Dee Snider knows about resistance.Twisted Sister - the band that the native Long Islander fronted in the 1980s - built their reputation on a hit song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” that teens across the world shouted and sang as their anthem against their parents and authority figures.
The flagrant frontman had lent the anthem to other causes, approving of their use - and at other times disapproving of it.
But on Saturday, Snider tweeted his support of Ukranians battling against an invasion army from Russia who wanted to revive the perennial paean to protests.
“I absolutely approve of Ukrainians using ‘We're Not Gonna Take It’ as their battlecry,” snider said in his tweet on February 26, 2022. “My grandfather was Ukrainian, before it was swallowed up by the USSR after WW2. This can't happen to these people again!” He ended the tweet with a hashtag that doubled down on his stance.
Twitter lit up after Snider’s approval and for days the rocker has been retweeting support messages and having conversations with supporters. The next day, he clarified his stance on using the song in support of Ukraine while deriding its use by anti-maskers.
“People are asking me why I endorsed the use of ‘We're Not Gonna Take It’ for the Ukrainian people and did not for the anti-maskers,” he tweeted. “Well, one use is for a righteous battle against oppression; the other is a infantile feet stomping against an inconvenience.”