“George Michael says he’s nervous to return to his home in the United States because of the criticism he’s received for his new song and video, Shoot the Dog.
“[…] Michael said in an interview with ITV1’s ‘Tonight’ show Thursday night, he’s been unfairly criticized in the United States as anti-American, which he blames on homophobia.”
[…] ‘For some reason I don’t have a right to talk about anything because I got caught four years ago … in a Los Angeles toilet,’ he said. ‘Somehow that eradicates all possibility that what I’m saying might be for the best, or is worthy of being discussed. I can’t fight that kind of homophobia.’
protein wisdom replies (via registered mail):
Dear Mr. Michael:
Put your little Whambot wherever you want, for all I care -- so long as it's invited, I mean. It's hardly my business.
But it seems you're in need of some reminding that being criticized by Americans for saying simplistic and idiotic things about subjects clearly beyond your intellectual purview is not evidence of a latent cultural homophobia in the United States. Instead, it is proof that many of us in the States aren't quite so daft as you. You can't have it both ways, Georgie Boy: either you're to be taken seriously as a thinker (in which case you'll need to learn to handle criticism without ascribing it to sinister bigotry), or you're to remain a rhyming, flouncy, leather-clad pop star (in which case you should probably just keep your mouth shut regarding politics and stick to what you do best: put the boom-boom into our hearts, send our souls sky high when the lovin' starts, &tc.).
Yours sincerely and non-homophobically,
protein wisdom
[update: My old pal John Cole has a say.]
Internet rumor #45,899: Andrew Ridgely has also released a “political” record about the war, tentatively titled, “Them Islamist Scum Can Poke Me Bum (any time).” Moby did a re-mix of the first single, “Wartime Wankin’.” It is selling like hotcakes in Estonia. The Pet Shop Boys and Flock of Seagulls are frantically trying to catch up.
God, I miss the 80’s sometimes. Really.
Yeah—today’s so-called “political pop” makes “Two Tribes” sound like Bob Dylan wrote it.