The entertainment industry is overwhelmingly dominated by the left.
That means entertainers march almost in total lockstep with liberal politicians.
But one music legend had liberals speechless when he revealed what it really means to be punk rock.
Nobody is ever surprised to see an actor or musician publicly shout some left-wing or anti-Christian belief.
So it’s almost scandalous when entertainers do the opposite.
And Australian musician and screenwriter Nick Cave did exactly that when he explained what it means to be “punk rock” in 2023.
Cave laid out his argument during a sit-down interview with Freddie Sayers of the moderate news platform, UnHerd.
Cave started off saying that in his younger days in the punk scene he was not entirely interested in “kick[ing] against the establishment.”
He said, “That was not me. I was much more concerned with irritating my peers and…my audience. What I mean by irritating is to ignite their imagination, get them thinking about things, and challenge them about things…This felt like the way to make good art—to confront people.”
Ironically, several punk artists are mainline leftists in support of whatever the government says, be it vaccine mandates or lockdowns.
“I didn’t have that political fury. I was much more concerned with f***ing with people on a different kind of a level, a different kind of thing…I was always sort of at odds with my peers, I would say.”
Sayers then asked, “How do you f*** with people in 2023?”
Cave replied, “You be a conservative,” which immediately drew a laugh from the audience.
He reiterated, “You’d go to church and be a conservative.”
Nick Cave’s early punk music energy was all about “f***ing with people,” he told me.
Me: “How do you f*** with people in 2023?”
Cave: “You’d go to church and be a conservative.”
The two also touched on cancel culture and the censorious nature of the woke mob.
“Does this impinge on the creative faculties?” Sayers asked.
“Of course it does…If you’re writing into a censorious [cultural] mood, a fragile, brittle [cultural] mood, and you’re worried about that [mood], of course, you second-guess what you’re writing. This is just not good for the business of songwriting,” Cave said.
Comedians were the first to speak broadly on this cultural trend.
Jerry Seinfeld said almost a decade ago that he stopped performing at college campuses because the kids are too sensitive.
Cave admitted “there has been a kind of wet blanket thrown over art in general, and this is just not good.”
There are people out there who can be offended by anything and they have been given a megaphone with social media.
It does not even take a massive campaign to get someone or something shut down.
Cave described the cultural “wet blanket” as a “squeamish, censorious, merciless [culture]…the idea there are certain things you can get away with saying and certain things you can’t.”
“I get tired…of people saying ‘You can’t say this. I think this, but I can’t say it,’” Cave confessed.
Wokeness has put a pall over pop culture, and artists are sick of it.
Perhaps more artists will begin to speak out about the erosion of free speech in Western culture.
