I’ve been on the road for almost three weeks and covered more than 5,000 miles. I had almost no interaction with social media or news and little contact with anybody outside my immediate family. It was a great break.
When I got back, I was immediately reminded of how ridiculous our political discourse has become. I noticed on Twitter that some guy named Jason Aldean was trending for some “controversial” song. My better judgment told me to ignore it, but I couldn’t help myself.
Turns out that Aldean is a Trump-loving country singer who managed to offend those of the perpetually aggrieved left and send them into a tailspin of stupidity. Aldean’s song follows a long tradition of mythologizing small towns and rural communities as bastions of wholesomeness and demonizing urban areas as repositories crime and sin. The accompanying video shows images of violent protests, flag burning, and armed robberies. The theme of the song is that criminals and protesters couldn’t get away with their misdeeds in small towns, only in cities.
The left found the song and video to be racist and howled. I watched the whole thing. It’s stupid, but not racist, unless that’s how you want to interpret it. I just found it another tired anthem highlighting the insecurities and provincial mindset of much of the rural South. It’s neither original nor insightful.
About 40 years ago, Hank Williams, Jr., wrote a song called “A Country Boy Can Survive,” with a stanza that goes, “I used to have a friend in New York City/ Never called me by my name, just Hillbilly/…But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife/ For forty-three dollars my friend lost his life/I’d like to spit some Beachnut in that dude’s eye/ And shoot him with my ol’ .45.” I used to crank that song up riding to the river in my old Ford truck. I never thought it was racist, but it sure mirrors the themes in Aldean’s song.
In reality, small towns in the South are far more prone to violent crime than cities. Numerous lists of the most violent places in North Carolina are topped by rural towns with populations of less than 100,000 people. The safest places are wealthy suburbs. Most cities have relatively low violent crime rates. The song misses because if you really try that in a small town, you’ll probably get away with it. It’s one reason they’re so obsessed with guns. They don’t trust their neighbors or law enforcement, despite what they tell themselves. So, no, they don’t take care of themselves or have each other’s backs.
But that’s not the point. The left getting so upset about a stupid song leaves me wanting to hook up the trailer and leave for another three weeks. Since I never heard of Aldean or his song until I got on Twitter just illustrates how ineffective their protests are. I’m sure the mediocre song will now get far more attention than it would have otherwise. Country Music Television may have pulled it from their rotation, but TV is no longer the dominant medium. People are listening to it and sharing it on other platforms.
Jason Aldean is getting more famous and making more money off his song because so many people are perpetually aggrieved and offended. The right will turn it into an anthem. The left will claim victory because CMT pulled the song. I guess it’s a win-win for everybody who likes to be offended.
The losers are people like me who didn’t want to hear the song or the protest. I should have followed my own advice and just not watched it.
So here’s my mantra. If you find a song or video offensive, don’t listen to it or watch it, but don’t protest it. You only give it more power and influence. We’re a country of free speech and anybody can say anything. That doesn’t mean you have to like it and it certainly doesn’t mean you need to hear it. You can always just ignore it.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
It was racist because the backdrop for much of the song was the Maury County Courthouse in Tennessee, where 18-year-old Henry Choate was lynched by a white mob. Maybe next time read a little closer into why people are upset before dismissing it as “ridiculous political discourse…from the perpetually aggrieved left.”
Acknowledging this doesn’t fit the writers hipster politics. We’re seeing a rise in apathy in the name of non-existent “cancel culture.” These moderate leftist eye roll conservative politics and policies and simultaneously join them in bemoaning cancel culture and pretending pointing out the racism in the upper echelons of the music industry is part of that. It’s one thing to take this apathetic approach to life. It’s another to think you’re better for it. It’s peak hipster politics. I remember when progressives weren’t afraid to call out racism and when they believed that people that did racist things deserve consequences for their actions. But now all we get are these milquetoast takes from the moderate whites MLK bemoaned. Some things never change.
Perfectly put, and that includes for the yahoos we often meet out here in Arizona.
MTV had a show called “Cribs” where fabulously rich young people would show the TV audience around their palaces that were 10,000 to 30,000 sq. feet. barns, and, finally, we got to see their motor pools which featured half a dozen fantastic automobiles. I watched several of these young athletes, rockers or rappers. Two things: I had never heard of them, and 2) I had never heard any of their music. There are all kinds of extremely wealthy people who are known to their fans, but not to me. Jason Aldean is one of those. Curious about the hub bub, I looked him up and listened to the song. Two things: I liked the music, the beat and the instrumentals, and 2) the videos looked pretty racist to me. The title of the song is half of a threat. Try that in a small town and … (something violent will happen to you.)
The videos in the song of clashes between cops and “those other people” might said something unintended about January 6, where the cop killers were from all over America including some small towns. People who support America and support our police are deeply offended by the killing and beating of Capitol Police by Trump supporters and his army of racists.
Like songs like “Okie from Muskogee” took on a different life after the author began accepting royalties The message became twisted into something that was foreign to Merle Haggard. “Try that in a Small Town” sounds a little like an anthem, but the author is backing away from it. So maybe it’s just a song with a good beat.
Let’s talk about Jason Aldean. Let’s talk about the how he ran, under fire, when the shooter in Las Vegas began firing at the crowd and fans that were in front of him. I guess he couldn’t do anything since he wasn’t in a small town. Or had someone to fight his battles for him. Or his bodyguards weren’t available.
So, in that regard, you would be correct. Aldean is all mouth and no action. Just like his hero. He gets to talk tough. And that’s about as far as the bravado goes. Just like his hero. And that song along with the requisite controversy is going to make him a few more million. Maybe he can upsize his earrings and necklaces. I guess they have those in small towns now.
The picture you selected to head up your article reminds of the cowboy character in the Village People. Earrings and coordinated gold chains. I picture this guy singing and dancing around to the Trump rally theme song “YMCA”. I wonder if Trump ever figured out the meaning of the song!