Rage against the machine
Green Day is gonna Green Day. The mostly irrelevant band that tries to maintain an edgy reputation welcomed 2024 by appearing on ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.
Green Day’s big hit, “American Idiot” was performed, as usual, but there was a twist this time. Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong, who has a long history of anti-Trump rants, changed some lyrics in “American Idiot” to snarl against the “MAGA agenda.”
“I’m not part of the MAGA agenda,” singer Billie Joe Armstrong snarled from the stage, replacing the original line in which he stated that he was not part of the “redneck agenda”; click here to watch video of the moment. As the four-times indicted, twice impeached former president ping-pongs between court dates and campaign appearances, the latest lyrical s*** from the veteran punk-pop trio was not a huge surprise.
Green Day have long spoken out about their disdain for the former reality star whose recent speeches have featured fascist-like phrases that have raised alarm among political pundits for referring to political opponents as “vermin,” language that echoed that used by Nazi leader Adolph Hitler. Back in 2019, the band didn’t hold back at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas, where they debuted the anti-MAGA line in “American Idiot.” At the 2016 American Music Awards Green Day took aim at the then president-elect while performing “Bang Bang,” where Armstrong chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” in a nod to Trump’s endorsement by the KKK and the rise in racist attacks following his election.
It’s not new or inspirational or even entertaining. I was surprised that Green Day is still around. So, there they are trashing not Trump, as Armstrong may have intended to do, but Trump’s supporters. Even though he has a redneck-ish name himself, Armstrong clearly doesn’t like the average American. American Idiot refers to people thought of as rednecks. His idea of being edgy and provoking a response is to belittle others as though they are beneath him.
