Fear at Loathing at the Vancouver Island Musicfest...
If you ever have a chance to get out to the Vancouver Island Musicfest, you'll find two things: Terrific music, and a loathing of western society. I must say that this loathing is probably at every folk festival...and not just out in Vancouver.
On Saturday night, Steve Earle was on the main stage. I expected some politics from him...but he was downright nasty. He called Stephen Harper George Bush's 'new bitch' replacing Tony Blair. He also hoped that Harper does a Kim Campbell. Then he went into a tirade against white european males - and the damage they have done everywhere. It was a bit much. Afterall, here we are in beautiful Comox Valley with thousands of people enjoying some nice music. How awful is that? As for Steve Earle, he's probably making many thousands of dollars a year, and yet he really finds our society to be awful.
Then, the next day, I walked by one of the smaller stages, and there were two guys from Hawaii. One of them was talking about how Hawaii was great until the white man showed up in the mid 1800s, and then it was all downhill. You know, strip malls and all that.
Later that afternoon, there was a performance of Pygmies from Rwanda along with the Mighty Popo. At end of their set, he started talking about the horrible tragedy in Rwanda, which of course was the fault of the "superpowers and some crazy african leaders". Well, at least the genocide in Rwanda wasn't all the fault of the US!
These folkies have no appreciation of the beauty of western society - its' love of freedom of expression, democracy, its' ability to accept immigrants, etc. To them, the whole story of western society is about the evil white man. Well, as a gay jewish white man, I am damn proud of western society and its values, and I recognize that no other society comes close - which is why so many people want to come here and live here.
If we can't recognize the value of our own society - then it's no wonder that we're going to have trouble fighting Al-Qaeda. They also think that western values are decadent and evil. They will increasingly find common cause with the left....and I find this extremely worrying.
posted by GayandRight @ 12:48 PM
14 Comments:
Sounds like the same shtick he was doing at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, as reviewers of his show reported glowingly. Seems there was a fair bit of that going on, but no complaints, of course.
Going to a Steve Earle show and complaining about his left-wing rants.
Kinda like going skiing and bitching about all the snow.
Personally, Id rather read what he actually said with a point by point refutation rather than "he went into a tirade against white european males - and the damage they have done everywhere."
I've seen plenty of interviews with Steve Earle and he always comes off as thoughtful and very well spoken. Even though he makes controversial statements, he speaks from the heart and from experience. For instance, his opposition to the death penalty came not from a pamphlet or 2 minute sound bite, but rather from corresponding with death row prisoners and bearing witness to the execution of one of those prisoners he considered a friend.
It's a shame that you chose to dismiss him as a leftie crank, rather than listen to what he had to say. Why did you go to the concert?
I had no idea Steve Earl was an expert on Canadian politics. He's a terrific musician, too bad he has to wreck the buzz with an uninformed political rant.
David,
How do you know that he's uninformed? Did you hear the rant? or the content of it?
Everytime I've seen a Canadian interview with Steve Earle, I've been both shocked and impressed with the amount he knows about Canada and our politics. if you disagree with him, that's OK, but to call him uninformed is...well, uninformed.
FIRST OF ALL THIS IS NOT THE WEST COAST IT IS THE EXTREME LEFT COAST! NEVER HAVE I HEARD AN ORIGINAL IDEA FROM THE GAPING MAWES OF THE SOCIALIST ELITIST HYPNOTIZED AND POT HEADED SLACKERS AND ARTSY FARTSY PEACE NICKS AKA THE TIMID TURDS OF THE WEST, WET AND LEFT COAST. IT IS A FREAK SHOW HERE..HIGHEST PER CAPITA AUTO CRIME IN THE ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD, HIGHERST PER CAPITA LEVELS IN NORTH AMERICA OF HEP A, B AND C, HIV/AIDS, INTERVENIOUS DRUG USERS, HIGHEST PER CAPITA LEVELS OF ARMED ROBBERIES, RAPE, DATE RAPE, CHILD PROSTITUTION, MURDERS, ETHNIC GANGS, HOME INVASIONS, STAGGERINGLY HIGH LEVELS OF ALL FORMS OF FRAUD, THE LEAST PRODUCTIVE POPULATION UNDER 30 IN NORTH AMERICA..THE LIST DOES INDEED GO ON AND ON AND ON. OH AND THEN THERE IS THE MASSIVE UPSIDE DOWN CHURCH BURIED BY ITS CROSS ON SOME OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE WATERFRONT PROPERTY IN CANDADA (DOWNTOWN VANCOUVERS COAL HARBOR).
VANCOUVER AND INDEED THE ENTIRE LEFT COAST IS AN ULTRA LEFT WING TOILET OVERFLOWING WITH EVERY MANNER OF MISFIT AND SOCIAL MISCREANT..MUCH LIKE THE CBC (THE COMMUNIST BROADCASTING CORPORTATION AKA THE GAY, LESBIAN PRAVDA!
SO THE NEXT TIME ANYONE EVEN ATTEMPTS TO GIVE ANY OF THOSE LEFT WING SLACKERS A VOICE..THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA IS ALREADY BENT OVER FOR THEM..GIVE US ALL A BREAK!
Anonymous:
Awesome post!!!! Mind if I copy and save it for future reference? Seriously dude, that was fantastic! And the all-caps? inspired. Anonymous, allow me to say that you rock like stink!
You're my new blog hero!!!!
And for god's sakes, stay off the meds! Lunacy such as yours needs to be nurtured, not trampled down.
Steve Earle is a high-school dropout and a former heroin addict. Why should anyone take seriously his opinions on international relations? You don't hear Condi Rice telling him how to sing songs about bootlegging moonshine.
hammer:
Why should anyone listen to a high school dropout? Well let's see:
A publication called Current biography yearbook came up with a list of famous dropouts (high school and elementary). they put together 3 lists (High School and Elementary School Dropouts,
Dropped Out, But Later Received High-School Diploma Equivalency Status
(months, years, or decades later: equivalency diploma, honorary diploma, admission to a college or university, or other schooling or training of high merit),
and finally
Dropped Out of High School, Joined Military, & Eventually Received Diploma Equivalency Status.
Here's a breakdown, along with accomplishments (number of people listed beside the accomplishment):
Total Names: 701
Males: 532
Females: 169
Billionaires: 18
Millionaires: uncounted
U.S. Presidents: 8
Astronauts: 1 (Valentina Tereshkova)
Nobel Prize Winners: 10 (6 Literature, 2 Peace, 1 Physics, 1 Chemistry)
Nobel Prize Nominees: 11 (includes above and Heather Mills)
Olympic Medal Winners: 8 (7 Gold Medalists, one Silver Medalist)
Oscar Winners: 61
Oscar Nominees: 103 (includes above)
Other Award Winners: uncounted
Best-Selling Authors: 55
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients (U.S.'s highest civilian honor): 13
Congressional Gold Medal recipients (U.S.): 12
United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors: 2 (Roger Moore, Angelina Jolie)
Knighthoods: 27
Damehoods: 3
So what have we learned? Well personally, I learned that I've got a better chance learning something from a high school dropout than from some dude calling himself Road hammer.
As for the heroin thing? Ancient history. he's been clean and sober for over a decade, and in the time since, has produced some of the best music of his career, along with volumes of writing.
I think my quotes are almost verbatim. Earle just gives you snippets of stuff....he never goes into much detail at all.
And I didn't go to the festival to see Steve Earle...I was just there.....
G&R:
you don't provide any context or setting for his comments, and the only quote I saw was 'new bitch'. I'm sure he had a bit more to say than that.
Musicians and other entertainers consistently reveal themselves to be stupid whenever they venture beyond their silly song and dance routines.
They're extremely lucky to find financial success by toadying to the braying crowds because they would be welfare bums otherwise.
Wonder if Steve realises he wouldn't even be allowed to say what he said anywhere but in the west. He also wouldn't be a musician either.
What is it with the rants from musicians? They always seem to do this like people actually give a crap what they have to say. Stick to music and leave the politics for the grown ups.
As a former Courtenay resident I just want to say it's cool to read about my old town. Never went to music fest though, not being a pot head and what not. The Comox Valley is a weird place though. You've got strong contingents of both the lefty hippy dippies and the righty gun nuts. Not too many folks in the middle though, it's a place of extremes, made it tough for us Liberals.
It is a paradox. In some other cultures, it would not be unusual to expect a knock on your door in the middle of the night. Freedom also means the freedom to trash talk freedom I guess.
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