Refujesus this place.
This article is ragging on U2 for the sake of ragging on U2, because that's a thing to do now.
Springsteen changed his friggin thousand dollar a seat Broadway show once and he's a hero of the resistance, but U2 confronts well to do Americans with images of Nazis and white supremacists marching in the streets of Charlottesville every night, displays images by one of the leading protest artists of the time on the screen before the show and then again during the show... but they're just friggin soft and not taking a stance, mannnn. They're catering to the centrists mannnnnnn.
GTFO.
Springsteen has also said that he doesn't feel the need to write about what's going on now. OMG he's with the rightists!! (I just wanted to use the word rightist for LN7's sake)
I mean even American Soul, shitty as it may be to most, is a song that literally says that the soul of America has died, the American dream has died, and it's time to friggin wake up. And they say all that in from of a giant American flag.
But because they offer some hope that maybe we can fucking deal with this shit and not continue down this road... OMG they're not the band for this time!!!! They're so soft!!!!
By saying that great things have occurred by getting disagreeing parties to work together is not condoning what's going on currently whatsoever.
They helped bring Unionists and Republicans to the table in Northern Ireland... does that mean U2 condones the violence of the IRA? Of course not.
Ya know, getting rid of this monstrosity is something people from both sides of the political spectrum should be working together to achieve.
This article isn't bullshit because U2 shouldn't be political. That's horseshit and anyone making that argument is making a horseshit argument because U2 have always been political.
The article is bullshit because it's not accurate.
This is just a perfect post here! Very well done.
It is absurd for anyone to suggest Bono or U2 in general are enabling Trump and his ilk with how they approach politics these days. They've been very vocal against them and all they stand for- directly and on very prominent stages. It just shows how little these people who write this trash actually know. Trump is the first individual since God knows who to get directly and repeatedly slammed by the band.
Also, a good amount of the Nazis you mentioned had "Make America Great Again" red hats on. What more do people want?! I had Staring at the Sun as one of the songs I'd rotate when I did my critique of this setlist early on in the tour. Once I saw the images and how the last part of that song worked so well going into Pride, I had no problem admitting I was beyond wrong.
That hit so hard and so viscerally and I would challenge anyone to get the same feeling or even close to it watching some 20 year old scream "down with Trump and all those inbreds who voted for him" over and over again.
U2 knows, as you do, that nuance exists in this world and they have worked with people with enough variety of viewpoints to know that plenty of people on the American "right" are and should be working to rid us of Trump. They can differentiate between someone who falls on that side of the spectrum and a white supremacist. Similarly, they realize that many who voted for Trump do not espouse those deplorable views. Do I or many others agree with their judgement? Of course not. Do I think they voted for a dangerous man with dangerous views? Of course I do. Do I think that alienating them versus trying to engage them, in part through an appeal to unity and hope, is a deadly mistake for those who care about fixing this and moving forward? Yes.
Just as you said, this is a hit piece on U2 because that's the thing to do now. It's trendy, so writers and editors, even at highly reputable publications, are letting it go even when articles are filled with complete BULLSHIT.
Really is frustrating.
As we here well know, there are good, well reasoned criticisms one could have for U2.
This character assassination, lying and expecting them to be something they never were is just sick.