The rhetoric in this country over politics has become so extreme. Yet somehow, for a few media outlets, it’s not extreme enough.
In a piece published in Salon, Caryn Rose criticized the Irish band U2 and their latest concert tour in America for … not being “radical” enough. While she described the parts of the show that were definitely extremely political and meant to be incendiary, Rose yawned at the worst: the devil MacPhisto showing up on stage and telling the audience that “It was I spray-painted the First-Lady’s coat … I was there in Charlottesville with the Nazi flags!”
The character was played by Bono, with a demon-ish filter over his face on screen. “Conservatives are offended by nothing, except the idea of giving up their assault weapons,” he says to the screen.
Other parts included Bono singing “This is not America/Where is America?/Are you America?” while images of “white supremacists marching in Charlottesville and elsewhere” play in the background. Rose was not impressed with Bono’s emphasis on unity and coming together, though, and wrote, “But the problem is that this is, exactly, America right now, and insisting that its not -- especially in this particular context -- is inaccurate and ham-fisted at best.”
Rose yearned for the U2 of days past that “directed confronted the Chilean government” and the band that sang “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” Resistance was required, not just edgy political commentary and a call for unity and compromise. Not even the devil showing up on stage was enough for Rose. Although, the character did criticize liberals for being offended at everything. Perhaps Rose was merely offended by that.
