Lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins and Alex Jones are no strangers. Billy has been on InfoWars multiple times, and the two Gen-Xers have ranted about the decaying state of society plenty of times. Billy’s latest appearance on Jones’ show didn’t dive into a global conspiracy theory about lizards in the White House or the New World Order tightening its iron grip on the world. Instead, the singer got down to the grass roots of what many call social justice warrior-style fascism. And this goes well beyond gamergate. Billy Corgan and Alex Jones hit everyone that refuses to hear out all the angles of an argument, while simultaneously generalizing some important current-day movements.
Jones began the discussion with an explanation of what he feels has gone wrong with activists of the 21st century. (h/t Pitchfork for the transcription.)
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 agreed and continued to break down the subject with thoughts of his own, likening SJW’s to a cult.
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.
Corgan continued by describing his upbringing as more tolerant and progressive because they didn’t necessarily say, “shut it down because it’s unpleasant.” He also reiterated that he believed the social justice movement had a weakness in that they had a lack of tolerance matching those they are rallying against.
Say what you will about the safe places and empathy of today allowing people to disregard challenging realities of life or critical thinking, but to take a moment to borrow Alex Jones’ tinfoil hat, there were plenty of “reported instances” of hippies spitting on soldiers returning from Vietnam, which has been a negative stigma that has wrongly followed that movement for decades.
Free speech is extremely important, and plenty of studies/op-eds have covered how the millennial generation is undermining free speech in colleges around the nation, but Alex Jones and Billy Corgan may be falling into the very vortex that they are decrying. To illustrate — when Donald Trump was ousted from Chicago, his free speech was not taken from him. It’s a paradox. Billy Corgan and Alex Jones are saying that free speech is important, but at the same time are telling a certain group of people to effectively shut up. That undermines their argument. To make a difference, respect has to come from both sides.
(Via StereoGum)