Brandon Flowers ♥s Nancy Reagan

BRANDON FLOWERS HAS A GURLFRIEND (Note: Skye Sweetnam not pictured)

Preparing some mislabeling mischief and further procrastinating on that covers post (next week, next week, everything will be done next week), and now I've gotta talk about friggin' BRANDON FLOWERS on Skye Friday. Not cool.

Anywho, this is the second time I've seen reference to Flowers' "conservatism," at Huffington Post via Fluxblog.

Here's my take: Brandon Flowers' so-called coservatism (which really amounts to being confused and frustrated, if we're going to go by what he says in public, or confusing, judging from lyrics on Sam's Town) is not particularly conservative. I don't think that people are bothering to define this word before pointing fingers. Which is to say that the continued dumbing down of an "adult" political discourse is much more dangerous than anything Brandon Flowers has to say.

But beyond that, I don't actually disagree with anything that he's being attacked for here, though I'm lacking context re: the "American Idiot" quote. (Long story short, Green Day filmed an "American Idiot" video in England, Flowers claimed people might "take it the wrong way" there and "not how [Armstrong] meant it" and then said that there are "some of the nicest people" living in the good ol' US of A.) It seems like he's saying that a British person might understand the lyrics to "American Idiot" differently than an American, i.e. "all Americans are idiots." I think the original is dumb enough, but if Flowers is saying that this interpretation would be even dumber, I don't think he's wrong. Whether or not that was Armstrong's intent is debatable, and Flowers' argument here is confusing (and kinda dumb). But is it "conservative"?

This idea of a "rising tide of conservatism" in pop, as it was labeled on Fluxblog, needs to be backed up very carefully. I'll take an articulate conservative argument that I can disagree or argue with (whether it's in a song or elsewhere) before I'll accept self-righteous indignation directed at vague and easy (and usually phony) targets -- it has nothing to do with political ideology (even though this particular brand of indignation might be labeled "liberal" in the Huffpost's case) and everything to do with NOT THINKING, or reading a damn lyrics sheet (her interpretation of "Uncle Johnny" is even more paranoid than my interpretation of "I Am One of Them"!) before you publish a scathing attack of alleged politics.

(One final note: the only person making a politically conservative argument here is the writer of that post, who basically assumes the PMRC's logic and replaces sex with "conservatism." And anyway she's a sucker to assume that logic at all, since this "impressionable children" bullshit is often a front for policy having little to do with the "safety" of American children, e.g. the blank tape tax (omg I sound like Frank Zappa). Next you'll tell me that the MPAA ratings system is actually a front for its activities as a transnational lobbying group trying to loosen import restrictions on Hollywood films and protect their business interests at home and abroad! But what about the NC-17 KISS OF DEATH, and why isn't it being applied to CONSERVATIVE films, too?)