Moz has always been an oddball who said funny & shocking things that saw him denounced as a bigmouth, twat or racist. And although he's always self-deprecating, he's never shown sufficient contrition and he doesn't stop working.
His image has changed over the years -
from a camp, painfully thin, vulnerable, book-lover, indistinguishable from a middle-class student leftie despite scandals about child abuse, violence and crime in his lyrics and some jarring interviews:
to a rockabilly Skinhead Fascist Hooligan still singing about crime and violence but in a scary common working-class way that might mean he means it:
to a fat old man whose meandering & throwaway references to taboo topics & political figures were gathered together to make him an unforgivable, untrustworthy, inexcusable far right Brexiteer - ugly, stupid, racist, talentless, rape apologist, gammon, horrible, with repugnant, offensive & abhorrent views - a pariah - whose remaining fans are bigoted, nostalgic or can't read:
The Mexican members of his band get whitewashed & even their sound gets whitewashed (in the Quietus):
The Smiths - with its 3 socially acceptable & as far as we know straight, white males, who haven't worked together since the 1980s are still sold in shops that ban Morrissey (a queer, with People of Colour in his band, working now) on the grounds of him being a racist, bigot who is stuck in the past:
Fans are ignorant (Quietus):
And can't correctly interpret songs about only being happy on stage as triumphalist songs about rebels winning the war:
And can't see that he's one of THEM, making sneaky jokes at the expense of Remainers, none of whom have any wealth or power:
So how did it get so bad?
If we go to the first interview to really get him in trouble, from 2016, then it's fairly obvious.
He thinks any politician hated or sidelined by the media is probably on the side of liberation, & in 2016 (just a year before he first mentioned the vegan, animal rights activist, attention-seeking, Anne-Marie of UKIP & For Britain) he was thinking of standing for the tiny, left-wing, publicity-free Animal Welfare Party:
He thinks anyone who is or was in power is probably dreadful - saying Nigel would be a good PM isn't a compliment - he didn't campaign or vote for Brexit, & he was mad at Nige for not supporting Anne Marie.
He thinks anyone who refuses to eat animals is fantastic.
& he's against Speciesism - the idea that animals are inferior to humans - & most people either find that insane or offensive, since reducing people to the status of animals is something we do when we don't like them.
So he probably did (& maybe still does) think that Anne Marie was being smeared by the media as a far right Islamophobe to stop animals from being liberated (among other equality issues around crime, gay rights & women's rights).
Anne Marie herself is hard to understand - is she making alliances with the far right out of convenience after being disillusioned by liberal hypocrisy & inaction or did she buy into their ideology? - but Moz's obsession with the
need for publicity, even though the media
lies to entrench political
oppression, & with animal welfare has been life-long.
Unfortunately it's too odd to fit into news articles. Ripping him out of context & making out that he's wittingly far-right is easier - esp. now he's not particularly well & can't explain without being even odder, giving even more opinions to rip out of context & drive outrage, which drives clicks, likes & RTs.
People who thought he was pretentious & self-righteous might think he had it coming & people who prefer to run with the crowd might not care - but anyone with a wee bit of a conscience or compassion, should be able to see that this OTT monstering is uncalled for & rather shameful.
Last year you were in Sydney for your birthday. How and where did you celebrate turning 57 this year? And without being nosy, how is the health?
www.news.com.au
According to the Smiths singer, the Respect MP and Ukip man are loathed by the BBC because of their love of freedom. And the London mayor talks too quickly …
www.theguardian.com