I am surprised that Morrissey is touring the UK at all. I don't find the content of the article surprising, though, as someone who has been a fan of Morrissey since the days of The Smiths, I find it sad. It wasn't so long ago that Mozzer was second only to Attenborough as a national icon and could persuade Penguin to print his autobiography as a classic. It's really an extraordinary turn of events - whatever one thinks of the Moz - and I am tempted to call it 'surreal', though that would be an abuse of an already overused term. I sometimes wonder if Morrissey couldn't stand to be, in some sense, an insider. 'You Know I Couldn't Last' was not just a prediction, but a kind of itinerary of the unconscious, welling up, setting a fatal course. Along with, for instance, 'I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now' and 'Friday Mourning'.
Part of me - a significant part - admires the very fact that he could not forever allow a load of smug, cosy, well-adjusted people who were never really outsiders treat him as their own smug, cosy mascot for hip faux-misfit status.
Although I don't think the listed statements are, on the whole, very clever, it's not as if we don't know that there are decent points to be made in this area, and Moz is one of the very, very few in Celebrity Land having a stab at it. I mean, the Metoo movement was obsessed with the Weinstein business, but when it comes to literally thousands of poor underaged girls in Britain being gang-raped over decades, funnily enough, it's crickets. That's more outrageous than anything that Morrissey has ever said.
Finally:
"How has his core base dwindled during these years of right wing dalliances and openly offensive statements?"
Openly offensive statements? As opposed to the secretly offensive statements that he was making before? What kind of slimy, contemptible pillock talks (or writes) this way? Oh... I remember, maybe half the UK now. This nation has become so spineless and mealy-mouthed. Anything to save appearances. Even down to thousands of children being raped. Rather that than stir up a race issue - that would be offensive.
This is a thoughtful post and I agree with most of it. I agree with you that the rape of these children and the way it was ignored by the police in your country needs to be discussed so that it can never happen again.
But you're really reaching when you bring the #MeToo movement into this. One major problem here is that Morrissey had made statements about rape by immigrants but supported Weinstein and Spacey in that Der Spiegel interview.
You probably don't want to go there. It really opens the door on some things that maybe were covertly offensive.
Remember that the Bataclan incident and the Ariana Grande concert incidents were treated by Morrissey in a very different way than the Breivik attack.
Aside from seeing the Paris attacks as a missed opportunity to have a "guaranteed number one" record Morrissey seemed shocked along with the rest of us, that concertgoers could be randomly attacked this way. I think it affects all of us because musical events are part of our community and that community is worldwide and crosses national, political, and religious boundaries.
But when a white nationalist lunatic murders a bunch of liberal students, "is nothing" compared to what happens at McDonald's and KFC every day.
I think part of the reason a lot of longtime fans did turn on him is because he was saying things for a long time that were sort of ambiguous, and personally I missed the meaning of some of it. I think it's fair to talk about the overtly vs covertly offensive statements.
Here is what I think it really important. I answered your post because I want you to know that I do share your feelings about these grooming gangs or whatever they're being called. I also support the MeToo movement.
Your country does seem to have a problem with being so afraid of being perceived as racist in any way that the perception becomes far more important than the reality. This leads to the problem you're talking about where the police ignored information. I'm in the US and I wouldn't try to suggest how that can be fixed. I just want you to know that I do see it and I don't think I'm alone in that.
It does need to be fixed.
In the US we have sort of acknowledged that racism exists and that we're all affected by it. I think that's part of the process of working towards some solution.
Please don't make the mistake though of creating this imaginary group of people who support MeToo but think discussion of gangs of immigrants raping children is racist. Yes, some of those people exist, but try to look at people as individuals and not assign beliefs to a mass group.
I think you're right that Morrissey's fall from grace has happened very quickly and you're fair in calling his statements "not very clever." At the same time it is possible that he has maybe been more damaged by the fallout than he would have been if the media didn't look for these sorts of statements and use them to define a person's entire existence. He doesn't serve himself well by making some of the comments and he ought to know by now that he's providing the media with the means to crucify him.
I think it's also true that sometimes a thing can be said in anger like the comment about the Chinese, and then take on a life of its own. I can't defend the comments though. He works with language. I don't think he chose "subspecies" carelessly. I think it's one of those examples that the article is talking about when they say he's being more open about his offensive views.
Summary is that we agree on some of the issues and I liked your post. I just think we all should be careful about making assumptions.
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