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They Rage, You Decide: Zack De La Rocha, Fox News and Music Without Compromise
It’s good to have Zack De La Rocha and the full Rage Against the Machine back and bucking the system once again — even if their reunion has no long-term guarantee (no tour or album plans have been announced).
No one has made the blend of pop culture and politics seem so at home in a mosh pit. And very few artists have been made a revolutionary radicalism seem so appealing — even to the well-off white kids who tend to populate their concerts.
As Kelefa Sanneh reports in the New York Times — in a reflection on the retro fell of the “Rock the Bells” hip hop tour — Rage hasn’t lost its edge:
On April 29, during this rap-rock band?s reunion concert at the Coachella festival, Mr. De La Rocha gave a speech accusing the Bush administration of war crimes and said, ?They should be hung and tried and shot.? (Hmm. In that order?) A clip found its way to the Fox News program ?Hannity & Colmes,? which was not overstocked with Rage Against the Machine fans. The on-screen headline read, ?Rock grp ?Rage Against the Machine? says Bush admin should be shot.?Sean Hannity seemed to suggest that the Secret Service should be alerted. Ann Coulter, a guest, got in a good quip (?Has anybody checked in with a Flock of Seagulls to see what their position is on Bush??), then delivered a final verdict, ?They?re losers, their fans are losers, and there?s a lot of violence coming from the left wing.?
On Saturday night Mr. De La Rocha responded. He attacked the ?fascist? Fox News pundits for ?claiming that we said that the president should be assassinated.? As the crowd shouted its approval, he continued, ?No: he should be brought to trial as a war criminal and hung and shot. That?s what we said.? Despite the insistence on due process, this still isn?t a position any mainstream politician would endorse. But that?s precisely the point: At a time when unimpeachable causes and pragmatic endorsements are the norm, it?s nice to be reminded that rock stars can get political without sounding like politicians.
Posted at 11:07 AM | Permalink | | 
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August 1, 2007 at 12:19 pm
everyone knows that Bush should go to jail with his friends like Cheney! Even in Canada we know it, perhaps too many americans dont because they are hypnotized by the nonsense and unreal news at FOX! hehe
ZACK IS SO RIGHT!
August 3, 2007 at 4:36 am
Yes, Zack is right! you cant get peace by bombing other country. What goes around comes around. So Bush your time has come.
August 6, 2007 at 3:20 am
BOMBING FOR PEACE IS LIKE
FUCKING FOR VIRGINITY
August 22, 2007 at 10:48 pm
I’m anti-war…..but I just can’t stand Zack, the pompous anti-White racist. He could and should go live his dream in many places in the Third World. If he loves the indigenous so much, Honduras is waiting, and he could have everything he wants and talks about there. Oh, but why does he stay in the USA? Zack is a punk, anti-Western whiner, pure and simple.
August 25, 2007 at 10:34 pm
everyone should be anti western, im ashamed to have been born america. its the most fascist state there is, in a fair view it is almost as bad as nazi germany.
read a fucking book alexis.
August 26, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I’d like to call for a little civility here.
I think it’s very worthwhile to discuss Zack’s political stances or the validity of being such a fervent critic of the West while living and benefiting from the West.
But we can do that without personal attacks (and probably lose some of the crude analogies).
September 8, 2007 at 10:48 pm
this is for alexis. zack’s oppinion means as much to you as yours does to him. he was born in the country he should be allowed to try and change it the way he feels nessesary. its a pretty bold statement calling him a racist when for all anyone knows your a racist too. so don’t be so quick to judge other people because their oppinion means as much as yours.
October 21, 2007 at 11:03 pm
First of all peace doesn’t exist on a global level only on a personal level. Secondly teh “peace” from war is just the time whatever countrys are in said war have to recoup.
August 10, 2008 at 4:22 am
I’m pretty sure that those opposing the statement are missing the meaning of it. Think of what happened to Adolf Eichman. He was tried, and sentenced to death for what he did. Zack is trying to say that if we applied the same charges used on Eichman and those alike, we would find that every President from Truman to the present have violated human rights to the point where it comese down to the fact that if they sentenced Eichman to death for what he did, they should get the same punishment.