John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten): Media Is "Smearing" Trump Because They Fear Him

Of all the things I did not see coming, this is one of the I did not see this comingest.

Oh, and then he said Nigel Farage was "fantastic" and that he supports Brexit.

He then predicts the "rag and bone trade we call the media" is going to spend a week now calling him [Lydon] a racist.

"In my past I’ve had that accusation thrown at me willy nilly and it's a damn hard one to have to listen to and endure -- make sure it's right," Lydon added.

"There's a terrible attitude in left-wing politics -- they just feel they have the pomposity and right to just throw these accusations out without any evidence -- well don't because my world requires facts."

"For the next week and a half the rag-and-bone trade that we call the media is going to be calling me a racist, that’s the tomfoolery of it all. That's going to be damn upsetting all over again to my grandkids, is'’t it?"

Oh, and I looked it up: A rag-and-bone trade man is, or rather was, a guy who would go door-to-door buying unwanted household goods -- crap -- in order to sell it to people whose unwanted crap is actually even crappier.

I think that's a pretty good way to describe the media.

He's kind of a Trump voter -- a former Obama supporter, defining himself (very loudly) as working class, who seems to have flipped.

The former Sex Pistols frontman was speaking to ITV News when he stated: "The working class have voted and I support them. Let it be a nice exit. A truly brilliant British exit."

...

"One journalist once said to me, is he the political Sex Pistol? In a way," he said.

"There are many, many problems with him as a human being but he's not [racist] and there just might be a chance something good will come out of that situation because he terrifies politicians."

That article notes that last year, he was anti-Brexit and also thought Trump was one angry synapse away from starting World War III. He called him a "wrong 'un."

In the video in the second article I linked, he explains that while he moved to America because of Obama, "that doesn't mean I'm going to follow him to the grave" and says that politics is all "roundabouts and swing-abouts" or some other such British nonsense which I assume has something to do with pendulums swinging too far in one direction.

A little more from this interview with him from French outfit AFP. I would link the English version but I can't fine one.

"I think from time to time, the world needs a shake-up. Passivity always winds up getting what it deserves[."] Trump is "the kind of kick in the ass the people seem to need."

[John Lydon] understands the economic "dispair" and shares a deep mistrust of politiicans in office. "The idea of continuing on with the same policies without changing anything, that's all done now," he declares. "It's now been two or three generations wallowing in apathy, silly beards and dunce-caps. They look like each other, they all talk the same way," he says. "There's no spirit, which winds up being very negative and that opens the door to Donald Trump."

Whoops -- I did find this (cached) English version of what he really said.

I wondered why they said "dunce caps." Turns out, they couldn't figure out how to translate what he'd said:

"We've had a couple of generations now that loved to wallow in apathy and silly beards and daft gray tea-cozy hats. They all look the same, they all talk the same," he said.

I guess bonnets idiots meant "idiotic hats" and not "dunce caps" (which was my guess, which I see was wrong).

These are tea-cozy hats. My stars. They're probably wearing them here, too. And I'd probably know that if I ever, you know, saw people.

Kind of interesting -- Overton Window, tipping point, etc.

Forgot the Obligatory Link: The Sex Pistols said it so well 40 years ago.

posted by Ace at 07:04 PM

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