Billy Corgan Compares "Social Justice Warriors" to the KKK
The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan was a guest today on noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones‘ radio show. At one point, the conversation turned toward “social justice warriors” (a term that has been used to insult people who express progressive views). Neither Corgan nor Jones is a fan, to say the least. In the course of the conversation, Corgan compared “this hashtag generation” to a cult, Maoists, and, finally, the Ku Klux Klan. “If you could go back to Selma 1932, and the Klan member spitting in some person of color’s face, don’t you think that guy thought he was right, too?,” he said. “So how is this any different?”
Jones began the discussion:
We were really getting into some hardcore issues during the break. We were talking about social justice warriors, who, I fall down to their level because they’re so hateful, they’re so dumbed down, but they are victims brought up by this culture. Either young people are super awake or they’re super dumbed down. The statistics show lower IQs, lower brain activity, near-trance state–that’s mainstream news. We were talking about that, but still, when they’re spitting in your face, attacking your reporters, who are really real liberals, like Rob Dew and people–I mean, these are real liberals who really love everybody, really care about everybody, really care about free speech, really care about open elections, and there’s little arrogant 20-year-olds spitting in their faces screaming at ‘em, ‘You hate me ’cause I’m a tranny,’ and it’s just this made-up thing in their head when we don’t hate them–I mean–how do you transcend this? Because I, personally, just get mad and want to punch them in the nose.
Corgan answered: “Well, there’s two schools of thought: One is, they’re gone. They’re Maoists. They have the Little Red Book in their hand. You’re not gonna get them back.” Jones interrupted, “It’s a cult,” before Corgan continued:
It’s a cult. And the only thing that’s going to adjust their ideological fixation is reality. I predict that this hashtag generation–look, for everyone that’s out there spinning their little New Year’s toy in your reporter’s face–and I’ve watch those clips and I’m horrified as somebody who believes in free speech and is an artist, because those people are gonna be coming for me. Let’s face it. It may not be tomorrow, but it’s soon enough because I said the wrong thing on the wrong day because I was tired and I didn’t take my X2 that day, or whatever. You know what I mean? It’s like, to live like that, to live where every word is a landmine–you know what I’m saying–it’s not the world I want to live in.
Jones offered, “It’s not a liberal world,” and Corgan said, “I grew up a liberal. I grew up a liberal, so it’s odd to me.” Jones responded, “The liberals I knew were always like, ‘talk about whatever you want. Get it all out in the open. More freedom.’”
Corgan continued again:
Let’s go back to–and I’m sure you could find this–remember, what was this, around 1978, Skokie, heavily Jewish community north of Chicago. I was there growing up at the time when they let the KKK march down the street, and what was the big issue? It was a free speech issue. We don’t like it. They’re thumbing in our nose but, you know what, it’s better to have an America where these idiots get to walk down the street and spout their hate.
Jones said, “We’re better than them.” Corgan, once more:
That’s what it was. That’s the world I grew up in, a liberal, Democratically-leaning Chicago that was about tolerance and free speech, not “shut it down because it’s unpleasant.” And again–you haven’t said this here so it’s not again–the lack of tolerance of ideas and other points of view is the great Achilles heel of the social justice warrior movement. They do not apply their philosophical bent across the board equally. That’s what exposes them every time and you guys are doing a great job of exposing that but most people–most people–who are not down there at the rally and spinning their Twizzler and making up stories about ghosts that don’t exist–and it’s a lot of fantasy stuff going on there. I mean, it literally could be a wizard world convention.
Jones tells a seemingly unrelated story: “They just caught, basically, a gay pastor here in Austin in Whole Foods, claiming that the gay baker put ‘fag’ on his cake and they have surveillance video now of the cake being delivered and it’s not on there. I mean, now they’re even targeting liberal places.” Corgan uses the story to say:
That’s a perfect jumping-off point for what I really want to try to get at. OK, what do most people do? Most people’s relationship, like, let’s take my friend who’s a HuffPo reader, OK? He, in his heart, is a classic liberal: He cares about everybody, he loves music from every race, creed, and color–not a racist in his heart. OK? He reads that stuff and he thinks by participating, by hashtagging, he’s on the good team, right? So the people you gotta get through to is the people who don’t have the Little Red Book yet, who do care about humanity and do care about free speech. And you have to get them to understand how their participation in those systems.
Jones reiterated, “They’re being inducted into a cult.” Corgan agrees, “Absolutely, and nobody wants to admit that they’re being fooled. Now, I work in professional wrestling. TNA Impact Wrestling on Tuesday nights on Pop Network–There’s my commercial.” Jones is a fan: “I’ve seen it. This is great.”
Corgan explains:
Thank you. So, what’s the old carnie term? They’re marks. What was the carnie idea? We’re gonna stage a fight–this started in the carnivals in the 1900s. We’re gonna stage a fight, we’re gonna get the local yokels to believe that the kid from the sticks is gonna fight the big guy and if he can beat him, you know. That’s how professional wrestling started, believing that what you were witnessing was real.
Jones asks, “And you suspend disbelief?” Corgan answers, “Yes, well, that’s what we have. We have a world of suspended disbelief, right?” Jones interjects:
I wanna play a short clip–we can talk over, of just a few social justice warriors, and what’s amazing is people will talk to them and go “Listen, I don’t even support Trump, but I support free and open elections. What about Bernie Sanders?” And they just spit in our reporter’s face and spit on somebody else just because they just wanna hate somebody and they are literally like a dumb Klan guy that just pulls over on some black guy walking home from work and kills him ’cause they’re black. They want to just project something onto you.
Corgan continues the analogy:
Let’s flip the script here for a second. OK? And this is a very–I’m gonna try to say this in a sort of hypothetical Star Wars holodeck type of way. OK? If we could transport back to, you know, a much, much more racist–I’m not saying America doesn’t have a racist bent, so let’s put that out there to start with, but let’s go back to a time where racism was accepted, it was institutionalized. OK? If you could go back to Selma 1932, and the Klan member spitting in some person of color’s face, don’t you think that guy thought he was right, too?
Jones says, “Yes.” Corgan finally says, “OK. So how is this any different?”
Watch clips from the episode below:
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