r/askanything • u/TankUMrMinor • 14h ago
Political Question Why do some people think that Rage Against the Machine is "for the machine" now?
The one thing people cite over and over is their stance on covid era policies. But most businesses and capitalists and other parts of the establishment were against most of those policies, because they wanted more business, and fewer (or zero) lockdowns. So that argument made no sense.
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u/OrvilleTheCavalier 14h ago
My favorite thing to read from people is “I don’t know why they suddenly got political.” Holy not-listening-to-lyrics.
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u/Pastadseven 14h ago
The one thing people come over and over is their stance
You wanna give that another go?
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u/Rosaadriana 14h ago
Mostly covid deniers and ant-vaxers.
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u/TankUMrMinor 14h ago
I'm betting a lot of foreign bots are programmed to comment on every RATM related post, too
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u/MiguelIstNeugierig 14h ago
Because half-braindead asswipes think raging against the machine is not wearing a mask, because fascism is when wear a mask to not spread a infectious disease during a pandemic, not when an ultrastatist regime murders its own citizens and proceeds to try to justify it as "reasonable force" time and time again.
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u/tdreampo 14h ago
What was their covid stance? Got a link?
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u/Upbeat_Run4525 14h ago
Probably the one scientists agreed upon. Imagine that.
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u/RiffRandellsBF 14h ago
Depends on which scientists. It became clear a large number of scientists/doctors/psychologists were saying that kids were affected by COVID the least and that keeping them out of school was going to cause long term problems for this cohort.
That has since been shown to be correct.
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u/kornkid42 14h ago
But those kids would have brought it home to the adults.
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u/RiffRandellsBF 13h ago
Kids were not contracting COVID in significant numbers and adults could wear masks, get vaccinated, etc.
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u/RiffRandellsBF 13h ago
When you look at the numbers, most people (99.5% of the population) were not in "lethal danger" from COVID. Those that died were often elderly or obese or already had significant preexisting respiratory/organ damage.
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u/ShootinAllMyChisolm 13h ago
So they deserved to just die?
0.5% of the us population alone is 16,500,000 that’s genocide by any other name.
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u/DogsDontLikeHats 13h ago
No, but the impetus was on them to protect themselves, not shut down the global economy because a small percentage had elevated risk profiles.
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u/RiffRandellsBF 13h ago
No, that's not. And the 0.5% of the US population which is about 1.7 million.
0.5% (0.005) × 341,784,857 = 1,708,924.29
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u/ShootinAllMyChisolm 13h ago
Thanks for the correction.
So still cool with 1.7M dying?
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u/RiffRandellsBF 13h ago
If they wear masks, take prophylactics, and isolate themselves, they would not be in danger.
If the building is on fire, do you stay or leave?
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u/DogsDontLikeHats 14h ago
I believe it was "obey the government and believe everything big pharma tells you."
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u/TankUMrMinor 14h ago
I'm just quoting other people. Not sure. Hoping one or two of them will explain it here. They never respond when I ask in the wild.
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u/tdreampo 13h ago
https://youtu.be/y-G-lxKQhV8?si=K0Dgqz2noRZ3KgtC
Hope this clears it up for you
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u/TankUMrMinor 12h ago
Not watching a nine minute video
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u/tdreampo 12h ago
bahaha why not? you don’t want an actual explanation and it’s a hilarious video.
thats such a weird and ignorant response especially about issues that are nuanced. There are whole books on this topic that take hours to read. I highly suggest you change your attitude if you want to actually understand our world.
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u/TankUMrMinor 12h ago
Maybe later lol
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u/tdreampo 12h ago
like nine minutes isn’t long whatsoever. you realize that right? your brain has been hijacked by social media way too long if nine minutes is a long video to you.
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u/TankUMrMinor 12h ago
Not what I said. You're just further supporting my decision to not watch it because now you're clearly misinterpreting reality.
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u/tdreampo 11h ago
“Not watching a nine minute video”
bahah you are a child. literally what you said. and but NoW I wOnT wAtCh it.
“Mommmm take me to hot topics.”
lmfao
well I guess you don’t actually want your question answered do you?
why even post on reddit if you don’t actually want an answer to your question?
wtf is wrong with you.
you said you had been searching for the answer but can’t find it. Well here is a nine min hilarious video that answers all your questions. But you are too addicted to tiktok shorts to be bothered.
I watched a five hour documentary yesterday and that didn’t seem too long.
whatever dude.
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u/beenknowntosuckcock 14h ago
The machine is a generic term for this corrupt system we call politics in this country. Niether party is innocent , this crap has been going on for decades.
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u/gumbril 10h ago
Stop with the both sides. Both sides are not 100 percent perfect but one side has repeatedly devastated the country.
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u/beenknowntosuckcock 10h ago
Both sides are beyond corrupt and until we quit electing people from either party nothing is going to change, this shit has been going on for decades
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u/gumbril 9h ago
So instead of voting the lesser of two evils, you would not vote at all?
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u/beenknowntosuckcock 9h ago
I'll vote 3rd party rather than give my vote to either corrupt party.
It doesn't matter , were not going to vote our way out if this mess.1
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u/Bones1973 13h ago
I think the issue is Tom Morello admitted he didn’t vote for Kamala which pissed a lot of people off. He has a large platform he could’ve used to advocate for the election. Instead, the multimillionaire former Harvard student decided to play purity politics and now we’re balls deep in fascism.
He’s just like all the other leftist fucks who assumed Kamala was going to win and he could’ve kept his purity politics platform under Kamala while raging against capitalism. Except…it didn’t work and now he’s a dumbfuck for not doing anything to keep Trump out of office.
I would’ve voted for a wet sock in 2024 if it ran on a Democrat ticket. It’s mind blowing how difficult the left made this.
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u/DeepestGreySea 14h ago
Your argument makes no sense. Covid broke so many brains…get over it, already.
RatM broke up after 2 albums because the lead singer is an anti capitalist, among other things. Aside from a couple short reunions…they’re not even a band because of this. It is what is.
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u/Joker8392 14h ago
What? they’ve broken up a few times but just a quick google search says they were active between 91-2000, 2007-2011, and 2019-2024.
That’s just shy of 20 years active together.1
u/DeepestGreySea 13h ago
I didn’t say anything about time.
But yes, then were together in the 90s and recorded 3 (not 2) albums of original material.
You can’t really call Rage “together” the two times they reunited….they weren’t recording albums or associating with each other…they were just doing shows. It’s also not accurate to say they broke up in 2024, when they hadn’t done a show since 2022.
But anyways…they’re broken up for the reasons I stated.
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u/Testy_Terrance 14h ago
I mean the biggest all time issue was the fact that they signed with a corporate record label which allowed them to become so popular. I mean it's a reasonable take for someone to make. I don't personally care too much, as long as they are self aware of that fact, which I think in most ways the have been. Was a little touch and go when they first got big though and I think some other bands even called them out for it.
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u/Not_Allowed_to_Die 13h ago
This is interesting only because I was just talking about Rage Against the Machine and how I went to one of their first concerts at a Spring Fling.
But what this all comes down to is people no longer learn things and just guess at them. So to them, raging against the machine is a machine and not corporations and government.
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u/Necrifyre 13h ago
Okay so, I've listened to a lot of politically vocal bands. KMFDM. Rage Against the Machine. Ministry. Puscifer (select political tracks). A Perfect Circle (select political tracks). System of a Down. Dropkick Murphys.
The entire point of making politically-charged music is to invoke challenging your perspective of the world around you and how things are ran. They're all pulling the veil for you to understand the bigger picture at hand.
Of course to an outsider, they're all making money from the very system they hate. That doesn't make them hypocrites, because everyone has to make money somehow. But, it isn't like it's received with a big shit-eating grin.
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u/DisruptingTree 14h ago
They don't. OP is a MAGA bot.
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u/Tigeruppercut1889 14h ago
Based on tom Morelos 2024 election takes it sounds like he’s been raging against brain cells
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u/Signal_Hippo9806 13h ago
He graduated Harvard with honors, with a degree in political science. “Them smart people don’t know nothing,” though, right?
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u/pump_O_nickle 13h ago
Because Cons are ignorant and intentionally blind to anything and everything that contradict their preferred narrative. In short, they are controlled by their emotions and lack of critical thinking ability.
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u/VicariousDrow 13h ago
It seems to just be mostly anti-vaxxer morons pissed off that the members of RAtM are educated enough to understand when listening to medical experts supercedes "raging against the machine"......
Also a ton of conservatives turned to the copium that "oh, they just hate the machine in general, not the politics I identify with," but in reality they've always been mostly anti-conservative and anti-capitalist, which typically envelops the Dems in the US cause of how conservative the country is in general, but progressive politics have always been considered the "anarchy politics," and that's where they've always very clearly been.
Basically nothing has changed and it's just another wave of dumb people having to face the reality that RAtM doesn't like them or their beliefs lol
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u/immanent12 13h ago
"Medical experts" = big pharma shills
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u/VicariousDrow 12h ago
Nope, actual medical experts, from all over the world, in different countries, every country with vaccine researchers in fact, with different pharmaceutical companies, some controlled by governments and other private companies.
Unless you believe there's a secret cabal of "big pharma" companies across the world and from every different government that all work together behind the scenes just to make money, even the ones from communist nations that don't make money from vaccines, which is a ludicrously stupid conspiracy theory, your one liner is still just ludicrously stupid.
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u/immanent12 11h ago
If only RATM could have been a radical as Sweden
Several countries avoided or minimized strict social distancing enforcement, mask mandates, and vaccine coercion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sweden is the best-known example: it skipped lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, kept most schools and businesses open, issued only limited mask recommendations (mainly on public transport later), and relied on voluntary measures with no broad vaccine mandates. Belarus, Tanzania under President Magufuli, and Nicaragua similarly rejected lockdowns, kept public life largely open, discouraged or weakly enforced masks, and avoided strong vaccine coercion.
Japan and Mexico also took lighter approaches, with no legal national mask mandates or hard lockdowns in Japan (recommendations only) and no federal vaccine requirements for the general population or travelers in Mexico. Very few countries anywhere mandated COVID vaccines for all adults; most limits were narrow and occupational.
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u/VicariousDrow 9h ago
What you idiots always choose to ignore is that the Swedes didn't need government mandates cause they got the same or similar recommendations and they just followed them without complaint, pushback, or conspiracy.
That is why it worked for them.
There are several states int he US that tried to do the same and limited or even lifted mandates far too early, and what did the rightoid idiots in those red states all do? Immediately ignore all of the recommended precautions and deaths climbed again.......
You guys always nit pick at the facts to find anything you can to try and reinforce your biases instead of actually educating yourselves.
Also nice dodge for what I was saying, just gonna move that goalpost to an adjacent topic since I made your first one look so stupid, eh? Lol
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u/immanent12 9h ago
Somewhere around 5-10% of Swedes reported using masks. Plus they didn't close schools. I studied the regional cycles of covid in the US, and promise "deaths" had nothing to do with mandates or recommendations.
You're the one who cited "experts" around the world, so I replied with what many government experts around the world like Anders Tegnell actually did.
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u/VicariousDrow 8h ago
Lol so you're just making shit up now cause it suits your narrative better?
Go figure..... "I studied it myself!"
Fucking please lmao
No, reports say that Swedes abide by recommendations, masks, social distancing, less travel, limited contact, and so on. Remember, the other things, when followed, means you don't have to put a mask on lol
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u/immanent12 6h ago
Multiple surveys and reports consistently showed that mask use among Swedes was low, not near-universal or even majority practice for most of the pandemic.
YouGov international trackers in 2020 found that only about 5–10% of people in Nordic countries (including Sweden) reported wearing masks in public, a figure that stayed stable while usage rose to 70–80% in many other countries. A YouGov compilation highlighted Sweden at roughly 9% for mask-wearing as a protective measure. An Imperial College London / YouGov European comparison found Sweden had the highest share of respondents (around 83%) reporting they did not wear masks outside the home at all.
A large Swedish survey (n > 10,000) in fall 2020 found only 19% had worn a face mask in the past month (versus 88% who were more careful with handwashing). A Novus poll around the same period reported just 6% actually wore masks in public, even though a larger share believed they could help. Observational accounts from Stockholm described masks as rare on streets, in shops, and on public transport, with most wearers appearing to be tourists. People who did wear masks sometimes reported stares, awkwardness, or hostility.
Even after authorities issued a limited recommendation in January 2021 for masks on public transport during weekday rush hours (if distancing was not possible), compliance remained limited. A December 2021 Swedish Radio count of over 1,200 passengers on crowded public transport found only about 10% wearing masks. A Novus survey later in 2021 showed that a majority reported using a mask at least occasionally in indoor public spaces, but this was still far from universal and came after prolonged low uptake.
In short, voluntary masking stayed low relative to most other countries throughout, consistent with official non-recommendation for the general public until late and the emphasis on other measures.
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u/VicariousDrow 6h ago
And still you just nit pick at these values in order to connect them to the conclusions you want, cause all you care about is confirming your bias, not what reality actually is.
You're so hellbent on saying "masks weren't needed" while ignoring literally everything else I said, dodging like the coward you are, and even proving my point cause you're so blinded by this desire of yours.
The studies showed mask wearing was down in Sweden, but what were they doing? Complying with work from home, social distancing, limited traveling, etc etc etc etc, all those things as I have already said are things that would have reduced the need for masks. They actually complied with the recommendations of the professionals so they didn't have to wear masks as frequently.
But no you don't give a shit, cause you saw "low mask numbers" and stopped there, bias confirmed! No education, no learning, no growth...... Typical.
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u/Peaurxnanski 13h ago
The entire point was raging against the cruelty and injustice that the government has imposed upon people historically and currently.
It's not raging against literally everything that the government does or has ever done.
The fact that conservatives can't understand the extremely simple nuance of this situation is simply another case of them insisting on forcing everything into a false binary. Black and white, no gray. Because gray requires nuance and they don't understand nuance unless it's attempting to explain why Trump said the most recent insane bullshit that he just said, whatever it might be this week.
There is no contradiction in saying "hey the government slaughtered native Americans wholesale and that pisses me off" while simultaneously saying "we should look out for one another during this global pandemic and not do harm to each other".
I don't even understand how you see contradiction there in the first place. It blows my mind that I've even had to explain this.
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u/RaymundoGetardo 11h ago
If the giant corporation that sells their music thought they were a threat they wouldn't sell it
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u/Peaurxnanski 10h ago
Nah, they'd sell whatever they could make a profit off of. Corporations are famously short sighted. If there was money to be made (and there was) then they'd sell a threat to their own grandmother.
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u/wishiwaszen 13h ago
Its because Republicans have succeeded in convincing everyone that they are the "rebels". Even when they are running the government they are rebels fighting the evil system. Everything democrats/government does is evil and if it was a republican in office its not their fault, its happening because of the evil system the last democrat setup. They can run all 3 branches of federal government, the state legislature, the governorship, and sheriff department and judges in the district, with their religion being taught as truth in school and they will STILL be of the belief that they are the minority rebels being oppressed.
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u/375InStroke 14h ago
To be fair, the machine allowed large businesses to stay open, and ignore regulations that small businesses had to follow, or remain closed entirely.
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u/Bladeoraded 14h ago
And the machine paid them lol its not like they were some indie band they were signed and heavily marked by Sony
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u/375InStroke 13h ago
"Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me."
Here's a check.
"OK, nevermind"
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u/Bladeoraded 13h ago
No clue who is downvoting us for facts
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u/TankUMrMinor 8h ago
Because those aren't facts lol
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u/Bladeoraded 6h ago
I'm a huge ratm fan
What i said is 100% true. There was a ton of outrage when Sony signed them
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u/TankUMrMinor 6h ago
Lol not really. And that has nothing to do with being the machine.
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u/Bladeoraded 5h ago
Feel free to look it up, doubtful you were alive since you dont know what youre talking about
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u/Saint_Exmin 14h ago
Rage Against the Machine has always been a Left Wing vaguely anarchist outfit. The alignment has been in ascendance long enough and occupies sufficient positions of power to safely say that they are actually "for the Machine" now, yes
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u/evocativename 14h ago
Claiming leftists - especially anarchists - have been anywhere near any significant power is just delusional.
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u/Signal_Hippo9806 13h ago
The GOP currently controls all three branches of the federal government.
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u/Saint_Exmin 6h ago
And who runs the Bureaucracy?
Also, take a look at State and local tyrannies, and it's a different story.Lastly, quite frankly, from where I sit, there's ultimately very little difference between Republicrats and Demopublicans these days.
But I'm genuinely scared that we are going to see actual, factual Commies elected to the House and Senate in a few weeks. I put up with a lot of nonsense, but if we start sliding toward Maoist China or the Soviet Union, you turkeys haven't seen "right-wing" yet.
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u/immanent12 13h ago
They weren't very radical or anarchist when big pharma frauds like Fauci were supporting authoritarian mandates and coercion.
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14h ago
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u/northvvoods 14h ago
The “machine” being government and medical experts trying their best to keep the public alive and healthy. Doesn’t really feel “machine-like” when as soon as the pandemic retracts the machine gives up its special powers.
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14h ago
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u/IntrusiveThot32 14h ago
"Waaaa but I should be allowed to kill people!"
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14h ago
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u/IntrusiveThot32 14h ago
I got sick with Covid and can definitely see why it killed a lot of people....
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u/northvvoods 13h ago
I’ve said this to several republicans in my life: operation warp speed is among Trump’s best accomplishments. Unfortunately that accomplishment was spoiled by his own base turning against medical best practices. People hate Trump for all the other stuff he has done, but not his initial actions on COVID vaccines.
Edit: oh I’m speaking with a Russian bot, I guess that makes sense.
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u/northvvoods 14h ago
Are you quoting Rage against the machine there or what? Kinda seems like you’re swinging at ghosts, man.
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u/so_sic_of_it 14h ago
"When the government tells everyone what to do, but it also happens to be something that I want everyone to do, that's different."
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u/DogsDontLikeHats 14h ago
It is a truism for revolutions throughout history is that those who rage against the machine become the machine. In this case the claim is predicated on the assumption that the Left has become the cultural hegemony in America, and is now in control (the "machine).
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u/Dimpnavangeel 14h ago
so you already know why most people think they are for the machine (their covid stance)
why still ask ?
you don't have to agree.
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u/Nofanta 14h ago
The government is the machine. Putting on a mask when they tell you to is being the machine, not raging against it.
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u/LeagueRx 13h ago
Yeah and while youre at it, stop eating nutritious meals, giving your kids Vitamin K shots at birth, don't get regular healthcare, carry insurance, or any other government advice! Hey the CDC recommends not trying to breathe underwater. Can you jump off a bridge and prove the machine wrong please?
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u/evocativename 13h ago
The machine is the whole system, and raging against it means opposing oppression, not pointlessly stupid contrarianism.
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u/Nofanta 8h ago
lol you won’t convince me, I spotted this guy as a fraud one day one
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u/evocativename 8h ago
I won't convince you because your ignorance is invincible and you don't care what is true.
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u/Nofanta 8h ago
lol he’s a rich adopted kid from Gurnee, I grew up near him and he’s a total fraud and always has been
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u/evocativename 8h ago
You can try to poison the well all you want, but it just shows how little you actually understand the world.
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u/caguru 14h ago
Its MAGAs saying that... and if there was anything MAGAs are known for, its their strong grasp on reality. /s