RANT #10
RANT #10
i saw a legend live in concert and all i got was this lousy moral dilemma
This last weekend, I drove to Des Moines to see a couple of artists who I've loved for a very long time.
The Freaks on Parade tour: Filter, Ministry, Rob Zombie, and Alice Cooper. I have no real investment in Filter, but Ministry and Rob Zombie are among my favorite artists of all time, and Alice Cooper is also up there. Al Jourgensen of Ministry is someone who has a political viewpoint I can respect, if not always agree with 100%, and Rob Zombie tends to be vague about any potential political beliefs outside of just kind of being an atheist and a vegan. As far as artists go, I can see them with zero moral ambiguities as far as I know.
Which brings me to Alice Cooper.
I already knew that the Godfather of Shock Rock had, at the very least, a conservative lean, but I honestly did think that I was fairly safe with seeing him. Before a little more than a week ago, he seemed conservative-ish but not bigoted - so I probably wouldn't vote for the same shit he'd vote for, but I'm not going to avoid seeing someone over a heated political debate. But then he did
this Stereogum interview, where he parrots basically every lite beer transphobic talking point in the book.
Fuck.
I'd already bought the ticket and booked the car and hotel. I was committed-ish, especially since I was seeing this with a couple of friends who were just as excited as I was. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but when I talked over it with my friends we all decided to go anyways for Rob and Ministry.
Everyone's a hypocrite, but that doesn't make my decision morally right.
I could make the argument that our group was very queer, both in the sexuality and gender-y senses of the word. I could make the argument that cancelling 3 low-tier tickets wasn't going to do much, especially since we were all careful to only get the non-Alice merch. It still stings. Everyone's a hypocrite, but as someone who tries to be less of one the whole thing lost its luster a bit.
Outside the venue, I saw this one guy wearing the already classic "leave trans kids alone you absolute freaks" t-shirt. I don't know whether he'd read the interview, but if he had he was definitely wearing the thing directly AT Alice Cooper. Where any of this - my friends and I being trans and nonbinary people at the Alice Cooper show, this guy going with a rebuttal pasted across his chest - falls on the hypocrite scale is your call.
We're still all hypocrites. I saw a legend live in concert and all I got was this lousy moral dilemma.
