Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello Argues With Fans Not 'Intelligent Enough' to Understand Their Lyrics

Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello has clapped back to several people on X, who he claimed "weren't intelligent enough" to understand the group's politics.

The guitarist and singer has been known in the past to express his political views and has shared how some fans have missed the point of some of the band's songs.

On Nov. 3, he took to X to share an encounter he had with a fan who expressed their admiration of Rage Against The Machine's 1991 track "Killing In The Name Of" but according to Morello, completely missed the point of the song.

"Never ceases to amaze me how many folks who've heard RATM are in Paul Ryan mode, having literally ZERO understanding of anything that band was about and even less understanding where any of us might stand on contemporary issues," the tweet began.

"Recently was talking to a couple at a restaurant who were big fans of 'Killing In The Name.' The nice lady said, 'I love that song. It helped me rage against my parents and later against the jab!' I said, 'Ma'am that song is about racist cops who often behave like the Ku Klux Klan in service of historical white supremacy and are boot licking lackeys and thugs of the racist capitalist ruling class.' She sat there chewing and blinking, chewing and blinking," Morello added.

Ryan previously shared that he was a huge Rage Against The Machine fan when he was Mitt Romney's running mate in 2012. This led Morello to write to Rolling Stone.

"He is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Ryan claims that he likes Rage's sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don't care for Paul Ryan's sound or his lyrics," he said.

Morello, a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement, went on to criticize Ryan for his "rage" against "women... immigrants... workers... gays... the poor... the environment" and support for "the super rich."

"But Rage's music affects people in different ways. Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening," the guitarist added.

Fans began to clap back at Morello. In a now-deleted tweet, a person took the time to tell Morello what 'Killing In The Name Of' was actually about, to which the guitarist replied.

"My brother. She can do anything she damn well pleases. She can cough covid into her MAGA grandpa's mouth for all I care. But if she presumes to tell a fella who was actually in the room when the song was written what the song is 'really' about then I reserve the right to raise my hand and say, 'no, ma'am,'" he retorted.

"God forbid people misunderstood it was against authorities forcing you get the vaccine to go to your concert or fly or work," responded another person.

"Perfect example right here. No sir, no one was required to be vaccinated to attend or buy a ticket to any RATM show ever. Feel free to check with any of the tens of thousands who attended. Blinded by presumptive bias and misinformation what other sacred tenets of your world view and opinions are perhaps based on total falsities?" Morello shot back.

This is not the first time that the musician has spoken out against people not understanding Rage Against the Machine's lyrics. In 2022, he took to X to share that people were not "intelligent enough" to understand them.

"People who are offended by my politics on Twitter or Instagram, please know it's because you weren't intelligent enough to know what the music that you were listening to all these years was about," he said at the time, according to Guitar.com.

Tags

Tom Morello, Rage Against The MAchine