The Guardian: Stewart Lee's 'Honest Playlist' - 'can no longer listen to' Morrissey (September 5, 2022)

Like Reverend Richard Coles a few months ago, Stewart Lee has nominated Morrissey for the artist/song he can no longer listen to in a Guardian questionnaire, citing his 'drift to the far right'.
www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/05/stewart-lee-honest-playlist
It's a bit disappointing that someone as professionally obsessed with Morrissey as Lee was, doesn't mention Morrissey's clearly muddled/confused political outlook, and the (admittedly vague) support he's also given to non-right-wing figures in recent years. It's clearly the right-wing stuff that has stuck in people's minds.

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Excerpt:

The song I can no longer listen to
Sadly, Morrissey. Loads of artists end up doing terrible things, but the Smiths meant such a lot to my generation, to have him drift to the far right doesn’t sit. I remember hearing How Soon Is Now when I went to see the Smiths at Birmingham Hippodrome and dancing to it at a disco in Tucson, Arizona in 1995. It’s hard to let go of my childhood attachment to the Smiths, but I don’t know how to square Morrissey’s solo stuff with what he’s become.

 

[NealCassidy]

Wow I’ve just unblocked Anonymous posts and some Berkeley Hunt troll shows us why non-member posts should be blocked. It’s in Settings people.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow I’ve just unblocked Anonymous posts and some Berkeley Hunt troll shows us why non-member posts should be blocked. It’s in Settings people.

I can assure you I have never been near a hunt in my life.

You don’t like people freely saying what they wish?

You could just ignore, “people”.

 

[Anonymous]

I’m more on the right rather than the left and I found his views to be abhorrent.

Same here. This is one of the strange and quite worrying things that has happened in recent years. A lot of people have been unwittingly pushed so far to the right that they think anyone less radical than them is a 'leftie'. I tried to explain this to Hofmann one time - that not everyone who opposes his views are 'lefties', most of them are probably quite central in their politics. I don't think it sunk in.

I've been called a leftie quite a lot in the last few years and it's very odd. If anything I am slightly right of centre and always have been. I've never voted for Labour or the Lib Dems or the Green party in my life. I've twice voted Tory and while I've grown older/more mature and decided that I'll probably never vote for them again, I'm not ashamed of having voted for them in the past. I did so because I genuinely believed that they were the best option to govern the UK at that time.

Being called a leftie for not being far right is a very strange and new phenomenon, and to me it says a lot of people are being radicalised into the far right without even knowing it. Irony upon irony there.

 

[Anonymous]

Same here. This is one of the strange and quite worrying things that has happened in recent years. A lot of people have been unwittingly pushed so far to the right that they think anyone less radical than them is a 'leftie'. I tried to explain this to Hofmann one time - that not everyone who opposes his views are 'lefties', most of them are probably quite central in their politics. I don't think it sunk in.

I've been called a leftie quite a lot in the last few years and it's very odd. If anything I am slightly right of centre and always have been. I've never voted for Labour or the Lib Dems or the Green party in my life. I've twice voted Tory and while I've grown older/more mature and decided that I'll probably never vote for them again, I'm not ashamed of having voted for them in the past. I did so because I genuinely believed that they were the best option to govern the UK at that time.

Being called a leftie for not being far right is a very strange and new phenomenon, and to me it says a lot of people are being radicalised into the far right without even knowing it. Irony upon irony there.

Perfectly put.

The so called insults, leftie, woke, snowflake being used against anyone who’s views are not as right and abhorrent as theirs seems the lazy order of the day and anyone slightly left of Mussolini on here gets targeted with these terms.

 

[Ben Budd]

And that makes him far right?

Lots of people west Fred Perry shirts. Their origin is from a culture that believed in equality for all races.

If there was a union flag there would you say that was a symbol used by the National Front?

Where did I say that makes him far right?

I wear Fred Perry polo shirts, I love 'em, but THAT particular one has been co-opted by the Proud Boys, and the idea of an article featuring Lee wearing it whilst bemoaning the current state of Morrissey, an artist haemorrhaging fans because of supposed far-right views, amuses me.

Now, back in your box x

 

[Anonymous]

Where did I say that makes him far right?

I wear Fred Perry polo shirts, I love 'em, but THAT particular one has been co-opted by the Proud Boys, and the idea of an article featuring Lee wearing it whilst bemoaning the current state of Morrissey, an artist haemorrhaging fans because of supposed far-right views, amuses me.

Now, back in your box x

I think it is sad that the proud boy’s have hijacked rather than amusing.

I don’t live in a box. Kiss