This song deals with the US military and their aggressive tactics. It mentions how the arms industry encourages war to get military contracts with lines like, "Weapons, not food, not homes, not shoes, not need, just feed the war cannibal-animal," and "What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and moving." The song is from the album Evil Empire, whose title itself is a reference to US president Ronald Reagan's description of the former Soviet Union.
The lyric at the beginning is "Come With It Now." It is often mistaken for "Quit It Now."
Rage Against The Machine performed this on a controversial episode of Saturday Night Live in 1996. During rehearsals, they hung upside-down American flags on their amps, which is something they did at their live shows. The SNL producers thought it might offend Steve Forbes, a billionaire presidential candidate who was hosting that night, and told the group to take the flags down. The band agreed, but just before Forbes introduced them for this song, their roadies tried to hang the flags. The stage crew quickly took them down, and after the number, the group was banished from the building without getting to play a second song. Regarding the message of the upside-down flags, lead singer Zack de la Rocha said: "American democracy is inverted when your only choice is between wealthy representatives of the privileged classes."
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