Maybe you have to be too online to “get” why this story is so funny, but I’ll try to explain it. This ginger man is Oliver Anthony. A few weeks ago, he and his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” were trending all over social media. The whole thing was bought and paid for by right-wing groups who were astroturfing their new conservative folk hero, someone who would sing the kinds of songs they want, songs about welfare queens and how white men can’t catch a break in this country. Here’s the song:
As I said, this song was artificially amplified and boosted by conservative media, and there was a rush to declare Anthony their new guy, despite widespread mockery of his message:
Country music 1955:
Shot my boss
After cracking his jaw
Loaded up a shell
Then I waited for the lawCountry music 2023:
Another boy has fudge
Tell Congress to act— Sam Knight (@samknight1) August 14, 2023
Boss gets a dollar
While I get a dime
Please cut his taxes
And deregulate mines pic.twitter.com/pEb3LnN1g8— Nude Gingrich (@JarJarFan69) August 14, 2023
Well, it worked – “Rich Men North of Richmond” debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart this week and every QAnon-adjacent is breathless and delirious about it. The fact that Anthony also has a racist conspiracist history is a feature, not a bug, and apparently he was pretty active in the 9/11 conspiracy community. He is the white supremacist folk hero of their dreams, correct? Well, funny story:
Promoted algorithm boosted "based" red beard hillbilly song guy was faking his accent and says diversity is our strength. pic.twitter.com/z1t39xBXHI
— Devon Stack (@Black_Pilled) August 22, 2023
Please, this is so funny. The guy playacting a racist hillbilly for profit is like “America’s best asset is our racial diversity” and what happens now? I don’t think it actually matters to his “fans.” Some of them will be mad that he’s not as racist as them, but the conservative campaign marches on.
I love how they've spent the last couple weeks insisting there's nothing racist about the neo-confederate welfare queen song but the moment the singer expresses support for a racially integrated society he gets cancelled for being woke.
— Cecil (@Capricoda) August 22, 2023
Photos courtesy of YouTube.
That last tweet:
It’s almost always the right that complains about cancel culture, but they are the ones who have been far more guilty of it than progressive people who are tolerant to people who are different from them.
For decades (no, actually: centuries), conservatives have cancelled anyone who did not adhere to their ‘men first/white people first/cishet people first etc’ standards. And with cancelled I don’t just mean ‘not listening to their songs’. I mean blacklisting in more recent years, but also violence and mass murder.
Examples: witch hunts, religious wars, slavery, lynching, genocide, mccarthyism, violence against transgenders etc.
It’s like one tiny example of their go-to play “accuse others of the ish we’re doing”
Election tampering and voter fraud – yup
Politicizing and weaponizing the Justice Department – yup
Being fiscally irresponsible and running up the debt – yup
Giving boatloads of public assistance to the undeserving- yup (the GOP version is tax breaks to super wealthy and bailouts, incentives to GOP donors, fossil fuel and mining companies)
Being unAmerican – yup
All of this.
+1 to the above comments!
lol someone called it a reverse duck milkshake, or a goose daiquiri! Some people are so clever
also, I think I read we aren’t saying lol anymore? I literally just started
I actually *say* LOL (lawl not spelling it out) sometimes. It feels fresher than my snort of days past. lol
I’m not going to stop unless I read that gen z’ers are making fun of it! Which is stupid, I know, but IDC!
I think I’m confused. I’d heard of this guy and his song but now it seems he’s been pretending this whole time? Or he’s just changed his opinions or they always were his opinions. Like I said, confused.
He watched Jason Aldean make megabucks and wanted in.
I’m guessing he’s a working musician and doesn’t live in a bubble, and thus has diverse and LGBTQ friends. LOL.
Also, he starts out complaining about his boss and shitty job, but instead of realizing that’s the whole problem right there, proceeds to blame everyone and everything else for what’s wrong in his life. Dude, your boss is a terrible and greedy person. So is almost everyone else’s. They are trying so hard to distract you from that.
I read that he comes from a decently well to do family and is just a fail son which would line up with him just doing this for the grift. The song is so stupid with the whole minors on an island line and it’s pretty rich of him to complain about a certain group of people that shouldn’t be getting welfare. I’m getting so sick of all of this manufactured anger towards everyone else but the real enemy, the capitalists. Wake up people, why do you think they are always union busting for one? No, it’s not because they give a shit about you and your life.
@ConcernFae Exactly! Well said!
@Erin. Interesting. And great points! It’s ridiculous that several decades later many people, esp white people still believe the propaganda that the majority of POC, specifically Black people are welfare recipients when the majority of welfare recipients are and have always been White people (One of my previous jobs was processing welfare claims). It was one of several programs specifically designed to help White people, yet when Black people started receiving those benefits too, somehow Black people have essentially became the face of those programs and all negativity associated with it. Ronald Reagan was the worst with his “Black welfare queens driving Cadilllacs” bs propaganda he spread when he became a politician. Cadillac should have sued him and publicly backed his opponents every time he ran for office for that bs bc It affected their bottom line – a lot of White people stopped buying their cars. It took them years of revamping as a luxury car line and clever marketing to dispel that negative association. And don’t get me started on how those programs initially broke up two parent families by making unemployed fathers leave the home in order for mothers to receive any help, instead of tying employment to the benefits like they basically do now.
Aside from the sentiments, that’s a terrible song. More a chant than a song. Even the dog is bored.
Johnny Cash he ain’t. Or Springsteen.
Billy Bragg released a response song telling the dude to quit complaining and join a union, promoting free healthcare, and denouncing the distraction of culture wars, “Rich Men Earning North of a Million.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGNFR7pgxDY
Aaaand half the comments are about Billy Bragg trying to get famous. Like he wasn’t on Letterman in 1988 and has been internationally known for decades.
Now that’s a song I like! The other one I couldn’t stand, googled the lyrics so I didn’t have to listen to that BS. It’s just stupid & hateful & he should be ashamed. He won’t be, but he should be.
Dude needs his people to get more photos of him out there. Looks like he just stepped on a Lego.
Give me Jason Isbell any day of the week.
“ I heard enough of the white man’s blues
I’ve sang enough about myself
So if you’re looking for some bad news
You can find it somewhere else”
I mean, the song is just … bad. Even without the seriously problematic lyrics, the same dog-whistle racism, it just hurts my ears and sounds like a parody. I agree that the diversity in the US (should be) our strength, so I guess he said that one right thing. But the song is just really bad – he should not quit his day job with that terrible boss LOL
I mean, the obvious reason why this man feels like he has to work so hard for so little is because he dropped out of school at age 17. Capitalism sucks and I’m over it, but I think we can all anticipate that a high school education is largely insufficient nowadays….let alone a lack of one. Where’s that personal responsibility now?
not just the right-wing media ecosystem, but the left, too.
i haven’t stopped hearing about this guy for weeks now; every columnist from the NYT, WaPo, Vox, NPR, etc has decided to jump into the discourse with a hot take they each think is unique and interesting..
people need to stop giving airtime to nobodys, please i’m begging.
i swear everything is so f-cking stupid these days.
Amen, taris, Amen!
That’s so funny, I was wondering who this guy was esp since yesterday he made news he’s #1 on billboard 100. I don’t know if billboard is as prestigious as it used to be now that we have Spotify and other platforms to rank new music. He’s not #1 on Spotify for example(more like #10 in the US) . Olivia Rodrigo has her 2nd number 1 from her sophomore album in the US on Spotify currently.
This song is great! And spot on!!!