Song is blowing up in popularity. Of course the media is just uncritically referring to it as a “working class anthem”, because of the fundamentally reactionary nature of this country. It’s not “working class” in the true sense. It just reinforces the idea that conservative white men with jobs in the trades deserve a good life because of the settler mentality and white supremacy. Capital has always “taken care of” these white men - they buy off their allegiance in exchange for exclusive economic and social privilege. Now that capital has been less generous to them under neoliberalism, they’re big mad they’re not getting the same deal (at the expense of others) as they used to. Some selected lyrics:
It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to / For people like me and people like you
Right out of the gate, Anthony is making his screed exclusionary. For a country music song, already the audience is gonna skew white and reactionary. The rest of the lyrics of this song just highlight how the world sucks now for “people like him”, and fuck everyone else.
These rich men north of Richmond / Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Of course politicians suck. But notice how capital isn’t the target. The target isn’t even say corrupt politicians who take bribes. It’s the politicians who want to “control” you. In conservative circles, this always means things like “they want to force you to accept that LGBTQ folks are valid” or things like that.
’Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
Sure, inflation and taxes suck but I’ve never known anyone outside of the top 10% of earners who complains about taxes who wasn’t doing so from a deeply anti-poor reactionary stance.
I wish politicians would look out for miners
Ahh, the beloved white miners of conservatives dreams. The mining industry employs way fewer people than Walmart, but funny how a “working class anthem” from a white man doesn’t include any solidarity with retail workers…
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Sound of Freedom noises intensify
cw: fatphobia
spoiler
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Wow, a regular ol’ working class man taking time in his song to slam the racist Reagan-era notions of welfare queens. Just wonderful.
This song sucks but it really captures white grievance politics and how they steal our correct notions of class to further their own agenda.
Americans are so beyond fucked that they’ll almost NEVER recognize that capital is the problem. The reactionary, fascist response to capitalism in crisis is much easier for propagandized baby brains - especially for white men. The “right” to what they’ve always “deserved” in the lap of luxury supersedes solidarity with people dealing with the same material conditions. The horrifying notion that it all might be a lie is literally just too much to comprehend for hogs
What gives me a little bit of hope is that white labor aristocrat men are becoming a minority in the imperial core, but it’s still a very vocal one that the media caters to.
Material conditions are only worsening and the class conflicts are only gonna grow stronger but it’s definitely going to take a while because of how successful US propaganda is
Good, well thought out post.
Citations needed did a news brief about this song recently that I recommend.
Thanks - I actually wanted to go into more detail but I typed this up on the toilet and my kid was banging on the door the whole time, so I cut it short. Probably for the best though.
Adam and Nima are so good, can’t wait to listen to that one.
My kid can open the bathroom door now so they’ll open it fast enough to break the sound barrier then look at me and say “bye!” And close the door as they leave
typed this up on the toilet and my kid was banging on the door the whole time
true proletarian hero
Literally braver than the troops.
How much do you want to bet those rich men north of richmond are also Jewish?
This song and the “try that in a small town song” show that this modern pop country is gonna swing hard into fascism. Blue jean beer and truck worship wasn’t enough, they’re gonna start quoting the Elders of Zion by 2025.
What drives me nuts is that the astro-turfing is SOOO obvious, but the ones that are eating it up the most point to others (i.e the left) being brainwashed through media.
“It’s a totally spontaneous viral hit, that all of the right leaning media outlets fawned over on the same day.”
Wild thread. I think the only way a “leftist” could sympathize with this song is to completely ignore all the white supremacist dog whistles. The whole song is coded in a way that a reactionary could say “you woke leftists are always talking about racism but this song doesn’t mention race even once!”
