Is anyone else tired of how impossible it seems for people to agree to disagree these days? Sometimes a certain situation has a clear right and wrong, but more often than not, it's possible to see the world differently than other people and still be a decent human being. I come from a very conservative family but discovered punk rock in the mid-1990s and have been part of that scene ever since. Among my family and conservative friends, I have always been one of the most liberal people they know. In the punk scene, a lot of people consider me to be very conservative. It's a weird place to be, but it's me, and it used to work just fine. 

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"Keep It To Yourself" was written for people who think all your beliefs need to fall into one specific part of the political spectrum to be part of the punk scene. I don't remember the exact event that inspired it, but this song specifically focuses on one such person: Fat Mike. The first verse references the old NOFX song "Happy Guy" where they talk about a Christian they know and conclude that, "His hopes may be false, but his happiness is real. Don't try to judge him. He's just a man." Unfortunately, sometime between writing that song and the Bush administration in the early 2000s, Fat Mike decided that anyone with anything other than extremely liberal beliefs, especially religious beliefs, should be portrayed as a complete caricature and should DEFINITELY be judged.

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Don't get me wrong. This song isn't meant to defend people with extreme right wing points of view, but pretending that anyone with an opinion different than yours is some kind of an uneducated Alt-Right Neo-Nazi extremist....what a sad way to live.

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Jeff Moses

...Whatever That Means

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