After going on an anti-vax rant following InfoWars host Alex Jones being ordered to pay $1 billion USD in damages for spreading misinformation about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, M.I.A. has clarified her comments — and claimed that she's "not really" an anti-vaxxer.
Instead of Twitter, this update comes from a new interview with The Guardian where journalist Shad D'Souza explicitly asked the artist about her stance on vaccination.
"The language they use to attack anybody is to say, 'Oh, she's an anti-vaxxer' or blah blah blah. And it's like, no, not really," M.I.A. responded.
"I know three people who have died from taking the vaccine and I know three people who have died from COVID," she continued. "This is in my life, in my experience. If anyone is going to deny that experience and gaslight me, saying, 'No, that's not your experience,' then what is the point of anything?"
She added: "What is the existence that you are trying to protect by giving me a vaccine if I can't even have an experience and process that information in my own brain and come to some sort of conclusion? And live within a society where I have to make choices every day? There's this weird idea that we're all free, and that we fight for everything, and we can say what we want, but on the other hand, I feel like there's even more of a crackdown on that."
Elsewhere in the conversation, M.I.A. offered further commentary on the Sandy Hook tragedy, saying it's "terrible" that families of victims were subjected to Jones's lies — but she wishes the Tamil population in her home country of Sri Lanka, whose genocide she has been vocal about for years, could be given the same courtesy.
"Today, you've got some white guy who apparently lied and made some families feel terrible, who now has to pay $1 billion because he denied someone's real experience, real loss and real emotional trauma," the musician said. "If we're going to have a scapegoat in society where somebody's going to pay for [lying], then I would like to bring the same sort of court case against every Western publication that said only 40,000 Tamils were killed in the last days of the war."
It was back in 2020 that M.I.A. first suggested she was an anti-vaxxer on Twitter, later clarifying her stance when met with backlash. All this taken in sum, the free-thinking pop provocateur seems to be pretty centrist on vaccines.
Instead of Twitter, this update comes from a new interview with The Guardian where journalist Shad D'Souza explicitly asked the artist about her stance on vaccination.
"The language they use to attack anybody is to say, 'Oh, she's an anti-vaxxer' or blah blah blah. And it's like, no, not really," M.I.A. responded.
"I know three people who have died from taking the vaccine and I know three people who have died from COVID," she continued. "This is in my life, in my experience. If anyone is going to deny that experience and gaslight me, saying, 'No, that's not your experience,' then what is the point of anything?"
She added: "What is the existence that you are trying to protect by giving me a vaccine if I can't even have an experience and process that information in my own brain and come to some sort of conclusion? And live within a society where I have to make choices every day? There's this weird idea that we're all free, and that we fight for everything, and we can say what we want, but on the other hand, I feel like there's even more of a crackdown on that."
Elsewhere in the conversation, M.I.A. offered further commentary on the Sandy Hook tragedy, saying it's "terrible" that families of victims were subjected to Jones's lies — but she wishes the Tamil population in her home country of Sri Lanka, whose genocide she has been vocal about for years, could be given the same courtesy.
"Today, you've got some white guy who apparently lied and made some families feel terrible, who now has to pay $1 billion because he denied someone's real experience, real loss and real emotional trauma," the musician said. "If we're going to have a scapegoat in society where somebody's going to pay for [lying], then I would like to bring the same sort of court case against every Western publication that said only 40,000 Tamils were killed in the last days of the war."
It was back in 2020 that M.I.A. first suggested she was an anti-vaxxer on Twitter, later clarifying her stance when met with backlash. All this taken in sum, the free-thinking pop provocateur seems to be pretty centrist on vaccines.
