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An interesting letter in the Weekly Worker, following the death of Bowie: Fascist Bowie In 1976, David Bowie, in his late 20s and already a public figure for about a decade, not content with giving a Nazi salute from the back of a Mercedes (Hitler’s favourite car) in the middle of Victoria Station, told*Playboy*: “Britain is ready for a fascist leader … I think Britain would benefit from a fascist leader. After all fascism is really nationalism … I believe very strongly in fascism; people have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership … Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars … You have got to have an extreme-right front to come up and sweep everything off its feet and tidy everything up.” Apparently that is all OK for most of the so-called left, because Bowie was high on cocaine at the time and later gave 50p to the Anti-Nazi League in the 1990s (or some such nonsense), as they kept repeating *ad nauseam* on Facebook every time I raised the issue of his totally unambiguous praise for Hitler and fascism (which*Guardian* obituaries call “flirting”). Unlike John Lennon or Bob Dylan or Jimi Hendrix (or, some would argue, Tory squire Sir Mick Jagger in his youth), there is absolutely no sign that he ever made even one political statement supporting our side. A lot of his individualistic stuff clearly gives sustenance to the right, which is why David Cameron, Tony Blair and the Archbishop of Canterbury (a former oil trader from Eton) were so keen to mourn him. Yet most of these very same self-defining Marxists who would not hear a word against a fascist propagandist on Facebook were more or less saying in January 2015 that the martyred leftist atheist cartoonists of *Charlie Hebdo *were blaspheming Islamophobes who deserved what they got. And they would probably agree with the Vatican’s condemnation of the first anniversary issue, attacking the survivors for their more generalised onslaught on all monotheistic religion, exemplified by their image of a Judaeo-Christian god. Maybe those who thought the title track of *Black star*was a hymn of praise to IS were right and maybe these so-called leftists would endorse such sentiments. Words fail me. *Toby Abse* _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
