Harris is totally mistaken about the nature of whitebread indie in today's music scene. He bemoans the "white males limply strumming" to the same old tune, failing to "cross-pollinate" with the "diverse cultures" of the world, but he's forgetting two things: one, record collections can be diverse even if individual artists are not themselves hybrids, i.e., my "open mind" can be demonstrated by listening to both Arcade Fire and Jay-Z without wishing Arcade Fire to be like Jay-Z or vice versa; and two, he's overlooking the Vampire Weekend Conundrum, in which white males limply strum along to lots of African influences, among others, in a way that fools nobody about their highly insular pedigree.
And no, Morrissey would not have "gone down a storm". Morrissey sold 18 copies of "Years of Refusal". The opposite argument can be used: Morrissey is less popular than ever. Harris is completely out of touch.
As to his comments about Morrissey in particular: complete and utter dreck. What Morrissey's concern for being "gentle and kind" really reveals is the problem of universalism: as we see with the "subspecies" kerfuffle, Morrissey is into grand statements and sweeping applications of morality and ethics. The problem is how one insists on one's own individualism while at the same time mobilizing and upholding a universal code of right and wrong. The paradox Harris misses is that while Morrissey's views seem "reactionary" and hopelessly outdated, his art in fact points the way toward an even more progressive, more obviously leftist space than does Harris' pale, cliched, gutless "multiculturalism".
Like everyone else, Harris quotes "I Know It's Over" as an example of Morrissey's big heart, but he forgets the "guts" part: it can be seen as a higher, tougher, stronger form of morality to show the guts to be gentle and kind toward animals and to insist on their unconditional protection no matter who gets offended in the process. But this wouldn't occur to Harris, whose great example of a society overcoming its problems is a bunch of nobs attending a Gorillaz concert. It's no wonder the other side is winning.