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Bruce Springsteen May Have Broken Our Brains on the Land of Hope and Dreams Tour

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jun 1st, 2026 · 10:08 AM EDT

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I saw this on the timeline Monday morning and the comments are a grease fire transferred into a dumpster and doused with gasoline:

In case you’re unaware, the background is that Bruuuuuuce’s most recent tour was a political tour. He’s always been a left wing guy, and sings about that kind of stuff, but on this run he’s talking openly about politics between songs and ripping Trump and really leaning into the messaging. It’s a “No Kings” rock rebellion type of tour, and he was 100% transparent about that when the dates were announced.

Right, so John Clark is a massive Bruce fan. Quite possibly the biggest Bruce fan in the Philadelphia region, and God knows there are a lot of Bruce fans in these parts, for some reason. But when he wrote “we were not there for politics,” I went straight to 2000+ replies, which did not disappoint:

lmao

Honestly, I think John is in a no-win situation here. If he comes out and says “we were not there for politics,” he angers all of his liberal followers. If he says “we were there for politics,” he angers all of his conservative followers. If he just posts a photo of the show and doesn’t mention politics at all, everyone assumes he’s a liberal, because Springsteen is a liberal. And if he posts nothing at all, he’s “complacent” and not using his platform in the way that each respective side thinks that he should use his platform, which is so flimsy and pointless anyway. Worry about your own platform. Don’t tell other people how to use their platforms. He can do whatever he wants with his platform.

What I think has happened is that Bruce has broken our brains. People are so riled up and they’re going after one another. I wrote a short post a couple of weeks ago saying that it was a good thing that his concert was rescheduled, because our ears were spared from his music. Then I was TROUNCED in the comments by people accusing me of being MAGA. That’s outrageous! There was zero mention of politics in the blog post. I just think the guy’s music stinks. Can’t we just rip a guy for being a bad singer and mumbling into the microphone without partisan assumptions being made?

This is how fucked up we are in 2026. You criticize a guy’s music and people immediately go into the comments section to call you a MAGA. What’s next? Rage Against the Machine and NOFX coming out as political bands?

Speaking of “No Kings,” did anyone consider that Bruce may have been talking about Howard Eskin? Are we sure he’s talking about Trump? Howard is partially banned from events in the building where Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce performed the other night. (h/t Stephen Silver for that one)