Rage Against the Machine has issued a cease and desist letter to British far-right pundit Nigel Farage for his podcast, titled Farage Against the Machine.
The politically charged band denounced everything about Farage, and admonished him for trying to associate his ideas with theirs. In the documents, obtained by The Blast, attorneys for Rage Against the Machine demand that Farage change the title of his podcast, and accuse him of “racism and xenophobia.”
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“As you should know, RATM has publicly denounced the type of right-wing ideology you espouse for decades,” the letter reads. “Your anti-immigrant rhetoric, lack of social compassion and barely disguised racism and xenophobia are the antithesis of what RATM stands for.”
“Thus, your surprising attempt to associate yourself with RATM is wholly inappropriate and completely inexplicable, unless it’s part of some kind of bizarre cleansing ritual,” they continued. “Whatever the motivation, please stop. Stop using RATM’s name and logo, change the name of your podcast and find some other target to troll. We suggest President Trump.”
Farage’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Pitchfork. The letter was reportedly first sent on July 10. At the time of this writing, Farage’s podcast remains online with its original name intact.
Farage is the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party. He was one of the proponents and architects of the British “Brexit” movement, and has lobbied to have the anniversary of the vote marked as a national holiday. In 2014, he told The Guardian that he only supports Muslim immigrants who conform to British culture, but not those who are “coming here to take us over.” Last year he came under heavy criticism after he said that a “Jewish lobby” in America was more concerning to him than the possibility of Russian meddling in the U.S. election, or the possibility of collusion.
“There are other very powerful lobbies in the United States of America, and the Jewish lobby, with its links with the Israeli government, is one of those strong voices…There are about 6 million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage it’s quite small, but in terms of influence it’s quite big,” he said on LBC Radio. The comments were condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and other anti-Semitism watchdog groups.
Rage Against the Machine has espoused a distinctly different political philosophy in their music. The group was together from 1991 to 2000, then reunited from 2007 to 2011. In that time, they promoted revolutionary leftist ideas, and supported and participated in many protests and activist causes. Vocalist Zack De la Rocha even spoke on the floor of the United Nations in 1999, advocating for human rights specifically in the treatment of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.
