Speaker 1: I want to briefly play a clip for you. This maybe is a little bit different
than what we typically do, although not. Not really. There's this band called Staind without
an e t A&E and stains. Lead singer is Aaron Lewis. And I've actually had run-ins with
with this band because they are from western Massachusetts, the area where I grew up. As
many of you know, I worked at Circuit City in Holyoke, Massachusetts, when I was in high
school, and the band would often come in to buy, you know, equipment, equipment they needed
for a recording or their home studios or whatever they were around. They were kind of known
entities and over the last I, it hasn't even really been recent at least ten years, if
not longer. The lead singer, Aaron Lewis, has sort of devolved into some pretty unsophisticated
right wing notary, and I was quite shocked to see a clip of him. I guess he's doing performances.
This is from just a few days ago where he was almost in like a conspiracy coma. Just
everything he said made no sense whatsoever. And one of the scary things is the crowd is
cheering at some of the stuff he's saying. So listen to this. This is really, really
bad. Speaker 5: You know, it's, you know, this
is sound. Maybe we should listen to what Vladimir Putin is saying
Speaker 1: now, why? Why are people cheering about that? Yes. Cheer to listen to Putin.
What? Speaker 5: Maybe, just maybe when Klaus Schwab
and George Soros and every other dirty earth destroying mother.
Speaker 1: So he's listing Jewish men and calling them dirty. And I know it's not overtly
anti-Semitic, but when you start talking deep state and conspiracies and you start naming
Jewish men and start using the adjective dirty it, it's either anti-Semitic or it comes from
an anti-Semitic framework. And we know that that to be the case with frequency
Speaker 5: jumps on the same bandwagon. Maybe, just maybe, we should take a good look at
that. Why are they trying to protect Ukraine so
Speaker 1: much because Putin is invading it for absolutely no legitimate reason would
be a start. Speaker 5: They all have to lose. So, so
Speaker 1: a very pro-Putin crowd at Aaron Lewis's acoustic show.
Speaker 5: I mean, have you seen the pictures with wooden guns and ammo and all the bodies
and body bags laying in the background and moving to one of the bodies that are moving
in there since I've been six? This is my bag. Well, well, the well, the the the person and
this reporter is reporting. Speaker 1: He barely has any idea what he's
talking about, but he is repeating some conspiracy theories that have been floating around people.
Speaker 5: If you haven't seen that, you'd better start looking elsewhere. If you haven't
seen Vladimir Putin actually say that he is fighting the deep state right now, which is
the same people we're fighting, which is the same people everywhere in the face of this
Earth that people are fighting. Speaker 1: We're all united against the deep
state. So, you know, many of you know that one of the really common things that the right
likes to do with athletes and entertainers is when you don't like their politics, right?
When it's LeBron James or Colin Kaepernick or Jon Bon Jovi or I'm trying to think what
other? What other? Bruce Springsteen, when you don't like their politics, it's shut up
and dribble. Shut up and sing and play guitar. I didn't pay for you to give me your political
views or whatever, but when they like the substance, it's whoa. Wait a second. We we
can't suppress the free speech of these people even saying you respect their right to say
it, but you don't agree that that's a suppression on speech. Now, as I've said before, I try
to have a consistent view on this, and my view is anyone who has a platform of any kind,
even if it's because you're good at a sport or because you're good at singing or because
you're in movies, whatever. If you have a platform, you have every right to use that
platform. However, the hell you want and others can decide on that basis whether they want
to give you their money. If you are an athlete and you want to talk about politics have at
it. I 100 percent support people doing that. If I don't like what you say, maybe I choose
not to go to your games. It's just my choice. And maybe if I do like what you say, I choose
to go. Steve Nash, a former basketball player. I believe he's now a coach Canadian and would
often comment on politics and people say, Oh, he shouldn't be talking. No. Let him say
what? Don't go to the games. Don't go to the games if you don't like him. Bruce Springsteen,
known for his little kind of political raps to the crowd in between songs. If you don't
like it, don't go. It's that simple. Green Day, a band I liked growing up would often
make in the bush era anti-war anti-Iraq war statements. You bought a ticket. During the
during the concert, you may see melodies played that you do or don't like. You may hear the
lyrics that you like or don't like, and you may hear political statements that you like
or don't like. Use all of that to make a decision as to whether you want to give your forty
five bucks or whatever it was at the time to Green Day. And that's absolutely fine.
But these these blankets, they shut up and dribble play guitar or don't. It's sort of
like when information is leaked. And now both Democrats and Republicans do this when you
have a leak of information. Often elected officials, if they like the substance, they'll
only talk about the substance and not how it was obtained. And if they don't like the
substance, they'll ignore the substance. But talk about, Wow, this really shouldn't have
been released. It's a similar thing with a lot of these right wingers on the athletes,
celebrities and musicians commenting on politics, I say, Say whatever you want. I'll decide
whether I want to patronize your business or not. And it's that simple.