this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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I've noticed every conservative song can't quite keep their lack of skills for symbolism for the whole song. The closest they ever came was the dude singing about the rich men north of richmond, but even then, he had to shit on poor people in poor health. Truly a man of the people.
That song isn't written from the perspective you think it is. Oliver Anthony came out staunchly against the hard right who tried to take his song as a rallying cry against welfare recipients.
He is saying that we are misappropriating funds that could supply healthy foods to more people. Instead, some are abusing the system to become more unhealthy. The reason thst they get this unhealthy food is (from the song's perspective) because the country doesn't do anything to support mental health and this is their chosen outlet.
"Lord we've got folks in the street who aint got nothing to eat And the obese milkin' welfare If your five foot three and three hundred pounds Taxes ought to not pay for your bags of fudge rounds Young men are putting themselves 6 feet in the ground Because all this damn country does is keep kicking them down"
I am very dubious of Oliver Anthony's attempts to retcon his words. If he didn't come out and try to gaslight us into thinking it's about how government food stamps aren't enough to eat healthy or pigeonholing mental health in there then I'd be more amicable to his childish over simplifications and both-sidisms. It's fine if you don't know about politics, but when you lie about your lyrics, your narratives inherently take on new meanings. The lyrics were not symbolic enough to be misinterpreted. He said the government ought not pay for your unhealthy food choices... He meandered about other bullshit in the lyrics, but I guess he forgot to mention the actual thing he was talking about.
true i mean, how would he know what the songs about.
It's a classic case of, "I made this song for a small audience, and now it has a big audience." Resulting in wanting to remove things that aren't acceptable to the big audience, even if they're obvious. I feel like the right way to handle it was to show regret rather than pretend it's something else.
IDK what this dude has in his heart, but he thinks about wealth, power, and corruption geographically. I can't say he is a confederate, but I can say he thinks like one.
He's singing about lived experience in the South. Did you expect him to address the whole nation or globe? As Stephen King often says, write about what you know.
Replying to my own reply.
“I mean, we are the melting pot of the world, and that’s what makes us strong, is our diversity, and we need to learn to harness that and appreciate it, and not use it as a political tool to keep everyone separate from each other you know?”
I’m curious what other conservative songs are out there. I’m trying to think of a banger that’s even remotely conservative/political but I’m coming up blank.
There's this compilation of songs from the Cold War that are all about nuclear paranoia and anti-Communist fervor, and there are a few bangers in there, like Mr. Krushchev. More recent than 60+ years old? You got me.
Not that any of it is a banger, but kid rock and lil pump come to mind.
As they might be giants put it: "The Fascists have the outfits But I don’t care for the outfits What I care about is music And the Communists have the music"
I see, yeah I don’t listen to dipshit rock and I don’t think I’ve heard of lil pump.
Maybe I was the wrong person to ask that question lmao.
You could argue "Brought to your courtesy of the red white and blue" song after 911 was conservative. It's still devoid of symbolism except for patriotic slop everyone understands
There was a list floating around (before Trump) of songs that, with sufficiently motivated reasoning, could be claimed for conservatism. I don’t remember the entirety of it, but I recall The Beatles’ “Taxman”, and the reasoning that taxes are bad, being a representative example.
Ah yes, famed conservative musician George Harrison wrote that song. /s lol
Alabama ni?
Tom McDonald (?) is an awful rightwing rapper. No bangers to be found but he's got a lot of songs (and I recommend none of them)