May 282010
 

It’s rare that a thread earns Friday Flashback status so soon after its initial posting, but a new Townsperson among us, beenreepin, had some Main Stage-worthy comments on how to best appreciate Motorhead. Click the link to pick up where you may have left off in December, right to his belated comments, or revisit this entire thread and original discussion.

This post initially appeared 12/3/09.


If you point a gun to my head I can hum out the 3 words that make up both the title and (most of?) the chorus of Motorhead‘s “Ace of Spaces.” Other than that I know I’ve heard a song called “Eat the Rich,” or something like that. If memory serves it sounds like the sound a motorcycle makes when a biker revs it up, right? In fact, I think every song I’ve ever heard by Motorhead sounds like a revved up motocycle engine. I know bikers and other motorheads dig the sound of revved up engines, but a lot of rock fans I know who say they dig Motorhead yet drive around in whole-grain, alternative-energy vehicles don’t seem to get a thrill out of listening to a real motorcylce engine. In fact, these well-educated, concerned citizens of rock scoff at real-life motorheads and the pin-dick compensatory measures they – no, we – like to believe those big engines represent. Yet they tell me they dig the band Motorhead. What gives?

These same, value-based proponents of “old-school” practices like leaf raking and loose-leaf tea steeping wouldn’t be caught within 50 yards of a real-life person who looked anything like that human, filthy boil Lemmy – unless they were dedicating a Saturday morning to volunteering in a soup line – yet they tell me how “fucking cool” Lemmy’s wart-encrusted Look is. What gives?


I know Lemmy was once part of Hawkwind, a band that almost everyone thinks is kinda cool until asked to listen to. I know he’s jammed and snorted Draino with actual founding fathers of punk rock, which is to be envied, but what the hell am I missing in the musical output of Motorhead? More importantly, what is missing in my life – or perhaps what is present in my life – that prevents me from making any exceptions for the motorcycle-revving nonsense that I hear whenever presented with the music of Motorhead?

With as open a mind as you’ll find in these Hallowed Halls, I ask that you please explain rock’s longest-running free ride.

I thank you in advance.

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  44 Responses to “Please Explain: Motorhead (aka Rock’s Longest-Running Free Ride)”

  1. mockcarr

    I think we all know who’s being called out here and there WILL be blood…in the stool.

  2. Mr. Moderator

    I trust we will not need a summons for the person you have in mind, mockcarr, to appear and help me better understand both his taste for this band and the musical accomplishments of Motorhead itself. However, I’m pretty sure he’s not the only Motorhead fan who can help me. Again, thanks, in advance.

  3. Lemmy never sang with the surviving members of the Doors
    Lemmy never attended a RnR Hall of Fame event.
    Lemmy never did a duet with Kylie Mynogue.
    Lemmy was never remixed by Moby.
    Lemmy never appeared onstage with Ozzy Osbourne.
    Lemmy never publicly endorsed Kid Rock.
    Lemmy just keeps on rockin.

    and sometimes that’s enough.

  4. I like Ace of Spades and the joke he tells at the end of the movie trailer that HVB posted a few weeks ago.

    That video was the first Hawkwind that I’ve ever heard despite having heard about about them for years. Oof! I’m glad I never invested any money in them. I turned off the sound about halfway through but left the video on because I heard that the chick used to dance naked on stage. I was let down on all fronts.

    I think people just like Lemmy’s whole image. He’s developed a great brand. I suspect the music is secondary.

    How many people do you think know anything about CBGB’s or Che Guevara, yet you see those t-shirts everywhere.

  5. 2000 Man

    A little Motorhead goes a long way, but man, when you’re in the mood for hard and fast, nothing is quite the rush of Motorhead at insane decibel levels. They cracked the ceiling when I saw them, they were that loud.

    And it was beyond cool.

  6. I don’t love everything about Motorhead, but I like the band a lot, and I really really love the first four Hawkwind records–after that, they fade into irrelevance fast.

    Re Motorhead:

    The band’s sound is an excellent combination of what’s good about both punk and metal, without the excess of either genre: the fast sloppy energy of punk without “look I’m an insane radical” posing; the hard punching power and glory of metal without studio wankery and gloss.

    Simple yet quite good lyrics: a similar dynamic. A credible working class stance combined with pedal-to-the-medal “rock ’til we drop” thinking. Like a combination of what’s good about Bon Scott/Bob Seeger/Stiff Little Fingers, but again without the exaggerated sex and drugs/ I’m a working man/ we need revolution now posturing. They just go to work every day–and their job is to keep on putting all their energy on the line.

    Many of the 22 tunes on the No Remorse best-of are actually pretty catchy, if you can handle the roughness (and I sure can; I bet the Mod can’t) that is essential to what the band is. “No Sleep ’til Hammersmith” is a fantastic live rock record–there aren’t many better live albums than that, especially in hard rock. And although the band has put out its share of crappy records in their later output, there are also some good records later on too–1916 especially, but also Overnight Sensation.

    Their main musical weakness is that if you play too many songs of theirs in a row, they begin to sound too much the same over a long haul. But any 6-10 song stretch of theirs works for me just fine.

    As for Lemmy’s image, I don’t find anything particularly cool about it, and in fact it’s mainly just an anti-iamge; nothing cleaned up or made media worthy, just a couple dirty guys who play dirty music. And note, by the way, given another recent discussion, that the guys in the band look alike.

  7. Mr. Moderator

    mwall wrote:

    Many of the 22 tunes on the No Remorse best-of are actually pretty catchy, if you can handle the roughness (and I sure can; I bet the Mod can’t)…

    Oh man, that’s a challenge! The Mod can match up to any musical roughness you throw my way, mwall. We may have to see if we can conduct a musical steel cage match!

  8. I’d certainly love a steel cage match–or, you know, a discussion (either is fine)–of musical roughness any time, Mod. But in the meantime I’ve layed out an argument for Motorhead that I feel deserves a response.

  9. I will grant you that Motorhead occupies a very desirable space somewhere between punk and metal, but music is only one part of the equation.

    I don’t think you can dismiss his image as anti image. It that were the case, he’d be wearing Levis and a t-shirt or he’d be dressing like Dave Matthews. Instead, he looks like the ghost of a particularly angry Confederate soldier. I’m not suggesting that it’s a bad look. To the contrary, it suits him well and serves him even better because it’s very identifiable. I’m a big fan of groups who mach visible shau.

    Same with their logo. You can’t place too much importance on a good corporate brand. The merch is where all the big money is anyway.

  10. Mr. Moderator

    mwall, don’t think my lack of response re: your Motorhead argument is a sign that I am ignoring it or disagree with it. Because their music has never made an impression on me and because Lemmy’s rebellious branding also makes no positive influence on me, I’m using this thread to consider what Motorhead fans suggest I might better appreciate about them.

    In terms of that middle ground between metal and punk that you started with, I can see how I might better appreciate them as a heavier version of early records by The Damned. I like early records by The Damned enough, so that works for me. Thanks. On the other hand, for a band (ie, The Damned – although this also seems to apply to Motorhead) with so many metal leanings (eg, the chromatic chord progressions of the excellent “New Rose”), they fail to come through for me with the sinister fuzz riffs that I’ve most liked best about the little bit of metal I’ve been able to like over the years, specifically Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and what I’ve heard from your boys Judas Priest.

    Motorhead, as I hear them, always sound a little too much like a 17-year-old boys’ garage-band version of metal. I’m sure I’m missing some more grand moments in their recorded career, but they seem to be lacking the lead guitarist capable of slow, sinister, apocalyptic riffs and a lead singer capable of raising demons and wizards from the mists of time. I need that unintentionally funny, grandiose stuff to better enjoy the lack of melody and rhythmic swing.

    In short, yes, I get what there is to appreciate about the musical values of these oafs, but I could just as easily spend my time praising the virtues of thousands of lesser-known bands of all musical stripes who do what they do with little regard for conventions. I’m asking, What special status has Motorhead earned that punches their ticket for life?

    I like how shawnkilroy put it, too, but to me, the same question applies. Why shouldn’t I put my rock ‘n roll fan support behind kilroy? He’s just as funny and engaging a rock character as Lemmy if not moreso. I’m not saying I’d build up shawnkilroy only to tear him down in one of these “Please Explain” threads. If I’m rooting for one of the “originals,” why shouldn’t I place my support behind someone who hasn’t, after 400 years in the business, given me the sense that he’s as concerned about his branding as Steven Tyler is his own branding?

    Seriously, you are all making valid points that I will take under consideration. I’ll admit, I’d never heard that “Killed by Death” song before finding that video. As the video started up and he came crashing through the wall on his cylce I was certain it would validate all my judgments on the guy. I was certain it would hold a mirror up to all the faults I found in you – fair or not! Instead I started laughing at the primal energy of the song, at least for a minute, before I found Lemmy’s vocal stylings to be as limited as ever and shut the thing off. This was, however, progress in my seeing and hearing Motorhead in a new way.

    I continue to thank you – in advance.

  11. “he looks like the ghost of a particularly angry Confederate soldier”

    Classic!

    Never listed to Motorhead until about a year ago. Got No Sleep and Ace Of Spades and the new one “Motorizer” great straight ahead hard rock with a punk attitude.

    Motorizer was surprisingly good and one of my favorite rock records of last year

  12. Missing from the poll on the side is “Longevity”.

    Lemmy’s not changed a whit in 30 years or so, and there’s something to be said for that. Hell, I’m even starting to warm up to that new singer in ACDC (or at least I’m resenting him less for besmirching the legacy of the Little Scotsman with the Great Big Thirst) simply because he’s been around so long now.

    Like the man probably meant to say, “Politicians, ugly buildings, whores and rockers all get respectable if they last long enough.”

  13. Mod, re the garage band comparison, I think 2000’s point is apt; Motorhead has more hard sonic intensity than just about anyone, never mind some run of the mill garage band.

    Also, it’s exactly the lack of “sinister” riffs and demon raising that gives them some of their cred; they just don’t do that hell’s bell’s stuff. Even “Killed By Death” is just an anthem about living life to the (unwashed) limit.

    And it’s true that Lemmy can’t really sing. But his aggressive croak also rejects the phony opera elements of metal.

    Not, mind you, that I myself hate those aspects of metal. But Motorhead’s refusal to do show business in that way is why some people claim a greater integrity for their sound.

    Still, I would agree that their refusal of the showy trappings of punk or metal in their songs does lead to the sameness of their sound over any larger batch of their tunes. What they do actually operates in a very narrow window, and often enough it’s to their detriment.

  14. Mr. Moderator

    So we’re generally in agreement, mwall.

  15. Probably so, Mod. We just value differently what we’re hearing.

  16. BigSteve

    Motorhead is the kind of band where I only need one song. I think Ace of Spades is genius, but everything else is redundant. And oddly the endless redundancy of the rest of their oeuvre doesn’t dull the genius of that one song. There are other artists in this category, and there’s a post coming at some point about this concept.

  17. All valid points, I must say. However, any attempt to analyze Motörhead’s music from an intellectual standpoint is simply a waste of time. You either feel the music or you don’t. Has nothing to do with the brain.

    Long live Lemmy!

  18. Mr. Moderator

    Welcome aboard, zoinks. What you say rings true with my experience of the first minute of that “Killed by Death” video.

    BigSteve, perhaps you’re right, perhaps that one song, “Ace of Spades,” punched the band’s ticket.

  19. BigSteve

    Where is the line between staying true to yourself out of a sense of integrity and being stuck in a rut due to a lack of imagination or fear of failure? How much of Lemmy’s appeal is in his music and how much in his image as the uncompromising, indestructible, though essentially harmless, rebel?

  20. I don’t think the band is stuck in a rut, Steve–they’ve made a few good albums in recent years. I also don’t buy your one song theory–I think non-believers would at least have to have “Killed By Death” along with “Ace of Spades.” Me, I’ve got 4 CDs of theirs and could imagine having one or two more.

  21. hrrundivbakshi

    Just wanted to say that I didn’t contribute to this HVB-baiting post because, a.) I was crazy busy; and more importantly, b.) because townsmen Mwall and Shawnkilroy said it all much better than I ever could have.

    But, Mod, I must add this: if you can’t get behind the lyric:

    If you squeeze my lizard
    I’ll put my snake on you
    I’m a romantic adventure
    And I’m a reptile, too
    But it don’t make no difference
    ‘Cuz I ain’t gonna be easy
    The only time I’m gonna be easy’s when I’m
    Killed by death

    … then I don’t know how you can claim to understand rock and roll. I’m sorry to go all e. pluribus gergley on your ass, but it’s the truth. Rock and roll isn’t all stems, seeds, floppy leather hats and the, uh, occasional wizard. It’s mostly ‘TUDE. And ‘tude is what Motorhead has. No, check that: Lemmy is what rock and roll ‘tude IS.

    Your pal,

    HVB

  22. BigSteve

    Rock and roll is mostly ‘TUDE? Mostly? No wonder adults don’t listen to it anymore.

  23. Mr. Moderator

    Thanks for jumping in and proving my point, HVB. You know I love you.

  24. Judging Motorhead by Ace of Spades and Eat the Rich is like judging Status Quo by “Rockin All Over The World”, AD/CD by “High Voltage”, or The Who by “My Generation”. Motorhead are an acquired taste. Once you get the taste however, you will find it difficult to listen to anything else without some hard comparisons.

    MOTORHEAD APPRECIATION CLASS:

    1. As with all music, mood is vital. This is not music to be listened to sitting in front of your PC thru your headphones.Pretend you are in a pub in 1980, playing pool with your mates. Even better, kick the wife out for the afternoon, buy a case or two of beer and invite some mates around who like their rock loud.

    2. After priming the mood with a few cold bevvies and perhaps some ACDC, put on a Motorheads first single, a cover of “Louie Louie”. This is important process designed to tune your ears to the sublties of Lemmy’s vocals, which can get lost on the uninitiated. Next, load up Motorheads 1983 release “Another Perfect Day” and listen to the album in its entirity. Following this, some other key tracks to listen to are “We Are The Road Crew”, “Stone Dead Forever”, “Traitor”, “Deaf Forever”, “No Class”, “Dr Rock”, “Rock & Roll”, and “Iron Fist”

    3. Immediatley afterwards, listen to any other rock group you like. The differences will begin to crystallize, slowly at first, but you will soon find yourself hooked.

    4. Next you need to see them live. If you cant get to a concert, their Live in Waken 2006 video is not bad. Alternatively, listen to No Sleep till Hammersmith.

    Motorhead is the only band you can actually smell when they are on your stereo. They smell like a mix of hot amplifier tubes, sweat, wet leather, cigarette smoke and beer. This smell has a noticible chemical effect on listeners, and afterwards you may find your breathing heavier, your eyes are bulging slightly, and you are in bad need of a root. Do not be worried, the effects will pass. Its called Rock & Roll.

  25. Translation from previous post, last para: “Root” is the polite Australian term for sexual congress between a male and female.

  26. hrrundivbakshi

    Beenreepin: LOVE that final paragraph summarizing Motorhead’s effects on unsuspecting listeners. Welcome aboard!

  27. Mr. Moderator

    Indeed, welcome to the fray, beenreepin!

  28. BigSteve

    The last paragraph has the effect of making me want to listen to Motorhead even less than I do now.

  29. Thanks for the warm welcome!

    Big Steve, if you don’t want that special Motorhead feeling that’s fair enough, they’re not for everyone. Still, if you do like hard rock try listenting to “Another Perfect Day” next time you take a long drive. It may grow on you (kinda like one of Lemmys warts).

    I’ll echo here hrrundivbakshi’s comments on Lemmy’s lyrics, which I feel are one of the reasons they have survived so long and have so much cred. They speak to your inner biker/rocker (if you have one) directly.

    Probably one of the best examples of Mr Kilmisters wordsmithing ability, (and one that may indicate their power to those without an inner Lemmy), is in one of their “off-station” tracks, 1916 (title track to their 1991 album – the Grammy nominated one – beaten by Metallica’s black album). The track itself is very slow and hymn-like, with only an organ and muffled snare accompanying what can only be described as moving poetry. Despite Lemmy’s admittedly limited vocal style, listen to it on youtube and try not to be moved.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqFoqtpUFY8

    16 years old when I went to war,
    To fight for a land fit for heroes.
    God on my side, and a gun in my hand,
    Chasing my days down to zero.
    And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died,
    And I never did get any older,
    But I knew at the time that a year in the line,
    Is a long enough life for a soldier.

    We all volunteered, and we wrote down our names,
    And we added two years to our ages.
    Eager for life and ahead of the game,
    Ready for history’s pages.
    And we brawled and we fought and we whored ’til we stood,
    Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder,
    A thirst for the Hun, we were food for the gun,
    And that’s what you are when you’re soldiers.

    I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees,
    Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother,
    And I fell by his side, and that’s how we died,
    Clinging like kids to each other,
    And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood,
    And I wept as his body grew colder,
    And I called for my mother and she never came,
    Though it wasn’t my fault and I wasn’t to blame,
    The day not half over and ten thousand slain,
    And now there’s nobody remembers our names,
    And that’s how it is for a soldier.

    (P.S. Apologies for posting the lyrics in full, I won’t make a habit of it…I just think it adds a bit of weight in this instance)

  30. Motorhead rocks! Bullshit walks.

  31. Mr. Moderator

    Wow, this “1916” song could pass for a Roger Waters-sung Pink Floyd song – and believe it or not I mean that as a compliment. Surprising tenderness!

    I’ll keep a more open mind next time I come across Motorhead. Through the years my inner biker has existed through the music of Steppenwolf.

  32. Thanks Mod! Glad I’ve been able to open at least one more mind to Lemmy. Mission accomplished.

    Youve got a point – 1916 has echoes of Pink Floyd’s “when the tigers broke free” off “The Wall” soundtrack.

    For something a little more disturbing, but equally poignant, try “Don’t Let Daddy Kiss Me” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voHNpmLj69o
    ….then lighten the mood with “Going to Brazil”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyuDyWc09G8

    Or “Whorehouse Blues” for MH unplugged.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh1oP_cYIz4&feature=related

    Or their take on “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoxdH4FWuhg&feature=related

    Enjoy! 🙂

  33. misterioso

    BigSteve took the words outta my mouth:

    “Motorhead is the kind of band where I only need one song. I think Ace of Spades is genius, but everything else is redundant. And oddly the endless redundancy of the rest of their oeuvre doesn’t dull the genius of that one song.”

    I have no need to hear any other song by them (though I have and they made no impression on me) and as far as that goes I don’t really even need to hear “Ace of Spades” more than once in a blue moon. It’s out there, and it’s cool, and that is sufficient.

    In effect, this reduces them (or elevates them?) to the status of “one-hit wonder” ala The Soul Survivors or The Count Five. Which is ok by me.

  34. The fact that Lemmy looks the same now as he did in 1975 is enough for me. His image/brand does not alter and that kind of purity gets lost today with so many musicians trying to change with the times so that their paychecks remain relatively steady. Lemmy doesn’t give in…Take him or leave him.

  35. jeangray

    Gotta say that I have a problem with the whole Nazi memorabilia thang.

    Plus the only people that I’ve ever actually met that were Motorhead fans are of the… ahem–uhh, intellectually challenged variety, if’n you know what I mean???? Dudes I met when I was in the Military and my Brother-In-Law, who Gawd love him, has the worst taste in Musik.

    Early Hawkind does kick some serious ass though…

  36. jeangray, Lemmy is not a Nazi, hates Nazism and racism. Ill paste in this from a 1996 interview:

    Int: YOU’RE KNOWN FOR YOUR COLLECTION OF NAZI MEMORABILIA. THERE CAN BE A STIGMA ATTACHED TO THAT SORT OF COLLECTION.

    Lemmy: I do sometimes and it’s ridiculous. I mean, if you like Civil War stuff, no one accuses you of being a racist. They don’t mind flying the fucking confederate flag all over America, but they used to cut slaves’ nuts off for running away. If you collect something, it doesn’t mean you believe it. If you collect toy trains it doesn’t mean you believe you’re a toy engine driver. People now even more than before judge on appearances, and it’s really sad that we haven’t learned anything. God knows we should have learned that by now. All we’ve learned is how to kill more people from further away. It’s the technology that has improved. Man’s mind set hasn’t improved one iota. They haven’t read history so they don’t understand. I collect Nazi memorabila because I like the workmanship.

    Int: HOW DOES RACISM IN AMERICA DIFFER FROM EUROPE?

    Lemmy: Europeans are better at hiding it. In Europe it’s more subtle. America has really got a problem with that shit and it has got to be worked out, and real quick ’cause we ain’t got time for that shit anymore. We ain’t got time for the White nation anymore, ’cause everybody is mixed up already. It’s mixed up Jewish anyway. Three quarters of America has some Jew in it, and about half of America has some red Indian in it. In the SS you had to trace your ancestry back to 1720. You can’t do that now in America. That’s how it should be. We should all mix up. We have to; that’s the only way we are going to be global. Racism is the most evil thing in the world. It fucks people up. I won’t be a part of it.

    Hope that puts your mind at rest.

    I’d like to point out that intellect does not dictate musical taste. That line has been tried on rock music since Elvis started wiggling his hips. Beauty reamins in the eye/ear/trousers of the beholder. As illuminating as your “all Motorhead fans are thicky dumb poo-poo heads” comments are, may I suggest you find a more appropriate forum for them, like bebo, or the wall of a public toilet, if’n you know what I mean.

  37. BigSteve

    Lemmy: “It’s mixed up Jewish anyway. Three quarters of America has some Jew in it….” Uh no, this does not put my mind at ease.

    And btw we do mind people “flying the fucking confederate flag all over America,” because most of the people the do that are racist assholes.

  38. Some of us Motorhead fans have advanced degrees and are teaching your children… beware.

  39. hrrundivbakshi

    Hope this doesn’t sound like I’m piling on, but… just want to add that most of the bands I love — I mean, really love — have a significant “yobbo quotient” in their fan base. See: Stones, Jam, Kinks, James Brown — hell, it’d be hard to find a good band that *didn’t* have low-IQ fans!

    And isn’t the opposite problem just as bad? Isn’t there something really irritating about XTC and, I dunno, the Decemberists, for just this reason?

    Rock is a big tent, with room enough for all. Let a thousand flowers bloom! Let a thousand thoughts contend!

  40. Mr. Moderator

    You’re beginning to sound like our old friend, E. Pluribus Gergely, with the flipside of his “animalistic” theories. It’s not that they’re totally off the mark but the fact that YOU’RE a fan of this band (and you too, mwall, and probably you too beenreepin) means you’ve shot your “low IQ” theories to hell. Maybe some other Townspeople know actual working-class Motorhead fans, but I’ve always thought the band – in the US, at least – was most cherished by college-educated rock fans. (Same goes for The Kinks and The Jam – in the US, at least.)

    Regardless, I completely agree with your main point regarding the “big tent” nature of rock ‘n roll. And sure, Lemmy’s defense against anti-semetism is squirm inducing at times (eg, the Confederate flag part), but he seems sincere. There’s a lot of weird stuff people get into for the appeal of its imagery, even when the imagery was originally intended for hateful acts and beliefs. Another thing I think we all agree on is that Lemmy is not the smoothest stone in the pond.

  41. Most of my favorite bands are for eggheads and I am totally cool w. that. Hrrundi cites two particular lightning-rod examples, but there are others who are less polarizing, like, say, Roxy Music. Okay, maybe they were polarizing in 1972, but now they’re just part of the rock continuum.

    Also, bear in mind egghead and bloke-ist is, of course, an oversimplification of rock and its fandom.

  42. Bigsteve,I dont want to turn this thread into a race debate because its the totally wrong forum. But if you are trying to say the above comments contain anti-semetic sympathies in light of the full quote “That’s how it should be. We should all mix up. We have to; that’s the only way we are going to be global. Racism is the most evil thing in the world. It fucks people up. I won’t be a part of it.” then you either a)didn’t bother reading it, b)are looking for fault because you are convinced its there, or c) are deliberatley ignoring the bits you dont like in an effort to twist his comments. I sincerely hope it is a) because the other two options define predjudice and bigotry, respectively.

    What he was saying is that we all have a mixed background, so racism is pointless and self destructive. On top of that, he’s the epitome of anti-authoritarianism and stands for everything anti-Nazi – mainly freedom of expression. Even jeangrays army buddies could understand that.

    Looking for racist behaviour where it doesn’t exist desensitizes people to the real thing and makes people less inclined to get involved in debating important issues – like incarceration rates – for fear of being labelled racist.

    “Racism is the most evil thing in the world. It fucks people up. I won’t be a part of it.” Can’t be much clearer than that.

  43. BigSteve

    No what I’m saying is that the things he says about America to back up his stated opinions are factually untrue.

    And to be honest I think saying he likes the paraphernalia because of its “workmanship” is akin to admiring how the fascists made the trains run on time.

  44. Bigsteve,

    1. Your previous post infers he holds anti-semetic views. He very clearly carries the opposite sentiment, but you chose to focus on a small portion and remove it from context to support your point.

    2. Lemmy stating “They don’t have a problem” with the confederate flag is a generalization. So is you calling the majority of people who display the confederate flag “racist assholes”. Which sounds more agressive, judgemental and authoritarian?

    3. “He says he likes the workmanship, this indicates he secretly admires fascists”: By your logic, if you admire the workmanship of Mercedes, BMW, VW, Ford, IBM, Krupp, Bayer or Hugo Boss then you secretly admire fascists.

    You are making hasty generalisations and an attack ad hominem based on unsupported personal opinion. Another direct quote from the man himself: “I’m anti-communism, fascism, any extreme.” And remember, “Racism is the most evil thing in the world. It fucks people up. I won’t be a part of it.”

    You’ve made up your mind and are prepared to infer he is guilty of something as morally reprehensible as being a Nazi sympathizer before checking, and in this case deliberately ignoring his explicitly stated beliefs. Inferrring someone is a racist on this basis is as predjudiced and objectionable as racism in its own right. Check your facts before offering an opinion, especially if that opinion carries such negatively loaded connotations. Until then, keep an open mind.

    “Racism is the most evil thing in the world. It fucks people up. I won’t be a part of it.”

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