These days, it should be generally accepted that getting Morrissey’s take on current events is a bad idea for everyone involved, since he usually ends up saying something bad and we’re all left to try and parse his weird political takes. So, it should be wholly unsurprising that a recent interview Morrissey gave to German news outlet Spiegel Online features him saying some gloomy stuff about Donald Trump, walking back his pro-Brexit stance a bit, and then suggesting that Kevin Spacey has been “unnecessarily attacked.” In other words: Hold on, Morrissey fans, because this one’s a ride.
The translation of the interview comes from a user named Cornflakes on Morrissey-Solo, so it is a little iffy, but the larger points are fairly clear. For starters, Morrissey reiterates a theme that appears on his new Low In High School album, suggesting that all news these days is about “control” instead of information and confirming that he has stopped paying attention to all news stories. The interviewer notes a parallel between this idea and Donald Trump’s “fake news” boogeyman, to which Morrissey explains that the media “created” Trump by constantly covering him over other candidates (“Bernie Sanders, for example”). Now, he thinks the media “have shot themselves in the leg,” because Trump still gets his name in the headlines no matter what people say about him—which is probably right.
The interviewer then moved on to Brexit, which Morrissey had previously indicated he supported. Now, he won’t say whether or not he supports the initiative, just that he was very happy with the fact that people voted for something that they had been told would be a mistake. He doesn’t seem to care if Brexit is good or not, he just appreciated that the public “ignored the media and decided for themselves,” saying it was “the biggest democractic victory in the history of British politics.”
Then, after Morrissey took a brief foray into suggesting that anyone who supports killing animals also would’ve supported the Holocaust (standard Morrissey talking points), the interviewer brought up the Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey scandals. Morrissey says that the whole thing has become “a play,” and that the definition of sexual harassment has become so broad that “every person on this planet is guilty.” Specifically, he says that the allegations against Kevin Spacey are “ridiculous,” saying that if he was 26 and alone in a bedroom with a 14-year-old boy, than the boys should’ve known what was going to happen. “When you are in somebody’s bedroom,” he says, “you have to be aware of where that can lead to.” Because of that, he thinks Spacey has been “unnecessarily attacked.” He also clarifies that he hates rape and sexual assault of all kinds, but he does believe that sometimes “the person referred to as a victim is merely disappointed.”
After that, the discussion moved on to Germany, which Morrissey seemed to have a relatively positive attitude about until he casually referred to Berlin as the “rape capital” because of its open borders. He’s not necessarily against refugees, though, he just thinks multiculturalism in general is a bad idea because it dilutes a nation’s culture. “I think every country should keep its identity,” he says, adding, “Millions of people have died for German identity. If you think they deserve respect, you must protect their country.” Unfortunately, before Morrissey could say if he was referring to any specific historical events there, the interviewer wrapped things up.