How Zombie (1994) Gaslights You 

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Damn I always thought this song was about PTSD from British aggression and constantly reliving the horror, turning someone into a "zombie". So it's absolutely shocking to see that it is actually in support of the aggressor and implying the aggression wasn't even real!

Oh yes, the UK colonization of Ireland is just in our heads. That's very good news actually. I had awful dreams about potato famines, internment camps, bloody sundays, Death Squads and Oliver Cromwell. Thank you Dolores for clearing all of this for me.

As a latín American nothing boils my blood More than seeing Some of my people ignoring the atrocities commited against us by yanks solely for seeking aproval. And found out one of my favourite songs meant this Is just horrific

That Vox interview containing quotes of O'Riordan castigating those who kill for political reasons whilst at the top of the page is a quote from her saying she wished the state could execute prisoners again is fucking wild. Anyway, great video, really enjoyed it!

Inferior perception of self culture is actually what Frantz Fanon wrote extensively. He was a black Martinique native who experienced firsthand how Martinique people always praise French culture head over heels. As someone who can be absolutely seen as "not caucasian in any shape or form", I thought that domain was only for us "not caucasian" people. Seeing you bringing your A-game snark tearing down the song "Zombie" made me realize that it is VERY common amongst every imperialized people, skin colors aside. Solidarity from Southeast Asia, comrade!

Man, as a Canadian, I was fooled into thinking this song had the total opposite message. I had no idea about the context behind it, as I thought O'Riordan was talking directly to the British Imperialists about what they were doing, calling them zombies for blindly following a cause that left so much tragedy and misery in its wake. I had images rushing through my own head of Irish mothers being separated from their children, crowds of people paralyzed in the throes of unfettered violence, and British soldiers gunning down countless civilians while ignoring the internal and external voices telling them to stop. I had no idea that what I thought to be a rebel song was so anti-rebel, and after this video, that term seems to put it lightly. I have yet to leave Canada, but I now have this sudden urge to go to Ireland and visit historic sites to learn the full picture, and I am by no means a history buff.

13:45 as an American myself, your point about the music video really resonated. I never realized the significance of the lyrics. The music video and footage of military occupation ironically made me think it was an anti-occupation anthem or something, but never learned more until I saw this video. Better late than never i guess

The tears of one mother in England weigh a whole lot more than those of the countless thousands in Ireland. How someone couldn't be sick to there guts with themselves as they bring any of this song into being is astonishing. I truly hope that at least some of them feel at least some shame.

the message of this song is so sickening.

I'm Russian. When I listened to this song, I knew very little about the history of Ireland. But even then something inside me protested against "in your head" message. Thank you for clearing everything up. Power to the Irish and Ireland! 🇷🇺❤🇮🇪

critical support for the based zombies fighting for Irish liberation 🇮🇪💪🏼

Quite ironic that in reality the zombie she was signing about was herself. She remained silent about centuries of colonial violence and oppression but rose up the moment she could be used as a tool for anti-liberation propaganda. A zombie for the ideas the occupying power put in her head through cultural indoctrination. Something tells me that this song would not have been as successful had the message been reversed. It probably wouldn't have even been produced, honestly.

Thanks a lot for this video. I've been waiting 20 years to someone to say this loud enough that I could hear it from Andalucía. Freedom for Ireland!

Lots of Filipinos are unfortunately like Dolores. Not just city folks but people in rural towns as well. The urban and rural middle class in the Philippines are still longing for the approval of imperialist and feudal overlords.

I'm ashamed and embarrassed that I spent so many years loving this song and being so clueless about it

as a kurdish who lives in turkey, i'm not a foreigner to semi-colonialism. Ever since I started learning about the Irish national liberation movements, I've always been bothered by this song, but I wasn't exactly in a position to explain the situation to myself. power to the internationalist front!

As a Canadian of English, Scots, and Irish descent, a teenager in the 1970s, I was programmed to think that the Irish cause was, not only futile, but insane. I had my doubts about that, even as a kid. Thank you for clarifying this song for us, as I knew I was uncomfortable with the lyrics, but not why.

I was literally just thinking about this. I can't listen to that song since I realized what the lyrics are. It's like if someone made a song about how Palestinians were being a little overdramatic

When you're fighting oppression, you're going to get pushback from those who are comfortable in their lives (those who don't feel oppressed), but no matter how much pushback you get, if it's worth fighting, it's worth fighting to win. You have to do what's necessary to win. People die in war. It's horrible, and tragic but that's the price of freedom. If a person to pontificate the moral cost of victory, then warfare isn't for them. You have to kill a few to save millions.

so frustrating that people will generally not take anti-irish and anti-catholic rhetoric as a serious concern thats hurt millions of people and continues to plague communities to this day. my ancestors had to escape to scotland after the great famine, throughout the generations the language and culture was lost to assimilate and survive yet i still witness anti-catholic sentiments and violence within my community. amazing and very educational video, subscribed and can’t wait for more. 🤝

Similarly, Sunday Bloody Sunday also has always frustrated me with its attitude of inaction. “But I won’t heed the battle call”. …yeah Bono, because you have the wealth and privilege to not be living in the occupied 6 counties while others struggle

I hate how good the song is, it does not deserve to go as hard as it does.

Great video as always, and a very important video that everyone needs to see. The gaslighting and historical blindness of the Cranberries in making this song is really unbearable and serves only to justify further British colonialism and neo-colonialism. How they managed to twist reality and blame Irish liberationists (those resisting against the over 800 years of British colonial violence) for something that the Brittish colonizers caused is just disgusting British colonial apologia. I really hope more people watch this video and know the truth about Irish history. Long live the Irish national and social liberation struggle! Solidarity and red salute to you, comrade!

It can't gaslight me because I was too stupid to actually even understand.

I always tought this was just an anti-war song, but this video proved me wrong, thank you so much

The lyrics of this song fully encapsulates the reason why Mao said, "no investigation, no right to speak"

A similar theme could be established with ‘Revolution’ by The Beatles. It’s basically an endorsement of reformism by denouncing the New Left developments around Mao in the sixties. Just look at these lines: But when you talk about destruction, Don’t you know that you could count me out … You tell me it’s the institution, well you know, You better free your mind instead But if you go carrying around pictures of Chairman Mao, You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow Obviously there are others, but you get the point. It makes one think: _why_ are pictures of Mao a no-go? _Why_ is freeing the mind more important? _What_ kind of destruction is a turn-off? (I think we know the answers, so this is mostly rhetorical.) Phil Ochs’ ‘Love Me, I’m a Liberal’, though…now that’s a good political song. I bet Dolores is a representation of such a person, but I don’t know much about her so I won’t speculate on that.

I think you did a great job of showing how class supersedes all other criteria in terms of who you will align your interests with. Delores' stance is a fundamentally bourgeois one and it's really no surprise. Even though she was Irish, her interests aligned closer to empire due to her class position.

I remember thinking this when I was younger and i first heard the song. The way it's framed is as though two parties on equal footing and that if you just changed the way you perceived things you could affect change. But obviously this aint the case because we don't come out the womb in a neutral zone of equality. Great video my dude.

*Rubs hands together* Time to destroy this song for a bunch of people who don't fully realize what it's about and share the fuck out of this video.

"And, apparently, object permanence.. simply doesn't exist" had me lol'n. This is great work, Paul, as always.

i did not know anything about this person or song but the fact that she spits on even the 1916 uprising is mind-blowing

I have a feeling the narrator is more of a Sinead o Connor person then a Dolores o Riordan person.

Thank you for including the use of Shannon Airport as a sort of “colonial sublet” that my country, the US accesses. It should be noted that this occurs as a product of monetary agreements with the English House and entirely bypasses remuneration to the nation of Ireland completely. A colonial sublease pit stop on the route to the impoverished brown people we are currently colonizing ourselves.

Here in Norway, this song was literally featured in our English textbooks in Middle-School. And I remember vividly the whole class being shown this laughably ridiculous music video. Of course at this time all we were taught was "Catholics VS Protestants" and "IRA scary" and that's it.

I originally always assumed it was a song supposed to portray and critizise the disconnection people in the western world have from actual wars being fought, only reading about it in the news etc., hence the "in your head" section. Even with those same lyrics, the song could have had such an important message, sad to see its been squandered at the time it even was written. Thanks for clearing this one up for me

Paul talking about music, excited to watch this

Thank you for saying this! I have felt this way for years but couldn't fully articulate it. Would be like if someone made a hit song blaming both sides for Israel's occupation of Palestine...which actually I'm a little surprised hasn't happened yet.

Okay, this has to be one of the best political videos I've ever seen. Using a negative and eyecatching thumbnail and title about a popular and well liked piece of media to get people to check the video out, then using the piece of media as a way to talk about a serious issue that I'm sure many people don't know much about, being direct and informative about it, and then the emotional aspect helps to push people towards action. Good fuckin job with this one. I will have to check out more of your content.

Sounds like Dolores was the zombie all along.

It felt like you were gaslighting us with how long youtube took to upload this 😂

the farther we move away from it, the more i can see how 90's politics were so cringe. this is what happens when you falsely claim that history ended 🥴

I mean all ya gotta do is read Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England to see just how horrid Irish proles were treated a century before.

Wow...I wasn't aware that the British/Irish conflict was still recent history...or still going on. This certainly puts a dent in my enjoyment of the song, but thank you for the history lesson!

Great video. This is not the first time I'd heard about this but this is by far the most detailed look I've seen. It hurts when a song you liked turns out to be so incredibly rotten under the surface.

I think more people should be aware of what this song is actually about especially since it’s gained a lot of popularity abroad as well and a lot of foreign artists are now covering it.

This is a truly throughout, clearly constructed and informative piece. Thank you for putting in the time to create this. Amazing. Go raibh maith agat

one of my country hero was half cuban half irish, his grandfather from his father side was a cuban rebel who fought the colonial rule of Spain over Cuba, and his grandfather from her mother side was a IRA fighter who escaped prision in a spectacularly fashion. both legacy made him a proto Fidel Castro.

This song has always had the vibe of a Free Stater untouched by the violence lecturing people on what to believe

I was thinking about this song a few months ago, and thought it was shameful how it seemed to both-sides the Troubles, but oh boy, it really is so much worse when you really break it down like this.

The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots. - Sydney Smith

Banger video as always. Solidarity from Norway, may Ireland be rebuilt upon the ashes of the crumbling British and Ameircan empires.

As an American, a real one, not one of colonizers who paint themselves in our blood and claim our name as they do our land as their own... I have always hated this song as soon as I listened to the lyrics. Great video and subscribed.

i always thought the song The Icicle Melts as a follow up to Zombie. now I'm rethinking those lyrics too...

Never thought about the context of the lyrics. Great video!

this video is so underrated, I can't believe how few views it has!! I first watched it like a year ago and I reference to people all the time, I still hope this pops off and you get the credit you deserve!

Sometimes it's horrifying how much ignorant some people can be. As someone whose nation was (and still is) under constant oppression from the UK and US, and now is being exploited by collaborative ruling classes that not only exploit the lower classes but also aid the neo-colonial exploitation by China and Russia, I can deeply understand how it feels to hear things like this and it always infuriated me. During WW1 the British and Russian Armies unlawfully ignored our neutrality and invaded our nation. Didn't take long until they bought all of our food supplies from our markets and made an artificial famine that caused 10 million Iranian people and children to starve to death. This was an act of deliberate genocide that no one knows or cares about. And your video greatly helps in informing people that we must not forget nor forgive what atrocities these Imperialist powers committed to our nations. Hope more people get informed about these events and pull the wool off their eyes.

I always assumed this was a just a (banger, as you said) song about that specific bombing, and it's honestly kind of embarassing it took me this long to realize that it is actually super counter-revolutionary and anti- national liberation (I never knew much about O’Riordan other than her being Irish). I never sat down and thought "hm, why was this song only made now when innocent English kids died and not when innocent Irish civilians were being systematically killed by British soldiers and their collaborators for centuries"? Kind of reminds me of that movie where Harrison Ford plays an Irish-American that works for the CIA to hunt down IRA members in the US, because he wants to prove he's one of the good guys, not one of those pesky terrorists that want their people to free from English control, how dare they!!! It's like she's trying so hard to prove she's one of the good guys. Also yes, it's well reported that many police officers blatantly ignored the bomb warnings issued by the IRA/INLA to make the Irish liberation movement seem like they just wanted innocent bloodshed - and this also applies to other liberation struggles that happened (and still happen) like the Basques for example, who after centuries and centuries of Castilian oppression and straight up ethnic cleasing + cultural genocide decided to fight back, and that to the Empire was unthinkable so they made everything they could to stop it (idk if you are familiar with Spanish contemporary history, but just look up the GAL deathsquads which were deployed by both the French and Spanish democratic states in the 80s to torture and murder ethnic Basques, regardless if they were affiliated to any liberation movements or not, also btw many of the GAL members were Spanish neonazis cops and other fascists from PIDE and OAS - many who later returned to being cops again!). Wait, state-sponsored deathsquads deployed by so-called democratic governments to squash any independence movements? Sounds familiar... Great video as always, looking forward to your next topic. 👀

I also thought that it was just generalized pacifist hand wringing, but I also knew the situation had to be more complex as is always the case with generalized pacifist hand wringing. Thanks for clearing that up. I had no idea it was targeted so specifically at one side.

Thank you! I was completely clueless about this song. Happy to know better.

Nice work, Paul! Considering the streak you're on, I think it's safe to say that you have a knack for this style of political content.

The in your head part to me sounded like she was talking about ptsd.

In absolute fairness, "God Be With You Ireland" is both a much better song and generally supportive of Irish independence.

I'm curious if you have seen the movie The Banshees of Inisherin, and if so, have you ever thought about making an essay video about it, especially since you are Irish? (warning for spoilers) It's a shame that in the end it was all an allegory for the Irish Civil War with the main message being "they were fighting over nothing" because personally I don't think Irish people fighting to free Ireland from British occupation (and their collaborators) is a bad thing actually. But maybe that's just me.

Really cool way to learn more about Irish history. Thanks for this video. Also, I was surprised to learn malinchism was a word in English. I am Mexican and 'Malinchismo" is a word we are all too familiar with since it was born from the name 'Malinche' (Spanish version of the name Malintzin in Nahuatl) who was the Interpreter/guide/mistress to the Conquistador Hernan Cortes during the invasion of Mesoamerica. I know in the US, their version of this would be 'turncoat' or 'Benedict Arnold'. Your videos are so good. Thanks again for dropping so much knowledge on us.

Awesome video, comrade. Thank you

Well. It's good to finally my vague unease over the 1916 line be put into contex.

Thank you so much for making this amazing video!

Man I thought the in your Head part meant that, the Irish libarationists relive painful memories in their head like a trauma or something.

Jesus, as a Russian Ukrainian I have experienced Malinchism on several levels - firstly as a Ukrainian who spoke with people (predominantly elder ones) who viewed the Ukrainian culture to be vastly inferior to the Russian culture. Secondly, as a Russian who spoke with (predominantly younger) people who saw Russian culture as vastly inferior to the "Western" cultures.

I've been looking for this video for ages. Nice one.

Wow, I realized the song had some questionable politics from the whole "same old theme since 1916" part, but I had assumed the "it's not me, it's not my family" was at least about the way people distance themselves from death and violence because it doesn't directly affect them personally. I mean I guess I was kinda right, but its not others abdication of responsibility on display here, rather her own.

Absolute kicker of a video comrade 🤘🏽

Genuinely, I've been a fan of this song because of the music. I habitually don't go deeper into these arts than just perceiving them and enjoying them on the surface. But I now see that it's important to gauge the deeper message behind art; otherwise if you endorse it wholly, you also endorse the message. Lots of food for thought.

Well I guess I'm happy I came across this video. Thank you for educating people on this. I'm going to miss the sound of the song though. If anyone knows any songs in a similar style, I'd love to hear about them.

Absolute BANGER! There truly nothing as ghoulish as stereotypical liberal both side-ism and as you pointed out, malinchism. Hopefully, we don't have to wait as long for the next video 😂

Herself and Bono are the terrible two of freestatism

I was born in Boston Massachusetts and I'm more Irish than Delores

Great video, thanks for breaking this down. I had never really looked too far into the lyrics, and after watching this it's blatantly obvious.

Well. That's really taken the edge off my '94 high. Thanks, Paul. Good job, well done. Now my snark is out of the way, it's clear I had absolutely no context for this song when I was a high grunge child. And apparently, regardless of the number of times I've returned to 'No Need To Argue' I've never thought about it at all. You've ruined my childhood, Paul, and spoken ill of the dead. Now I'm mildly depressed. I think I have an album and a herb for that emotional state... You never cease to teach me things, comrade! Take the above with the humour it's delivered with, and keep it up. Also, the random sounds are the best part of the song to sing as well.

I see you’re a media critic now, Paul. I wrote my college dissertation on the Troubles and my focus was on English colonization of Ireland. After that Zombie has always hit differently.

Im glad Im not the only human being on earth whos's had this exact same thought. It seemed a little weird how much blame it put on the Irish side of things without mentioning the actual factors that drove the conflict. It wasnt all just mindless primal violence. Theres a glaring structural factor. Ive never heard anyone criticize this song. Thank you for making me feel less crazy.

Wonderful video. But allow me to say something about the word Malinchism. This word comes from a name of an indigenous woman who was key in the defeat of the Aztec empire due to her knowledge of Nahua, Maya and Spanish. We invented that word attributing this colonial mindset a lot of people have in Mexico to that woman. However, lately this word has being criticized because it puts the blame on an indigenous woman who while already enslaved was given to the Spanish as a slave.

Wtf I didn't get the notification for this. Great video Paul. I remember when I was doing my a-levels (exams we have to do in England before going to uni for anyone not familiar) and me and a good friend whose also a comrade spoke about this song and how much we dislike it

I never knew she was a class traitor. 😂😅I can't sing this at karoke now it's too greasy

What an amazing production, bravo!

Great video Paul!!! I would love to see more deep dives into music like this.

Glad the algorithm blessed me with this one

Please do more! Love it!

Zombie isn't even The Cranberries best single. She should have stuck with being sad and Irish instead of attempting to talk politics and doing this centrist political nonsense.

Well done. Very informative!

Again, this is a fantastic video

Very informative, thank you! I knew next to nothing on the subject except that there had been violent conflict between Ireland and the UK at some point, and due to the vagueness of the lyrics it just seemed like a condemnation of violence and the politics that lead to it. Pretty depressing and annoying to find out what it was actually about.

[11:23] Brazil scooching over, with the popcorn (now, seriously, I never really understood when she said "it's the SAME OLD THEME since 1916")

that is so interesting, because, as a polish kid, my mother taught me that zombie carries a pro-irish resistance message, as well as a pro-liberation message in general. it's almost funny how wrong she was, if it wasn't so horrifically tragic

fantastic work

LETS GOOO 🎉ITS FINALLY OUT

The most interesting and sad thing about Dolores is that she is essentially a textbook example of post-colonial trauma. She clearly wanted the approval of her oppressors - and yet never made peace with herself. You don’t drown yourself in alcohol in a bathtub unless you’re dealing with some deep, repressed trauma… sadly that is the face of so much of the children of Éire… as well as many many other cultures that have been crushed by the “civilizers” of the world.

I still remember the first time some of this dawned on me. I was parking my car after returning to work from lunch, this song was on the radio. I was about to turn off the car when it all fell into place.