'It was like, 'I'm proud to be a redneck' and I was like, 'oh my God, why would you be proud of something like that?' This is exactly what I'm against.' Songwriter Mike Dirnt felt many people would be insulted by the track until they realized that, rather than it being a finger-pointing song of anger, it could be viewed as a 'call for individuality.' The song emphasizes strong language, juxtaposing the words ' faggot' and 'America', to create what he imagined would be a voice for the disenfranchised. Armstrong went on to write the song after hearing the Lynyrd Skynyrd song ' That's How I Like It' on his car radio. Citing cable news coverage of the Iraq War, Billie Joe Armstrong recalled, 'They had all these Geraldo-like journalists in the tanks with the soldiers, getting the play-by-play.' He felt with that, American news crossed the line from journalism to reality television, showcasing violent footage intercut with advertisements. One of the two explicitly political songs on the album (the other being fellow single ' Holiday'), 'American Idiot' contends that mass media has orchestrated paranoia and idiocy among the public.
