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.
“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.”
That’s sorta the problem of right wing populism dude. Yeah, many of the issues pointed out in the song are legitimate and need to be addressed but how he tacks on “welfare queens” is trying to shift the blame onto people have nothing to do with your own hardships. That family getting $400 a month in food stamps is not the reason everything sucks right now.
“welfare queens”
Where are you quoting this from? You aren’t quoting it from the song, because he didn’t say it. It’s you quoting some left wing talking point.
Look at the lines, he says there are people dying of starvation, because the welfare we’re supposed to receive is being misallocated. Have you ever been to the rural south?
That family getting $400 a month in food stamps is not the reason everything sucks right now.
Yeah, we all know that. And he didn’t blame them.
“Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat And the obese milkin’ welfare”
Misremembered the line but regardless, still sure sounds like he’s blaming them.
The song title is ‘Rich men north of Richland’ - it’s about how the politicians are fucking up America - both inner city and rural America.
That is the underlying theme for the song, so him saying people are starving while there are some milking the system doesn’t make sense. Increase welfare, or fix it, help those that need it.
Trust me, I really really wish he didn’t have that line, because he talks about so many bigger issues that the left agrees with, but now they can just discredit this redneck hillbilly as being an alt right industry plant. But i feel even if that line wasn’t in the song, that y’all would bitch about him calling out epstein and just say he’s a Qanon freak.
Yeah but that’s stupid. The people who talk like this guy and the people who relate to the song constantly vote against their own interests. Got people living in trailer parks wanting to cut taxes on billionaires.
I listened to his song before I knew anything about him, and I was into it until that point, but yeah, when you make a song about rich people exploiting you, but then spend half the song talking about the much less impactful issue of poor people wasting their government-issued money on junk food, your message stops being effective.
It’s like stubbing your toe and breaking your arm at the same time, and complaining just as much about both.
but then spend half the song
Once again, hyperfocusing on one line is not ‘half the song’ and when you put it in context, he’s simply saying that those people that need welfare aren’t getting it, while others are abusing the system. It’s not just about making laws to help poor people, it’s about ensuring that it gets to the people that need it.
He is redirecting anger that rightfully should be aimed at the overclass to the underclass. The underclass is not causing his problems. It is the overclass.
His “fans” are too dumb to appreciate that. They are shallow, superficial people who, can only react emotionally without thinking anything through.
Education folks… education. Prime example here why it is so, so important to be able to think critically.
Have you taken the time to look into why there’s such an obesity problem? It sure seems like the singer hasn’t, otherwise he wouldn’t be denigrating poor people for being obese.
EBT doesn’t pay much and the cheaper foods are chock full of terrible ingredients that tend to lead to obesity. It’s not easy to afford good fruit, vegetables, grains, etc when you’ve got a small amount of money that has to stretch a lot.
If it weren’t for the myth of the welfare queen we might be in a better place to provide for people in need. And there will ALWAYS be people in need in a capitalist society. It’s how it works.
Honestly, a bit of empathy and understanding would go a long ways for people so upset about people on welfare.
The song is idiotic and every sentence is a half truth or outright fabrication of reality.
I can’t even see you but I can tell you look like a “hillbilly trump supporter” too.
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.
Then project their misery on minority group
Where did this happen? You’re just making this up.
You proved my point.
Can you quote where he’s blamed minorities for his issues with poverty, and addiction?
Oh shit. You’re right. I’m a conservative now too. Thanks.
You’re the only one bringing in conservative/liberal ideologies. We talk about it on reddit/lemmy all the time, in our society it’s rich vs poor. This is a poor man seeing issues around him, that we all see too. That poverty is rampant, addiction to deal with it is rampant, we’re working too many hours, we aren’t getting paid enough, and from what we do get paid 25% goes to Uncle Same, while the people in Washington and their buddies pay 10%. Are these not the issues you see, too?
You see this redneck hillbilly bitch about the issues in the U.S. and you just chalk it up to him being a conservative. That furthers our divide and helps the people he’s attributing the issues to: Rich men North of Richmond.
He’s being paraded and propped up by conservative media. If he’s not conservative, he must be a spy.
He’s being paraded and propped up by conservative media.
It’s a bluegrass song that talks about issues throughout America. Is Mr. Gambino’s “This is America” inherently left wing because it was huge amongst left wing circles? Does this make Mr. Glover a left wing spy?
the left hyper-focuses on one line they don’t like, because he just looks like a hillbilly trump supporter
And you think the other guy is the one bringing ideology into the discussion?
Well, why doesn’t he blame the origins of his and his kinds poverty to the ones responsible? The abusive, union-busting employers and big corprorations? Because that would actually be honest and understandable. Deflecting the issue to social program recipients just shows lack of understanding how things REALLY work. Also it highlights the importance of a decent education. - Which in the rural Americas seems all but dead. - By design of course (gop).
"Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat
And the obese milkin’ welfare
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds"
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. 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.
What happened to working hard and pulling yourself up? #bootstrapssarcasm…
The title of the song is what got me. I immediately thought of Richmond’s history as the capitol of the Confederacy.
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:
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Working overtime and getting shitty pay
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Feeling like the life is being wasted paying bills, and the little bit of joy we get is through substance abuse
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Politicians enriching themselves by screwing Americans over
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Inflation being too high and what money that we do get in our paychecks having 30% taken out by the government.
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Politicians not looking out for the working class, but befriending and partying with Epstein trafficking minors.
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Young men dying at absurd rates due to suicide
Did you read the article? It debunks at least half of the complaints you make
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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:
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Working overtime and getting shitty pay
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Feeling like the life is being wasted paying bills, and the little bit of joy we get is through substance abuse
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Politicians enriching themselves by screwing Americans over
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Inflation being too high and what money that we do get in our paychecks having 30% taken out by the government.
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Politicians not looking out for the working class, but befriending and partying with Epstein trafficking minors.
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Young men dying at absurd rates due to suicide
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.
with right wing populism
What makes this right wing populism?
That’s kind of what the whole article is spent laying out.
I thought this distinction between left and right populism from the article was useful:
As the political analyst John Judis has argued, this is more or less what distinguishes right populism from the left variety: Whereas left populism posits a binary between the people and the elites, right populism conjures a three-part division of society between “the people,” the elites, and the undeserving others whom the elites coddle at the people’s expense.
The song’s complaints about working class life ring true, but then whenever it gets close to a political statement, whether about taxes, politicians, or welfare it never says anything a wealthy conservative would argue with.
That’s kind of what the whole article is spent laying out.
Please, enlighten me with your own thinking. Is it because he’s saying some welfare programs are abused while the starving people who actually need help aren’t getting it? What do you think of the topics he addresses in the other 98% of the song?
but then whenever it gets close to a political statement, whether about taxes, politicians, or welfare it never says anything a wealthy conservative would argue with.
Is that what your issue is? Lets see, Biden is a wealthy liberal and 50 million democrats voted with him. It’s not about what a wealthy conservative or democrat would say, it’s about experience. This man is experiencing working overtime, while seeing inflation run rampant, his paycheck getting deducted 30%, substance abuse, politicians having a rich peoples club, young male suicide rates and those needing help not getting it.
Is this different than the issues in the democratic run inner cities? I lived in seattle for 6 years, I can tell you the issues he’s talked about are the same.
We seem to be going around in circles a bit. You’re pointing to the various ways in which he speaks to legitimate complaints about the difficulties of life, which I’ve already agreed are valid. The problem is nothing he explicitly or implicitly suggests doing about those problems would actually help, and indeed the implied recommendations fit more with a conservative policy outlook that would be actively harmful to people with those problems.
You’re pointing to the various ways in which he speaks to legitimate complaints about the difficulties of life, which I’ve already agreed are valid. The problem is nothing the explicitly or implicitly suggests doing about those problems would actually help,
So we agree that the song touches on a lot of legitimate complains. What’s your problem? That a man living in a trailer doesn’t have policy written out on how to address these?
and indeed the implied recommendations
What ‘implied recommendations’?? You’re just making this shit up now. He’s observing problems, I think the likely reason you hate it is because of how he looks, and you assume he’s a MAGA hillbilly.
There’s nothing wrong with music, that generally has more appeal to the right to talk about issues that affect an average person.
I’m a big believer that if you want to see the issues affecting working class, you listen to the music that they listen to. Rap has been talking about the issues with cyclical poverty since the 80’s, has been talking about gang violence, has been talking about drug addiction. It was ignored, and now look at what’s happening 40 years later, crazy crime issues, cyclical poverty and absurd drug addiction killing hundreds of thousands and ruining tens of millions of lives. Did they have policies drawn up? No, they just saw issues and made music about them.
Why can’t someone with a more bluegrass vibe do the same? He’s seeing issues that he’s personally experienced and y’all freak out because you don’t like the way he looks.
He’s blaming these problems on “rich men north of Richmond” aka Washington DC, it’s not a stretch to think about the policy implications. And what are the policies he mentions? Taxes being too high and welfare benefits being too generous. Again, not exactly a stretch to see the implied recommendation is tax cuts and welfare state cuts, pretty much the core planks of the Republican Party platform.
I definitely agree listening to the music people make and listen to can be a good way to gain insight. Really my problem with the song is the opposite of what you imply - I don’t wish he had policies drawn up at all, it’s the extent to which he does reveal policy preferences here that I have a problem with. Not that this guy is necessarily a piece of shit or anything, it’s just that what’s being revealed about him through this music is the undercurrent of conservative ideology that is the water in which he swims and which he’s unconsciously reproducing in this song.
Hey man just want to say sorry for all the hate and stupiduty in this comment section. Fully expecting to get down voted with you here. I’ve seen lots of great opinions and comments and communities here on lemmy so far… and also… some pretty bad ones …
Stop being lazy. You’re asking others to do the work for you seem then you’re going to sound based on their summary. Read the article like the rest of us and you’ll be on the same page.
What makes this right wing populism?
Redirecting justifiable anger at the overclass to the underclass is classic right wing “populism”. It’s very popular with the billionaires pulling your strings.
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.
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