Unironically this. The boomers spent their early adulthood surrounded by the counter-culture of the 60s and 70s but never felt included and didn’t really get it. They thought the angst was against the vague spectre of authoritarianism, which to them was simply the Democrats and their Big Government raising taxes, or something. They missed the anticapitalist part. So they thought they understood the revolutionary left as a superficial anarchism, a fight against authority in general, and not a historical fight against capitalist authority in particular. So when they learn that these bands are anticapitalist, they felt betrayed (by their own ignorance).
I always wondered what machine they thought they were raging against. Their washing machine, perhaps
Big Guberment
Unironically this. The boomers spent their early adulthood surrounded by the counter-culture of the 60s and 70s but never felt included and didn’t really get it. They thought the angst was against the vague spectre of authoritarianism, which to them was simply the Democrats and their Big Government raising taxes, or something. They missed the anticapitalist part. So they thought they understood the revolutionary left as a superficial anarchism, a fight against authority in general, and not a historical fight against capitalist authority in particular. So when they learn that these bands are anticapitalist, they felt betrayed (by their own ignorance).
I think machine was just a stand in for these people to project their gripes onto.
To gamers, wokeism is the machine, sorta thing.
Its funny though because I always mishear song lyrics but with bands like rage they were more than clear enough for even me.