I don't know why you quoted be because this has nothing to do with anything I said.
When he says that the audience is helping out through tacea he's referring to foreign aid, which *is* activism, and he calls on nations to honour their foreign aid commitments and increase them. As for his tax payments, you have no idea how much he pays.
Your other complaints about him not fighting inequality or whatever are immaterial because that's not his stated goal. It's like saying that Zooropa is a bad hard rock album. His aims are in poverty reduction, supplying AIDS meds, and fighting malaria, and he's been successful in achieving those goals.
Bono admires MLK. That doesn't mean he needs to "enrage those in power," especially when enraging those in power would be harmful to achieving the goals that he's been successful in achieving. That's why he didn't oppose the Iraq war: it would have imperiled his AIDS activism, activism which saved tens of millions of lives. I know that pales in comparison to servicing the self righteousness of a good leftist such as yourself, but it's still valuable.
p.s. This "Clinton was basically a Republican" stuff from the current left is fucking ridiculous. Nobody who was there could believe that. Sure, Clinton's agenda was a Republican wishlist...which is why the GOP spent years trying to fucking DESTROY him. Jesus Christ.
Excellent posts in here!
I'm one of those mainstream or whatever you want to call it American liberals. Just to provide some context. I was elated when Biden won- the general election of course, but also the earlier primary.
You hit on 2 of my biggest pet peeves of far leftist types when it comes to Bono:
1) They project views and values on to him that he NEVER has stated he holds. Nor has he indicated through his actions that he held them. Ever.
I'm reminded of a thread here a few years back about a Bernie type columnist, a young man down in Florida, who was reviewing JT 2017 and saying how U2 had somehow moved away from their original, "anti capitalist, anti system" values.
I was absolutely floored! People on the extremes of lots of issues have often gone after Bono over the years, but I hadn't seen anything made up out of thin air like that in a mainstream release that actually had to get by editors and executives, etc.
2) 15 years on, they love to bring up the "tax evasion" issue, even though it's been settled to any reasonable person since about 2 days after the story broke. I love how it became "U2 don't pay taxes."
Common sense would tell you that's not even close to true by any measure, but you really hit on what I've always said to these people: "you have NO IDEA how much they pay!" Bono or any of them! People act like their tax returns are public record.
It will always amaze me. In about 1/10 of the time it takes for people to write a post here accusing Bono of not paying taxes, they could do a simple google search of the royalties tax in Switzerland, income and value added taxes in Ireland, property taxes where his residences are, etc and find out there's no way their accusation could be true.
Also, your comments on Clinton are spot on!! He called Gingrich into the oval office and told him he didn't care what he did, if he wanted his budget passed, he was going to have to get someone else to sit in that chair. He did that, followed by a brutal government shutdown that forced Gingrich into capitulation, because he was a Republican. He also vetoed Bush style tax cuts, estate tax repeal, etc, and refused to invade Iraq when pushed to do so, because he was a Republican. Then the GOP was so happy to have him rubber stamping their agenda that they tried to impeach him for a blowjob!
It's incredible how often I hear this. I was a very young man when Clinton was President, but I do NOT remember him having anything but difficulty, increasingly so throughout his terms, in dealing with the Republicans.
People just do not play with facts. If they want to criticize him for not being Bernie or AOC, FINE! Make that argument, then. Have that discussion! Just like the right wing U2 fans need to stop saying "it's too political, Bono needs to shut up" and engage in a discussion of how they disagree with Bono's politics. Because we all know it ain't the band that's changed over the years. But to state Clinton was Republican or Republican lite is absurd!