Covidiots in music

Noel Gallagher
Aphex Twin
Ian Brown.

Who else?

Mutya Buena

Jim Corr

Madonna

Rev Horton Heat

oh yeah in that case add Smashmouth

M.I.A.

Wiz Khalifa

Great White

Tbf there are different tiers of covidiocy. Each is characterized by a particular fixation: face masks, vaccines, 5G, microchips, etc.

Sammy Hagar

and jim corr is right at the top of the tree

Renaud

Julian Cope

not really

he might well be, list is depressing enough already

M.I.A.

― hey, trust the fungus! (pomenitul), Thursday, September 17, 2020 10:39 PM (fifteen minutes ago)

Really?

Technically she's an anti-vaxxer, but she revealed it in reaction to the pandemic. Counts in my book.

Julian Cope? Really? That one makes me sad

Brown and Gallagher have always been fucking chavs, although the former has written some great songs at least

Vanilla Ice

M.I.A. is just the worst. She practically wanted a parade for getting an MBE, which seemed to nullify everything she once appeared to stand for

Tech N9ne

Kaitlyn Arelia Smith is anti-vaxx, so she should possibly go here, too

I’m just gonna say Kid Rock

Tom MacDonald

Mike Stock

Tbf there are different tiers of covidiocy. Each is characterized by a particular fixation: face masks, vaccines, 5G, microchips, etc.

― hey, trust the fungus! (pomenitul),

Aphex Twin said we were a police state. I think that puts him ahead of noel gallagher refusing to wear a mask. It puts him in the ian brown category,

https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/72357

He was always a low level 9/11 truther but this was still a kick in the nuts

https://www.coronavirusworldnews.com/coronavirus-uk-the-thes-matt-johnson-spreads-bill-gates-covid-19-conspiracy-theory/

All weed-heads aren't they? Not judging just saying.

It's not easy to think outside of the hotbox.

xxxp RDJ also posted a bunch of covid truther links to his soundcloud when he uploaded that batch of tracks (I assumed that he uploaded them mainly to draw eyes to the links). Think he later removed the links.

what did Julian Cope do?

this tweet suggests he's being responsible but it's old

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Julian Cope has – with great sadness – felt obliged to cancel the remaining five dates of his Winter 2020 tour. pic.twitter.com/o4q6EWumdn

— Julian Cope (@JulianHCope) March 16, 2020

Cope hasn't done anything. A poster decided to post his name as a 'joke'

To no great surprise, Ted Nugent

"covidiots"? ay ay ay

Nobody's mentioned Van Morrison yet?

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/van-morrison-fight-the-covid-19-pseudoscience-and-speak-up-1.4338343

Chuck D was posting conspiracy-flavored stuff a few months back; don’t know what his current line is.

Wiley

Yes Ivan, let’s bring back all those audiences that you clearly relish playing for any other time

Van Morrison has always had a few screws loose, unfortunately

Timely:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/entertainment-arts-54194498"> https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/entertainment-arts-54194498

Sir Van Morrison has accused the government of "taking our freedom" in three new songs that protest against the coronavirus lockdown.

In the lyrics, he claims scientists are "making up crooked facts" to justify measures that "enslave" the population.

"The new normal, is not normal," he sings. "We were born to be free".

Oops, fucked up that link:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54194498"> https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54194498

Boomers gonna boomer

got nothing to do with being a boomer

yeah, almost all of these people are Generation X, not boomers

The list has a lot of people who have been known to be kind of gullible fools for some time, or people who generally have a reputation for ~not being very bright~ (Gallagher and Brown in particular) - but I've been struggling with my inner fanboy over the RDJ thing for some time, since he resurfaced around the time of Syro and started up with various truther discourse - so the covid stuff is not a surprise, but it's still v v depressing.

There are people where it kinda goes with their schtick, but with RDJ, I really wanna grab him by the shoulders and go "you are actually *smarter* than this?" He's bright, he's sciencey, he was educated, in that he got halfway to a degree in electrical engineering, this man is not a fool?

But I guess that's sometimes the thing with conspiracy thinking, that conspiracies can *be* especially flattering to people who have experienced being brighter than most people around them, (not hard in the music industry!) and this is one of those stereotypes I hate reinforcing, but Autists, especially ones with Aspergers, like RDJ, in particular are very susceptible to it - that if you are constantly noticing weird shit that neurotypicals just *don't*, that it leaves you very susceptible to believing that you have access to special truths that neurotypicals don't or can't see.

And for a conspiracy brainloop to really take hold, it's like it has to piggyback on something you already care a LOT about. (Like how anti-trans ideology can canibalise both feminist activism AND virulently anti-feminist activism, because these are issues that people care about very deeply!)

RDJ has always had a very serious anti-authoritarian streak. And this idea that 'Britain is a police state' - the thing is, there are many ways in which Britain already *is* very like a police state. All the jokes about 'rainy fascism island' are getting at something - the abuse of Stop and Search, the suppression of protest, the absolute impunity of the police to murder citizens with no repercussions, the wholesale deportation of the Windrush generation, etc. etc. etc. - but his established anti-authoritarian special interest doesn't seem to fixate on those genuine abuses. It leaps sideways onto something tangential which affects him (he can't leave his house) and instead of landing on something with a basis in fact (the Tory government is absolutely mishandling the epidemic) it leaps into 'being quarantined = oh noes here is the police state'.

Sorry to bring politics into ILM, if this was intended to just be a list thread. 'Why do people get caught up in weird conspiracy theories' is one of my long-term special interests, for obvious reasons.

you'd think maybe the group of absolute foolish poltroons (who most of you'd cross a road to avoid) who make up th C-19 truther gang might make RJD pause for thought somewhat? I find it unforgivable that ppl who are otherwise silent about genuine human rights abuses committed by the British state are jumping on the Icke bandwagon ffs!

Wiley's rep is so done in now he could become the official PIE spokesperson and it wouldn't be newsworthy!

Van Morrison already was affiliated with PIE as evidenced in his passive pedophilia song, Cypress Avenue!

maybe one for the PaedIdiots in Music thread where lots of legends of the delta blues who otherwise are treated with upmost reverence get brutally cancelled!

Is wealth and age the main factor (for musicians)?

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:s6uwytvvpihxcqyzvcltzmrr/bafkreieibczwgstlsrlmbkmcphkyirkjux2cbkq4ovkaesiufzouks6m3u

all women all of a sudden are drunk and sleeping under a piano during their own concerts

lmao

sadly she seems like an easy mark

Amazing how some people who had injected all sorts of shit didn't want the covid jab.

Breaking News: 54 year old woman notices that women around her are becoming perimenopausal.

lol was gonna say

It's also just way more being openly discussed than it was even ten years ago (a good thing!). My wife and several of her friends were just having this conversation about how open women are about it now.

It has fuck all to do with the jab, ffs.

Although many of them stopped going on about it as lockdowns let up (and they got big pushback from their social media followers, which was encouraging), a good number of my big 'avant/experimental/post-punk' heroes went all out on vaccine paranoia and it has made it hard for me to listen to some of my favorite albums -- Evan Parker, Charles Hayward, and Palmolive all went full-on 'doing my own research' circa late 20-21 (Palmolive is still out there, having become a big follower of RFK and pushing for him for us president before Trump steamrollered everybody over. But she was satisfied that Mr Worms In His Brain was put In charge by Trump of the Center For Disease Control and made Secretary for Health and Human Services, which he has gutted, leaving the U.S. totally unprepared for the inevitable next round of mutated pathogens. (At first I was wondering why the former Slits / Raincoats drummer was so interested in American politics, turns out she's been a US citizen for some years now.)

'Defiant'! that's amazing! Also: Why is Chan Marshall calling a vaccine 'the jab'? I thought that was a UK thing? It's for sure not a Southern US thing. I won't get involved with the discussion of the supposed perimenopausal uptick, but isn't she in her mid-late 50s by now? It's just a part of getting older -- my partner and my sisters all got vaccinated but the normal changes they experienced approaching menopause weren't set into motion by The Jab, and thankfully, they never even suspected Big Pharma of hatching such a dastardly plan.

I just found out that period plasma can heal wounds at a 100% efficiency in 24hrs…

Idiots in the US call the Covid vaccine a jab, because it sounds more violent than a shot.

Shots come from guns, which are good.

Always feel a little pity when I hear people still going on about the plandemic. Those two years where they could feel like brave truth tellers fighting the system is where they peaked and they can't let go of the high.

I use jab as a synonym sometimes. Had no idea it coded anti-vax.

In Scotland you get a jag not a jab.

In Scotland you get a jag not a jab.

Only if you go to Maryhill

And you're a Magyar.

Yeah I think a lot of the public discussion about perimenopause is that the Millennials are starting to go through it.

Always feel a little pity when I hear people still going on about the plandemic. Those two years where they could feel like brave truth tellers fighting the system is where they peaked and they can't let go of the high.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, August 5, 2026 3:15 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ya it feels so pathetic now. Especially those still going on about 'the jab' or using "what booster are you on?" as an insult. Has anyone gotten a Covid booster in the last couple years? (am I supposed to?) I think having some trepidation about a vaccine that was developed quickly is understandable but these people all predicted some sort of mass death event that clearly didn't happen and are now taking this bizarre position where it's like, yes the virus killed millions, but it was also very bad to try to do anything about it, maybe they think they're "winning" these arguments because everyone just tells them to shut up now

Has anyone gotten a Covid booster in the last couple years? (am I supposed to?)

I mean, I get mine yearly around the same time as I get my flu shot. I treat it as something it's always good to do, and I look forward to further vaccine developments even in this environment.

I get mine every year

as one of the last remaining who never got COVID I gotta keep the streak going

Flu & covid shots every year and after December shingles vax!

I’ve got kids who constantly bring diseases home so it’s a no-brainer.

I get boosters once a year. I got Covid a few weeks ago (second time), and it was super mild.

I had to beg a Publix employee for the COVID shot last December.

(I too have never had it except for an unconfirmed asymptomatic infection in Sept '22)

dusty vaccines

these people all predicted some sort of mass death event that clearly didn't happen and are now taking this bizarre position where it's like, yes the virus killed millions, but it was also very bad to try to do anything about it

My experience is covidiots telling you the vaccines killed way more than announced and it's what THEY don't want you to know etc etc. No idea what Evan Parker thinks about this hypothesis though.

I get the booster and flu vaccination firstly because I was my Dad's carer and when he died I had to care for my Mum as she got older and frailer, and in hospital a few times inc Sunday there via 999.

If anything happened to my Mum, I don't think I'd qualify but could pay for the flu vaccine but not covid.

I get my booster with my flu shot every autumn. I’ve been getting the flu shot because I had the flu two Xmases in a row and it was Not Fun.

I get a booster every year because my wife is immunocompromised. Sometimes I get the covid shot and the flu shot, sometimes just the covid shot.

My wife is immunocompromised too, the irony being we're pretty sure the worst of her condition was latent but *triggered* by one of the early covid vaccines, which didn't always play well with autoimmune issues. I still get my shots, but my kids are wary for reasons of heredity.

okay good to know I'll get one then. last year I skipped the flu shot out of laziness and didn't catch it but I have to remind myself I just got lucky and that the flu really does suck

In my experience flu symptoms are worse than covid, tbh. Anyone that downplays the flu has clearly either never had it or not had it for many years. It can knock you on your ass for a couple of weeks. Of course, the flu vaccine is hit or miss, but even a miss still provides some protection, as I understand it.

these people all predicted some sort of mass death event that clearly didn't happen and are now taking this bizarre position where it's like, yes the virus killed millions, but it was also very bad to try to do anything about it

I think their argument is something like "Covid (which is almost entirely harmless) was created in a Chinese lab by order on Anthony Fauci, who covered up the origin for reasons of DEI, and then went on a power trip of forcing people AT GUNPOINT to wear dirty masks even in their own homes, closed all the schools with the help of the corrupt teachers' unions, CENSORED real patriots who criticized him on whatever X used to be called, and then suppressed the only actual cure, Hydroxyharleyquin, so he could make millions from a fake vaccine that is actually poison, and that you were forced to get AT GUNPOINT."

OF Anthony Fauci

Speaking of Fauci, Jason Loewenstein (who?) of Sebadoh (oh... yeaaaaah, ok) posted about Fauci being a monster or something on Facebook... got a ton of blowback... posted some sort of "can't we all get along even when we disagree" sort of statement... then deleted all the posts. Old ppl.

Yeah, I saw Jason Loewenstein (I know who this is, no “who?” necessary) posting favorably about the comedy of Jim Breuer as well. Yikes. I remember him being at least generically anti-Trump before but he’s clearly crawled into a rabbit hole or two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POqV7gjuCiY

In my experience flu symptoms are worse than covid, tbh.

are any other experiences available?

I had Covid twice, once in early March 2020 when nobody was really aware that it was in circulation --- it was certainly as bad as the worst flus I've ever had, but there is were alarmingly different symptoms that made it obviously Covid by the time my co-workers and I were sent away to work from home for the next two years. The frustration of listening to the Trump/Maga denials of basic science and the bizarre spread of 'plandemic' conspiracy thinking amongst even people I considered exemplary artists and public figures has scarred me more than even two bouts with Covid did. I still remember the one bright moment during the first (!!!!!) Trump presidency when the vaccine was finally made available for free in New York, standing in line with 100s of grateful, normal people that, like myself and my partner, shellshocked from all the chicanery and so glad to see a little something return of the sane, trusting in certain findings of science, country that I grew up in. The crazed denialists was particularly hard to take, having lived through the AIDS crisis, where, despite the faults of the scientific community, Act UP and other groups fought like crazy for treatments, even a hopeful vaccine, against the inaction of the Reagan government. But then, I am of a generation where we learned about why vaccines worked and about why people didn't get polio and die of other once-fatal illnesses, and happily went through the process of getting vaccinated at school with my classmates. The most depressing aspect of the still-ongoing Trump years is seeing so many intelligent people of my own generation that I'd always assumed to be rational left-leaning folks turn out to be flat-earthers and worse.

I still get COVID boosters. Truth be told, I didn't get flu shots for a long time because when I was in college, I would feel so wiped out afterwards and then would come down with a serious cold soon after (not the flu though), and I wasn't sure the exact reason why (maybe you become more vulnerable to colds? maybe it was being in a huge and densely packed dorm where cold and flu viruses spread easily?) but after that happened three years in a row I stopped getting flu shots for a long time. When COVID hit and I got sick of the antivax shit, I thought to myself "well, why don't you get flu shots?" So I started getting them again whenever I get the COVID shot, and I actually have not come down with anything afterwards, a much better experience this time around.

Mum, who is 87, and I had the flu 3 weeks after our winter covid & flu vaccination and it was the weakest flu I ever had.

Mum was mostly ok too except a slight chest infection which antibiotics sorted out in 2 days.

Everyone else I knew said it was the worst flu they had ever had and said they wished that they had the vaccine.

Only side effects I've ever had is a slight sore to touch arm for a few days and I didn't even get that this time. But even with sore arm its still better than the alternative for me.

My dad was clinically vulnerable during covid and we all had to shield. He caught covid twice (in hospital!) but luckily it was after he beat sepsis and he had received the covid vaccine.

We got an extra 2 1/2 more years of my Dad because of the vaccine and the wonderful work of science and all the work done by the NHS and carers and I am very very glad of that and I owe them so much.

i had flu as a kid, admittedly not knowingly as an adult, and COVID was worse when I got it in ‘22.

I know lots of people say this but i'm pretty sure i had it in mid Feb 2020, reason being I met someone at a party who had literally just landed the day before after being evacuated from Wuhan China. Then a week later I had a high fever and extreme fatigue for a few days, could barely get up out of my chair. It obv could have been the regular flu, but the Wuhan thing is just too much of a coincidence imho.

Weirdly, the (probably) 2nd time i had it in summer 2022 after being vaxed it was worse, as bad as the worst flu i'd ever had, lasted like 2 weeks.

Idiots in the US call the Covid vaccine a jab, because it sounds more violent than a shot.

in fairness I first heard the word "jab" used derisively on an Australian hardcore 7" circa 2000

the chorus was "jab it in your arm / jab it in your arm / jab it in your arm / you're gonna get shot!" and I was like well that picture of leatherface on the sleeve was cool anyway

2019
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sebadoh-new-song-act-surprised-raging-river-824715/

I know lots of people say this but i'm pretty sure i had it in mid Feb 2020

you probably did... around that same time, I was regularly taking a commuter train down the San Francisco Bay Peninsula to my GFs place, and I got sick as a dog right around the start of March 2020. It wasn't a normal flu, because I had this almost sunburn-like feeling across my back & shoulders. Anyway, the first confirmed U.S. case was Santa Clara CA which is along that rail line. I think it was circulating for quite awhile before the famous St Patricks NBA shutdown