Reflections on being burned in effigy
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Reflections on being burned in effigy
Jason Aldean may have won the battle with a number one song, but he lost the war for his legacy
Over the past week, people have alternately expressed a desire to kill me, to be there to watch while someone else kills me, and for me to kill myself. They’ve told me to move to another country, to renounce my citizenship, to fuck off. They’ve said I’m ugly, I’m old, I wear too much makeup, I should wear more makeup, I have a weird nose, I have a lazy eye, I have too much Botox, and I need plastic surgery. I’ve been called a troll, a shrew, a shrill harridan, a busy body, a bitch, a whore, a Karen.
Why, you might ask, are people — mostly men — so angry with me? Because I tweeted the lyrics to a Jason Aldean song “Try That In A Small Town,” “Got a gun that my granddad gave me/They say one day they're gonna round up/Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck.” I expressed dismay that Aldean — who was on stage in 2017 in Las Vegas when a gunman opened fire on his fans, killing 60 of them and wounding hundreds more — would pair that with a video filmed at the site of several lynchings, making it an ode to a sundown town.
Apparently CMT agreed with my take and pulled the video down from its airwaves. And that’s when the shit hit the fan. Via thousands of emails, direct messages and tweets, Aldean fans — who are apparently at the intersection of a Venn diagram of Trump supporters and gun extremists — expressed their displeasure with me.
To be clear, Aldean isn’t being censored — his song is number one (his first number one single in a nearly 25 year career). He isn’t being penalized — he’s a lot richer and more famous than he was last week. But CMT and other country music artists —like Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Willie Nelson — came out in opposition Aldean and took an important cultural stand against racism and violence. They helped put Aldean — who continues to claim ignorance about the controversy — firmly on the wrong side of history.
As a whole, people in America aren’t interested in what Aldean is selling, and he’ll have to keep appealing to right-wing extremists to stay relevant. That is his legacy now.
Reflections on being burned in effigy
Shannon: you are, have been, and always will be the greatest of Americans. I’m a huge, loving, supportive fan.
I don't know how you do it. You have been taking one for the team for years now and it seems worse than ever. My mother defended the song. I never thought of her as "one of those republicans" and I continue to think that if only I can expose her to news other than Newsmax, Fox, OAN, Ben Shapiro, etc. then she will realize how misled she is and how violent, racist, and misogynist the right and the party has become. She claims to be on my side with "the gun thing" and, after Uvalde, said that she wanted to volunteer with Moms. She doesn't see the intersection, the hypocrisy, the racist dog whistles (and blatant references), the violent anti-women rhetoric, doesn't make the connection to MAGA, Trump, Jan. 6, her party, to the guns. I'm just a dramatic, thin-skinned liberal looking to cancel everything that offends me. There are so many of us who don't have allies in our family and have to navigate conversations and interactions with family members that sit in the center of the ven diagram you describe. Never in a million years did I think my Mom wouldn't think this song is a step too far, never mind inappropriate, offensive, and downright dangerous. That she would defend it is appalling, but then to read, today, about your experience in the wake of your tweet, just reinforces my feelings and the insurmountable chasm in my family. Anyway, thank you for always staying strong in defense of what's right, even when confronted with violent threats, for speaking truth to power, for not backing down. They certainly won't.