Wilco's Jeff Tweedy Pens Open Letter to Internet Trolls Welcoming Them to His 'Bubble'

"I grew up in what I think might be something like your bubble. You should at least try this one!"

Fans of Wilco should not be surprised to hear the indie rock figureheads are leftists. And yet some recent political social media posts from the band have incited trolling responses on their Facebook page, sparking frontman Jeff Tweedy to respond. 

"Dear fellow citizens who are being mean in our comments section," Tweedy started in an open letter posted to Facebook on Monday (Jan. 23). "I don't know you so it's hard for me to accurately guess how much time you spend on your devices commenting on and unfollowing 'celebrities' and moderately well known music figures. My assumption is that it's more than even you would care to admit."

Striking a tone between heartfelt and snarky, Tweedy went on to say the negative response he received over recent photos of him at the Women's March on Saturday and the band with former President Barack Obama has inspired him to post more similar content. 

"I should take advantage of the opportunity to occupy your time and energy as often as possible to infiltrate your minds," he wrote. "Not because I have much hope of changing your opinions ... but I mean, MAYBE our sincerity about the things that concern us can inspire some deeper investigation into those concerns."

He also explained that posting such opinions feels like a coping strategy in order to "not to despair and to try to remain hopeful" in the current political climate, while reminding people to participate as American citizens. From there, we continued to invite anyone living in a different "bubble" to share his bubble where there are "so many decent people that don't really care that much about people being different than they are."

"If you can trust a reality TV star billionaire when he says, 'believe me,' surely you can believe me when I say you're welcome in my bubble," he wrote. "I grew up in what I think might be something like your bubble. You should at least try this one! Come on in!"

Finally, Tweedy suggested that maybe it's a good thing that these trolls "blow off a little steam" and feel a bit more control in their lives by saying hurtful things on the internet. Or maybe they're serious and their words should be taken literally. Either way, he said, he's glad they're spending time online rather than "out in the world acting on the anger so evident in your hastily typed and misspelled defenses of a man who has been elevated to a position of immense power but in whom I've yet to see any evidence of virtue."

"I would like to welcome you back to our little corner of the web to spit and foam anytime you like. I can take it. I'm not afraid of you. There are more of us here and there always will be," he said. "We'll keep laying out dishes of warm outrage for you to lap up in the form of our vision of a better world."

Read the full letter here: