And I ask where did you get the tree-shadowed decoration on the lightstand? We have exactly the same one (compared the details) for a candle, so without the lightstand, but I live in Finland. I didn't know those were sold over the pond as well. 😉 Got me curious as we got ours as a gift without it's packaging, so I couldn't track the manufacture...ing company and now, somehow, it started to bug me.
I'm not sure why people freak out when they find out Rage Against The Machine is a left-leaning political band. What the fuck did they think the machine was, the office printer? 🙄
I've never heard Evil Empire (I was more of a System of a Down kid growing up), but I just picked their album up a week ago, so this video'll be a really good primer before i go in fully!
I suspect you'll like it a lot, though I'd heavily suggest listening to their first/self-titled albulm too. System of a Down has been my favorite band for over 2 decades (my high-school days), Rage Against the Machine has been my second place fav for just as long though. It's also worth noting that they basically invented/popularized the genre of rock-rap/hip-hop. They paved the way for many later acts, such as Linkin Park.
@@dark2023-1lovesoni i listened to their first album as a preteen after hearing one of their songs from The Matrix, but i'd somehow missed out on listening to all their later albums. I didn't know that RATM had influenced so many of the bands I loved as a kid!
I (also an Anarchist) can spell it. I struggle with Bourgeosie on the regular though. Some words, from a not-dyslexic point of view, I just can't wrap my head around spelling, or spelling consistantly. As long as people get the message you're trying to get across. Picking on spelling is awful pedantry. No one's got time for it.
I work at an employee owned company. Every day at work I hear "socialism sucks", the average employee doesn't understand they work in a socialist company.
@@brainrottedindividual I mean, that's explicitly not true, it's exactly what a market socialist economy would be. For-profit companies run by the workers: market socialism.
Technically cooperatives are still capitalist if they work under a capitalist system because they still aim for infinite growth and eventually lead to exploitation
When you were trying to explain capitalism to all the folks that have been told for years, "If you have a 9 to 5 job, why then you're a capitalist!"(lol) I flashed on a bit of British history. In the 1700's and 1800's the definition of a British Gentleman was "a man who does not work for his money." Obviously if you dig ditches you're not gentle, but if you're a Doctor, or university professor, or Bishop, you're still not a Gentleman. If you own land and folks pay you rent but you do nothing but entertain yourself all day, you're a Gentleman. If you own ships and folks pay you for the ships moving their goods, whether it's cotton, rum, or people(c'mon kids, translate it), and you spend your time at the race track and card tables, you're a Gentleman. The only question is whether the Brits made capitalists into their upper class, or if they made their upper class into capitalists.
"Why are people trying to solve economic problems with theft?" The ghosts of my ancestors that got transported from various parts of Great Britain to Australia (mostly for theft) are applauding you and everyone who has that sudden realisation.
From Evil Empire I like Bulls on Parade the most. Mostly because the second part of the song delivers an insanely strong leftie message without the listener having to understand ANY references. "Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library Line up to the mind cemetery now What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin' They don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells Rally 'round the family, pockets full of shells" Powerful stuff, told simply.
The clockers born, starin' at an empty plate Mama's torn hands cover her sunken face We hungry but them belly full The structure is set, ya never change it with a ballot pull
This reminded me of discovering, as an adult, the leftist lyrics of "The Architects of Guilt" by The Famine. I listened to that record on repeat constantly as a teenager and going back to it with an understanding of the politics behind it and have this "Whoa, these lyrics are so powerful when you see where they come from," was a super rad experience.
Tbh I think the role of theory is to be reinterpreted into something that normal people have the time and energy to engage with. It needs to be well-evidenced and dense so that it can comprehensively convey and back up the ideas it contains but that doesn't lend itself to mass-consumption. I think art is legitimately the best way to disseminate communist ideas (at least online) because people engage with it in their free time regardless of its message. I was radicalised by video essays analysing video games I liked. I only actually started reading theory when I started making my own communist art, because I wanted to make sure my gay little wizard comic was getting its anarchist principles right. If my 1 (one) reader gets radicalised reading my comic then I consider it a success.
Personally, I’m more of a The Battle of Los Angeles stan, but your metaphor for how we can each contribute to a larger whole is so good, I can’t wait to find a way to jam it into my motorcycle vids.
My absolute FAVORITE Rage lyric is the one you cited first: "Fuck tha G-ride, I want the machines that are makin' em." It gets me fired the fuck up. Another great one is from that same track. "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton," which speaks about a whole lot of history crammed into one line. Not just the assassination of Fred Hampton, but everything leading up to it. The harassment, the disinformation campaign, the smearing of the Black Panther Party as a "racist" "terrorist" organization. All of that led up to the raid in which Hampton was shot in the head, point blank, three times. In his sleep.
You nailed it good Sir! A funny side note to listening to RATM in a cop car, I can completely see the "enjoying something while disregarding the context" as that happened to me on many occasions. A lot of older South Park episodes for example. I honestly thought "Manbearpig" was just making fun of Al Gore rather than implying climate change was a hoax.
I write fanfiction, my mainstory I've been working on for years is nearly done, and it was always mildly anti capitalist, featuring a society where food and housing is free among other things. But once its done I'm going to go harder on that sort of messaging, I think I'll cruise around different fandoms and plant seeds in shorter stories. Or at least I'll try to.
This was great! I had a blast revisiting their lyrics when I was researching the Zapatistas for a video since it's a topic they're passionate about and clearly gets referenced. Also was not expecting such a relevant pep talk at the end 💜✊
Honestly wish I'd been more into Rage musically as a teen (respected them, liked the videos, but never bought a CD) because some of those ideas/sources would have been good to get into about a decade earlier than I actually did haha
I am very pleased with how you explain the reasons we have secret Communists. The Capitalist system is producing too many social economic climbers who refuse treat the educated working class with contempt. You can't expect anything better form the petty bourgeoisie.
I didn't grow up with Rage Against The Machine, but I did grow up with Rise Against. I wouldn't rate them as politically adept as RatM, but I do credit them with pushing me to more critically examine the political landscape I was growing up in rather than just generic teenage rebellion.
Picking a favorite line is nigh impossible because of how adept Zack's lyricism is. This one from War Within a Breath stands out, though. Their existence is the crime Their seat, their robes, their ties Their land deeds, their hired guns They're the crime The outro to Know Your Enemy is up there, too
That evil empire cover lol... that was my first exposure to RATM, and for a long time I envisioned Zack as looking like the kid on the cover. In my defense I was like 11 or 12, but his voice does kinda sound like he might look like that. Blew my mind when I saw what he actually looked like.
I remember listening to this when I was 10 years old and not knowing any English yet. I liked the music so much and it made me want to learn English and once I did and understood what it was about I thought "damn the stuff they sing about tells me shit is seriously fucked up." It was one way to get informed about issues. It helped my quite a lot on my journey to where I am right now.
I've loved Rage since I was a kid hearing their hits on the local classic rock radio station, but I never truly understood their words until the last year when my knowledge of politics began to really bloom beyond American electoralism. It all really started with knowing the meaning behind "Killing in the Name of" and wondering what other kinds of messages lie deep in their lyrics. I have come to find almost two centuries of theory and history being referenced and always learning something new everytime I listen. They now have become one of my all-time favorite bands, so much that I even have a cover of "Bulls On Parade" from this album on my channel.
I’ll admit that I haven’t really listened to Rage much, or.. at all. But that line “Going out heavy sorta like Mount Tai” really tickled me as I’ve been reading a bit of Mao lately, and other writers who reference Mao like in Doctor Huey P Newton’s “Revolutionary Suicide”. Might check them out a bit. Keep up the great content man, I never quite know what video you’ll be coming out with next, slavery and policing in one video, music analysis in the next. But that’s good! Hope that this channel is giving you room to explore things you’re passionate and want to talk about, always sucks if you feel like you’re forced into producing specific things for the sake of your audience/revenue. One of the side effects of the “commodification of breadtube” so to speak. Anyways I ramble, keep up the great work, take care of yourself friend.
Thanks for the kind words! I am EXTREMELY lucky in that my day job is great so I youtube for fun. I make what I want when I feel like it, whatever strikes my fancy. I get a little bit of ad rev now but it seriously works out to like $1/hr between writing, filming, and editing. So, not a huge motivator for now.
@@joearnold6881it's still true which is simultaneously impressive and incredibly tragic (as they themselves have said as well.) "Killing In The name of" will always get cranked TF up.
one thing I had heard, probably due to the McCarthian period, is that there was a time where music had a lot of hidden political meaning buried in it, cause it would get people in trouble if it were well known. So people would hide it in symbols that the listener would I guess know. I don't know how true that is, but i think it's interesting.
Well done (and fun)! I was one of those kids who didn't really know what I was listening to, even as I sang along. Even though I now know there's a lot more to RATM, I hadn't really delved into any of the lyrics yet. So, thank you!
Yes what we mean when we say private property is not personal property but everyone says we do so we should use a uncorrupted word like bourgeois property, elite property, etc
Wow, great ending there. I make music myself and don't get political in it a lot myself. But that is a cool thought that there is no super high bar I need to clear just to do it. I actually worked to remix a friend's Power Electeonics album this year, definitely in the realm of that Gritty, ugly electoenic music you were talking about. I went to one day of a three day Noise Fest in Fargo this year and it was the most queer, lefty and neurodivergent musical experience I've really had, as much as things like Punk and Rap make a great effort to be that, Noise really exemplifies it so completely.
I've been absolutely aping out to RATM since I saw this video, I've been an anarchist for two years and I'm surprised I never gave them a try until now, thanks for turning me on to them :)
What you said about political content creation being valuable in the form of smaller things planting seeds struck a cord with me. I'm no creator, but that sentiment runs in line with my general political experiences. I'm younger, and I'm sure anyone could say this about any point in history, but boy howdy is it sure and interesting time to be coming up in. With everything we've had going on in the past few years, and especially with what seems to be more valleys and less peaks, there's a sense of great urgency and a following guilt that comes without action. I say this because your comment about seeds is essentially what I tell myself to stave off that guilt. You don't have to be protesting in the streets every day to do your part, take the time to plant the seeds now and they'll grow later, tortoise and the hare sort of deal. Anyways, very happy some of your videos blew up and got eyes, mine included, on your channel. Videos like these are real brain mints that actually make me feel productive, even if it is just a seed. Love what you're doing, I'll be here for all the rest.
Giving this another watch after going and listening to Evil Empire. I'm absolutely obsessed with the incredible amount of depth in every word--the three songs you selected weren't cherrypicked either, they're ALL packed with that much depth and complexity. I didn't know what a G-ride was either. Without you explaining the meaning I would've interpreted the lyric as "fuck "winning" in the system of capitalism (through expensive commodities), I want everyone to own the means of production." With that extra definition though it changes the lyrics from kind of a "privileged white kid turned activist" type-deal into something actually really cool. Really loved that final message too. I've been thinking about writing something about how everything is political, cause I know quite a few (privileged) people say they don't do anything political and I thought it'd be cool to run through a VERY "apolitical" day and show how it's actually very political (they just don't realize it). Inspired in part by your video on alienation, but broader to also point out lack of education on labor organizing (like the 8/8/8 movement) as well as social/political alienation (not just economic). Maybe I'll finally sit down and write it up!
Finished and just wanted to say thank you for the part at the end. I am also one of those people who thinks sometimes they aren’t well read enough to be doing this, and it meant a lot to hear you say that!
While I would never invalidate someone's feelings, holy smokes, Caelan, you're doing incredible work. You've been a fierce advocate for the queeer/trans community, you've given countless hours of your time researching and documenting a sewer of bigotry running through so much of our world, and you've done it all while radiating an uncompromising love and compassion for people. You're one of the most loving and kind and selfless people I know and I'm so proud to be your friend. I and so many others simply could not do without you.
I pack a lot of theory into my lyrics, and I've always adored songwriters who do. But since I've gone public with my music (and now studying music at university), I notice that people are genuinely less interested in songs with complicated lyrical depth lol. I've definitely noticed a shift in the ideas I wind up investing more time in as a result of this. This video has been a reassuring and inspiring reminder not to lose sight of that rightfully pain-driven passion...
I really appreciate this. I watch a number of channels that do song analyses but they're mostly in terms of composition and technique, not lyrics. So it's great to see some coverage of that aspect.
I feel like the expressed ideas that motivated your final speech (i.e. that one's work is inconsequential or *useless* to the movement) work well in conversation with a part of your "Usefulness and the power of Glitches" video where you go into uselessness. The more I think about it, the more I feel like uselessness is a word to describe something that cannot or is not generating profit, because everything can be used in some way or another. Just some thoughts I had bouncing around, figured I'd feed them to the algorithm. Side note, I've only ever listened to Guerilla Radio and Killing in the name of, now I need to listen to more songs from Rage Against The Machine. XD
If this kind of revolutionary lyricism interests you there is a band you might want to check out by the name of BoySetsFire. They don't have the same sound as Rage, being that they are a hard-core band. The lyrics are just about as militant, emotionally informed and relevant. In their later albums there's a more melodic approach but every album hits hard from start to finish and doesn't relent until you find yourself inexplicably wearing red and black and marching in the streets.
Also, if we talking engaging lyrics, ya need to check out Clipping and their album Splendor & Misery. Story about escaping slavery inside a spaceship in the depths of the black with some of the most insane conceptual musical narrative you'll ever hear. I have never heard someone spit bars that sound like the ship AI off Alien while also showing the sympathy one grows while witnessing the struggle for emancipation that makes them more human and become an actual ally, but Diggs & crew pull it and it's fucking awesome.
Another artist that hits me hard is Lupe Fiasco, especially the songs Streets on Fire, Put You On Game. Also i love the whole first half of Food and Liquor Vol II
Streets On Fire went crazy hard in 2020… I couldn’t tell you just how much I had that song on repeat all year. Also, WAV Files is one of the most heartbreaking yet beautiful songs ever written imo.
Love this break down! I like how you're taking chances sort of "simplifying" theory in a way that really gets the point across without softening how complex these things can be. Saw a little cameo of me in there, too!
Rage, Propaghandi, Crass and Refused kind of directed me towards a pretty left reading list and Chomsky stan-dom, still what I paint and draw to when its not old be-bop, I love your videos.
Thank you for the pep talk at the end. I have been hesitant and torn between wanting to get more politically involved in my art, but have felt down about how little I know. You've certainly inspired me and I'm happy I found this channel.
around 19:15 the word tubercular was in there and it got me thinking about the number #1 cause of death on the Cool People That Did Cool Stuff podcast, TB victims are like red shirts on Star Trek.
No, in Down Rodeo, the 'G Ride' is a Mercedes G Wagon...he's talking about owning the means of production and uses the mercedes as a symbol of capilalism.
Thank you so much for the ending here, I really love to clown up my face and just record myself saying whatever pops into my head. I have a rare cancer that probably won't have an effective treatment in my lifetime. I still like to share on good days but I keep feeling bad about it because it's all so frivolous. Thank you though it brings me all the joy so I'm going to keep on going with less shame 😁😁😁
Brother, I think you found your niche!!! I am loving all the music related theory videos. Truly thank you, and bravo. You inspired me to go annotate Vietnow on Genius (there was no Annotation for the “your savior, my guillotine” stub until I, I hope correctly, identified it as a clever double entendre on Zac’s part. The AM talk show hosts are the subjects savior(s) and they are also Zac’s guillotine. But he also means that the method by which the subjects of the song will be saved is, in fact, the national razor.) Evil Empire was on CONSTANT repeat whenever my peer group had down time back in my Job Corps days (right when it was released). I did not have any idea as to how enlightened the album is back then, I knew it was anti authority, pro working class, heavy AF, and, IMO, their best work. Going back and listening to it now, with a little knowledge, experience, and at least exposure to clever lyrical construction, it is an amazing piece of leftist thought.
I still remember when I first had the awakening that just maybe the RATM lyrics I was enjoying were about something more significant because I recognized the historical references in "Sleep now in the Fire" and it was years later that I finally truly appreciated the depth, theory, and historical accounting that they put into their music. For it's the end of history Its caged and frozen still There is no other pill to take So swallow the one That made you ill The Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria The noose and the rapist The fields overseer The agents of orange The priests of Hiroshima The cost of my desire Sleep now in the fire
I'm watching this as I work on an art project to liven up my sterile uni building in the form of tiny origami ducks, googly eyes and stickers with positive messages. Ngl, folding all those ducks is driving me a little crazy ^^' You final words inspired me to keep going. Maybe a little ducky will brighten someone's day, maybe it will make them think about who this building should belong to. Either way, I hope the impact is positive
I didn't come here expecting to cry about art, but serendipity strikes in strange places sometimes. Thanks for the encouragement, I've been feeling really insecure about the things I want to write. Now I will remember, "the revolution needs to smell good!" And think about what you said about beauty being good for us and art showing us what is worth fighting for.
I loved Rage against the Machine as a teen but I have to admit that the only lyrics that I internalized was "F you, I won't do as you tell me". I think it's time to revisit.
Also, love how your video also illustrates one of the major issues with communist reading, that a lot of the seminal works are old as hell, with dated language, lots of specialized jargon, and long as fuck, and how ALL of those factors combine to make them an absolute pain to read. For all his ideas, Marx was an acerbic jackass like half the time and a dude who got real high on himself for using big words the rest, and it hurts the ability for his actual message to get picked up by regular people, and has encouraged people to adopt THAT PART of his personality as often as his theory. In essence, he can be Rick Sanchez, and for over 100 years people have been making the same mistakes about what of him to copy as they have Rick now XD.
Edit: to say I made the following statement from just reading the title 😛 And it's the first reference now that I'm watching lmoa "A thousand years they had tha tools We should be takin' 'em Fuck tha G-ride I want the machines that are makin' em" So hidden 😆
I am in love with your videos. Great work. I love the pep talk at the end! I would be interested in seeing you talk about the Immortal Technique Album 3rd World which hit me pretty hard when i first heard it. There's a few problematic and conspiracy theory bits in his lyrics but I learned a lot of about history that I didn't know about by listening to that album. The production on it by Green Lantern is just major fire too, particularly the song Harlem Renaissance
3:17 I started thinking about Simone Weil's "The Poem of Force" and that caught me by suprise! (Not from the same actual text, but same story and people)
Fuck dude, another one that hit me right in the tear ducts at the end. Thank you for being so amazing and making the art that YOU make. It means a lot to me at least. Thanks, Dad
Just found you channel and got to say I would love move videos on RATM, as I'm not american and english is not my first language some of the references just went over my head. + holyshit it is refreshing to hear an american that understands the cancer that their country is to everyone around them.
I missed RATM when they were big (decades late to the party, as ever), but always wanted to go back and listen. This video (especially at this point in my political development) makes clear that now is the time to go buy a few albums. In other news, I've always enjoyed Propagandhi for angry political music. Thanks for the lovely breakdown.
I've felt for a long time that the albums of Rage Against the Machine & Public Enemy had more in common with books or lectures than their critics gave them credit for. This was explicitly Chuck D's mission - a combination of accessible education & agitprop thru music that reflected the subject matter. It's no wonder to me that Tom Morello, Chuck D, B.Real, Brad Wilk, & Tim Commerford toured as a supergroup a few years ago; I don't think Chuck or Freese are communists (can't confirm that but neither PE nor Cypress Hill have said anything directly about communism on records as far as I know), but they both have a lot of common ground with Rage in terms of their criticisms of America - Chuck more broadly big-pic (macro politics & historical revisionism), Freese more particularly (stories about everyday life as a young man in LA) I think Rage's current tour & stage show is hitting harder than in the 90s; back then the message didn't seem to land with the same clarity or urgency as it does this time around. In the 90s there was a sort of vague sense that they were edgy & political, but the particulars got lost for a lot of folks. "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" was better known than "Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes / Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal / I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library / Line up to the mind cemetery now," but... This time around, people are either mad at the band or nodding furiously; either way, the message is better understood now. And I think video essays like this are a part of that. With a bit of a broader analysis available, some of the more esoteric references are accessible to people like me who might not know where to look without a nudge in the right direction ;)
Your comment about how the modern concerts are hitting is interesting because Evil Empire dropped in 1996 and that was firmly in the Fukuyaman "End of History" era where neoliberalism had defeated all other ideologies and the USA had "won" and everything was just always going to get better forever. You have to give RATM and others a lot of credit for trying to force complacent Americans to see that actually, stuff was broken juuuust out of sight of the middle class (and that the middle class itself was a myth). They were trying to wake Americans up from a delicious economic wet dream and Americans HATE when you try to wake them up.
@@ThatDangDad true... And to be fair, at that time I was firmly a middle-class kid with a "bright future." Observation is defined by viewpoint, and while I was *interested* in experiences beyond my own periphery, I was badly positioned to *understand* them. Poverty has in many ways been a heck of a teacher in that regard.
I want to capture what made fantasy stories like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones so great whilst telling an anti-capitalist story that contributes not only to leftist discourse but sorta tricks the minds of young conservative nerds into consuming it and planting new seeds in these minds. I use to be a moderate, an I loved and still love lord of the rings, despite all it's faults and I feel like we need more stories like that but they tell more progressive stories.
I used to be an anarcho syndicalist. Then I starting reading more theory. When I first started reading people like kropotkin, Marx, Lenin, Bookchin, Mao, etc it was very helpful and I couldn’t believe how wrong I was regarding what they wrote. I still don’t agree with what a couple of those people who actually took state power did but their theory is still awesome. I decided to take what I want from each one and leave the rest. Now I just identify as a socialist because I have so many influences. Not to mention the fact that a lot of praxis should depend on the conditions around you. So maybe if you are an anarcho communist you could realize that it wasn’t practical to just try to create that system immediately. If people aren’t organized and you have forces of literally attacking you it might not be the best fit for that situation. But If anything you should read some of these thinkers if only it’s so you can have better arguments against them if you think you won’t like what they say. I didn’t want to learn about a lot of those people’s theory because I had a preconceived notion regarding what they were about what they were about. This is because of all the propaganda I had been fed that stayed with me years after I had already become a radical anarcho syndicalist. Reading Marx’s Capital was what really made me realize how capitalism is completely unsustainable and that he was right about all his predictions except for the face that we would have a revolution by now. It can be difficult to read so I would recommend listening to the podcast reading capital with comrades or reading with the audiobook which is free on RUclips playing in the background. You can buy many great books that comply these thinker’s most important texts into collections. The Wretched of the Earth is also great. Just like this video.
I still describe myself as an anarchist, but I don’t think that necessarily rules out finding value in what Marx and the thinkers that followed him wrote. Marx’s analysis of how capitalism functions is on point; my main criticism is that he didn’t apply the same analysis to other power relations in society, particularly those connected to the state-incomplete rather than wrong.
@@skyclaw Yes but if you are talking about Marxism in general they definitely do. Many people have expanded the theory to include those power structures. Not to mention Marx wrote a ton shit.
Goddamn dude… I just keep being more and more impressed (and educated) with every new video I watch on your channel. Please keep it up, you’re invaluable and inspiring.
Lol, my first exposure to bourgeoisie was bougie, and still my preferred use XD. "Dey bougie" I tend to find has a much easier time communicating that mix of annoyed disgust at excess combined with the want to actually have the capacity to spend capital on things, and therefore the power of the position. It's a place that gives privilege to the 1 at the expense of the many but the privilege looks so good it can be easy to forget what gets ground up, especially when you're living the life of starving wage slave.
For me, it was System of a Down. I found "Toxicity" by accident, listened to the full album (on repeat, for months), then their entire discography. I started to really see the world crumbling around me. Discovering their music made me start be curious and think critically of the world around me. That's when the spell of capitalism finally broke for me. Note: I was an objectivist-adjacent anarchocapitalist as a teenager. Now I'm a libertarian socialist. My teenage self would hate me SO much right now!
This was... oddly valuable for me. I was in a bit of an emotional spiral after once again seeing the comments and like-dislike ratios on Canadian TV news stations' RUclips videos on anything even vaguely making the world better (in this case the pollution tax changes), even in the very rare case coverage that isn't entirely negative can be FOUND in Alberta. Immediately stumbling across a video that taught me some of the theory I was never able to learn 'the right way' (thus alleviating my feelings of frustration and powerlessness at being unable to... punish the evil I saw on display) while remaining uplifting and fun somehow made me feel immensely better. I'm still starting to think there's a concerted right-wing campaign of some kind on this platform to bully Canadian news stations into not providing positive coverage of anything even vaguely environmental or culture-war-topic related; because there's clearly a huge volume of hatewatchers on any clip mentioning the topics, they all comment and downvote and upvote each other's comments, and it seems like a disproportionate number of them have show-dislikes extensions installed, assuming the order-of-magnitude-higher dislikes than likes I'm seeing can't possibly reflect reality? I can't stomach looking at the comments in detail to determine if bots are involved, generally I only see the first few before I'm two upset to continue, but they look like random ignorant and cruel Albertans by my eye, so I can't fathom how they're getting the numbers they get on all these channels. But watching your video next helped me get over the feelings of despairing rage that spawned. I suppose this means you made (or at least un-ruined) my day, so thanks!
Great video, those are some clever lyrics! some ideas that I am putting out here which I'd like to do but would be happy if anyone else tried are making Anarchist theory using characters and ideas from popular media with Liberals such as Steven Universe, Harry Potter, comics etc. And making erotika that contains anarchist ideas, is set in an anarchist world or in some other way raises class consciousness.
People keep asking where I got my shirt. Wonder no further - www.sacramentoselfdefense.org/about-us/
And your silly dude your great
Cool shirt.
And I ask where did you get the tree-shadowed decoration on the lightstand? We have exactly the same one (compared the details) for a candle, so without the lightstand, but I live in Finland. I didn't know those were sold over the pond as well. 😉
Got me curious as we got ours as a gift without it's packaging, so I couldn't track the manufacture...ing company and now, somehow, it started to bug me.
I'm not sure why people freak out when they find out Rage Against The Machine is a left-leaning political band. What the fuck did they think the machine was, the office printer? 🙄
I've never heard Evil Empire (I was more of a System of a Down kid growing up), but I just picked their album up a week ago, so this video'll be a really good primer before i go in fully!
Their mum telling them to clean their room, probably.
I suspect you'll like it a lot, though I'd heavily suggest listening to their first/self-titled albulm too. System of a Down has been my favorite band for over 2 decades (my high-school days), Rage Against the Machine has been my second place fav for just as long though.
It's also worth noting that they basically invented/popularized the genre of rock-rap/hip-hop. They paved the way for many later acts, such as Linkin Park.
@@dark2023-1lovesoni i listened to their first album as a preteen after hearing one of their songs from The Matrix, but i'd somehow missed out on listening to all their later albums. I didn't know that RATM had influenced so many of the bands I loved as a kid!
The vacuum cleaner, obviously. JEEZ MOM STFU I'M TRYING TO PWN FOOLS IN COUNTERSTRIKE.
Speaking as an anarchist, hierarchy is difficult to spell, but at least it's easy to pronounce.
I (also an Anarchist) can spell it. I struggle with Bourgeosie on the regular though.
Some words, from a not-dyslexic point of view, I just can't wrap my head around spelling, or spelling consistantly. As long as people get the message you're trying to get across. Picking on spelling is awful pedantry. No one's got time for it.
I always mix the I and E
As a communist, we can't get rid of the state until we get rid of rich people and corporations. It is the only way to keep the revolution safe.
Francophone anarchist here, and hierarchy is easy to spell, but hard to pronounce in English. 😶
As an English speaking anarchist "Hierarchical" is the most difficult word to say aloud. Like... my tongue just does not want to make those movements.
I work at an employee owned company. Every day at work I hear "socialism sucks", the average employee doesn't understand they work in a socialist company.
That's genuinely hilarious but also so very sad
private companies that go for profit are not socialist, it doesn't matter if the workers own part of the company.
@@brainrottedindividual I mean, that's explicitly not true, it's exactly what a market socialist economy would be. For-profit companies run by the workers: market socialism.
Hilarious, they don't realize how many rights socialism has given them.
Technically cooperatives are still capitalist if they work under a capitalist system because they still aim for infinite growth and eventually lead to exploitation
When you were trying to explain capitalism to all the folks that have been told for years, "If you have a 9 to 5 job, why then you're a capitalist!"(lol) I flashed on a bit of British history. In the 1700's and 1800's the definition of a British Gentleman was "a man who does not work for his money." Obviously if you dig ditches you're not gentle, but if you're a Doctor, or university professor, or Bishop, you're still not a Gentleman. If you own land and folks pay you rent but you do nothing but entertain yourself all day, you're a Gentleman. If you own ships and folks pay you for the ships moving their goods, whether it's cotton, rum, or people(c'mon kids, translate it), and you spend your time at the race track and card tables, you're a Gentleman. The only question is whether the Brits made capitalists into their upper class, or if they made their upper class into capitalists.
@lindmorn5909Edmund Burke writes about how the aristocracy melded into the capitalist class
"Why are people trying to solve economic problems with theft?"
The ghosts of my ancestors that got transported from various parts of Great Britain to Australia (mostly for theft) are applauding you and everyone who has that sudden realisation.
From Evil Empire I like Bulls on Parade the most. Mostly because the second part of the song delivers an insanely strong leftie message without the listener having to understand ANY references.
"Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal
I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library
Line up to the mind cemetery now
What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin'
They don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells
Rally 'round the family, pockets full of shells"
Powerful stuff, told simply.
i also like bulls on parade because the intro is one of the greatest riffs of all time
The clockers born, starin' at an empty plate
Mama's torn hands cover her sunken face
We hungry but them belly full
The structure is set, ya never change it with a ballot pull
Bosses broke south for new flesh and a factory floor
The remains left chained to the powder war
ruclips.net/video/mzv1EI5gDnE/видео.html
And bonus points that those lyrics reference Bob Marley :D
This reminded me of discovering, as an adult, the leftist lyrics of "The Architects of Guilt" by The Famine. I listened to that record on repeat constantly as a teenager and going back to it with an understanding of the politics behind it and have this "Whoa, these lyrics are so powerful when you see where they come from," was a super rad experience.
Tbh I think the role of theory is to be reinterpreted into something that normal people have the time and energy to engage with. It needs to be well-evidenced and dense so that it can comprehensively convey and back up the ideas it contains but that doesn't lend itself to mass-consumption.
I think art is legitimately the best way to disseminate communist ideas (at least online) because people engage with it in their free time regardless of its message. I was radicalised by video essays analysing video games I liked. I only actually started reading theory when I started making my own communist art, because I wanted to make sure my gay little wizard comic was getting its anarchist principles right. If my 1 (one) reader gets radicalised reading my comic then I consider it a success.
Which games, and perhaps whose coverage of them, if you remember?
Personally, I’m more of a The Battle of Los Angeles stan, but your metaphor for how we can each contribute to a larger whole is so good, I can’t wait to find a way to jam it into my motorcycle vids.
My absolute FAVORITE Rage lyric is the one you cited first: "Fuck tha G-ride, I want the machines that are makin' em." It gets me fired the fuck up. Another great one is from that same track. "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton," which speaks about a whole lot of history crammed into one line. Not just the assassination of Fred Hampton, but everything leading up to it. The harassment, the disinformation campaign, the smearing of the Black Panther Party as a "racist" "terrorist" organization. All of that led up to the raid in which Hampton was shot in the head, point blank, three times.
In his sleep.
You nailed it good Sir! A funny side note to listening to RATM in a cop car, I can completely see the "enjoying something while disregarding the context" as that happened to me on many occasions. A lot of older South Park episodes for example. I honestly thought "Manbearpig" was just making fun of Al Gore rather than implying climate change was a hoax.
I write fanfiction, my mainstory I've been working on for years is nearly done, and it was always mildly anti capitalist, featuring a society where food and housing is free among other things. But once its done I'm going to go harder on that sort of messaging, I think I'll cruise around different fandoms and plant seeds in shorter stories. Or at least I'll try to.
This was great! I had a blast revisiting their lyrics when I was researching the Zapatistas for a video since it's a topic they're passionate about and clearly gets referenced.
Also was not expecting such a relevant pep talk at the end 💜✊
The Clash did a lot of that education fir us in the 80s, RIP Joe Strummer and F cancer
Honestly wish I'd been more into Rage musically as a teen (respected them, liked the videos, but never bought a CD) because some of those ideas/sources would have been good to get into about a decade earlier than I actually did haha
I am very pleased with how you explain the reasons we have secret Communists. The Capitalist system is producing too many social economic climbers who refuse treat the educated working class with contempt. You can't expect anything better form the petty bourgeoisie.
I didn't grow up with Rage Against The Machine, but I did grow up with Rise Against. I wouldn't rate them as politically adept as RatM, but I do credit them with pushing me to more critically examine the political landscape I was growing up in rather than just generic teenage rebellion.
Picking a favorite line is nigh impossible because of how adept Zack's lyricism is. This one from War Within a Breath stands out, though.
Their existence is the crime
Their seat, their robes, their ties
Their land deeds, their hired guns
They're the crime
The outro to Know Your Enemy is up there, too
That evil empire cover lol... that was my first exposure to RATM, and for a long time I envisioned Zack as looking like the kid on the cover. In my defense I was like 11 or 12, but his voice does kinda sound like he might look like that. Blew my mind when I saw what he actually looked like.
I remember listening to this when I was 10 years old and not knowing any English yet. I liked the music so much and it made me want to learn English and once I did and understood what it was about I thought "damn the stuff they sing about tells me shit is seriously fucked up." It was one way to get informed about issues. It helped my quite a lot on my journey to where I am right now.
I never would have guessed that English is your second language
I've loved Rage since I was a kid hearing their hits on the local classic rock radio station, but I never truly understood their words until the last year when my knowledge of politics began to really bloom beyond American electoralism. It all really started with knowing the meaning behind "Killing in the Name of" and wondering what other kinds of messages lie deep in their lyrics. I have come to find almost two centuries of theory and history being referenced and always learning something new everytime I listen. They now have become one of my all-time favorite bands, so much that I even have a cover of "Bulls On Parade" from this album on my channel.
I’ll admit that I haven’t really listened to Rage much, or.. at all. But that line “Going out heavy sorta like Mount Tai” really tickled me as I’ve been reading a bit of Mao lately, and other writers who reference Mao like in Doctor Huey P Newton’s “Revolutionary Suicide”. Might check them out a bit. Keep up the great content man, I never quite know what video you’ll be coming out with next, slavery and policing in one video, music analysis in the next. But that’s good! Hope that this channel is giving you room to explore things you’re passionate and want to talk about, always sucks if you feel like you’re forced into producing specific things for the sake of your audience/revenue. One of the side effects of the “commodification of breadtube” so to speak. Anyways I ramble, keep up the great work, take care of yourself friend.
Thanks for the kind words! I am EXTREMELY lucky in that my day job is great so I youtube for fun. I make what I want when I feel like it, whatever strikes my fancy. I get a little bit of ad rev now but it seriously works out to like $1/hr between writing, filming, and editing. So, not a huge motivator for now.
You should listen to Rage.
It holds the fuck up.
@@joearnold6881it's still true which is simultaneously impressive and incredibly tragic (as they themselves have said as well.)
"Killing In The name of" will always get cranked TF up.
one thing I had heard, probably due to the McCarthian period, is that there was a time where music had a lot of hidden political meaning buried in it, cause it would get people in trouble if it were well known. So people would hide it in symbols that the listener would I guess know. I don't know how true that is, but i think it's interesting.
Well done (and fun)!
I was one of those kids who didn't really know what I was listening to, even as I sang along.
Even though I now know there's a lot more to RATM, I hadn't really delved into any of the lyrics yet. So, thank you!
Beautiful analysis. For more details on USA's coups, "The Jakarta Method" and "Washington Bullets" are great books.
Who might've thought that a punk band is anti-capitalistic.
I hate to be that guy....... Rage was not a punk band.
@@robertpayne6781 Well this is indeed a bit of a simplifications but they were certainly inspired.
Yes what we mean when we say private property is not personal property but everyone says we do so we should use a uncorrupted word like bourgeois property, elite property, etc
Socialists loathe personal identity or property.
They can't grasp self identity.
Wow, great ending there. I make music myself and don't get political in it a lot myself. But that is a cool thought that there is no super high bar I need to clear just to do it.
I actually worked to remix a friend's Power Electeonics album this year, definitely in the realm of that Gritty, ugly electoenic music you were talking about. I went to one day of a three day Noise Fest in Fargo this year and it was the most queer, lefty and neurodivergent musical experience I've really had, as much as things like Punk and Rap make a great effort to be that, Noise really exemplifies it so completely.
I've been absolutely aping out to RATM since I saw this video, I've been an anarchist for two years and I'm surprised I never gave them a try until now, thanks for turning me on to them :)
The closing thoughts was beautiful. "The Revolution needs to smell nice!"
What you said about political content creation being valuable in the form of smaller things planting seeds struck a cord with me. I'm no creator, but that sentiment runs in line with my general political experiences. I'm younger, and I'm sure anyone could say this about any point in history, but boy howdy is it sure and interesting time to be coming up in.
With everything we've had going on in the past few years, and especially with what seems to be more valleys and less peaks, there's a sense of great urgency and a following guilt that comes without action. I say this because your comment about seeds is essentially what I tell myself to stave off that guilt. You don't have to be protesting in the streets every day to do your part, take the time to plant the seeds now and they'll grow later, tortoise and the hare sort of deal.
Anyways, very happy some of your videos blew up and got eyes, mine included, on your channel. Videos like these are real brain mints that actually make me feel productive, even if it is just a seed. Love what you're doing, I'll be here for all the rest.
Giving this another watch after going and listening to Evil Empire. I'm absolutely obsessed with the incredible amount of depth in every word--the three songs you selected weren't cherrypicked either, they're ALL packed with that much depth and complexity.
I didn't know what a G-ride was either. Without you explaining the meaning I would've interpreted the lyric as "fuck "winning" in the system of capitalism (through expensive commodities), I want everyone to own the means of production." With that extra definition though it changes the lyrics from kind of a "privileged white kid turned activist" type-deal into something actually really cool.
Really loved that final message too. I've been thinking about writing something about how everything is political, cause I know quite a few (privileged) people say they don't do anything political and I thought it'd be cool to run through a VERY "apolitical" day and show how it's actually very political (they just don't realize it). Inspired in part by your video on alienation, but broader to also point out lack of education on labor organizing (like the 8/8/8 movement) as well as social/political alienation (not just economic). Maybe I'll finally sit down and write it up!
Secret? It's about as secret as the color of grass.
And yet... so many conservatives that used to be angry (and ill-educated) young men, are shocked and amazed by this.
Only 1/2way through but so far this is my fave TDD video!
Finished and just wanted to say thank you for the part at the end. I am also one of those people who thinks sometimes they aren’t well read enough to be doing this, and it meant a lot to hear you say that!
While I would never invalidate someone's feelings, holy smokes, Caelan, you're doing incredible work. You've been a fierce advocate for the queeer/trans community, you've given countless hours of your time researching and documenting a sewer of bigotry running through so much of our world, and you've done it all while radiating an uncompromising love and compassion for people. You're one of the most loving and kind and selfless people I know and I'm so proud to be your friend. I and so many others simply could not do without you.
I pack a lot of theory into my lyrics, and I've always adored songwriters who do. But since I've gone public with my music (and now studying music at university), I notice that people are genuinely less interested in songs with complicated lyrical depth lol. I've definitely noticed a shift in the ideas I wind up investing more time in as a result of this. This video has been a reassuring and inspiring reminder not to lose sight of that rightfully pain-driven passion...
I really appreciate this. I watch a number of channels that do song analyses but they're mostly in terms of composition and technique, not lyrics. So it's great to see some coverage of that aspect.
Closing thoughts made me think of the poem "Rainmaker: You Could Be the Water" by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.
Nourishing AF!! Check it out.
Aw I used to own all her tapes off the Sounds True label
I feel like the expressed ideas that motivated your final speech (i.e. that one's work is inconsequential or *useless* to the movement) work well in conversation with a part of your "Usefulness and the power of Glitches" video where you go into uselessness. The more I think about it, the more I feel like uselessness is a word to describe something that cannot or is not generating profit, because everything can be used in some way or another. Just some thoughts I had bouncing around, figured I'd feed them to the algorithm.
Side note, I've only ever listened to Guerilla Radio and Killing in the name of, now I need to listen to more songs from Rage Against The Machine. XD
If this kind of revolutionary lyricism interests you there is a band you might want to check out by the name of BoySetsFire. They don't have the same sound as Rage, being that they are a hard-core band. The lyrics are just about as militant, emotionally informed and relevant. In their later albums there's a more melodic approach but every album hits hard from start to finish and doesn't relent until you find yourself inexplicably wearing red and black and marching in the streets.
I'll check it out, I like hardcore quite a bit.
Commenting for the algorithm... ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY ALGORITHM!!!! May it bless our dear creator That Dang Dad with trending and ad revenue, AMEN!
Hey Phil, you may know this already, but Rage and RTJ are touring together at this very moment! Loved the vid btw!
I did know that and I bet it's a bangin' show!
I love your line reads, there’s so much emotion in them
Also, if we talking engaging lyrics, ya need to check out Clipping and their album Splendor & Misery. Story about escaping slavery inside a spaceship in the depths of the black with some of the most insane conceptual musical narrative you'll ever hear. I have never heard someone spit bars that sound like the ship AI off Alien while also showing the sympathy one grows while witnessing the struggle for emancipation that makes them more human and become an actual ally, but Diggs & crew pull it and it's fucking awesome.
Huuuuuge clipping fan
Also, really appreciate your 'closing thoughts' section
Another artist that hits me hard is Lupe Fiasco, especially the songs Streets on Fire, Put You On Game. Also i love the whole first half of Food and Liquor Vol II
Streets On Fire went crazy hard in 2020… I couldn’t tell you just how much I had that song on repeat all year.
Also, WAV Files is one of the most heartbreaking yet beautiful songs ever written imo.
Love this break down! I like how you're taking chances sort of "simplifying" theory in a way that really gets the point across without softening how complex these things can be.
Saw a little cameo of me in there, too!
Yeah you get an associate producer credit on this one for sure
Rage, Propaghandi, Crass and Refused kind of directed me towards a pretty left reading list and Chomsky stan-dom, still what I paint and draw to when its not old be-bop, I love your videos.
Have you heard Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy?
Thank you for the pep talk at the end. I have been hesitant and torn between wanting to get more politically involved in my art, but have felt down about how little I know. You've certainly inspired me and I'm happy I found this channel.
Holy shit I’ve been looking for a channel like this for years, someone who breaks down Rage lyrics with theory. Love it
26:52 this exactly. Infact, it almost perfectly describes me (currently a teenage atheist leftie). This video was super educational/interesting
Twinsies
"who cares the revolution needs to smell good" watered some seeds in my brain.
the revolution will not fight bacteria that may cause bad breath 🗣️🗣️
I am happy to see that you had no industrial deep fryer accident
around 19:15 the word tubercular was in there and it got me thinking about the number #1 cause of death on the Cool People That Did Cool Stuff podcast, TB victims are like red shirts on Star Trek.
Those closing thoughts were very encouraging! Thank you :)
Much love, comrade.This content was so interesting and educational. Woiuld LOVE to see more similar content!
No, in Down Rodeo, the 'G Ride' is a Mercedes G Wagon...he's talking about owning the means of production and uses the mercedes as a symbol of capilalism.
He wants the machines that are making em!!
I really enjoy your content and think it's really important. Thank you for what you do
Thank you so much for the ending here, I really love to clown up my face and just record myself saying whatever pops into my head. I have a rare cancer that probably won't have an effective treatment in my lifetime. I still like to share on good days but I keep feeling bad about it because it's all so frivolous. Thank you though it brings me all the joy so I'm going to keep on going with less shame 😁😁😁
Brother, I think you found your niche!!! I am loving all the music related theory videos. Truly thank you, and bravo. You inspired me to go annotate Vietnow on Genius (there was no Annotation for the “your savior, my guillotine” stub until I, I hope correctly, identified it as a clever double entendre on Zac’s part. The AM talk show hosts are the subjects savior(s) and they are also Zac’s guillotine. But he also means that the method by which the subjects of the song will be saved is, in fact, the national razor.)
Evil Empire was on CONSTANT repeat whenever my peer group had down time back in my Job Corps days (right when it was released). I did not have any idea as to how enlightened the album is back then, I knew it was anti authority, pro working class, heavy AF, and, IMO, their best work. Going back and listening to it now, with a little knowledge, experience, and at least exposure to clever lyrical construction, it is an amazing piece of leftist thought.
Great video and analysis and thanks for kicking it up a notch on the left-o-meter
"... women and dogs over 50lbs pounds should leave the room."
Oh. Okay. I guess me and my Rottweiler will go thirst on the Swoletariat instead.
I still remember when I first had the awakening that just maybe the RATM lyrics I was enjoying were about something more significant because I recognized the historical references in "Sleep now in the Fire" and it was years later that I finally truly appreciated the depth, theory, and historical accounting that they put into their music.
For it's the end of history
Its caged and frozen still
There is no other pill to take
So swallow the one
That made you ill
The Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria
The noose and the rapist
The fields overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of Hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire
This is an amazing introduction to the concept of capitalism vs socialism especially to people who have no concept of the ideas
I now come here for music recs. Seriously though this analysis of song lyrics is rigorous and insightful.
In line with your closing thoughts is Caelan Conrad's "Your Art Matters (One Scene For Hope)" (v=7YlS7A_70PE). Nice mutual reinforcement of ideas.
hell yeah a "This Darn Parent" video
I'm watching this as I work on an art project to liven up my sterile uni building in the form of tiny origami ducks, googly eyes and stickers with positive messages. Ngl, folding all those ducks is driving me a little crazy ^^'
You final words inspired me to keep going. Maybe a little ducky will brighten someone's day, maybe it will make them think about who this building should belong to. Either way, I hope the impact is positive
Dawwww, Dad, thanks for the last 5 min, that's what the kiddos need more than anything. :) Great work!
As soon as you mentioned "short, surreal, absurdist fims" Meshes immediately came to mind...then you said it. Scary. Great work! (Love you too Maya).
Thank you for the encouraging message at the end
I didn't come here expecting to cry about art, but serendipity strikes in strange places sometimes. Thanks for the encouragement, I've been feeling really insecure about the things I want to write. Now I will remember, "the revolution needs to smell good!" And think about what you said about beauty being good for us and art showing us what is worth fighting for.
Heck yeah! Get out there and chase that passion!
I loved Rage against the Machine as a teen but I have to admit that the only lyrics that I internalized was "F you, I won't do as you tell me". I think it's time to revisit.
Also, love how your video also illustrates one of the major issues with communist reading, that a lot of the seminal works are old as hell, with dated language, lots of specialized jargon, and long as fuck, and how ALL of those factors combine to make them an absolute pain to read. For all his ideas, Marx was an acerbic jackass like half the time and a dude who got real high on himself for using big words the rest, and it hurts the ability for his actual message to get picked up by regular people, and has encouraged people to adopt THAT PART of his personality as often as his theory. In essence, he can be Rick Sanchez, and for over 100 years people have been making the same mistakes about what of him to copy as they have Rick now XD.
Edit: to say I made the following statement from just reading the title 😛 And it's the first reference now that I'm watching lmoa
"A thousand years they had tha tools
We should be takin' 'em
Fuck tha G-ride I want the machines that are makin' em"
So hidden 😆
I am in love with your videos. Great work. I love the pep talk at the end! I would be interested in seeing you talk about the Immortal Technique Album 3rd World which hit me pretty hard when i first heard it. There's a few problematic and conspiracy theory bits in his lyrics but I learned a lot of about history that I didn't know about by listening to that album. The production on it by Green Lantern is just major fire too, particularly the song Harlem Renaissance
3:17 I started thinking about Simone Weil's "The Poem of Force" and that caught me by suprise! (Not from the same actual text, but same story and people)
Gang of Four was another band that was just cool when i first heard them, but now that i understand what they're talking about it hits so much harder!
Severely off topic but I love that Kentucky route zero wallpaper on his desk top.
left/socialist: the machine has earned only our rage.
right/conservative: the machine boot's must be licked.
Fuck dude, another one that hit me right in the tear ducts at the end. Thank you for being so amazing and making the art that YOU make. It means a lot to me at least. Thanks, Dad
i really needed that speech at the end, thank you
Vietnow is my favorite RATM song I'm glad you mentioned it. I never understood the Managua line, thanks for the insight.
Just found you channel and got to say I would love move videos on RATM, as I'm not american and english is not my first language some of the references just went over my head.
+ holyshit it is refreshing to hear an american that understands the cancer that their country is to everyone around them.
That Dang Dad Pep Talks are the best 🥺 Beauty is good for us!
I missed RATM when they were big (decades late to the party, as ever), but always wanted to go back and listen. This video (especially at this point in my political development) makes clear that now is the time to go buy a few albums.
In other news, I've always enjoyed Propagandhi for angry political music. Thanks for the lovely breakdown.
You mentioned the Nicaraguan leftist party so I wish to simply encourage people to listen to the album Sandinista! by the Clash :3
I've felt for a long time that the albums of Rage Against the Machine & Public Enemy had more in common with books or lectures than their critics gave them credit for. This was explicitly Chuck D's mission - a combination of accessible education & agitprop thru music that reflected the subject matter. It's no wonder to me that Tom Morello, Chuck D, B.Real, Brad Wilk, & Tim Commerford toured as a supergroup a few years ago; I don't think Chuck or Freese are communists (can't confirm that but neither PE nor Cypress Hill have said anything directly about communism on records as far as I know), but they both have a lot of common ground with Rage in terms of their criticisms of America - Chuck more broadly big-pic (macro politics & historical revisionism), Freese more particularly (stories about everyday life as a young man in LA)
I think Rage's current tour & stage show is hitting harder than in the 90s; back then the message didn't seem to land with the same clarity or urgency as it does this time around. In the 90s there was a sort of vague sense that they were edgy & political, but the particulars got lost for a lot of folks. "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" was better known than "Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes / Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal / I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library / Line up to the mind cemetery now," but... This time around, people are either mad at the band or nodding furiously; either way, the message is better understood now.
And I think video essays like this are a part of that. With a bit of a broader analysis available, some of the more esoteric references are accessible to people like me who might not know where to look without a nudge in the right direction ;)
Your comment about how the modern concerts are hitting is interesting because Evil Empire dropped in 1996 and that was firmly in the Fukuyaman "End of History" era where neoliberalism had defeated all other ideologies and the USA had "won" and everything was just always going to get better forever. You have to give RATM and others a lot of credit for trying to force complacent Americans to see that actually, stuff was broken juuuust out of sight of the middle class (and that the middle class itself was a myth). They were trying to wake Americans up from a delicious economic wet dream and Americans HATE when you try to wake them up.
@@ThatDangDad true... And to be fair, at that time I was firmly a middle-class kid with a "bright future." Observation is defined by viewpoint, and while I was *interested* in experiences beyond my own periphery, I was badly positioned to *understand* them. Poverty has in many ways been a heck of a teacher in that regard.
I want to capture what made fantasy stories like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones so great whilst telling an anti-capitalist story that contributes not only to leftist discourse but sorta tricks the minds of young conservative nerds into consuming it and planting new seeds in these minds. I use to be a moderate, an I loved and still love lord of the rings, despite all it's faults and I feel like we need more stories like that but they tell more progressive stories.
You'll love immortal technique. He's a very enlightened rap artist
15 year old me listened to Rage and became an ardent leftist which makes me wonder… how did that escape grown adults?
I used to be an anarcho syndicalist. Then I starting reading more theory. When I first started reading people like kropotkin, Marx, Lenin, Bookchin, Mao, etc it was very helpful and I couldn’t believe how wrong I was regarding what they wrote. I still don’t agree with what a couple of those people who actually took state power did but their theory is still awesome. I decided to take what I want from each one and leave the rest. Now I just identify as a socialist because I have so many influences. Not to mention the fact that a lot of praxis should depend on the conditions around you. So maybe if you are an anarcho communist you could realize that it wasn’t practical to just try to create that system immediately. If people aren’t organized and you have forces of literally attacking you it might not be the best fit for that situation. But If anything you should read some of these thinkers if only it’s so you can have better arguments against them if you think you won’t like what they say. I didn’t want to learn about a lot of those people’s theory because I had a preconceived notion regarding what they were about what they were about. This is because of all the propaganda I had been fed that stayed with me years after I had already become a radical anarcho syndicalist. Reading Marx’s Capital was what really made me realize how capitalism is completely unsustainable and that he was right about all his predictions except for the face that we would have a revolution by now. It can be difficult to read so I would recommend listening to the podcast reading capital with comrades or reading with the audiobook which is free on RUclips playing in the background. You can buy many great books that comply these thinker’s most important texts into collections. The Wretched of the Earth is also great. Just like this video.
I still describe myself as an anarchist, but I don’t think that necessarily rules out finding value in what Marx and the thinkers that followed him wrote. Marx’s analysis of how capitalism functions is on point; my main criticism is that he didn’t apply the same analysis to other power relations in society, particularly those connected to the state-incomplete rather than wrong.
@@skyclaw Yes but if you are talking about Marxism in general they definitely do. Many people have expanded the theory to include those power structures. Not to mention Marx wrote a ton shit.
Goddamn dude… I just keep being more and more impressed (and educated) with every new video I watch on your channel. Please keep it up, you’re invaluable and inspiring.
Lol, my first exposure to bourgeoisie was bougie, and still my preferred use XD. "Dey bougie" I tend to find has a much easier time communicating that mix of annoyed disgust at excess combined with the want to actually have the capacity to spend capital on things, and therefore the power of the position. It's a place that gives privilege to the 1 at the expense of the many but the privilege looks so good it can be easy to forget what gets ground up, especially when you're living the life of starving wage slave.
For me, it was System of a Down. I found "Toxicity" by accident, listened to the full album (on repeat, for months), then their entire discography. I started to really see the world crumbling around me. Discovering their music made me start be curious and think critically of the world around me. That's when the spell of capitalism finally broke for me.
Note: I was an objectivist-adjacent anarchocapitalist as a teenager. Now I'm a libertarian socialist. My teenage self would hate me SO much right now!
Now THAT'S a pep talk!! Great stuff. 💜🤍💚
This was... oddly valuable for me. I was in a bit of an emotional spiral after once again seeing the comments and like-dislike ratios on Canadian TV news stations' RUclips videos on anything even vaguely making the world better (in this case the pollution tax changes), even in the very rare case coverage that isn't entirely negative can be FOUND in Alberta. Immediately stumbling across a video that taught me some of the theory I was never able to learn 'the right way' (thus alleviating my feelings of frustration and powerlessness at being unable to... punish the evil I saw on display) while remaining uplifting and fun somehow made me feel immensely better.
I'm still starting to think there's a concerted right-wing campaign of some kind on this platform to bully Canadian news stations into not providing positive coverage of anything even vaguely environmental or culture-war-topic related; because there's clearly a huge volume of hatewatchers on any clip mentioning the topics, they all comment and downvote and upvote each other's comments, and it seems like a disproportionate number of them have show-dislikes extensions installed, assuming the order-of-magnitude-higher dislikes than likes I'm seeing can't possibly reflect reality? I can't stomach looking at the comments in detail to determine if bots are involved, generally I only see the first few before I'm two upset to continue, but they look like random ignorant and cruel Albertans by my eye, so I can't fathom how they're getting the numbers they get on all these channels.
But watching your video next helped me get over the feelings of despairing rage that spawned. I suppose this means you made (or at least un-ruined) my day, so thanks!
This video was very inspiring, I loved it, thank you!
👏🏼 bravo! Excellent video!
Great video, those are some clever lyrics! some ideas that I am putting out here which I'd like to do but would be happy if anyone else tried are making Anarchist theory using characters and ideas from popular media with Liberals such as Steven Universe, Harry Potter, comics etc. And making erotika that contains anarchist ideas, is set in an anarchist world or in some other way raises class consciousness.