Pink Floyd's Roger Waters has hit out at globalist tech tyrant Mark Zuckerberg in a foul-mouthed rant over Facebook's request to use one of his most famous songs in a promo video for Instagram. Speaking at an event in support of Julian Assange, Waters read from a letter he'd received asking permission to use Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2). Waters told the assembled audience: "The answer is 'fuck you', no fucking way. I only mentioned that because this is the insidious movement of them to take over absolutely everything".
Waters is a curious case and a bag of contradictions. While he is an avowed leftist who despises Israel and routinely lashes out at 'fascists' and 'racists' on the right, he also backs causes that are not normally associated with the left. While many on the left despise our military and all who serve, Waters allocates a portion of tickets to his shows for veterans. He also upset his fellow leftists during the 2000s when he showed up at several events in support of the Countryside Alliance and spoke out against Blair's 2004 Hunting Act. He has even performed live with prominent right-winger Eric Clapton.
Perhaps his biggest contradiction came in 2016, when he voiced his opposition to Brexit - despite his opposition to globalisation and the fact that many on the left had backed Leave, including all the minor socialist parties in the UK (with the sole exception of the Scottish Socialist Party).
In his slurry four minute rant, Waters describes Zuckerberg as 'one of the most powerful idiots in the world'. There is some bitterness there, from a man who has undoubted talent in the field of music and worked the pubs and clubs on his rise to stardom at a time in which computers were the size of a shed. Given Waters' endless criticism of Israel, there may well be a degree of anti-Semitism at play too. Mindless name-calling asides, his assessment of Zuckerberg and his empire is not far off the mark, except perhaps on the right we would prefer to call him a dangerous idiot. Dangerous, because he uses the vast power at his disposal to promote radical far left agendas across the West, some of which would undoubtedly meet with the approval of Waters himself.
The likes of Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Bezos believe they can deliver communism for the masses, while they enjoy the fruits of the capitalism they used to achieve it. Perhaps they can control the beast - through the tools of their technological revolution - but history teaches us that leftist revolutions are rarely bloodless and rarely grateful, especially to the bourgeoisie.
While we share a common enemy, make no mistake that people like Roger Waters, Piers Corbyn and George Galloway share far more in common with these billionaire elites than we do. The enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friend.
