Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has demanded Jack Black 'grow up and get a decent job', following calls from a supposed 'free speech' senator. Politics in 2024 is quite something.
The joke was dumb, the online reaction to the joke was dumb, a random UAP senator's dumb comments being quoted globally was dumb and Rudd telling famous musicians and actors to "grow up and get a job" was very dumb. What a time we live in.
He's hedging his bets. He's been on the record calling Mr Trump a nutter and a danger to civilisation. If he is reelected in November, Mr Rudd's position as US Ambassador is non-tenable.
By openly supporting him now, he gets to keep his job in the event of President Trump 2.0.
I think there is also an element of the political elite attempting to look after themselves in the wake of an assassination attempt on one of their own. No high level politician is going to be encouraging or dismissing violence if there's even the slightest chance they could be a future victim to it.
Ralph Babet, United Australia Party's senator for posting on social media, was first to leap into action, demanding the band be deported:
I call on the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to join me in denouncing Tenacious D, Jack Black and band member Kyle Gass, and I call on the Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to revoke their visas and deport them immediately.
This is the same senator who in April refused to take down graphic footage of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel from his X account because: "Without free speech our nation will fall".
In the U.S., this kind of hypocrisy is so common that people apparently no longer notice it -- if they even did in the first place.
What is the appropriate response to fascists though? Can we joke about them getting hung from lamp posts or is it too soon?
I am driving in country SA this morning and I see a fossil in a red trump hat walking in the car park in front of my bumper. He would have been fucked if I was driving a Tesla or one of those stupid yank tanks. Thought about telling him to fuck off back to America or throwing a Seig Heil but I think the sad old fuck was just looking for attention and I wasn't going to play. His grand kids probably don't talk to him anymore since they succumbed to the "woke mind virus". Poor fucker, joining a doomsday cult must be isolating.
Over a century ago the locals were goose stepping down the street in support of the Kaiser. Nothing much has changed I guess. While we will be dealing with the consequences if the US fucks things up this isn't our war. People who are disconnected from society think it is but why become one of those sad fucks.
Ngl I watched the video and it really seemed to me like Jack Black said "thank you" as a way to smile and nod and move on. Regardless of whether or not he thinks it, whether he agrees, whether he's said it in private, whether he's a democrat, he's not the one who said it. What do people expect him to have done? Call off the show then and there, scold his bandmate on what's politically acceptable to say?
It was absolutely the wrong thing to say and Gass is reaping what he sowed, but it sucks to see Jack Black catch so much shit by association. I don't think he played it wrong. He broke up the band, man. What else does he have going on?
I don't think the band broke up, they'll just take a break during the rest of the election cycle. No point continuing to perform when the crazies are sending you death threats.