Protest with love, baby
Clap your hands
Stomp your feet
And if you want to
You can shout Hallelujah
We found love
We found love
We found love
Protest with love
Protest with love
Should we, though? When we are combatting forces so lacking in love, so bereft of humanity, is there really a benefit to having ‘love’ on your side? Will the oppressors eventually down their arms with a shrug, saying “Fair enough, they’ve been the better person here, played an absolute blinder, have to admit when you’ve been morally beaten, fair’s fair”? My first reaction to someone enthusing that we “Protest with love” is picturing those fucking Portland, USA gimps wearing unicorn and frog fancy dress costumes to somehow protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Fucking liberals! If you’ve bought into the propaganda about politics being a binary choice, and you see one side acting like that?? Whooo! Trump 2028 baby! USA! USA! USA! Seriously, I know next to nothing about Portland, but I know that I fucking hate it!
Another reading to the song would be to protest with love in our heart. Which, fine, listen up liberals, I kinda agree. I would never phrase it like that, because that sounds gay as hell, but I can at least understand the feeling in a certain sense. Again, if you truly believe that politics is a binary made up completely of the right and liberalism (which is centrist, swinging to centre right when capital is threatened) then sure, yeah, whatever, speak of the benefits of your own side rather than just complain about the other. That Blue Sky Heroine Kamala Harris lost an election because her only policy was “I’m not Donald Trump”. The deteriorating shell of the Labour Party currently in power in the UK have only ever used the fact that they’re not the Tories/Reform as a potential vote winner, all the while pushing policies that both of those right wing loony bins might balk at for being “A little too racist“. ‘Not being the other ones’ only really works for the people who were always going to support you, probably because their Dad did and they think politics is like supporting a fucking football team.
But but but but but, this all assumes that you’re protesting on some positive, liberally decent, The Guardian approved issue that still rests squarely within the current superstructure. The other side is saying that all Trans people are sexual deviants and are molesting kids? Well, duh, that’s actually an insane thing to believe, we love trans people, here are their amazing contributions to society, and here’s the wonderful people they are. All immigrants are stealing our jobs/houses/benefits and are also (seriously, one speed these people) molesting kids? Well, no, we love immigrants, they’ve enriched our society and are a main reason behind our country’s strength. This is fucking Britain, by the BTW, are you really arguing that it’d be an equally decent place to live if it was 100% white people??
But therein lies the problem with ‘Protesting with love’: a lot of the time you’re making the argument that “Life wouldn’t be this great if it wasn’t for the thing you’re against!”.
Mate… Life’s pretty shit right now. And you’re arguing it’s all because of Trans people/immigrants/DEI/new fucking Cracker Barrel logo or whatever. Sounds like you’re actually on the same side?
Because we actually are on the same side. At least, 99% of us are. We all have problems paying rent, buying groceries, making time to connect with actual human beings in real life, finding a job or not hating the job we’re forced to have in order to (just about) fund our survival. We all have problems with the price of our bills, with the lack of ‘third spaces‘, with infrastructure failing us, with the dangerous things some people are forced to do to offset the wealth disparity, and with the potential life ruining effects of the culture war lens turning to whatever identity we have bestowed upon us. The only difference is that a lot of people have been convinced that Trans people/immigrants/DEI/new fucking Cracker Barrel logo or whatever is to blame for all of this, while the other side have been convinced that the reason is that there aren’t enough LGBTQ+ people in the Ministry of Defence. The issue isn’t ‘Protesting with love’. It’s with not protesting with hate at the correct targets.
This is going to sound like the most libbed up fucking nonsense ever, but I honestly don’t think many people are actually bigoted. Sure, there’s a decent amount of Swastika-bumming, The Protocols of the Elders of Zioning, race scientists out there. they’ve put in the work and are truly dedicated to their nonsense, and you’ve got to respect that. I also believe these ‘opinions’ are extremely dangerous, and openly carrying them – especially broadcasting them – should carry punishments for the crime of potentially poisoning society (but I’ll talk about who you’re all thinking of right now later in this list). However, the vast majority of people who have been scammed into parroting racist ideology have just been fed incorrect answers to real questions.
Why is my rent so high? Why can’t I find a decent house? Why does my landlord have so much power over me? Fucking asylum seekers!!
You were doing so well there until the answer! But you need to show your working out more: if the government refuses to buy more socialised housing and public property continues to be a rarity that private owners are allowed to siphon off and rent what they like with, these prices are going to keep skyrocketing! How about you hate the fact that property is now a luxury item rather than an essential need and we can both hate the capitalist class together! Did you know that 93 MPs are fucking landlords? Don’t you hate that shit?? Isn’t that like having laws on the prevalence of wildebeest voted on my vicious fucking lions??
Why is the cost of living skyrocketing? Why can I now barely afford to feed my family? Why are my wages not keeping up with inflation? I’ll tell you why: trans people in women’s sports!
I’m… not sure how you worked that out… But I’m sorry to say that you’ve arrived a an incorrect conclusion. Have you ever thought about how the government spent £60 million on defence last year, has promised to spend even more in the future because Donald fucking Trump told them to. What about the £500 mil that the government has given to Israel to kill children with? That would have been nice to have, wouldn’t it? Or the twenty one point eight billion that we’ve given to Ukraine with the sole reason of hopefully harming Russia’s economy. Again, because the US told us to. In doing so, we’ve supported a sanction on Russian gas that has meant we are all paying through our dicks for energy, and we were also happy for that Nord Stream pipeline to be sabotaged. We love paying more for stuff, especially if it means that we’re making the USA richer!
Hate. That. Shit.
Don’t ‘Protest with love’. Find the real hate that we can all hate together.
Lonnie Holley, though, still remains in something of an Imperial Phase. ‘Tonky’ (Lonnie’s childhood nickname) is yet another fiercely affecting and artistically validating collection of emotionally honest but sonically expansive pieces of music. It plays a bit of a dirty trick by having its first song and its last song be the two mindblowingly incredible highlights, so you might end up thinking it’s one of the best albums of the year if your memory is as shattered as mine, rather than the Scientifically Proven™ #35 it actually arrives at. Nice try Lonnie! I see you!
2023 #9 (-26)
The user score is only 74, because obviously those dumb hicks aren’t as qualified to speak on its majesty as much as us critics 🧐
See what I mean?
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