"That Shit Might Fly In The City...."

Jason Aldean Goes Full, Unapologetic MAGA...and laughs all the way to the bank

There’s ignorant, insensitive, and tasteless…and then there’s Jason Aldean, who’s just…MAGArrific….

Scientists say the world is made of protons, neutrons and electrons. they forgot to mention morons.

• Anonymous

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

• Soren Kierkegaard

I should start by making it clear that I love country music, though I have a profound distaste for the politics of most of the country music world. And there are few artists whom I have more trouble separating my love for their music from my absolute revulsion over their politics than Jason Aldean, who’s about as arrogantly and insensitively Right-wing as anyone associated with Nashville can be. The man’s a MAGA troll and doesn’t care who knows it.

In what seems like the latest attempt to manipulate the media to generate controversy and thus inflate sales, Aldean’s song, “Try That In A Small Town,” is thinly veiled pure MAGA propaganda. Some people with a different ideological take will process the video in ways I don’t, but it seems to be an open and obvious appeal for violence. Not necessarily in the lyrics, but the video's imagery is undeniably intended to anger and inflame those who are right-of-center politically.

It’s like “Welcome back to summer in Portland 2020” all over again. And Jason Aldean has found a way to monetize that anger and desire to fight back.

Having grown up in a small town (Walker, MN- pop. 941), I can speak to this subject with some authority. Yes, Aldean nails the small-town mentality; of that, there’s little doubt. The problem with the song is the unbroken thread of divisiveness that runs through it. There’s no attempt to reduce the temperature in a country deeply divided between red and blue, urban and rural. Instead of trying to bring people together, Jason Aldean is pouring gasoline on a brush fire.

Aldean could’ve availed himself of the opportunity to try to bridge the gap. Instead, he’s appealing to the darker angels of Right-wing country music fans. And while Aldean has rightly protested that there isn’t a racist lyric in the song, if he isn’t aware he’s being disingenuous, he’s stupid AND dishonest. “Try This In A Small Town” is an anti-Black Lives Matter song without mentioning the movement or anything about the Black race. It’s in code; anyone listening to the music can easily decode Jason Aldean’s intent.

CMT yanked the video for country music singer Jason Aldean’s gross new single, “Try That in a Small Town,” after a few days of collective open-mouthed horror at the offensive images and message.

Aldean’s label, Broken Bow Records/BMG, released the video Friday and it was in rotation on CMT through Sunday, presumably until someone actually watched it.

The video was almost comically offensive. Aldean appears in front of a Tennessee courthouse with the flag behind him. It is the US flag, not the Confederate, so that’s something at least. However, according to Ashton Pittman at the Mississippi Free Press, this is also the site “where a white lynch mob strung Henry Choate up at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, after dragging his body through the streets with a car in 1927. That's where Aldean chose to sing about murdering people who don't respect police.”

It’s arguably worse that this probably wasn’t intentional. It just reinforces that Tennessee’s racist history is truly inescapable, even when conjuring up “good old days” that were more brutal than good.

Tennessee’s racist history oozes out of every inch of the state; there’s no escaping it. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re probably occupying a spot where something terrible was done to a Black person by a White person at some point in history. That’s what good, God-fearing Whites did.

You’d think someone in Aldean’s entourage might’ve thought it wise to check the history of the courthouse they were using for the shoot, but they’re a buncha good ol’ boys, so what the Hell, right?? Let ‘em choke on the Liberal self-righteousness.

Tasteless? Yeah. Insensitive? Sure. Racist? Perhaps unintentionally, but yes. Dumbass move? Hell, yes. But as we all know, controversy sells- sometimes quite a lot.

At least one fellow musician, Sheryl Crow, was willing to publicly take Jason Aldean to task for what she (accurately) felt was an incitement to violence.

Ms. Crow raises a good point. Aldean was on stage when the shooting began at the music festival in Las Vegas that left 60 dead and 400+ wounded. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to wonder what lesson he took from that experience- because it doesn’t seem like he learned anything.

How do you go through an experience like that and not be profoundly changed? How can you continue to advocate violence after surviving a mass shooting that killed 60 of your fans yet miraculously left you alive?

Only Jason Aldean knows the answer to that, but his dedication to MAGA has overcome whatever aversion to violence he may once have felt.

Gun safety advocate Shannon Watts pointed out that Aldean was on stage at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival in 2017 when a gunman fired into the crowd, killing 60 people and injuring 413. The gunman did far more than rob a convenience store or burn a flag, yet rampant gun violence is not what Aldean decries in his song….

Maintaining her spotless record of always being wrong about everything, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee defended Aldean and claimed he’d been “cancel cultured,” which is right-wing speak for “public criticism of a public work.” These are the same people who bullied Dylan Mulvaney because she drank Bud Light while trans.

Aldean didn’t offer anything so prosaic as an apology for offending people. Instead, he presented himself as the true victim. It’s the same tactic he used when he was called out for wearing Blackface at a Halloween party.

He whined on social media Tuesday, “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.”

Sir, if none of your footage of supposed riots and attacks on the police includes the January 6 Capitol attack, your agenda is fairly obvious.

The reaction of Aldean and Sen. Blackburn played true to form for Conservatives caught engaging in patently and egregiously offensive behavior- otherwise known as “whining.” Never apologize, never admit wrongdoing, and always- ALWAYS- deflect blame onto those Liberal wienies accurately interpreting your words and/or actions.

While Aldean can whine all he wants, the imagery of his video DOES make his agenda rather obvious. It’s not like he’s selling rainbows and kittens, knowhutimean?

And Sen. Blackburn, as per usual for a home economics major from Mississippi State who has been out of her element since leaving Starkville lo, these many years ago, is once again just plain wrong.

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha….

(What was it Dan Akroyd used to say on Saturday Night Live all those years ago? “Jane, you ignorant slut….”)

Senator, this is not “cancel culture.” It’s about consequences, which you believe should apply only to those on the left side of the intellectual spectrum. Unfortunately for Conservative hypocrites like yourself, it doesn’t work that way.

You can make of Jason Aldean’s weak defense of his video what you wish. I believe he knew exactly what he was doing by shooting the video as it was. He knew it would be controversial, anger a large segment of the public, and garner a lot of media attention.

Mission accomplished.

His pathetic defense of the video is practically confirmation of my suspicion:

“There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it,” he went on, “and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage — and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music — this one goes too far. As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91 — where so many lost their lives — and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy. NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”

As I mentioned earlier, he’s correct in asserting that he does not directly or indirectly mention race in the lyrics. There’s nothing racist there, but the video isn’t just about the lyrics. The visual impact is far more powerful, and from that standpoint, the video looks very much anti-BLM without ever mentioning the movement.

Does that make it racist? It depends on your perspective and how well-tuned your dog whistle is.

MAGA propaganda isn’t renowned for its subtlety, and Jason Aldean’s video is anything but subtle. Nor does it shine a positive light on the political leanings of the country music world, which is known for being overwhelmingly White, Conservative, Christian, and heterosexual. And overwhelmingly reactionary.

“Try That In A Small Town” appeals to the worst in that demographic…which means Jason Aldean will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Too bad Henry Choate never had the same opportunity.