Billy Corgan Dons His Tinfoil Hat Again
Every once in a while, I like to check on what the paranoid are thinking by checking over to Alex Jones’ Info Wars (I also listen to his radio show online via the Aha app on my car’s infotainment system. Very entertaining and often terrifying.)
Billy Corgan and Alex Jones are kindred spirits. In his latest appearance on the show, Billy and Alex discussed social media activism–or, as they might call it, social justice warrior-style fascism. Anyone who has ever been attacked online for an opinion/position deemed as unpalatable/unpopular/offensive/racist/sexist by self-appointed thought police of the Interwebs knows what I’m talking about.
It didn’t take long for the KKK to be invoked. Pitchfork was all over the appearance.
The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan was a guest today on noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones‘ radio show. At one point, the conversation turned toward “social justice warriors” (a term that has been used to insult people who express progressive views). Neither Corgan nor Jones is a fan, to say the least. In the course of the conversation, Corgan compared “this hashtag generation” to a cult, Maoists, and, finally, the Ku Klux Klan. “If you could go back to Selma 1932, and the Klan member spitting in some person of color’s face, don’t you think that guy thought he was right, too?,” he said. “So how is this any different?”
Jones began the discussion:
We were really getting into some hardcore issues during the break. We were talking about social justice warriors, who, I fall down to their level because they’re so hateful, they’re so dumbed down, but they are victims brought up by this culture. Either young people are super awake or they’re super dumbed down. The statistics show lower IQs, lower brain activity, near-trance state–that’s mainstream news. We were talking about that, but still, when they’re spitting in your face, attacking your reporters, who are really real liberals, like Rob Dew and people–I mean, these are realliberals who really love everybody, really care about everybody, really care about free speech, really care about open elections, and there’s little arrogant 20-year-olds spitting in their faces screaming at ’em, ‘You hate me ’cause I’m a tranny,’ and it’s just this made-up thing in their head when we don’t hate them–I mean–how do you transcend this? Because I, personally, just get mad and want to punch them in the nose.
Corgan answered: “Well, there’s two schools of thought: One is, they’re gone. They’re Maoists. They have the Little Red Book in their hand. You’re not gonna get them back.” Jones interrupted, “It’s a cult,” before Corgan continued:
It’s a cult. And the only thing that’s going to adjust their ideological fixation is reality. I predict that this hashtag generation–look, for everyone that’s out there spinning their little New Year’s toy in your reporter’s face–and I’ve watch those clips and I’m horrified as somebody who believes in free speech and is an artist, because those people are gonna be coming for me. Let’s face it. It may not be tomorrow, but it’s soon enough because I said the wrong thing on the wrong day because I was tired and I didn’t take my X2 that day, or whatever. You know what I mean? It’s like, to live like that, to live where every word is a landmine–you know what I’m saying–it’s not the world I want to live in.
You can read more about Billy’s views on the matter here or watch the whole discussion below.
https://youtu.be/-9J6R571HJc
