#277 (of 365) "You Fear the Wrong Thing Baby" The Radio Dept.

This song came out during COVID, in 2020, one of only a couple sings that one of my all-time favorite bands has released in the past decade, and I do think at the time I thought it was a statement on the strange reaction of some of the world to the COVID crisis, fearing masks or vaccines instead of the thing that masks and vaccines prevented you from dying from, but at some point the song--and the COVID crisis--has metastasized in my mind into a critique of current American (and world) obsession with minor issues (such as a few trans women playing college sports) while ignoring the real threats right in front of our faces (fascist takeovers of democracy around the world). And the truth is, once we as a society decided we didn't give enough of a fuck about our fellow humans to just--I don't know--wear a fucking mask, or stay in the house if you're sick as shit and coughing up a storm, well then I guess it wasn't too far to think we'd elect a madman who wants to ditch democracy (for us and Ukraine and Canada and everyone else who isn't a billionaire dictator) but alas... here we are. 

Of course, The Radio Dept. are Swedish and probably are speaking to issues specific to their country, but I tend to think it's all universal. And that's what makes music great. Even if our country no longer is.

"You Fear the Wrong Thing Baby" - The Radio Dept. // You Fear the Wrong Thing Baby (2020)