TOM MORELLO RAGES AGAINST PAUL RYAN

Photo credits: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Any sane person with at least some peripheral awareness of Rage Against the Machine and their ideals had to chuckle at Republican Vice Presidential candidate / Origin guitarist Paul Ryan’s stated love of the band. Tom Morello, on the other hand, was not so amused.

In a scathing editorial penned for Rolling Stone last night, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist — who played a vocal part in last year’s “Occupy” protests — slammed Ryan as “embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades,” calling him “clueless” and claiming that “his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.” He continued:

Don’t mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta “rage” in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he’s not raging against is the privileged elite he’s groveling in front of for campaign contributions.

Game, set, match.

-VN