Moby: Donald Trump Is ‘Actual Sociopath’

Moby is tired of being diplomatic. The electronic musician, who released his thirteenth studio album, These Systems Are Failing, earlier this month, thinks anyone considering voting for a candidate other than Hillary Clinton, or thinking of not voting at all, is dangerously misguided and he’s not afraid to tell them — friendships and record sales be damned.

The musician has been behind the Democratic nominee since she announced her bid for president early last year, but Moby is not just #withher; he’s vehemently opposed to her Republican rival, Donald Trump. 

The outspoken artist released two songs earlier this month – “Trump Is on Your Side” and “Little Failure” – as part of Dave Eggers’ “30 Days, 40 Songs” project featuring musicians performing anti-Trump songs. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he explains why he believes Trump represents a singular threat to the Republic and what he worries might happen if he’s elected.

I’ve known Hillary since the late Nineties, early 2000s. We met in New York — our paths kept crossing at different left-wing or Democratic fundraisers. When I came out and supported her candidacy, I just assumed that my fellow left-wing progressives would be enthusiastic about her candidacy and her possibly being president because she’s incredibly erudite. She has, for the most part, a super solid, progressive voting record. And it was an opportunity at the first female president. 

What stunned me was how much vitriol there was. I was on the receiving end of so much vitriol from people who were just repeating these old right-wing attacks. I guess that’s a testament to the effectiveness of the right-wing attack machine: even my progressive Democrat friends were repeating [debunked] right-wing attack lines Karl Rove had come up. I knew things had gotten bad when a progressive friend of mine started trying to say that Hillary killed Vince Foster. That was really disconcerting.

“This is the future not just of our country, but of our planet. It’s the future of our species.”

I’m tired of being diplomatic. I’m tired of being a mealy-mouthed, NPR-listening lefty who has to respect other people’s opinions. If someone’s wrong, I just want to have the temerity to say that they’re wrong. I’m tired of listening to people who simply are dangerously wrong and having to pretend that we respect their opinions. Trump voters are wrong. Jill Stein voters are wrong. There’s no ambiguity. I like the idea that the world in which we live is filled with lots of nuance and shades of gray, but when it comes to this, there’s no nuance and there’s no shades of gray. You’re either on the side of progress or you’re not, and I’m just tired of accommodating delusional, ignorant people.

If you have a 25-year-old who’s a Jill Stein supporter but they were nine when Ralph Nader handed the presidency to George W. Bush, they don’t know better. There are a lot of people who have lived in a relatively benign bubble, like young women who just assume that Roe v. Wade will always be the law of the land. I think that there’s an innocence that is informing a lot of people’s desire not to vote, or to vote for Jill Stein, but it’s because they’ve had eight years of Obama. And I think that that innocence is making some of them naive and delusional. 

I just hope that millennials understand the consequences — what’s at stake in this election and how bad things could get with a Trump presidency and Republican control of the House and Senate. I’m just really hoping that millennials wake up and vote, even in a self-interested way. Like, just vote to try and protect themselves and protect their future.

[Louis C.K. summed it up] when he was talking about people who were on the fence about Hillary or are not going vote for her. He was basically saying, “Just grow up.” This is not some nonsensical online Facebook poll. This is the future not just of our country, but of our planet. It’s the future of our species.

In past elections, I’ve vehemently disagreed with people’s political orientation or the policies they are proposing, but with Trump, I actually find myself disagreeing with his humanity. I think there is something seriously broken inside him where he’s an actual sociopath and on the spectrum pretty close to being a psychopath. He’s done nothing to indicate that he’s even capable of feeling empathy [for anyone] except for himself.

[A Trump presidency would be] death by 1,000 Republican cuts. It basically gives the NRA the ability to write gun policy. It gives the coal industry and the oil industry the ability to write energy policy. It’s handing the keys to people who want to advance policy measures that are just — again, I try and be diplomatic, but they’re trying to advance policy measures to protect their corporate interests or protect their personal interests but to the egregious detriment of our country.

I was raised in a naïve, progressive, feminist bubble. Everyone in my family is very progressive; I was raised in a matriarchy. I was raised discussing first-, second-, third-wave feminism and, from an early age, learning how to spell women W-O-M-Y-N. What I’ve seen [this election], and all my female friends have clearly been aware of for their entire lives, is there is a deep-rooted misogyny in this country that is virulent and pretty horrifying. 

“There is a deep-rooted misogyny in this country that is virulent and pretty horrifying.”

I, as a cis-gendered white man, hadn’t really been aware of it. But you see people not being comfortable just flat-out stating their misogyny, but instead stating something like they can’t vote for Hillary “because of her voice” or “the way she dresses.” And I’m like, “You know what? That’s just straight-up misogyny.” It’s like how there were so many people who were vehemently opposed to Obama and it was just insidious racism.

The argument for her, and I hope this is self-evident, is that she’s smart, principled, experienced and tough, with a solid, progressive voting record. I get very frustrated when people say that she’s not a progressive. Have you actually looked at her legislative record? It’s almost identical to Bernie Sanders’ legislative record.

With Trump, you get a belligerent racist who’s most likely a sociopath [and] definitely a racist and misogynist with no governing experience. And with Hillary, you get an incredibly bright, progressive, strong, experienced legislator. There’s no choice unless you’re ignorant, delusional or racist.

I’ve given more money to Democrats this cycle than I’ve ever given in an election season. I’ve done phone-banking, tweeted, Facebooked and Instagrammed, probably to my own personal detriment — the detriment of my friendships [and] certainly the detriment of my professional life – but honestly, the results of this election are more important than most. I’d rather lose fans and have a hand in trying to keep Donald Trump out of the White House than trying to protect a career. A career pales in comparison to the health and wellbeing of our country and our planet.

What I learned a long time ago is if you’re a public figure and you’re opinionated and outspoken, people will hate you for it — even if they agree with what you’re saying. But it’s really nice: I’ve been doing this for a long time and at this point I just don’t care. What’s someone gonna do — not buy my records? It’s 2016, no one buys records anyway.

As told to Tessa Stuart

Watch a timeline of the October surprises of the 2016 election.