Fortunate Son Burn: To Fox News An Anti-War Song Is Anti-Military

In a never ending quest to find artificially negative themes with which to provoke their mentally unstable viewers into irrational panics, Fox News latched onto the broadcast of an HBO tribute to veterans on Veterans Day. The atrocity that caught their attention was a performance by Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and Zac Brown, of the classic 1960’s song “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. And it was literally, according to Fox, an outrage.

Fox News Fortunate Son

What ruffled Fox’s chickenhawk feathers was their addled interpretation of the song as anti-military. And what made the song anti-military was that it was allegedly anti-war. Fox pounded that view into their audience all day with segments on Fox & Friends, where co-host Anna Kooiman said it was “a slap in the face” to veterans; on Outnumbered, where it was characterized as an “outrage;” and on The Five, where co-host Eric Bolling called the choice of material “a mistake.”

First of all, the song is not anti-war. It is anti-elitist privileged classes that exempt themselves from the burdens of society. It explicitly criticizes the rich and powerful who vote themselves tax cuts and shield their kids from the dirty business of defending the freedom that they exploit. The song’s title should make it obvious enough that the hacks on Fox wouldn’t need to struggle to figure it out.

Secondly, even if the song were anti-war, that does not translate to anti-military in any sane person’s mind. Some of the most anti-war people you will ever meet are soldiers and veterans. This makes perfect sense because they are the ones most affected by war. When military conflicts are averted they remain safe and their families are spared the anxiety of separation and potential tragedy.

For Fox to contrive an anti-military spin to the concept of anti-war requires them to adopt the view that in order to be pro-military you must be pro-war. That is ludicrous on its face. In fact, the opposite is true. Anyone who is truly pro-military wants every possible measure taken to avoid sending America’s sons and daughters into battle. Once in battle, support for the military is expressed by wishes for the safe completion of their mission and return home. No supporter of the military also supports an enduring war.

Nevertheless, the confused anti-military viewpoint of the talking head set is precisely what Fox News wants to project to their dimwitted audience. They obviously have no grasp of the real nature of patriotism, and they are even worse when they pretend to be rock music critics.

For your entertainment pleasure, here is the awesome version of Fortunate Son performed at the Concert for Valor:

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7 thoughts on “Fortunate Son Burn: To Fox News An Anti-War Song Is Anti-Military

  1. For the propaganda arm of the GOPTP, no fraud, no matter how small or irrelevent, is to be left to waste when it can be used to attack liberals, democrats, and President Obama most specifically.

  2. they especially don’t like bruce springsteen.

  3. What ticks fox off is the fact it’s true. If you weren’t a rich kid, you went to the front lines. Just like christians say, “love the sinner, hate the sin”, most Americans love the Troops and HATE the war. Repubs make most, if not not all, their money killing. Why would they not want to go to war every time they turn around.

  4. Even if the foxtards were smart enough to understand what the song is about (and seriously, even a small child can figure that out!) they still wouldn’t like it because chickenhawk elitism is perfectly ok with their reactionary worldview.

    The rightwing Uh’merican ideology that dominates our political system (and lapdog media) is based on a few fundamental (and fundamentally wrong) assumptions, including:
    1] The one thing the USA is still good at is killin’ people. Especially foreigners. So war is great and the military is to be worshiped reflexively. Also, guns are rad!
    2] Hierarchy is the natural way of things, just like social darwinism. Rich people are rich because they’re hard workers and good christians. Jesus certainly wouldn’t want rich kids gettin’ blowed up in a war. That’s what poor people are for!
    3] Rock n Roll is the Devil’s music! First it was invented by uppity black people, then sold to innocent white kids, then the white kids took LSD and started writing anti-war songs, and smilin’ on yer brother and gettin’ together and lovin’ one another, and now… miscegenation! Barack! Hussein!! Obama!!!

    To recap: “support the troops” means war is cool, and so what if a bunch of poor people get killed? Guns are rad, especially when being fondled by white christian men. War & Hate is patriotic… Peace & Luv is communism.
    That was today’s lesson in Understanding Conservatism in the 21st Century.
    You’re welcome!

  5. “No supporter of the military also supports an enduring war.”

    Unless you include the Military Industrial Complex.

  6. I said this on another liberal website and got banned for my trouble: the music is ugly. The words are good. Anyone else offended by that?

  7. Maybe they didn’t understand the words.

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