James Hetfield, the co-founder and lead singer for the successful heavy metal band Metallica, left his home in the San Francisco Bay Area because of an 'elitist' attitude.Can you be more specific, James?
In an interview Friday with radio talk show host Joe Rogan, Hetfield says that after decades of living in Northern California, he grew tired of the negative reaction from locals who did not look kindly upon his political views and lifestyle choices....
Hetfield says that in the Bay Area, 'there was an elitist attitude there -- that if you weren't their way politically, their way environmentally, all of that, that you were looked down upon.'
'They talk about how diverse they are, and things like that, and it's fine if you're diverse like them. But showing up with a deer on the bumper doesn't fly in Marin County.'Hetfield is a hunter and a member of the NRA. When Metallica was scheduled to perform at England's Glastonbury Festival in 2014, there were calls to remove the band from the festival's lineup because Hetfield hunts Kodiak bears. (Metallica performed as scheduled.)
So what non-elitist place did Hetfield find more accommodating?
Hetfield instead decided to relocate to 'super quiet' Vail, Colorado, with his wife, Francesca.Ahh, yes, non-elitist Vail, Colorado, which Barron's magazine described a few years ago as one of the best places to buy a high-end second home:
5. VAIL, COLORADOYeah, there's nothing elitist about Vail:
For those who want the high life rather than the quiet life: After skiing knee-deep powder on Vail's incomparable back bowls, a woman with a diamond ring the size of Pike's Peak hands her skis to the valet. Prada sunglasses shade her tired eyes from the sun. The skier, the wife of a Mexico City industrialist, enters the Arrabelle Club, an après-ski hangout where gold-medal Olympic skier and cover girl Lindsey Vonn keeps her locker. The Mexican jet-setter is handed a glass of Veuve Clicquot Brut....
Median Price 2010: $1.8 million
Median Price 2011: $1.6 million
While Aspen is one of the top celebrity hot-spots in the Rockies, its reputation might just be second to Vail, according to professional celebrity trackers. In just the past year, eyewitness sightings have positively identified a large range of celebrities, including George Clinton, Jay-Z, Donald Trump, Katy Perry, and Al Gore -- as well as Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz popping into Los Amigos for some Mexican food...And when Michelle Obama went to Vail with the kids in 2011, right-wingers were livid. The expense!
But Hetfield is defining "elitist" just the way Trump voters do: Being wealthy or high-status doesn't make you an elitist -- you're an elitist if you have some money (it doesn't even have to be a lot) and you challenge right-wingers' preferences. I know the Bay Area is full of wealthy people, but even a moderately comfortable middle-class person from Oakland who objects to Hetfield's hunting is more of an elitist than a billionaire who'll happily share his venison.
That's why the Trumpers don't mind that Trump's Cabinet is full of plutocrats -- none of these Cabinet appointees are telling the Trump base to get a background check at a gun show or press "1" for English, so they're not elitists. Instead, we're the elitists for objecting to those people.
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(And for the record, I'm not against hunters. Except Ted Nugent -- that guy's a dick.)
10 comments:
First it was Dave Mustaine, now James Hetfield. And don't even get me started on Bruce "Brexit forever!" Dickinson.
These are hard days for aging metalheads.
Just another lost battle in the ongoing war against objectively apolitical meaning in words.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
Welcome to the Humpty-Dumpty Trumpy world of modern "conservatism".
Maybe this guy can perform at the inauguration. God knows no one else wants to.
There are a lot of right wingers in metal culture. Probably a majority.
You are elitist if you have money but still care about poor people.
Hetfield and Dickinson are right-wingers? Aw hell. This post and comment section kinda ruined my day.
Apt description of how right-wingers define "elite" though.
Thankfully, Sabbath is a band of the Left. No question.
I'm just reminded of my childhood friend and roommate in SF, who's a chef and we had a venison dish he made that was simply the best. He lives in Marin now. I have nothing against hunting if the animal will be eaten, and sadly sometimes culling the herd of deer is a necessary thing. I live on the East End of LI, and deer overpopulation is a problem. Because the animals starve, and there's a tremendous amount of car accidents caused by deer racing in front of a car. (They are really beautiful, and really stupid animals. Even a squirrel knows to wait for a car to pass and not lunge in front of it. Deer do not.) If a deer is hunted for food, well I am all right with that, not least because venison done right is delicious. It's not malicious hunting and killing for no reason.
So, yeah I get why Hetfield might be annoyed. But that evaporates instantly, what a pissy crybaby. Stupid rich rock star made wealthy by horrible music has his feelings hurt, goes full Trump and declares he shall flee the beautiful Bay Area for.. oh, another wealthy liberal enclave. What an asshole. Glad that I have always hated his sort of heavy metal noise. The stupid comes with the territory of that crap.
Surely Trump can get the loathsome Ted Nugent to play at his inaugural ball.
Funny comments, I have been shunned and excommunicated by nearly every "friend" I have ever had both from the military or RL because I am conservative and voted for Trump. I wasn't even asked for an explanation, just dumped by these would be "friends". Knowing this kind of ostracizing I can sympathize with anyone who is shut out intentionaly because they expressed a freedom given to them.
There are elitists on both ends, people who take politics and judge an entire person by them. He is most likely expressing the fact that being who he was in that particular community he was tired of being treated as an outsider and people snubbing their pretentious noses at him for his political affiliation.
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