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1) Green Day made me feel unsafe
At a concert in Washington, D.C. this week, 1990s alt-rockers Green Day caused a stir. During the show, lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong held up a mask of former President Donald Trump, with the words “IDIOT” sprawled across it.
Much hay was made about the fact Armstrong’s protest came just weeks after Trump was almost assassinated, a shockingly crass call to violence.
It wasn’t. Green Day has always been politically outspoken—its rock opera American Idiot is a searing indictment of the Bush administration’s War on Terror—but the Trump mask had MAGA trying to find a way to cancel them.
It might be tough. Green Day is touring to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Dookie, one of the most popular albums of the 1990s, playing at massive venues across the country, including sold-out baseball stadiums.
But enterprising far-righters thought if they just mustered enough outrage, they could get the entire tour canceled.
The solution? Pretending the Trump mask made you scared.
“Green Day’s upcoming shows,” one person shared along with a link to Ticketmaster. “It would be a shame if the venues received endless calls and emails about Green Day’s disgusting behavior.”
While it seems dubious they could accomplish anything, there was a semblance of strategy that fomented on the right-wing forum Patriots.win. It stemmed from Jack Black’s recent announcement that Tenacious D would no longer continue its tour in the wake of a crass Trump assassination joke from one of his bandmates.
“Don’t call the venue. Call the company that INSURES the venue,” one person wrote. “Make them aware that you didn’t go because you didn’t think it was safe to be there. This is how Jack Black got himself cancelled, because the venues could no longer insure his shows.”
While it’s not confirmed that’s what prompted Black to cancel the remainder of his tour, others on Reddit similarly speculated that venue insurance costs were a potential avenue to affect change.
“Apparently it’s because of the increase for liability insurance to host artists related to calls for violence which is how insurance companies will view Gass for his comments, thus this allows them to rake venues over the coals for higher premiums and insurance tiers. Not that I’m saying that’s right to do per se, but makes sense how they’d cancel on Tenacious D,” someone wrote.
The idea was for Trump supporters—who wouldn’t be attending the concert anyway—to declare that Billy Joe Armstrong’s stage was no longer a safe space.
“You’d need to convince them bj armstrong promotes a violent atmosphere or a clear message of violence,” one wrote.
Fair game, they felt, part of the right-wing’s newfound desire to out anyone who endorsed our joked about violence against the former president, pushing their own kind of cancel culture.
“This is about limitless harm to our enemies by making them play by their own rules. No quarter for this shitty fake punk ban,” another person said.
But mostly people just wanted to complain about the music.
“The only people who would go to their concerts are assholes who THINK they’re being cool. The same crowd who go to Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts.”
2) Kamala Harris’s secret slaves
An old list of slaves owned by a long-ago possible ancestor of Vice President Kamala Harris is making the rounds on right-wing social media sites trying to foment a possible line of attack against her presidential campaign.
The list isn’t new, circulating during her short-lived 2020 bid. And its direct ties to Harris are somewhat disputed.
Harris’ father once said that his Jamaican heritage could be traced all the way back to one of the island’s slaveholders.
“My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (née Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner,” her father said.
That claim has never been confirmed, and how exactly the lineage may trace is unknown. Fact-checks of the claim that Harris’ family owned slaves centers on the fact that many African Americans have white slaveholders as ancestors given many slaves were raped by their white owners.
But that a Black candidate for president—who has been outspoken over systemic racism—might have also had a slave-owning past was too juicy to pass as a potential attack for the far-right.
“According to their rules, she’s a slave owner’s descendant and has blood on her hands.. “ wrote one.
“WE USE THE WORDS …. SLAVE. SLAVE OWNING… ENSLAVED…” said another, pushing “A VOTE for a slaver like kamala makes you worse than a racist, it makes YOU an accomplice in. SLAVERY,” wrote one, wishcasting the attacks they’d like to see from the right.
They also dreamed up a situation like when Trump brought women Bill Clinton allegedly sexually assaulted to his 2016 debate with Hillary.
“The next step would be to try to run ancestry forward to their descendants alive today. Find out who Kamala owes reparations to and get them in front of her in person to demand that she pay up.”
But the common sentiment that ran throughout was that Democrats would frustratingly be able to ignore their attacks.
“And just like that, owning slaves is OK!” one wrote.
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