On the heels of last night’s puzzling presidential debate between potentially the first-ever female head of state and the first-ever orange-dyed dictator, it’s hard not to feel worrisome about our nation’s future.
With both nauseating nominees presenting haunting pasts and fearful futures, it’s easy to not only stress the upcoming election but also question the facts you’re being fed.
Thankfully, as we are nowhere near political experts, we called in punk rock professor Chris #2 of the highly-acclaimed and highly-educated outfit Anti-Flag to shed some light on the head-scratching public affairs surrounding the United States.
Since we’re living in a world of untrustworthy figureheads, we strongly recommend checking out Chris’ powerful observations below to help better understand what we’re up against moving forward. Afterwards, if you haven’t already, make sure to pick up tickets to see Anti-Flag out on tour here.
Finally, if you’re not registered to vote, be sure to read up on your state’s deadlines here.
We Live In A Fabled World
(of terror day and night, all hidden in plain sight.)
Whether it’s Donald Trump’s direct investment in companies that are the driving force of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Trump not paying federal taxes, his pushing of openly racist agendas, THE WALL, etc. or Hillary Clinton’s (and the Clinton dynasty’s) policies of warmongering, being openly in the back pocket of Wall Street and “big pharma,” being a key figure in the historically largest divide between the wealthy and the poor, etc., the failure isn’t that one of these two people are the almost indefinite next president of the United States, the failure is that at this moment in history – with information as available and accessible as it is – the media’s failure to speak truth to power is greater than ever.
In the beginning, we were a band that became politically engaged because of the first U.S. war in Iraq hailing from Pittsburgh, PA at the time when our city was leading the country in police brutality. These things greatly influenced us to try and use our art to challenge that status quo of nationalism and racism. Fast forward to traveling the world, meeting people from many places our society taught to fear and be cynical toward and realizing more than ever that the status quo of racism and nationalism NEEDS to be challenged [and] that it’s up to us (individually, as a band and as a community of like-minded people) to spread this agenda. No one is going to do it for us.
We can use these modern tools to educate, share empathy and recognize that what goes to press is often boilerplate straight from White House press releases. (Side Note: Donald Trump is the first political figurehead that I’ve seen that lies so much mainstream media has to actually correct it and not take it for face value.) Of course, it’s time that [the media] actually does their job but we can and should no longer wait for it to happen. We waited for it after 9/11 and the subsequent re-invasion of Iraq and then Afghanistan. Millions of people protested [and] millions were in the streets in the dead of winter to stop a war that couldn’t be stopped. We waited after Mike Brown, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice and countless others. The police have murdered two people-per-day in 2016. Again, millions protested demanding accountability for law enforcement [and] to stop a violence that they were not willing to stop.
Black lives matter. Refugees are welcome. The rights of the LGBTQ community aren’t debatable. Climate change is fucking science.
Perhaps it is time that we shift our focus from asking, “What are our plans to challenge presidents, politicians, prime ministers or popes?” to instead asking, “Which multinational media conglomerate are we taking down?” These are the bastards who have sold us out. This is the war being waged on us in 2016: A media campaign of misinformation, controlled opposition and population control via confusion and media circuses.
Obviously, you should vote with your conscience. Donald Trump will be a disaster; Hillary Clinton will be the status quo, thus also a disaster. While it is important for us to organize resistance against whoever becomes president, let us also organize to create free and transparent information systems.
I believe in people, still, all these years later because we are so fortunate that our band allows us to interact with and meet so many new and kind people each day. People are smart. When given real, honest and truthful information I believe they will act with empathy and in good conscience. Let’s take back our ability to have that happen.
