I started typing up my own personal observations about Rush lyrics changing over time, but then I found this quote from Geddy Lee himself:

A few songs may have also been a little naive in their original intent. The nasty little tale called “The Trees,” of course — a comment on forced equality. Being a much more liberal-minded adult, I now have a softer approach to things in life and I’m much more open and willing. I put a lot more importance on social responsibility now than I ever did. I talk about that, of course, when I’m referring to free will. There were a few things we sang about in our early twenties that seemed very important. But as time has gone on, you ameliorate those views because life has told you it’s not so simple. Once you encounter problems and you begin to help your family or friends with some of those problems, you learn a lot about how much of life has lived in the gray areas as opposed to the black and white areas.

The Trees was, and still is, one of my favorite songs for the sake of the music. And I can see how the lyrics may have worked a lot better back during the cold war, just a couple of decades after genocide and famine wiped out millions in the USSR and China.

I grew up listening to both a greatest hits CD that has libertarian tracks like Freewill and The Trees and 2112, but also listening to Snakes and Arrows that had polar opposite messages in songs like Far Cry, the Way the Wind Blows, and The Larger Bowl. They got smarter and more aware of their own privilege as they grew older and saw more of the world.

I mean Neil Peart took the right ideas from "individualism" : personal liberties, and dedicating yourself do doing the hard, necessary work. Selling organs and not paying taxes so corporation scan profit off hospitals isn't what's in Rush's lyrics; it's the collective oppressing the individual, which happens under many ideological forms.

2112 does go fucking hard, Temples of Syrinx was one of my all-time favourite songs, and I listened to it for years on a bad audio system without being able to understand the lyrics properly. Once I started hearing them properly, though, it started feeling a bit sus (I'm a big lyrics person) which lead me to find the interview above. I'm glad to hear they've changed since then, though.

Red lenses, Red Tide

Can I get a TLDR about Rand for me and the rest of the terminally lazy people

Please tell me John Petrucci have regretted backing Trump!