, they don’t seem to mind when a country singer does a pro-war song.

I, on the other hand, would prefer no political commentary at all, of any persuasion, whether I agree with it or not. I just accept that there is some. Doesn’t bother me much, it’s just a preference. If the music is good, it ultimately doesn’t matter. American Idiot is very good, so I don’t much mind the political commentary. At least they’re not doing a RATM thing like screaming “FUCK YOU I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!” 20 times in a row.

One of these days I’ll post something about the political madness in my mind… I’m really quite sick of it from both ends of the spectrum. I’ve had a liberal call me a xenophobe and a conservative accuse me of sympathizing with pedophiles… Blah. Screw them all.

There. I did it. I bought Green Day’s “American Idiot”.

I said I would back in my post about American Edit. Not that stupid record companies will make the connection.

Now I’m wondering if I should have just “acquired” it instead of buying it. I mean, I basically gave the a record company money (though I bought it through iTunes), and I doubt they’ll stop going after artists who do mash-ups. So I’m basically giving money to them to do things that I think are unethical and flat wrong.

Bah.

Update: Good album. First Green Day album I’ve bought since Dookie, and it’s good.

Ok, I slept on it, and I’m less angry now.

Anyway, here’s the article. There’s one suprise in there, at least for me.

According to the article, Eilleen was actually present for the interview that I had believed was staged. She was pressured by the group to recant. They apparently threatened to “make her life miserable”:

Grant Olson, president of the College Republicans, arranged a joint telephone conversation on Thursday afternoon with one of the Latino students who was kicked out. During the conversation with Inside Higher Ed, the student made statements contrary to those posted in her blog. She indicated that she had not been kicked out or mistreated.

However, soon after the phone conversation ended, the student called back, and had a vastly different story to tell, saying that Olson and the group’s faculty adviser had pressured her to say that nothing had happened.

The student said that members who kicked her out promised to make her life miserable if she didn’t go along with the plan to “clean up everything.” “I lied [during the speaker phone conversation] because I didn’t want them to pressure me anymore,” she said.

…

“Other ethnic directors and I are very concerned,” [Laura Gutierrez Spencer] said.“ We are hoping that the dean’s office will investigate this situation.” She said she was outraged by reports that the Latino student had been pressured to alter her story. “This is absolutely untenable,” she said.

So, I kind of wish Eilleen had told me exactly what happened.

This is all so weird.

I’ve removed my last entry until I can find out what did and did not happen.