this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
247 points (92.7% liked)

politics

19241 readers
2459 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] brawleryukon 20 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Hopefully that message is "eat the rich" and not "starve the poor".

I wouldn't go holding my breath. He's pretty clearly on the ignorant conservative train, he just happens to maybe be a little less racist than most of them.

[–] foggy 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

I've watched a few of his non music videos to see if I sniff it out and I don't catch a bad vibe from him beyond that lyric.

I think the general issue with Conservatism as a modern ideology is that it only spreads through uneducated crowds. We can't blame people for the bad education they got.

He talks about the pure joy he's getting out of people enjoying his content. He even deliberately tried to deliver a message of inclusivity to ward off the conservative crowd from making him their mascot.

Getting overnight fame is hard and I hope he handles it well and in a way that enables him to share his talents for good.

Edit: he seems genuine to me, idk.

[–] assassin_aragorn 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Good on you for recognizing that this man could have a good heart and be a possible ally. The 2016 era has made us jump to conclusions immediately and shun anyone who seems sympathetic to conservatives. I get that and fully understand it, I do the same.

But the problem is that doing so pushes people in the middle towards conservatives. We can say his welfare lyrics are unacceptable without making him into a total pariah. He holds a lot of similar beliefs to us, and I bet you could sway him over a beer. He's not a stubborn and hateful conservative, he's a misguided moderate. We only create more enemies by our own hand if we shun everyone.

I'm inclined to think that his comments on diversity here are indicative of him rejecting a conservative idol position.

[–] pyromaster55 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exactly this. My hard right coworker showed me this song because i complain regularly about modern conservative country, and how the old-schools of country (Cash, Hank senior, Woody Guthrie, etc) knew the struggle of the working man and would not be modern republicans. He made me listen to it thinking it was a gotcha "what do you think about this guy" and I listend a few times, read the lyrics, and my man has 2 bad lines in the song, based on the lyrics he'd be fighting for stronger social safety nets and equal rights for all after a single night in the bar with a lefty.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't think he even needs the night in a bar, he's already there. He's a blue collar guy from West Virginia turned to Country-Folk music and his music...well...it's the music of the American Proletariat.

He's not the Conservatives Guy and never was, he just got thrust into the spotlight because DeSantis brought him up during the debates and that resulted in an unfortunate knee jerk reaction from Liberals looking for a reason to tear him down.

We can toss around terms like "problematic" regarding his one line about welfare but denying the authenticity of everything else is foolish, it genuinely resonates with the American Working Class.

Edit:

Doubt me?

Watch this.

Or this.

Or this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nobody's denying the "authenticity" of the song. It's that it betrays a basic lack of understanding of the US and its problems.

Like, he complains about high taxes. If he's actually talking about working class / poor people, their taxes really aren't very high. The US does have a progressive tax system and people near the bottom aren't taxed that much. On the other hand, unlike most countries, the US also doesn't have a good safety net to help the least fortunate out. Because of that, taxes might feel like an awful burden when you're poor because you aren't getting the benefits... and then he goes on to complain about welfare... the very benefits that poor people should demand.

He (himself fat, if not obese) complains about obesity, and links it to welfare (also taking pot-shots at short people for some reason). It's not like people on welfare are eating so incredibly well that they become obese. It's that when you're poor, the system in the US makes it hard to eat nutritious food. First of all, processed food is relatively cheap, and it doesn't go bad, so it's a smart thing to buy if you're on a budget and catch it on sale. If you buy fruit and vegetables, they might go bad before you can use them. Many poor people also live in food deserts, so getting to the store to buy fresh food is very hard. If you're only working a 9-5 job and have a reasonable commute, and can easily get to a grocery store, you can afford the time to do meal planning and cook for yourself. If you're doing unpredictable shift work, and have to get around using unpredictable and slow public transit, and getting to a grocery store is an hour-long detour, it's hard to avoid unhealthy food because you can't count on being home to cook regular meals. Finding inexpensive but healthy food out in public is very hard.

On the subject of welfare / food stamps and obesity, I read recently that people having their food stamp / SNAP funds stolen is very common because SNAP only uses a basic swipe card that's easy to steal. Stealing people's SNAP money is rarely investigated, and they don't get their money back. For that reason, a lot of people on SNAP go to the store and spend all their SNAP money the moment they get it. If it's all spent, it can't be stolen. But, what can you buy that's going to last you a month until your next payment? It isn't fruits and veggies, it's canned foods, processed foods, high-sugar foods, etc.

So, yeah, he's "authentic", but he's also misinformed about the world. He's blaming welfare / welfare recipients as much as he's blaming the "rich men north of Richmond", when problem B is much, much more of an issue than problem A.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If he’s actually talking about working class / poor people, their taxes really aren’t very high.

When you're working 60 hour weeks at $20 an hour to gross $4,800 a month but your take home pay $3,300 it feels pretty high.

...and then he goes on to complain about welfare...

He complains about welfare abuse, not welfare itself. It's a key distinction.

...complains about obesity

I don't hear it that way at all.

You're also skipping over all of the other messages in the lyrics to hyperfocus on the one you disagree with so that you can dismiss the whole thing. Where are you on the mental health crisis, corrupt politicians, and holding the lower class down? Because those messages are ALSO in there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

He complains about welfare abuse

Is there a single line in his song where he clarifies that he only cares about welfare abuse and that most people getting welfare are just fine? As far as I can tell, his only mention of welfare is in the context of welfare abuse -- which is really only a small problem, but is consistently blown out of proportion by right-wingers who want people to blame poor people for their problems, not rich people.

You’re also skipping over all of the other messages in the lyrics

The stuff I'm talking about takes up more than half the song, unless you count the repeated chorus. Corrupt politicians? Do you mean the conspiracy theory that most of them are having sex with minors? Because yep, he went there too.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)