Are Green Day A Right Wing Or Left Wing Band?

[1039Revolutions]

22 minutes ago, WhiteTim said:

 

So You admit you don't want to discuss with people who have different viewpoints with you? As I never called you a troll I've not insulted you in this thread so don't see how this comment applies to me as asking for a legitimate source isn't insulting as far as I'm aware of 

It wasn’t you that got insulting, so no biggy! I was definitely open to different view points, and I’m happy someone chimed in from China to share how they view Green Day there.

I just thought it would be nice to chat about where people saw Green Day on the political spectrum, because I personally always found them to be more right-wing, considering their opposition to government intervention into people’s lives!

Anyway, I never meant to shut out any perspectives, and I’m sorry if I did! When I said tune people out, I just meant the people hurling insults and wanting to shut the thread down for no good reason, that’s all! 

[WhiteTim]

13 minutes ago, 1039Revolutions said:

It wasn’t you that got insulting, so no biggy! I was definitely open to different view points, and I’m happy someone chimed in from China to share how they view Green Day there.

I just thought it would be nice to chat about where people saw Green Day on the political spectrum, because I personally always found them to be more right-wing, considering their opposition to government intervention into people’s lives!

Anyway, I never meant to shut out any perspectives, and I’m sorry if I did! When I said tune people out, I just meant the people hurling insults and wanting to shut the thread down for no good reason, that’s all! 

I’d say Billie leans more left with some right leaning 

[That Dude]

Armstrong supported Barack Obama during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.[62][63] In the 2016 presidential election, Armstrong supported Bernie Sanders.[64] Following Sanders' failure to become the Democratic candidate, Armstrong later declared his support for Hillary Clinton.[65] Armstrong was critical of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, calling him a "fascist" and a "puppet of the Illuminati".[66] Armstrong once again supported Bernie Sanders during his 2020 run,[citation needed] and subsequently endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket after Sanders lost the primary.[67]

In a 2017 Rolling Stone interview, Armstrong stated that he does not align himself with any established political party, describing himself as an independent.[68]

That's his wikipedia, anyway.  

I've heard him identify as a libertarian at least a couple times.   

 

[1039Revolutions]

2 minutes ago, That Dude said:

Armstrong supported Barack Obama during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.[62][63] In the 2016 presidential election, Armstrong supported Bernie Sanders.[64] Following Sanders' failure to become the Democratic candidate, Armstrong later declared his support for Hillary Clinton.[65] Armstrong was critical of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, calling him a "fascist" and a "puppet of the Illuminati".[66] Armstrong once again supported Bernie Sanders during his 2020 run,[citation needed] and subsequently endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket after Sanders lost the primary.[67]

In a 2017 Rolling Stone interview, Armstrong stated that he does not align himself with any established political party, describing himself as an independent.[68]

That's his wikipedia, anyway.  

I've heard him identify as a libertarian at least a couple times.   

 

Libertarian definitely makes the most sense to me!

[IcyMoffatt]

I don't want to join the debate, but I have to clarify some things.

The left wing isn't necessarily a synonym of non-respect of human rights. Giving Russia and China as examples is wrong. Officially Russia is a right-center regime since the end of the Cold War. But Putin is trying to recreate the USSR, which means a dictatorship based on extreme communism. This leads Russia to be unofficially a left wing country. In China, the communism over there has been established over 40 years ago and it was inspired by USSR. But, during the last  2 decades, China is changing. It is slowly moving away from communisn. It's true that communism is considered a left ideology, but too much power between one person's hands is going to give you a ditactorship. The same goes with the right wing. You can still get a dictator.

Left wing politic means interventions by the government to help people, but not to the point to destroy human rights for the benefice of a few people and throw justice away. When it gets there, that's dictatorship. (Go read Animal Farm.) Right wing is conservative and the government is barely doing interventions to help the population. Billie Joe is for left politics most of the time, but, when he ranted against politicians, it's against those who, left or right, have no respect for the population. It doesn't make him a right wing guy.

[Lenny]

7 hours ago, Montclare said:

American politics, at its most basic is -

Democrat/liberal= left wing
Republican/conservative= right wing

Left tends to be pro-choice, pro-immigrant, pro-BLM, pro-LGBTQ+.  Right, not so much.  Pretty easy to put GD in the left side.  Again, this is looking at American politics, not Russia, China, etc.

Except democrat/liberal in US could almost practically be right wing in Canada

4 hours ago, WhiteTim said:

I’d say Billie leans more left with some right leaning 

I read somewhere Billie was a libertarian is there any truth to that?

[WhiteTim]

9 minutes ago, Sheenius said:

Except democrat/liberal in US could almost practically be right wing in Canada

I read somewhere Billie was a libertarian is there any truth to that?

That’s what @That Dude posted could be true it’s deft more closer than saying Billie is right winger 

I think someone else mentioned this and I have but more often individually at least in the US most individuals are more in the middle of things as opposed to be 100% die hard left or right as both parties have valid points/beliefs the ones who are 100% full on left/right scare me like really? There’s nothing you disagree with about your side? There’s nothing you agree with on the other side? 

[Slave To The Network]

Why is this even a thing? Left wing and right wing don't even mean anything anymore. The American view of politics is so skewed and different from other countries that you can't really compare it - let alone to countries like China and Russia. Green Day supports universal healthcare, environmental conservation, women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, BLM, taxation of the wealthy, freedom of religion, etc. You mentioned you're not sure about their views on abortion, but I guarantee you they are also pro-choice because they are proponents of women's rights. Being pro-choice does NOT = pro-abortion. It means that a pregnant woman has a choice about what to do with her pregnancy given her life circumstances and personal beliefs. She has the right to make that decision for herself.

Yeah, in America these things are seen as "left wing" and "liberal", but most of them should really not be seen as political at all. These are just basic human rights and support for taking care of the planet we live on so we can continue to thrive.

By the definitions of liberal or "left wing" in America, Green Day firmly falls within those categories. The GOP has become a monstrous amalgamation of hatred, bigotry, racism, and such an individualistic mentality that it's barely recognizable as anything resembling a legitimate party representing the people. The Democratic party is struggling to keep itself together and hold onto its core values as well, but is not nearly as far gone as the former. It doesn't matter what label you choose to put Green Day under anyway because political labels are bullshit. The bottom line is, they are genuinely good and caring people who strive to educate themselves and do what they can to improve the world through their music, the actions they take, and the movements and organizations they support.

[Hermione]

They're a left wing/liberal band. They're anti right wing/conservative. What constitutes left or right can vary in different countries but by ANY measure they're on the left by US standards.

I remember one time seeing someone on youtube argue that the song Minority means they're a right wing band now because the majority aren't homophobic or racist etc. And "Down with the Moral Majority" now means down with liberals. Lmao! The "Moral Majority" was a Christian conservative Republican organisation. He was literally saying down with conservatism. And I wish I could find the interview (unfortunately I can't) where Billie talked about how he'd meet Republicans who were like "yeah American Idiot was speaking for us too" and how he just thought nope it wasn't. They couldn't be any more clearly pro liberal and anti conservative. 

[Cunt]

Oh my sweet Jesus 

 

[That Dude]

12 hours ago, WhiteTim said:

That’s what @That Dude posted could be true it’s deft more closer than saying Billie is right winger 

I think someone else mentioned this and I have but more often individually at least in the US most individuals are more in the middle of things as opposed to be 100% die hard left or right as both parties have valid points/beliefs the ones who are 100% full on left/right scare me like really? There’s nothing you disagree with about your side? There’s nothing you agree with on the other side? 

Some people would have you believe that democrats are crazed communists hell bent on destroying the country and the republicans are crazed nazi's hell bent on bring about Armageddon.    But in Actual America, most people are calm, collected individuals who have some conservative ideas and some liberal ideas. 

Both parties have a multitude of people of all backgrounds, ideals, etc.   

I'm not sure about the politics of other places.  I don't really know much about my own, just that in the race to win, both parties will say or spend anything to come out on top.   If it's one thing they both have in common, it's greed.   lol

 

 

[龑美優]

It is incredibly important to note that leftist/left wing politics are rooted in opposition to monarchy and right wing politics are rooted in support of monarchy. American libertarianism is neither the origin nor arbiter of libertarianism. Libertarianism is primarily a leftist position. Libertarian Socialism/Anarcho-Communism are the literal origin of libertarian thought. 

 

It is fairly clear that Billie Joe seems to be a social democrat on the left libertarian side. As for the rest of the band, I'm not entirely sure but it is still fairly clear that they fall left of center on the political compass. As to where they specifically fall and where they would define themselves given a full & comprehensive understanding of political terms, it is unknowable until they themselves are given that option. 

 

It is another important thing worth noting that while China and the USSR had their communist parties, they never claimed themselves to be communist. The point of naming their parties that was to give an idea of what they were claiming to be aiming for. The leninist and maoist ideologies were an attempt at localized expansion of Marxist theory to apply to the material conditions of the time and place, neither of which are entirely faithful to the greater ideology of Marxism as a whole. China/USSR were both state capitalist by their own admission, as an attempt at a lower form of socialism which was eventually supposed to hand over the control of the means of production directly to the workers and inevitably wither away the state, leading to communism (the stateless, classless, moneyless society that is by definition what communism actually is.) However, it is worth noting that they never moved beyond state capitalism, they never gave workers control over the means of production, and never actually claimed to achieve socialism, let alone communism (which is not when the government is authoritarian)

 

Lastly, I have to respond to something very stupid that I read earlier in this thread about anarcho-communism not being real anarchism. Anarchism is not a society with any form of government, anarchism is a society that ultimately abolishes hierarchy, mainly abolishing unjust and unjustified hierarchies. It is about abolishing the state and capitalism because capitalism, especially unregulated anarcho capitalism, will lead to hierarchies, all of them unjust and unjustified. Those hierarchies automatically exclude capitalism from ever being anarchistic by the very nature of the economic system of capitalism. In fact, anarcho capitalism is perhaps famously the only form of "anarchism" that is by definition not anarchism/anarchy, as it fails to actually get rid of hierarchies. It will always lead to a disproportionate distribution of wealth amongst the population,which creates hierarchies, thus anarcho-capitalist is by definition not anarchist. Meanwhile anarcho-communism, anarcho-socialism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-mutualism, even the silly idea of anarcho-primitivism are all true forms of anarchism, with varying degrees of application and theoretical structure. 

[Beerjeezus]

/thread

[1039Revolutions]

20 minutes ago, 龑美優 (Miyu Yan) said:

It is incredibly important to note that leftist/left wing politics are rooted in opposition to monarchy and right wing politics are rooted in support of monarchy. American libertarianism is neither the origin nor arbiter of libertarianism. Libertarianism is primarily a leftist position. Libertarian Socialism/Anarcho-Communism are the literal origin of libertarian thought. 

 

It is fairly clear that Billie Joe seems to be a social democrat on the left libertarian side. As for the rest of the band, I'm not entirely sure but it is still fairly clear that they fall left of center on the political compass. As to where they specifically fall and where they would define themselves given a full & comprehensive understanding of political terms, it is unknowable until they themselves are given that option. 

 

It is another important thing worth noting that while China and the USSR had their communist parties, they never claimed themselves to be communist. The point of naming their parties that was to give an idea of what they were claiming to be aiming for. The leninist and maoist ideologies were an attempt at localized expansion of Marxist theory to apply to the material conditions of the time and place, neither of which are entirely faithful to the greater ideology of Marxism as a whole. China/USSR were both state capitalist by their own admission, as an attempt at a lower form of socialism which was eventually supposed to hand over the control of the means of production directly to the workers and inevitably wither away the state, leading to communism (the stateless, classless, moneyless society that is by definition what communism actually is.) However, it is worth noting that they never moved beyond state capitalism, they never gave workers control over the means of production, and never actually claimed to achieve socialism, let alone communism (which is not when the government is authoritarian)

 

Lastly, I have to respond to something very stupid that I read earlier in this thread about anarcho-communism not being real anarchism. Anarchism is not a society with any form of government, anarchism is a society that ultimately abolishes hierarchy, mainly abolishing unjust and unjustified hierarchies. It is about abolishing the state and capitalism because capitalism, especially unregulated anarcho capitalism, will lead to hierarchies, all of them unjust and unjustified. Those hierarchies automatically exclude capitalism from ever being anarchistic by the very nature of the economic system of capitalism. In fact, anarcho capitalism is perhaps famously the only form of "anarchism" that is by definition not anarchism/anarchy, as it fails to actually get rid of hierarchies. It will always lead to a disproportionate distribution of wealth amongst the population,which creates hierarchies, thus anarcho-capitalist is by definition not anarchist. Meanwhile anarcho-communism, anarcho-socialism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-mutualism, even the silly idea of anarcho-primitivism are all true forms of anarchism, with varying degrees of application and theoretical structure. 

This is an excellent post, but I don’t really understand why you’d think being an American Libertarian is a primarily ‘leftist’ stance? Most American Libertarian’s that are on known publicly definitely favour the right ‘small government, individual liberties’, (Ron and Rand Paul for example). 
 

I’m just wondering what would make you think that most American Libertarians support the idea of larger government?

And again, I know that Billie has supported universal healthcare, but I can’t think of any other leftist views he’s expressed, unless I’m missing something? I know he’s support democratic candidates throughout his career, but overall, he seems to be quite libertarian! 

[Beerjeezus]

7 minutes ago, 1039Revolutions said:

This is an excellent post, but I don’t really understand why you’d think being an American Libertarian is a primarily ‘leftist’ stance? Most American Libertarian’s that are on known publicly definitely favour the right ‘small government, individual liberties’, (Ron and Rand Paul for example). 
 

I’m just wondering what would make you think that most American Libertarians support the idea of larger government?

And again, I know that Billie has supported universal healthcare, but I can’t think of any other leftist views he’s expressed, unless I’m missing something? I know he’s support democratic candidates throughout his career, but overall, he seems to be quite libertarian! 

Being a libertarian in the US sense (i. e. pretty much a less edgy version of ancap) is the stupidest thing you possibly could be, just fyi bc you sure sound like one.

[1039Revolutions]

22 minutes ago, Beerjeezus said:

Being a libertarian in the US sense (i. e. pretty much a less edgy version of ancap) is the stupidest thing you possibly could be, just fyi bc you sure sound like one.

Do you purposely join conversations just to insult people? Or is it that you just can’t help yourself?

And yes, I’m a libertarian! Thanks in large part to Green Day! I used to dream about Green Day playing Ron Paul rally’s when he was in his prime lol.
 

This swing left business has me a bit bummed out, and I’m just hoping their doing what they can to get the Russian Bot out of office, and don’t really favor larger government and regulations. 

[Beerjeezus]

Just now, 1039Revolutions said:

Do you purposely join conversations just to insult people? Or is it that you just can’t help yourself?

And yes, I’m a libertarian! Thanks in large part to Green Day! I used to dream about Green Day playing Ron Paul rally’s when he was in his prime lol.
 

This swing left business has me a bit bummed out, and I’m just hoping their doing what they can to get the Russian Bot out of office, and don’t really favor larger government and regulations. 

See, I could tell!

[Slave To The Network]

8 hours ago, 1039Revolutions said:

I can’t think of any other leftist views he’s expressed, unless I’m missing something?

UMMMM.

Here's a fucking starter list if you need it right in front of your eyes to remember.

21 hours ago, Green Day In Seattle said:

universal healthcare, environmental conservation, women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, BLM, taxation of the wealthy, freedom of religion, etc.

 

Also, ewww:

7 hours ago, 1039Revolutions said:

I used to dream about Green Day playing Ron Paul rally’s when he was in his prime lol.

 

[1039Revolutions]

3 minutes ago, Green Day In Seattle said:

UMMMM. Here's a fucking starter list if you need it right in front of your eyes to remember.

 

Also, ewww:

 

Why can’t people that disagree with something just respectfully disagree? Do you think swearing and saying ‘ewww’ like an infant helps your side?

And yes, as I said in my post, I know Billie has supported universal healthcare, and progressive taxation.. but those were the only leftist views I’ve seen from him, and the bulk of Green Day’s political messages have been more right-libertarian!

Women’s rights, LGBT rights, Freedom of Religion, Racial inequality and environmental conservation are not ‘leftist’ views.. you watch WAY too much CNN

[Slave To The Network]

Welp! Sorry, guys. I tried, but it's not worth any more of my time.

I'll just sit back and see how this unfolds further.

[WhiteTim]

2 hours ago, 1039Revolutions said:

Women’s rights, LGBT rights, Freedom of Religion, Racial inequality and environmental conservation are not ‘leftist’ views.. you watch WAY too much CNN

they're certainly not right views... 

[Hermione]

3 hours ago, 1039Revolutions said:

Why can’t people that disagree with something just respectfully disagree? Do you think swearing and saying ‘ewww’ like an infant helps your side?

And yes, as I said in my post, I know Billie has supported universal healthcare, and progressive taxation.. but those were the only leftist views I’ve seen from him, and the bulk of Green Day’s political messages have been more right-libertarian!

Women’s rights, LGBT rights, Freedom of Religion, Racial inequality and environmental conservation are not ‘leftist’ views.. you watch WAY too much CNN

There's being politically conservative/liberal and being socially conservative/liberal. Being pro the things you listed is certainly a quality of being socially liberal, and as far as I can see that's also reflected in US politics. Which parties and their supporters are more concerned with and in favour of those things, the ones on the left side or the ones on the right side?

Also can you give any examples of right wing views you've seen from Green Day? Not just libertarian, "right libertarian" as you put it. Bear in mind that Billie has specifically said that right wingers/Republicans who think albums like American Idiot support their views are incorrect. 

[1039Revolutions]

15 minutes ago, Hermione said:

There's being politically conservative/liberal and being socially conservative/liberal. Being pro the things you listed is certainly a quality of being socially liberal, and as far as I can see that's also reflected in US politics. Which parties and their supporters are more concerned with and in favour of those things, the ones on the left side or the ones on the right side?

Also can you give any examples of right wing views you've seen from Green Day? Not just libertarian, "right libertarian" as you put it. Bear in mind that Billie has specifically said that right wingers/Republicans who think albums like American Idiot support their views are incorrect. 

I respect Billie as a musician, but in terms of their political messaging, it can come across as pretty contradictory..

Letterbomb for example.. “Collecting unemployment checks, a flunkie only along for the ride” Call me crazy, but that is a serious jab at the social welfare system (Right-Libertarian view), and it’s completely okay.

Billie has made numerous comments about not liking feeling unemployed, and always talks about wanting to be the hardest working band in music. These are not your typical left-wing attributes, and more right-wing.

On stage, every concert telling their fans to not take shit from government, or allow politicians to dictate their lives. Another right-libertarian perspective. (Small government that rejects interventionism). True Left-Wingers believe that most aspects of society should be controlled by the government and not the individual.

Libertarians are pro same sex marriage, and pro legalization of drugs because they don’t believe government should tell people how to live their lives.

What people don’t realize is that George W Bush was NOT a real right-winger. He was a puppet used BY THE LEFT to implement horrible left-wing constructs like the patriot act and Mass Surveillance. 

 

[Beerjeezus]

 y’all don’t waste your time debating this bs 

[Joe.]

I have never read so much drivel in all my life