Tom Morello , the legendary guitarist also known for expressing his political and social opinions on his official social media , addresses fans who "weren't smart enough" to understand Rage Against The Machine (RATM) political stance.
In 2022, through his official X (formerly Twitter ), Tom shared: “People who are offended by my policies on Twitter or Instagram, I hope you know that you haven’t been smart enough to understand what the music you’ve been listening to all these years is about.”
"As for the music, you're welcome, but if you're a white supremacist or a proto-fascist, the music isn't written for you – it's written against you," Morello adds.
On Sunday the 3rd, the guitarist shared on his profile X an encounter he had with a fan who admires the track "Killing In The Name Of" but who couldn't interpret the lyrics of the song.
The tweet begins: “It never ceases to amaze me how many people who listened to RATM are in Paul Ryan , having literally ZERO understanding of what the band was talking about and even less understanding of where any of us stand on contemporary issues.”
“I was recently talking to a couple in a restaurant who were big fans of 'Killing In The Name'. The nice woman said, 'I love that song. It helped me rage against my parents and later against my job!'”
Tom Morello continues: “Madam, this song is about racist police officers who often behave like the Ku Klux Klan in service of historical white supremacy and lick the boots of the lackeys and thugs of the racist capitalist ruling class.” The guitarist concludes by commenting that the woman was just “chewing and blinking, chewing and blinking.”
Fans shared their opinions in the comments section of the post, some agreeing and arguing that others lacked attention and interpretation, while the rest disagreed with Tom's view, stating that he "sold out."
In another tweet, which has since been deleted, someone tried to lecture Morello about the lyrics of “Killing In The Name Of,” to which the guitarist responded: “My brother. She can do whatever she wants. She can cough COVID into her grandfather MAGA’s mouth, I don’t care. But if she presumes she can tell a guy who was in the room while the song was being written what it’s ‘really’ about, then I have the right to raise my hand and say ‘no, ma’am.’”
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