Oliver Anthony and the Incoherence of Right-Wing Populism
When working people direct their class resentments at “the obese milkin’ welfare,” rich men north (and south) of Richmond make out like bandits.
The pain is coherent. They blame politicians which is correct. But they fail to see it’s the system that perpetuates the problems. Then project their misery on minority groups and the disadvantaged. Oliver sings-
“So they think you don’t know. But I think that you do.”
But they don’t. And that’s the problem.
He also blames "welfare queens." And calls them fat.
I like fudge rounds. And I’m not fat or on welfare. Checkmate ginger. Lol
He says we have a bunch of people starving, and we have programs to help, but instead of helping, he sees the programs being abused.
Do you not think these programs are being abused? Have you been to the south where poverty and obesity are at insane rates?
Also, it's hilarious how he can touch on 20 issues that every one of us agree with, but the left hyper-focuses on one line they don't like, because he just looks like a hillbilly trump supporter to y'all.
But I said a bunch of stupid uniformed shit about politics on Facebook even though I have no education or experience in policy or law, and got a bunch of likes!
That's the same as being an expert! /s
Dunning-Kruger needs an update to account for social media. Like, above the "peak of Mt. Stupid" there is a "summit of dumbasses" who get all their validation and education from social media engagement.
This song is just manufactured crap. The people who brought you Fox News have figured out that their audience also listens to country music.
The whole thing with mysterious producers approaching him out of nowhere when he's at his lowest point to get him to record a faux-populist song that really reinforces conservative power is very Black Mirror.
Calling it Populism is already giving them ground. It's Fake Populism. It's manufactured and funded by the elite class, rather than advocated for and created by the working class.
Fake populism. What a bullshit statement. Populism is populism. The message either resonates or doesn't. The fact that we're discussing it suggests that it resonates. So what do we do about it? To agree with your argument is the reason why Trump became president. As a society we cannot discount discontent regardless of the ideology. There are a lot of pissed off people on this planet for various reasons. If the song or message didn't resonate we wouldn't be talking about it so it's not fake. A rich man paid for a poor man song. So who is the sucker? The person who believes it or the person who argues against it? It is what it is but it's not fake if you hold an opinion and that's the point.
I heard the song and like the beat and now I'm reading a thread where I feel like a bad person for enjoying a song for just being a song. Was in a thread earlier today about Sherman and the civil war. Has there ever been a war fought by the rich man on behalf of the poor man? The answer is no. At the extreme the question is are we willing to die for our beliefs?
There is a large swathe of people who are disenfranchised maybe we should care. The root cause is what is important but we often fall into debates about ideology without addressing the systemic issues.
My opinion is we have far more in common with the people around us than we care to or are capable of realizing. We all struggle so it's important to first empathize and then determine from what root these opinions are derived. Granted, some are fake but many are genuine.
EDIT: sorry, realize this became a wall of text and I'm half drunk and half-baked but I hope I made a coherent argument for both sides. If the discourse is civil it's a healthy conversation to have and an argument worth having. The problem with "mainstream media " is that debate never actually happens it's always cultivated in forums like this we can have healthy conversations and disagreements. Have a good evening folks.
An excellent take-down of the song’s philosophical underpinnings.
I disagree with the author’s skepticism about how this went viral though. As other commenters have indicated, it feels like the release was a little too well coordinated for some random YouTuber.
Total astroturfing.
The right wingers all have daily emails and faxes of talking points, memes, videos, posts, and whatever the outrage of the day is, and they share the shit in unison. That's their MO.
The memo went out: "co-tweet links to this song." Suddenly it was everywhere.
Then they pretend is not astroturfed.
According to the Citations Needed podcast, it was an obscure video that was plucked up by a rightwing organization and promoted to be in everyone's feeds
Who?
You know he fucked an ostrich, right?
Allegedly.
I heard it was a sick ostrich.
The title of the song is what got me. I immediately thought of Richmond's history as the capitol of the Confederacy.
What happened to working hard and pulling yourself up? #bootstrapssarcasm...
A friend shared the music with me and right off the rip I thought the song was a banger. It immediately fills a void left open by modern country. I didn't read into it nearly as much as some folks here are . .which is somewhat puzzling to me. It's country music it's always going to be a woe is me story. I'll listen to the words more closely next time.
I'm new to Lemmy so I'm not sure yet how to tag users but Bee is getting beat up a bit in this thread. I think part of the reason why this is getting so much traction is because it is good music. The debate is the message. Misplaced frustration isn't uncommon regardless of political belief. I think where exception is to be taken is when it pushes or promotes violence. The same debate was had about gangster rap and other forms of music years ago.
Banger of a song. He's right, we need to talk about these issues:
Did you read the article? It debunks at least half of the complaints you make
It's weird that this song has gotten so much hate from the left. And the critique is always the same line about welfare, but you don't hear them quote the rest of the words of the song.
First off, right before the welfare line, he mentions there are too many Americans starving, he's saying that the welfare isn't being allocated properly. If you've walked through the south, you've seen this. Trashing the whole concept of the song because one line, that in a vacuum, some people on the right use to discredit welfare shouldn't be the goal.
I see so many comments saying we need to unite against the rich, and when a song goes viral saying to do that, he gets trashed because he looks like a republican. This song talks about:
Are these partisan issues? They seem like working class issues. Yeah, that welfare line I think is out of place, even if there may be some merit. But don't lose the forest staring at a tree. This is a protest song against how the politicians have treated the working class.
The issue with the song and with right wing populism generally is that it gets some of the complaints right, but points people in exactly the wrong direction in terms of looking for solutions. So it can be really maddening for people on the left because it's substituting for a correct analysis in a way that sabotages bringing the working class together.
Working overtime and getting shitty pay
And then redirecting anger that should go to the overclass to the underclass. The bottom line is that his song will help trick people into giving rich people get more gigantic GOP tax cuts and increase wealth inequality.
The song is undermined by those lines; if they aren't dog whistles, they may as well be.