this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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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?”