The “it’s not racist” thing really is so dumb. It’s like if you insisted that Hotel California is just about a hotel because it doesn’t say “drugs.”

One of the saddest parts of Trumpism is the removal of shame as a force for self-regulation on the right, and this is part of it. It used to be shameful for a man to stand up and say such a bad lie.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's sexist against men because most of the wankers in the protest/crime footage are men.

Oooh protest footage? Did he include Jan 6?

No but this lady did😀

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's sexist against men because most of the wankers in the protest/crime footage are men.

Oooh protest footage? Did he include Jan 6?

No, and that was beating police up with flags, not just mouthing off to police or burning flags, neither of which are even illegal.

Moreover, he said that it was all actual American news footage and exactly none of it is.

Anonymous wrote:It's sexist against men because most of the wankers in the protest/crime footage are men.

Oooh protest footage? Did he include Jan 6?

I enjoy country music, am from the south and was raised by parents who were from the south who listened to country music. I have never listened to Jason Aldean because I lean towards my parents’ taste which isn’t new pop Nashville country like him.

I think Aldean is basically pretty dumb and not very savvy; probably surrounded by people equally dumb, like his wife. I think someone said sing these lyrics, lip sync here on this set for the video, and done. He’s not doing any deep dives into anything. I highly doubt he ever thought to ask about the location history or meaning behind the lyrics (he doesn’t write his own songs). Believing he would is believing he’s way smarter than he is.

But I SMH at people using this as a launching pad as evidence of extreme racism or to tie in country music or people from small towns as a whole: aka stereotyping. I even read an Op-Ed in the post that was beyond ridiculous re how country music had a long history of songs about sundown towns and small town vigilante justice that had inspired Aldean via the songs Country Boy Can Survive by Hank and Okie from Muskogee by Haggard which makes zero sense. An Okie is a migrant worker who works on farms (Haggard wrote it about his father who was an Okie, he was proud to be an Okie from Muskogee); and a Country Boy Can Survive is pretty much a testament to how boys from the country can live off the land so they can survive (like in a zombie apocalypse, such as Daryl Dixon). When people make ludicrous arguments, I just stop listening.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/20/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-violent-fantasy/

Aldean is not real country. He also seems like a douche and a douche wife. Did people expect something brilliant from him?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s laughably bad.

I’m from a small town in the Midwest that is DEEP RED and it has plenty of crime, mainly from the meth / heroin addict residents.

Aldean is a dumb puppet playing to his MAGA base.

+1
Plenty of crime, disrespect for police, etc., in small town. Also, the activities he calls out include : cussing at the cops (something white people may even be more likely to engage in), burning the flag, etc., which are protected by rhe First Amendment. The song is about how in a small town you'll get beat up of you do things people disagree with. I don't understand why these people get to claim the mantle of patriotism when they seem to hate American values so much.

Agree! Being stupid and southern is no excuse.

It's a lousy, ignorant song. And the video is dog whistling for sure. But all of the controversy and outrage has helped Aldean. It would have been much better IMO if it had been ignored outside of his fan base, hadn't been banned on CMT, etc. This type of reaction just leads to more views of his stupid video even more polarization. Before the past week I barely knew who Jason Aldean was.

This is representative of country music. They completely destroyed the Chicks for voicing their politics long ago but Aldean? Totally embraced. Gross. Keep your racism and sh%tty music.

Anonymous wrote:If it's not intentionally racist, it's tone deaf racist. And I'm not sure the distinction matters in 2023.

Aldean obviously didn't learn a thing from escaping with his life from a concert where 58 of the attendees there to see him were killed. The fact that he is not universally shunned is an embarrassment.

+1 He is ruining country music.

When the video shows small towns, how diverse do they show them?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The song is about a small town. He shot it at the center of the small town that he used to live in. This isn’t really rocket science. The mental gymnastics here is wild.

He was born in Macon, Georgia. When did he live in Columbia, Tennesse? Oh, right...never. Nice try. His whole defense was he didn't know the location, and someone else picked it.

Uh, given that location scouting is an entire profession, that seems entirely plausible? And actually much more believable than him personally spending hours researching federalist buildings before settling on one with a connection to a crime so obscure that it didn't even have a Wikipedia article until 2021.

It is not coincidental that they picked THAT courthouse for THIS song. How can you be that dense.

That courthouse has been used in other productions including Hannah Montana. I don’t care for Jason Alden or his wife but this outrage is ridiculous and stupid.

I think the more logical conclusion about the courthouse is that just about any courthouse in the South has a history of violent, racist vigilante justice and if you write a racist song about vigilantism in the South and try to pretend it’s not racist you’re going to trip on the stupidity of that position at every turn.

That song is so racist. I read the lyrics and I read a statement from him crying like a baby saying “it doesn’t say racism,” but the subtext is ALL racism.

My least favorite type of racist is the kind that cries and whines and pretends he’s not. Honestly give me an old fashioned honest one. This guy is weak.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The song is about a small town. He shot it at the center of the small town that he used to live in. This isn’t really rocket science. The mental gymnastics here is wild.

He was born in Macon, Georgia. When did he live in Columbia, Tennesse? Oh, right...never. Nice try. His whole defense was he didn't know the location, and someone else picked it.

Uh, given that location scouting is an entire profession, that seems entirely plausible? And actually much more believable than him personally spending hours researching federalist buildings before settling on one with a connection to a crime so obscure that it didn't even have a Wikipedia article until 2021.

It is not coincidental that they picked THAT courthouse for THIS song. How can you be that dense.

That courthouse has been used in other productions including Hannah Montana. I don’t care for Jason Alden or his wife but this outrage is ridiculous and stupid.

Yeah, it was all intentional. But it won’t get me worked up. It was churned out to “own the libs” - that’s all. FB friends who identify as small town people are obsessed.

As PPs have said, there’s already a lot of dangerous rhetoric in music and this song won’t incite violence any more than the others. Did Carrie Underwood’s “before he cheats” cause an uptick in vandalism?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The song is about a small town. He shot it at the center of the small town that he used to live in. This isn’t really rocket science. The mental gymnastics here is wild.

He was born in Macon, Georgia. When did he live in Columbia, Tennesse? Oh, right...never. Nice try. His whole defense was he didn't know the location, and someone else picked it.

Uh, given that location scouting is an entire profession, that seems entirely plausible? And actually much more believable than him personally spending hours researching federalist buildings before settling on one with a connection to a crime so obscure that it didn't even have a Wikipedia article until 2021.

It is not coincidental that they picked THAT courthouse for THIS song. How can you be that dense.