Net-activism: Where are the Metalheads?
Brilliant and subversive activism, which also involved K-Pop fans (see e.g. here https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/06/k-pop-stans-tiktok-trump-tulsa-rally-campaign/ ) and it’s also a powerful statement by teens who aren’t as powerless or apathetic as they are said to be…
Yet when reading this, my only thought was: Why is it the K-Pop fans who appear to be the currently most (politically) subversive force? Why K-Pop? Why wasn’t the (Neo) Nazi network drowned in Slayer videos, Lemmy gifs and Ronnie James Dio’s „horns“ images instead of K-Pop stuff?
Why is that kind of activism not a specialty of those reportedly anti-conformist outsider outlaw Metalheads, who still offer the model image for all kinds of mischievous characters (or is it just me noticing that the bad people in TV series & movies usually listen to Metal music?)
Are headbangers just lazy, or net illiterate?
Or…
Yeeeees suuuuuure….
„art and politics don’t fit” bla bla bla – bullshit.
What a lame excuse.
It’s not about supporting a particular political movement, person, party…
Since the pandemic or the trigger for the latest Black Lives Matter protests it should be obvious that we all HAVE TO be actively influencing the world politics or at least in the community we live in, because it is a question of basic SURVIVAL – for us and future generations.
If we still just shrug when we observe brain-dead assholes in power who – on purpose, shrugging it off – burn down rain-forests, kill wildlife, poison the environment for some Wall Street gain, put kids in cages or into modern slavery on industrial production lines, put people in mortal danger or just let them die because they cannot afford medication, let them drown in the Mediterranean sea – then, well, then mankind probably really deserves to go extinct.
Many teenagers – see e.g. US gun laws, climate change movement, now Tik-Tok – show us that the fight has just begun.
Soo…. you long haired / bald / bearded metalheads and activists who have been fighting (cultural) oppression and censorship (anybody still remembering PMRC?) – where the fuck is your legendary “freedom, human rights, we are all equal” call to action?
Where is your politically subversive activism, dear headbangers, to be a legendary model for future generations?
Metal lyrics, Jedi knights, Dubledore’s Army, Hobbits & Riders of Rohan – there are many different examples in poetry and literature that have prepared us in theory what happens if we just watch bad things happening and don’t act. Now it’s time to act.
Dear K-Poppers & Tik-Tokers – in case you get to read this – RESPECT and a big thanks for this successful intervention, may many just like this follow! Hopefully many of you will be old enough to vote soon, and maybe recruiting voters actively might be the idea for the next call to action? E.g. for this autumn/winter, in order to kick some of those assholes out of their offices?
Thank you for your bravery, you give us hope!
Your chief-ed Klaudia
(start photo source: public domain)
