Friday, August 17, 2012

Where were the freedom-loving liberals when we needed them?

The liberals can now add their condemnation of the guilty verdict of the punk band ***** Riot to all their other fashionable cultural causes, like animal rights and the Free Tibet movement. It's all part of the low cost pose they can strike that allows them to look like they are fighting for something when, in fact, they are not incurring any discomfort at all.

At least the left-wing European intellectuals in the 1930's who went to fight for the communists in the Spanish Civil War actually risked something. Today, fighting the good fight is characterized by Madonna preening on stage by telling her audience she "stands with" a punk band that is just trying to get its name in the news; or members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers wearing a T-shirt supporting the band while playing in Moscow; or Paul McCartney writing a letter in support (proving thereby that at least the old rockers were actually literate).

And, of course, we have the oh, so fashionable Obama administration weighing in with its condemnation of the verdict.

And so where were the liberal celebrities and politicians during the Soviet years when people were thrown in jail after being found guilty in trials the verdicts for which were announced before the trials ever took place? Hmmm. Let's see. I'll just check the historical record here and see if ... Omigosh. The liberal celebrities weren't concerned about dissidents during the Cold War at all! In fact, they were supportive of the Soviet government and other totalitarian governments around the world who were jailing their own citizens on a daily basis for disagreeing with them.

Funny how that works.

And did I mention that the Red Hot Chili Peppers should be sent to Russia with the punk bands for trial?

3 comments:

ZPenn said...

Do people actually take the political opinions of musicians seriously? I certainly never have. I prefer to just consume their music, that's what they're good at. I mean, I guess the President's opinion should matter, but to be honest I haven't been able to take what most establishment politicians say when they enter into PR mode (their default mode, I think) seriously since I was a very young man.

Art said...

Um, Martin, in the McCarthy years, there was no such thing as a "liberal celebrity".

ZPenn said...

Yes there were, Art, they were just being persecuted. That doesn't mean they didn't exist.