Cornflakes
"A bit iffy" ★★☆☆☆ - AV Club
There's a thread about this on the Stormfront discussion forum. I won't link to it, but though you might all like to know. They seem to think that his comments were correct.
To my complete astonishment, I just found this comment on the website FARK, (which if you've never heard of it is a site for commenting on news items and always a bastion of reason and thoughtful, polite discussion[/sarcasm]. )
Sums it all up for me... some people no doubt think that's harsh, but I don't. It obviously doesn't apply to every single person in China - or possibly not even the majority - but it would seem that it applies in a general sense to a society and the remnants of a culture which condones it by not loudly protesting and condemning it. Those are the facts, and they are rude and ugly. The media condemns cultures which abuse women in the name of religion but not cultures which abuse animals in the name of religion, or "tradition" or commerce. I'm cringing at the accusations of racism but I'm also proud of Morrissey for not sidestepping the rudeness and ugliness.
If I thought Morrissey was racist I would not only disown him and his music but I would actively campaign against him as I have done all my life against racism.
Those of you who have said you're sick of defending his outrageous and racist comments are shameful. How could you ever defend racism? SHAME ON YOU.
If you thought he was such a despicable man you should have condemned him not fought his corner.
It takes a certain smartness to understand why he says certain things and you either get it or you don't.
Unfortunately most people don't get it and, as with every other subject, prefer to leave the judgement to the reactionary media and lazy (STUPID in most cases, and I know) journalists and their tyrannical editors.
Once again Morrissey has laid his own neck on the line to highlight the extreme cruelty man visits on his fellow creatures.
Once again he gets it in the neck for the choice of words he uses. Those very same imperfect words are the ones that will cause debate about the wicked treatment of animals.
That sentence he uttered to that semi conscious poet will make people around the world talk about China's animal crimes.
Yes it also means Morrissey will be re-branded by the bigots and fools, and the sheep amongst you will join in the bleating, but still he does it.
As for me it is further proof (not that it was required) that Morrissey is a unique man in this business. He will not twist and turn to suit the blowing wind, he stands steadfast and true. And if you or anyone else doesn't like it then f*** off and watch xfactor.
Of course Morrissey is not a racist. There has never been any remotely compelling evidence to support the claim.
Bemoaning the erosion of British culture is not racist.
Suggesting that immigration is something that ought to be subject to some degree of control is not racist.
Pointing out that you are far more likely to overhear a foreign accent in most British city’s than a few years ago is not racist.
Disliking reggae is not racist.
Writing songs in which an indigenous narrator inadvisably uses the word ‘belong’ is not racist.
Even without the ‘narrator defence’, inadvisably using the word ‘belong’ is not racist.
Writing and singing a song in which an ‘Asian boy’ seeks revenge on the English boys who killed his best friend is not racist.
Exploring and being fascinated by skinhead culture is not racist.
Writing a song in which you actually express bewilderment at young ‘David’ stomping off to the National Front Disco is not racist.
Singing a song about football hooligans who claim they are the last truly British people you will ever know is not racist.
Expressing the view that black and white people will never really get along is deeply pessimistic, but it is not racist.
Stating that after witnessing horrific animal abuses in China you “can’t help but feel the Chinese are a subspecies” is not racist.
I’m sorry, but it simply isn’t.
Morrissey has not pronounced categorically that the Chinese are a subspecies, only that these nightmarish images effect him so profoundly that “he can’t help but feel” a particular way. He is compelled to feel this way. And he is perfectly entitled to this extreme reaction.
The declaration “The Chinese are a subspecies” is racist. However, Morrissey didn’t say this, although many reports have boiled his sentiments down to this blunt statement. It is very possible that his sentiments were skinned alive prior to being boiled down, but I digress.
Yes, the content of Morrissey’s comment is a little tricky to justify (but not much). However, the fact that he expressed himself in such an incendiary fashion is to be applauded. Even those who can’t applaud his observation should, at the very least tolerate it. Atrocity should invoke outrage and do we really expect the outraged to choose their words carefully or do their level best to refrain from upsetting others? The outraged do not squeak. Those who have embraced political correctness in favour of heartfelt belief tend to do all the squeaking (sometimes it sounds like these prissy pedants are roaring but that’s just the accumulated effect of all that irritating squeaking).
Morrissey’s politics are sincere, considered, passionately articulated and utterly his own.
Long may he continue to violently rock the boat.
The odd drowning is only to be expected.
The declaration “The Chinese are a subspecies” is racist. However, Morrissey didn’t say this, although many reports have boiled his sentiments down to this blunt statement.
I see your point here. Something that would otherwise be racist very obviously can't be racist if you preface it with something about animals and the words "You can't help but feel that...".
I don't really understand why Asians are considered "subhuman" when they are kicking our asses in Math and Science.
I'm not a racist, but the only evidence other people have of that is that I don't keep making racist or xenophobic comments.
If someone keeps making such comments even their most devoted fans must surely start to wonder.
Perhaps he's just thick and doesn't understand using Nazi terminology is not really on.
Or perhaps he's desperate for attention and this is all he can think of to keep it.
I'm sure Michael Jackson fans still believe he wasn't a paedophile. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence.
Morrissey isn't a scientist, he's a singer. I didn't realise he was a qualified biologist.
Substitute Chinese for the word Jews, Slavs or Gypsies and that sentence, within the quotation marks, takes on rather sinister historical connotations. For me at any rate.
Morrissey is a 51 year old man who should not be dealing in the language of crypto-fascism to get his salient point about animal rights abuses across (in my opinion.)
I don't really understand why Asians are considered "subhuman" when they are kicking our asses in Math and Science.
There's a thread about this on the Stormfront discussion forum. I won't link to it, but though you might all like to know. They seem to think that his comments were correct.
if he had even a speck of intelligence he would retract his statements.
think about it: say aliens arrived on earth, saw some of the barbaric things which are happening around the world, and on the basis that some humans were barbaric, decided that humanity as a whole was barbaric? would that be fair? would you be happy to be described as barbaric by those thoughtless aliens?
I would be unsurprised. And far too worried to give a feck about what they're calling me.
would morrissey be happy with that appellation? morrissey, who is supposedly a sensitive person?
I'm sorry, but the image of Morrissey having his feelings hurt by visiting aliens' choice of adjectives lands us deep into absurdist territory.
he has obviously became a crotchety old bigot in his old age. he is a stupid ass.
Well, you have obviously become extraordinarily gifted in the psychic department......
there is no intelligence in what morrissey said, no thought, no understanding, no sensitivity, just vileness.
......as well as supernaturally gifted in textual analysis, being capable of deducing a person's entire world-view and moral and intellectuyal character from a single phrase.
by the way, 95% of people in the UK eat animals, which are farmed and slaughtered on an industrial scale. say there was a nation somewhere which was entirely vegetarian - would they be justified in calling us all members of a subspecies?
Never mind hypothetical nations, Morrissey has called us murderers. Did that make you stop buying his records?
the one thing we can say is that morrissey's comments show a lack of thought, a lack of rationality, a lack of intelligence. if he can make such an obvious and public lapse, are you really sure his supposed intelligence precludes him from being racist? perhaps his intelligence is taking a back seat, and his emotions are taking over?
Skipping over the more hysterical inner-monologue bits of your post, could I ask, where have you been for the past 25 years?
Could it be possible that "his emotions were taking over" already when he urged us to burn down the disco and hang the blessed DJ? I don't know, I for one always suspected that wasn't actually intended as practical advice, and also that "because the music that they constantly play, it says nothing to me about my life" was not really a strong analytical effort that underpin the conclusion, sociologically and ethically speaking. In fact, there seems to have been quite a few signs in the direction of emotions being quite important in Morrissey's various musings about the rest of the world - from the very beginning!! He's not all a mixture of Bertrand Russell and Tony Blair you know, even though he seems that way. Who knows, maybe there is even some imaginable way of being intelligent without offering indisputably valid sociological and political analysis every time you open your mouth?
coz they count all those cats and dogs they've had for supper over the past month and then subtract that from the amount of neigbourhood pets and then make a pie chart or somethin' I don't know if this includes guinea pigs. They are good at using an abacus, maybe its because of all the fish they eat.
Who knows, maybe there is even some imaginable way of being intelligent without offering indisputably valid sociological and political analysis every time you open your mouth?