Fury As Teen Says He Was Fired for Listening to 'Leftist' Music at Work

A Reddit post claiming a teenager in Texas was fired from his job for listening to "leftist" music at work has gone viral.

In a post upvoted over 49,000 times, a user posting as Riverdoggo21 claimed his boss let him go from his part-time job at a small bike shop after taking umbrage at the fact he was listening to Rage Against The Machine while on shift.

The claims sparked a mixture of consternation and amusement among those following along on social media, while the teen later returned to reveal his boss had since issued an apology over his abrupt firing.

Whether he decides to return to the job, however, remains to be seen. After all, it's rare for part-time workers to see their jobs as anything more than a means to an end. This sentiment was perhaps best showcased in a Pew Research Center survey which found that just 25 percent of part-time employees view their job as a career.

Meanwhile, 22 percent see it as a stepping stone while the majority (52 percent) consider it as simply a job to help them get by.

Young workers are less likely to see a job as a career too, with just 26 percent of 18 to 29 year olds surveyed as part of the study seeing their role in those terms. By contrast, 41 percent viewed it as simply a stepping stone to another career.

Given the prevailing attitude of his age group, the teen posting to Reddit may be tempted to give his former role a wide berth, particularly after how he was initially treated.

According to the post, the shop he worked in is in "a predominately Republican area," while his boss there was "one of those people who shows up to work everyday in his lifted Ford F-250, with his full array of Trump flags and 'Blue Lives Matter' stickers."

While the teen worker is no Republican himself, he has preferred to avoid talking about politics in the workplace. However, things came to a head while he was busy working on building a bicycle in the back of the shop.

As he worked away on the bike, the teen said he had some music by the band Rage Against The Machine playing on his iPhone speaker.

Best known for songs like "Killing In The Name," "Bulls On Parade" and "Sleep Now in the Fire," the L.A. outfit are known for their revolutionary political views and lyrics touching on themes of anti-capitalism and anti-law.

So, when his boss joined him in the backroom, he was apparently quickly dismayed to discover what the teenager was listening to.

According to the Redditor, his boss went on a rant about how the group were a "treasonous, leftist cult that infected the mind" among other things.

After he left, the teenager decided to switch to listening to his music through his earbuds but his boss returned soon after and demanded to know what he was listening to.

When he discovered it was Rage Against The Machine, he "promptly" fired the youngster in a reaction that the teenager quickly branded "extreme."

In a follow-up post, the Reddit user shared a screenshot of an email sent to him by his now-former boss apologizing for poking in his "personal preferences" though the manager did insist Rage Against The Machine promotes "lies and misinformation."

Though he invited the youngster to return to his role, he also understood if he may not wish to do so.

Newsweek has contacted Riverdoggo21 for comment.

Given the responses of many online, the teen may well opt to stay away, with people on social media largely scathing of the boss's actions.

Thaldrath commented: "File for unemployment, his loss honestly," with First_Approximation quipping: "Boss unwittingly proved Rage Against the Machine is right about everything."

ShakespeareOnIce joked: "Call him a snowflake and move on," while Mariocraft95 suggested: "If he fired me because he didn't like the music I liked, I would call him all the negative Republican terms in the book and watch him get offended as I walk out."

DataJC wondered whether the lyrics "hit too close to home for him," with Dismal-Radish-7520 dismissed the angry boss as a "triggered baby."