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The Idiot of the Week: Jeff Tweedy or Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Meghan Markle, El American

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Another week in which we want the readers of El American to choose our Idiot of the Week. On this occasion, Wilco singer and guitarist Jeff Tweedy and the couple formed by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry compete for this honor.

Jeff Tweedy: solidary, but just a bit

Jeff Tweedy, leader of the indie rock band Wilco, will donate 5% of the royalties from his songs to social justice causes. As he stated after the death of George Floyd -which served as justification for the upsurge of riots provoked by Black Lives Matter-, “the modern music industry is built on black art. The wealth that rightfully belongs to black artists has been openly stolen.”

Jeff Tweedy durante un concierto de Wilco. (Flickr)  Meghan Markle
Jeff Tweedy during a Wilco concert. (Flickr)

That he decides to donate 5% of his income does not make him a candidate for Idiot of the Week; he is within his rights to do so, even if the reason he claims is rather stupid. He would also be within his rights to donate a little more, because truth be told, when you consider that even the tip for bad service is 15%, Jeff Tweedy’s proposed donation seems a little low.

The problem is that he is calling for a “plan for the entire industry to address this huge injustice”. Knowing how prone politicians are to show their great solidarity -always with other people’s money-, and how eager they are to win votes by paying for reparations -also with other people’s money-, we would not be surprised if Jeff Tweedy’s altruistic proposal soon becomes a legal obligation, which consumers will end up paying for -this time with their own money-.

The music of Jeff Tweedy and his band Wilco has been heavily influenced by country, pop and rock, and artists such as Bill Fay, The Beatles and Television. Yet, for some strange reason, Tweedy only considers himself indebted to black artists. Someone malicious might think that in the guitarist’s proposal there is condescension, covert racism and opportunism, given that Wilco has always been one of the favorite groups of leftists.

With these statements he will probably get a lot of progressive snobs to remember how good they looked when they said they listened to Wilco, debating 19th century literary influences in their song lyrics, while savoring a caviar canapé and adjusting their horn-rimmed glasses during a modern art exhibition, in which the artist anguishedly expresses the injustices of the capitalist system.

“I was hoping that someone more famous than me would say “Hey, that’s a decent idea! Let’s get the ball rolling.” I still have hope that it will happen. And, at the same time, I have to be honest and say I wish I had been taken more seriously, you know?” stated Tweedy.

In his words, not “as many people as I thought would initially” have signed on to his proposal. We imagine that the solidarity of all these artists committed to social justice is conditional on raising taxes on everyone to pay for these reparations that they consider so pressing.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry: Privileged, but just a bit
Meghan Markle - Prince Harry
“It seems that the average Joe hasn’t inspired much sympathy to imagine her wiping her tears with 50-pound bills, or 100-dollar bills.” (EFE)

Anastasia Hanson, 56, told The Sun that she created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pay off the mortgage on their humble $14.6 million mansion in the modest Santa Barbara area, near where this – of course, Californian – charitable soul lives.

While it would be tempting – and deserved – to nominate her for Idiot of the Week, we’ve decided it’s better to nominate the source of her woes: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry for her impostured victimhood.

Unfortunately, Anastasia Hanson’s initiative only raised about $100, which won’t be able to help alleviate the princes’ plight, which so moved her after hearing them complain during her interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The contracts with Spotify and Netflix, apparently, have not been enough to alleviate the economic problems of the couple, who have also had to face other vicissitudes and injustices.

In this interview with Oprah -one of the richest and most influential journalists on the planet-, which took place in a luxurious villa, the Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle complained that, in early 2020, Harry had to dip into the juicy inheritance of his late mother, Princess Diana, in order to get by in California, after leaving the British Royal House.

Despite the economic challenge of moving to the United States, it seems that it has not been so difficult for them to adapt to the lifestyle of the Californian high society, since shortly after their arrival they proved to be fully integrated by making some statements in which they veiledly attacked the then still President Donald Trump before the election.

Harry and Meghan Markle called on American voters to “reject hate speech” in the election. Apparently, the couple is passionate about American politics, since according to The Mirror, Meghan Markle is considering running for president of the United States “if Joe Biden rules out a second term.”

We are sure that with this attitude the couple will soon solve their problems because Meghan Markle’s optimism is inspiring. Not only for seeing herself as a Democratic candidate, despite her popularity plummeting after the interview, according to a YouGov poll; but also because she shows more optimism than the Democrats themselves about Biden’s chances of renewing a second term -or even exhausting the first one-, if we heed Matt Gaetz’s statements on Sky News Australia.

Although Meghan Markle and Prince Harry played the so fashionable “racial victimization card”, which has been praised by Michelle Obama on the Today show, it seems that the common mortals have not inspired much sympathy to imagine her wiping her tears with 50 pound bills, or 100 dollar bills.

Who knows, maybe running for President of the United States is Meghan Markle’s long-term strategy to make sure that if her face doesn’t end up appearing on sterling bills, it will end up on dollar bills. It is undeniable that wiping your tears on banknotes with your own face on them must be much more satisfying and restorative than having to see the faces of Elizabeth II or Benjamin Franklin.

Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.

Social Networks: @ignaciomgm

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