Tom Morello Scorches Paul Ryan, Who Is Apparently A Rage Against The Machine Fan, In Rolling Stone Op-Ed

Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine is one of the most vocal and involved famous supporters of Occupy Wall Street and has been working with the movement for quite some time. But Paul Ryan — the Vice Presidential hopeful and second banana to the man many feel is the poster child of the protests’ railed against the 1%, Mitt Romney — has professed to being a big fan of the politically-focused band.

You don’t even have to be Tom Morello or even a member of Rage Against The Machine to find the humor in that, that Paul Ryan can non-ironically stick on a playlist of songs bemoaning social injustice as he’s doing P90X and … being Paul Ryan.

And the irony is neither lost on Morello. In a scathing piece on Rolling Stone‘s website, Morello lays out precisely why he doesn’t understand how Paul Ryan can rock out to his songs while, with his whole mind and body, working against the concepts they illustrate.

Morello mentions as much in his first few sentences, saying:

“Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades… Ryan claims that he likes Rage’s sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don’t care for Paul Ryan’s sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.”

After accusing Ryan of having sufficient rage but for poor people, workers, gay people, and women, Morello notes that Romney’s VP pick seems to have a clear and genuine passion for the political positions he espouses — positions that run contrary to the message imparted in every performed by Rage Against The Machine:

“You see, the super rich must rationalize having more than they could ever spend while millions of children in the U.S. go to bed hungry every night. So, when they look themselves in the mirror, they convince themselves that ‘Those people are undeserving. They’re . . . lesser.’ Some of these guys on the extreme right are more cynical than Paul Ryan, but he seems to really believe in this stuff. This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket.”

However, Morello is open to other possibilities, as he suggests:

“My hope is that maybe Paul Ryan is a mole… Maybe he’ll fill Guantanamo Bay with the corporate criminals that are funding his campaign – and then torture them with Rage music 24/7.”

Do you find Paul Ryan’s love for Rage Against The Machine’s music as odd as Tom Morello does?