The outrage over Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town,’ explained
The outrage over Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town,’ explained
Accusations of racism prompted a country music channel to pull the video, which is set at the site of an infamous lynching and race riot. But Republicans are embracing Aldean.
Typical "I wish a dude would" fantasy that appeals to a lot of these conservatives.
Except for them it’s not a “dude” and instead ends with the hard “R.”
Coincidentally, "Republican" starts with a hard "R."
It's 100% fantasy though, small towns don't care about any of that any more than cities. His "small towns" dwarf the population of my county and we have places where the serious growers are that the police only go to with lots of backup. Flag burning is just Bob being Bob and it ain't hurtin nobody. You cause too much trouble and people might start talking about you and quit inviting anywhere but church but there's not going to be a mob after you. Small towns tend to be a lot more libertarian than nationalistic in their conservatism.
“Cuss out a cop, spit in his face/ Stomp on the flag and light it up/ Yeah, ya think you’re tough,” he sings, and at another point: “Try that in a small town/ Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right/ If you’re looking for a fight.”
As fucked up as this is I'm laughing thinking about all this mofo's fans that would still rock out to 'Killing in the Name' the second they heard those first hits.
Especially considering that, with the exception of spitting, those are protected rights. Imagine threatening violence and murder for protesting or criticizing the government.
My conservative coworker was outraged about "all the lefty political shit" when he went to see Rage on the last tour. I was like damn bro you never really payed attention did you.
Shocker: band with man who painted "arm the homeless" on guitar is leftist.
Somebody who knows what they're doing could probably make a good song mashup out of those.
Saw a TikTok that compared it to having the same vibes as that key and Peele racist country song sketch and also Bo Burnham's country song parody.
Satire has been dead since 2016.
Less relevant here, imo, but still funny and worth a watch: Key & Peele - Is This Country Song Racist?
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Thanks. I was in the middle of something when I posted that and didn't get to grab the links.
Disney/ABC wasn't bothered enough by this racist fucking song to stop him from singing it on national TV last night. What a disgrace.
famously small towns of Macon, GA (150k population) and Homestead, FL (80k population).
I live in a town of 5k, so I'm sure it's the same.
Well this is exactly why we need to cut black history lessons in schools so we won't have this outrage, problem solved. /s
Anyway, this guy deserves all the backlash and then some. When you use your kids to promote your right wing political views, to me you are already a giant piece of shit, and then there is the racism, good ol' easy listening country music racism and many don't even notice.
Indeed. I was raised in a right wing bubble, and as a child/young teen I spouted off bullshit that makes me cringe and is a gut punch to this day.
It wasn't until I started thinking critically as a young adult and left home to see the world that I was like "Holy shit. We are fucked up."
And so now, whenever I see someone using their children who are too young to truly understand the implications of what they're saying, and are just spouting off hateful rhetoric to gain their parents approval - almost nothing fills me with as much disgust. I write off the parents as terrible people instantly. I haven't listened to him in a while, but I was a fan of "Big Green Tractor" when it was released. Never again though. Fuck him, his writers, his agents, and his producers.
And couching all these right wing ideals in a catchy, basic, palatable-to-the-masses country song and releasing it to the public is fucking insidious. It's normalizing the idea that if you disagree with authority or the government, you don't speak up: country boys will come after you. Just shut up and deal with the status quo. 🤢
And while he's normalizing the idea of staying silent to stay safe, Florida is trying to push that slavery was beneficial to black people 😮💨. Fuck this timeline.
I feel kinda bad for his producers who can only experience sexual arousal when they indulge their humiliation fetish like this. Just wish they'd leave the rest of us out of it.
"Racist bigot sings racist bigoted lyrics in a racist bigoted song."
Turns out it's not that hard to explain
Small towns sound fascisticy as fuck then. Maybe it would be wise to stay away from fascist assholes.
I watched the video, it's nice and catchy. And there's no racism in it. Maybe you won't like it if you're an antifa member?
A song about gunning down people showing images of People of Color protesting and filmed in front of a building historically associated with lynching, including the attempted lynching of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
I haven't heard the song, but I just read the lyrics and I'm honestly not interpreting it as a racist song. I did grow up in the southeast US so I may have some biases, but the wording and phrases all read safe to me, at least in regards to racism.
The lyrics convey to me a small town mentality of 'you mess with them you've messed with me' which is a prevalent southern attitude, but the only thing he references are criminals, not a marginalized group.
I do lean left with most of my views, I'm anti capitalist, pro free speech, pro tax funded healthcare, pro trans rights and anti racism, so I feel like I should be exactly the demographic that would be sensitive to overt and even potentially subtle racism.
That said, I do think that vigilante justice is super problematic, and so even though I don't agree this song is racist, I do counter propose the song encourages mob justice mentality, which is a different kind of problem that also matters.
If I'm missing critical details or context, please let me know. I have only read the lyrics, so insofar as that conveys, that's my read.
Did you read the article?
Accusations of racism prompted a country music channel to pull the video, which is set at the site of an infamous lynching and race riot.
Also, the lyrics are tone deaf. He's saying that him and his friends will kick the ass of anyone who disrespects police and/or the American flag... completely ignoring the reasons WHY people might feel compelled to disrespect police and/or the American flag.
But Bo Burnham said it best, he's pandering
Even though I'm left leaning I don't agree with ACAB takes because it literally isn't all police, so I don't agree with the institution of law enforcement being bad, and recognize that it adds value to society. The flag, idk, flags are just cloth to me, I could care less about allegiance to a country, especially when I disagree a lot with what my country does, or where its politics are heading.
I watched the Bo Burnham clip, lots of funny, it's pretty on the nose.
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