Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider is busy untangling the logic employed by people who don’t understand why the rock band’s iconic hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” would be sanctioned for use by the Ukrainian resistance as they fight off Russian aggression and not for use by anti-maskers.
“People are asking me why I endorsed the use of ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ for the Ukrainian people and did not for the anti-maskers,” Snider said in a tweet, after endorsing the song’s use as a rallying cry in the face of the unprovoked invasion. “Well, one use is for a righteous battle against oppression; the other is an infantile feet stomping against an inconvenience.”
In September 2020, the heavy metal band frontman blasted anti-maskers for appropriating his 1984 hit song after a flash mob descended on a Target store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“No, these selfish a— do not have my permission or blessing to use my song for their moronic cause,” he tweeted at the time.
Flash forward to 2022, when Russia’s President Vladimir Putin started bombarding a defiant Ukraine, whose citizens have been fighting in the streets. In doing so, Snider invoked his own heritage.
“I absolutely approve of Ukrainians using ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ as their battle cry,” he said on Twitter. “My grandfather was Ukrainian, before it was swallowed up by the USSR after WW2. This can’t happen to these people again! F— Russia.”
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