Skillet frontman John Cooper warns that Grammys, Cardi B are part of oppressive 'woke' culture that's increasingly calling evil 'good' and good 'evil'



John Cooper, frontman of Christian rock band Skillet, went beyond merely disagreeing with the highly sexualized performance of "WAP" from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion at the 2021 Grammy Awards and made a crucial observation about where our culture is quickly heading.

What are the details?

"We're living in a world right now where there are certain Dr. Seuss books that you cannot sell on eBay," Cooper noted in a "Cooper Stuff" video posted Wednesday on his YouTube page. "They are just too much for anybody to even be allowed to buy; they're being yanked down from all the bookstores and stuff like that. It's just too much; it's too evil. … But you can, and must, applaud the sexual degradation of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion simulating sex together on the Grammys. ... You must celebrate it. In fact, if you don't celebrate it, then you're actually a bad person, and you kind of, like, don't love people, right? You're actually not nice."

He then read part of Isaiah 5:20 in the Old Testament of the Bible: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil."

Cooper pointed out that a growing number of people over the last several years have been engaging in that practice.

"Why would anybody ever call evil good and good evil?" he asked. "It's simple: Because they just redefine the terms. The question is, who is going to define what is good, and who is gonna define what is evil? Every dictator in history says that what they were doing was good. That's what they believe. If you go back and you read some of [Adolf] Hitler's speeches, he's, like, 'I'm gonna set people free — free from the bondage of the Ten Commandments.' In his mind, he's a liberator. It's always like that, you guys. All you do is you just redefine evil, and you redefine good. That's what's happening right now on the Grammys."

Cooper noted that some may take issue with that perspective since Madonna made similar waves with her sexualized performances in the 1980s — but he noted that back then observers weren't praising Madonna as good or virtuous.

"Now we're redefining what 'virtuous' is," he observed, adding that the effect is seen as more and more people are getting "cancelled" socially because of views that were once considered traditional but now are condemned as not "woke."

Check out Cooper's full Ten-Minute Talk:

Cooper Stuff Reacts To Cardi B: Ten Minute Talkyoutu.be

Portland's pro-Antifa mayoral candidate in 2016 tweeted image of ballot with 'violent despots' like Stalin, Lenin, Ho Chi Minh as write-ins



Portland's pro-Antifa mayoral candidate, Sarah Iannarone, is being questioned about a tweet she posted in 2016 that included an image of a ballot with figures such as Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Ho Chi Minh as write-ins, KOIN-TV reported.

What are the details?

Last week, Mayor Ted Wheeler's campaign released a statement objecting to Iannarone "writing in violent despots like Ho Chi Minh and Joseph Stalin on her 2016 ballot," the station said.

But Iannarone's campaign manager Gregory McKelvey told KOIN that the image in question doesn't depict her ballot. Rather, he told the station, Iannarone "posted the ballots of many of her supporters who sent them in after voting for her" and that she "shared a picture of someone else's ballot celebrating Black women like Angela Davis and Assata Shakur."

The tweet of the 2016 primary campaign ballot also includes write-in votes for Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Lenin, and others, KOIN said.

Indeed a number of the individuals on the ballot image were responsible for the deaths of millions of people. In addition, the station added:

Angela Davis is an activist who was acquitted of kidnapping, murder and conspiracy charges in the 1970s, then ran as Vice President on the Communist Party ticket and later became a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz. Assata Shakur is a convicted killer of a New Jersey state trooper who later escaped from prison and was added to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list.

Wheeler campaign manager Danny O'Halloran said, essentially, it really doesn't matter if that's her ballot.

"No one who saw that tweet would have any way of thinking that [it wasn't her ballot]," O'Halloran told KOIN. "But more importantly it doesn't really matter. On that ballot is a vote for Sarah Iannarone, and everyone else written in was a Communist dictator. And her choosing to post that is just as inflammatory and mocks our democratic institutions in just the same way."

He added to the station that her tweet "fits a pattern of constant inciteful rhetoric by Sarah Iannarone and her campaign. She has repeatedly said she is affiliated with Antifa, she has chosen to wear items of clothing with Mao Zedong's face on it, she posted this tweet of a ballot with Communist dictators names — seeming to praise it — and she has been asked in interviews to condemn violent protest and has refused to, going as far as to say in an interview that peaceful protest might not be going far enough."

KOIN said McKelvey declined the station's request for an on-camera interview with him or Iannarone but that he did issue a statement:

"Ted Wheeler is using the same tactics as Donald Trump to scare and confuse voters. The claim is simply a lie. Trump and Wheeler paint progressive women as too radical because they believe misogyny and misrepresentations can still win elections. They are tired tricks from a time that our city and nation are eager to move past. In 2016 Sarah shared a picture of someone else's ballot celebrating Black women like Angela Davis and Assata Shakur. Wheeler's campaign is increasingly desperate to paint Sarah as a radical because his ideas are straight out of the McCarthy era – degradation of the climate, housing segregation, police brutality, and Red Scares. Portland deserves a conversation surrounding our housing crisis and economic recovery, not the daily distortions, alt-right attacks, and Red Scares of Wheeler's desperate reelection campaign. We expect voters to reject Donald Trump and Wheeler's shared tactic on election day."

Anything else?

Earlier this month, a poll of likely Portland mayoral voters indicated Iannarone had an 11-point lead over Wheeler, the incumbent candidate. But O'Halloran told KOIN the most recent polls show the race is "effectively tied" and a large number of undecided voters are still out there.

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