Free Republic

Despite all his rage, Billy Corgan is still just rattling the cage of American politics—much to the infinite sadness of Gen X-ers still holding onto their Siamese dreams of mid-’90s alt-rock Smashing Pumpkins greatness. On Thursday, he slammed “socialist” presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and accused liberal activists of infringing on free speech. “The tactics in the social justice warrior movement are to stifle and shut down free speech,” the singer said Thursday during an appearance on Infowars, the online network run by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Last month, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan spoke on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Info Wars radio show about how he thinks “liberal social justice warriors” are kind of like Maoists and the Ku Klux Klan. Yesterday (May 11), the Info Wars online talk show premiered another segment of its conversation with Corgan. This time, the interview veered into the 2016 election (among -- trust us -- many, many other topics). Host Lee Ann McAdoo introduced him as “musical icon and great patriot Billy Corgan,” and he certainly went to work.

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan weighed in on the 2016 presidential race at a Q&A before a recent concert in Cincinnati, saying that while he may not necessarily agree with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s policy positions, it’s “cool” that he is in the race. “I think what’s cool is Trump’s running chaos theory,” Corgan said, according to video of the Q&A session uploaded to YouTube. “He’s forcing a lot of things out into the open, so they can’t control this, whatever whatever that control is.” “It’s like the music business: everybody gets controlled, and somebody comes along that f***s it...

I love a conspiracy theory, how about you? Although this one isn't necessarily new -- lots of folks have opined about the convenient coincidence of an escalating so-called pandemic mixed with an under-supply of vaccinations while the country debates healthcare reform -- it's all the more delicious when it comes from a rock star of some note. With that in mind, when singer, songwriter, and leader of the now defunct alternative band The Smashing Pumpkins suggests swine flu "is not a naturally occurring virus," and that "President Obama has declared a national emergency" when "there isn’t one," you have to...