September 20, 2024

Tom Morello’s endless eyeroll at Trump dipshits missing the point of Rage songs rolls on

RATM #RATM

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic (Getty Images)

This election has been a throbbing, incurable headache for all of us, but it has to have been especially blinding for Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, a man who has spent his life doing basically two things: making music (and movements) that supports things like feeding the poor, equality, and the opposition of fascism, and then having to roll his eyes every few minutes when dumbfucks try to use those same tunes in support of their right-wing agendas. We’ve written before about the endless eyeroll of Morello, who’s had to, more than once during this election cycle, remind people that he’s Tom Morello, a person who’s been putting his money where his mouth is, and his ideals on his sleeves, for pretty much the entirety of his professional career.

All of which brings us to tonight (a.k.a. Night 8,232 of the November 3 election), when Morello was once again forced to confront the musician’s dilemma, i.e., that even people who suck will often enjoy your songs. To that end, Morello posted his frustrations on Twitter, responding to a video of arrhythmic shambling by a pair of Trump supporters, simultaneously rocking out to, and missing the point of, Rage’s “Killing In The Name.”

Morello’s reaction to the video is pleasantly deadpan. But the incongruity of watching a pair of dipshits dance around in Blue Lives Matter kit while lyrics like “Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses” blare in the background really is a perfect encapsulation of this particular moment in American history—rolling eyes, lurching stomachs, and all.

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