*patriotic guitar twangles*

Fuck this bible thumpin reactionary hillbilly dork.

"But he goes after both sides!"

No, He punches down on poor people. Fuck off with that.

The name of the song itself is a huuuuuggggge dog whistle, imo. Tells me everything I need to know about the target demographic.
- Dude is a full blown nazi, his YouTube channel had (possibly still has) a playlist of videos titled something like "videos to make ya think", including stuff about the dancing Israelis conspiracy theory.
- How is that? I'd honestly like to know. It raises my hackles, but i can't really explain why.
  "Rich men north of Richmond"... I'm not american, so maybe that's why i don't quite get it
Who tf is this anyway?
- Apparently his name is Oliver Anthony.

I feel like I should be happy to not recognize this person.

Same
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This song does such a good job with communicating the conservaive trinity:

persecution complex
mad about things they themselves voted for
mad that the other is getting something, which is obviously undeserved

In his interviews he claims he is a centrist but takes issues with teachers turning girls into boys and boys into girls.
- So he's a centrist™?
I'm ootl, what's the song?
- Rich men North of Richmond
- Rich Men North of Richmond, by Oliver Anthony

That's because a lot of Americans are under the impression that poor people are poor because they're lazy, and not because they're victims of oppression. They even cling to this absurd belief when they themselves are the victims of similar oppression. Must be lead in the water or something…

I've lived in very poor, rural, white American places, and it's unironically all about skin color.
White and poor? It's because the Democrats illegally steal your money with taxes, and any welfare is just you getting back less than you deserve.
Black and poor? It's because you're bad, and any welfare is the Democrats buying your vote and supporting you destroying the country with your violence.
- Can confirm. There is no such thing as a "white welfare queen".
It is basically a slightly different variations of this
It's an outcome of puritanical Protestantism in the modern day. It's nicknamed prosperity theology. Lack of wealth is seen as a moral failure, rather than a societal one. To be wealthy is to be granted abundance by God, and to be poor is to be punished for misdeeds in the eyes of God. It's a cruel ideal that is deeply embedded into right wing American religious spaces.
- Ah, yes. I remember Jesus explaining this in the lecture on the mount.
Actually it's "forever chemicals" that they're drinking https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/08/what-are-pfas-forever-chemicals-what-risk-toxicity

He's a Jewish conspiracy level Nazi.

And unfortunately he's also a pretty damn good singer.
Like my hackles were up the whole time I was listening to the song because I knew this is some sort of like Republican redneck protest song against the liberals, but at the same time I had to admit the guy can fucking sing and it was a good song.
We really need to step up our protest song game.
- You need to get out there and look.
  Lots of revolutionary music being made, just not made by industry plants and boosted by bullshit
  Tho he is a good singer, the song was basic
- Yeah that first verse about how we struggle, etc. I was very interested. Then look out for miners, not minors...oook easy dunk, we can all get behind protecting kids. Then the welfare thing. Oh it's republican talking points not a new uprising of classic country like Cash
- AJJ aka Andrew Jackson Jihad has been around making protest songs for awhile.
- Fit For An Autopsy has been around for a while my dude. Look them up.
- The song on youtube does seem to have recorded much greater pipes than he actually has live in person.
- Burnin sherman
- Check out David Dondero - The Filter Bubble Blues.
- Oh that's absolutely v i l e
  And not just the highlighted one

Image Transcription:

Picture of Oliver Anthony singing with the caption above: "When the government gives more of your tax money to corporations but you're mad someone used EBT to buy snacks"

[I am a human, if I've made a mistake please message and let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for images for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]

Good job! Thank you for doing that.

Anyone have the numbers of social welfare spending vs corporate welfare spending for a recent year? Say 2020-2022? I can't find it.

I'm too lazy to look up the numbers, but I think the premise of this argument is rather weak.
Money spend on social welfare, vastly improves poor people's lives. When you spend it on corporate welfare, the money tends to go into the pockets of people who are already pretty comfortable.
This is a simplification of a multifaceted issue, but by and large I think this holds a lot more water than just comparing numbers.
Also: There was a pandemic in the time period given, so there might be some selection bias.
- Means testing is something that wastes a lot of public welfare funds and is usually a tool utilized by those who want to cut programs as an example of welfares inability to work. If we got rid of means testing then corporate welfare would be shown for how truly useless it is. I'm not arguing with you or anything, just adding some more detail to the topic
It depends on what exactly you consider social welfare and corporate welfare. There's all sorts of ways to split the data.
Let's be more specific and find out how much public money was spent on sugarry snacks for fat people, which is his ridiculous complaint. I'll assume we're not psychopaths who are generally against a social safety net.

I legit actually like country music. Country music and punk rock. Both of them are just three chords and the truth

And man, when this song started, dude came in hot. I loved it. And then he went flying right off the rails.

Exactly what I thought, the first verse and most of the chorus is legit working class anxiety. The rest is blaming other victims of the system, and while it references "rich men," it contains no criticism of their wealth, the reference to taxes is more the opposite.
- Well it kinda does criticize them, just only if they are located above a certain geographical point
A friend sent it to me, and at first I was hopeful... then I was like 'hmm... strange choice of wording' then I was like 'oh, that was deliberate' as it started to sound more like propaganda and less like a legitimate statement.

I know this guy. I mean, not exactly this guy but pretty much.

- I can’t tell you how many people walked into my store at the height of that shit and said, “Well, I got the wuflu. It ain’t nothin’. Just a dang cold.”
  Or, “shew buddy, China bug is about to wipe me out buddy. I ain’t never been so sick in my life. cough cough cough Whatchu wearing’ ‘at democrat rag for? You can still smell a fart cain’t yuh?”

I likes the song when I saw it on Tik Tok. Now I'm getting videos for right wing politics. I just thought it sounded good. Had no idea that it would become a nazi war cry.

Yeah, I get it. It's like conservatives who use "Born in the USA" at political rallies. Sometimes you gotta listen to the lyrics
I just thought it sounded good
Listen to more music. His voice is mediocre and his message is disgusting.
You can do better.
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/t-MX5P1LCuw
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
- Thanks for recommendation, love finding new music.

I was at guitar center shopping for a nylon classical and this kid was singing that Oliver guy's one song in the acoustic room.

When he finished I told him that song is about me.

He also played wonder wall, no joke, 10 times.

Lmfao

id be willing to wager a $20 he used A.I. software and tweaked it for these lyrics. everyone commenting has been skirting, what i think, to be just a new trend in bait music.

The song is bad yet just cognitive enough to cause a stir.

Don’t forget how infectious stupid can be, especially when under pressure
- As it's relevant, let's remember the video Hank Green posted on TikTok discussing how "for every word expressing a negative emotion in a headline, that increased the click-through rate to that article by 2.3%" and "if they make us disgusted, outraged, frustrated, scared? Then? Then we start thinking about clicking
  It looks to reference this article from Nature:
  Robertson, C.E., Pröllochs, N., Schwarzenegger, K. et al. Negativity drives online news consumption. Nat Hum Behav 7, 812–822 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01538-4
Throwback to when @destineenstark gave an 8m3s discussion and analysis on TikTok spelling out how DESPITE Jason Williams swearing that all the video from "try that in a 'small' town" is all original and genuine, one thing is from Berlin, Germany, another from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, another stock image from somewhere else...

You could be mad at both.... why is this a black and white issue? EBT abuse is real.

I have seen people literally sell the milk they get from EBT that was intended to be used for their baby. They bragged about being able to get the new iphone with it. I have seen homeless who buy bottled water on SNAP only to dump and resell the bottles so they could get cash for their addictions. Why would i not be mad at that just as I am at how corporate bailouts didnt help anyone except the top .01% of society?

Edit: so many hexbears. I dont care to respond to Kremlin bots.

Idk man, just seems like small potatoes, and rare. Everyone has to eat and I find it doubtful that the skinny EBT amounts will fund an addict's lifestyle significantly if the food is resold on the secondary market.
- When it comes to government waste? It's not nothing, but I think you're right, it is technically small potatoes. But it isn't rare, I've heard 2 very credible firsthand accounts. The result of one I've actually witnessed, repeatedly.
  So idk exactly how that SNAP/EBT stuff works, but it's just a certain amount loaded up on a card. I thought it was $200, and $200 went a hell of a lot further in 2017. My friend had a deal worked out with his neighbor, he'd "purchase" that $200 SNAP/EBT card for $100. They'd take that to the store & eat really, really well! 😂
  We justified playing into it because if we didn't buy it, they'd just sell it to somebody else. So why not us? Why shouldn't we get the food? But yeah those neighbors wanted $100 CASH more than a $200 card to buy food. Is this behavior rare?...probably not as rare as you think. But definitely not common, and small potatoes.

Definitely not defending Oliver Anthony because aside from this song, don't know donkey about him but take this for what it's worth as a die hard libertarian in the rural south who has also lived in urban areas.

I get how the song is appealing to actual working class people in the south. "Your dollar ain't shit," "overtime hours for bullshit pay," applies to a lot of living conditions here. Employers want college degrees in these areas for $12-15 an hour. Normal people that haven't went to trade school or college because they can't afford it, got pregnant, had to help with bills, etc. have very slim chances of getting one.

There are legitimately people in this area who have always been on top, that now are making 80k+ per year, who still draw food stamps and have medical cards. So yeah, if you're a normal Joe trying to be honest, it sucks dick. Because you spend 60+ hours of your week preparing to/teaching kids who are taught from birth that school is stupid and will never do anything for them, get paid $30k a year, as a good job, and your take home is less than 2000 a month. Houses start at 200k, milk is $5 a gal, gas $3.50, groceries are at an all time high because of profit margins, I get why it resonates with working class people here. If you aren't actively gaming the system (the Welfare hating as critics of the song are calling it) the way 40% of the area does, you're shit out of luck.

Again, don't know anything about the dude, but know a lot about the rural south, and they're underpaid, overworked, and the biggest victims of the government in this country because the government actively keeps a majority of them in learned helplessness and the remainder can't get ahead because with everyone having a medical card or EBT, jobs assume they don't have to pay shit.

I don't think there's a single county in the US where someone making $80k a year qualifies for food stamps. It's indexed to the poverty rate. Do you mean WIC, maybe? That's more universal.
Sounds like the rural South sucks ass. As someone with family from the area, I'd agree it does. They should probably stop voting for the people who want to keep them poor, desperate, dumb, and angry.
- Am from rural south and this sounds like bullshit. I'm in a state that "thanks God for Mississippi" and if you make $35k+ here you're not getting much if any in the way of government assistance. But this commenter is a self proclaimed librarian so... Also how is this government victimizing them when they're essentially shopping at the company store? The rich are the ones gaming the tax system and handing that burden to the folks subject to "middle class welfare".
- Idk under $100k in Marin and SF is considered low income.
- View: "if you aren't actively gaming the system" in my post.
  People here intentionally adopt or have children, stay with their spouse for 20+ years while never married, all with the intention of getting multi-thousand dollar tax returns and keeping EBT. The wife doesn't need to work, her husband makes enough to support them. So she has three or more children. Then she's a single mother with no income, as far as the state is concerned, so she gets EBT/Medical Cards, etc.
  I know individuals who make between 50k-80k who draw between 700-1300 in food stamps a month because of these arrangements. It's everywhere.
I’m curious where that 40% number comes from. Do you have a source?
Also, while I agree that the feds don’t do enough, the state and city governments are worse, constantly misusing or outright stealing the money the feds do give them. And to that I say it’s the state/city and voters fault for not educating themselves and voting appropriately. I say all this as someone who currently lives in a rural south town. The people are apathetic and the elected leaders take advantage of that. The corruption is astounding.
What's the relevance of "obese" and "300 pounds" people specifically eating gov't fudge when no reference was made to them making $80k or otherwise not being poor?
He is actually just stereotypically misrepresenting the social safety net as being government fudge for fat people. It's fucking stupid. Don't let this be the icon of libertarianism.
- If you don't see a problem with:
  30-50% of the south being on food stamps and 40% of the south being obese, idk what to tell you man that's just maths.
  There is a large percentage of people on food stamps who are healthy, able bodied adults who actively choose to not work and or abuse the safety net. & those people still end up making enough to be obese making those decisions while making the system bogged down to the point where some actually disabled people, with their legs blown off or who cannot process information on the same level because they are mentally deficit, cannot get their disability or someone to take care of them.
  Obesity is not a disability. It's either a symptom or a decision.

Tl;dw?

Songs are not often literal. When he sings about the "obese" i think he means "the wealthy" and not literally fat people.

He literally says if you're 5'3" and 300 lbs and eating fudge. Specifically referring to an obese person on welfare. Nothing hidden here.

Thanks for the heads up. That is a good song?

Let's conflate the prime thrust of the song with just the one line where he refers to food stamps and crucify him / not hold those sewing poverty and anxiety into society to account

The lyrics are extremely basic and not creative in the slightest. They make gestures towards working class solidarity, but are petit bourgeois attitudes wrapped in redneck aesthetics for comfortable middle class folk. Songs like this are a dime a dozen, and I’m sure you can find another song like this, especially in country/bluegrass, without the racist undertones.
- Oh I don't need the song I'm just pointing out how people are providing incompetent analysis like yourself
The prime thrust of the song is a dogwhistle about the confederacy
- It's a populist song it's got fuck all to do with race. Try thinking for yourself and stop being an apologist for corporatism. What you don't like is the populism because you like being lap dog to corporations so you try to conflate anything populist with racism because you saw someone else do it and you are a follower.

How so?

This isn't political memes

Memes supersede the idea of political memes and encompasses them as well
Can I ask what made you feel the need to share your bitching and moaning about a meme you could’ve easily scrolled by with the rest of the class?
- There was somewhere this could be posted where Americans can meme about their politics, this isn't a "general" meme that people from outside the US would understand or care about.
  Let me know what else I can do for extra credit.