Warped Tour is Latest Battle Zone for Free Speech, Punk Becomes Victim of PC-Police

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Jun 30, 2017
Warped Tour Flickr/Creative Commons http://bit.ly/2tsODHu

Iconic punk rock band The Dickies has become the latest victim of the war on free speech, as a protester crashed their Warped Tour set and frontman Leonard Graves Phillips’ response caused a feminist uproar.

In a video taken by a witness, Phillips responded to the heckler in a fairly obscene manner, though not one that should be of any surprise to fans. The band, active since 1977, is known for their crass no-holds-barred attitude and performances. During the concert in question, Graves was using a penis puppet.

https://twitter.com/thechubbywubby/status/879268993034584064

The woman in question was holding a sign tone-policing the performance and accusing the band of being predatory — saying that “teenage girls don’t need to be subjected to derogatory jokes by a disgusting old man.”

Despite punk rock having historically been about the freedom to offend and give a giant middle finger to anyone who says otherwise, the new wave of “punk rock” bands immediately took to Twitter to virtue signal and denounce Phillips.

Those virtue-signaling included festival organizer Kevin Lyman, who responded to an angry feminist by saying that the Dickies are no longer on the tour — implying that he had thrown them off. The incident actually occurred during their final scheduled performance, but Lyman appeared to want to appease the PC-police and seem like a hero.

Screeching Weasel, another classic from the era when punk rock was great (and offended your parents) took to Twitter to blast the festival organizer for what he had implied.

“I think the only thing I have to say is when the alt-right is occupying the moral high ground on free speech values, the chronically offended ought to consider they might be misplaying the ball,” Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel told Big League Politics.

A group called “Safer Scenes,” a feminist organization that is targeting Warped Tour, is now using the incident to raise money — claiming that they are seeking to prevent sexual assaults at the festival by policing free speech.

“This year more than ever we need to support young people across America and everyone invested in creating safer scenes in their communities. Our work on this tour will share resources to help concert goers use bystander intervention to prevent sexual violence, respond to racist incidents, and generally improve the music festival experience for everyone,” a statement on Safer Scenes’ GoFundMe reads.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Phillips wrote that “I finally let my anger get the better of me. I let her know what I thought of her ageist, nasty, Leonard-hating behavior. I used very rude language. I understand the word ‘cunt’ is inflammatory and that many women have been abused by this word. I should have called her an ‘asshole.’”

He added,  “it wasn’t my proudest moment … but neither was the time I urinated on the audience.”

Punk rock is about free speech and it is becoming more and more clear that those who demand that “conservatism is the new counter culture” are correct.

The Dickies are not even the first band to fall victim to the anti-free speech hysteria.

After their performance at the Bataclan was attacked by ISIS, leaving 90 people dead and another 200 injured, Eagles of Death Metal became persona non grata over singer Jesse Hughes daring to speak out against Islamic terrorism and gun control.

Hughes had publicly pondered if people inside the venue had been armed, if less people would have died. He also stated that Muslims had celebrated in the streets following the attack — and that forcing people to be politically correct is placing them at risk.

When asked by Gavin McInnes if he believed that the liberal mentality is causing people to surrender to death, Hughes said “I will lay the blame right in its lap. When you tell people they can’t help themselves and that they’re children, you weaken them to a point where three feet away is life and they can’t see it because they’re too scared.”

Following his statements, he was kicked off of multiple festivals, and demonized by the media — despite having survived the unimaginable.

It will be interesting to see if punk rock, which has arguably been dead for decades, will also fully surrender to a liberal politically correct death.

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