"That Shit Might Fly In The City...." (Episode Troix)

If your town has a Target store (or if it's named Macon, GA), it's not a small town

“Don’t do anything stupid."

"Don’t worry," I whispered over the line, "I’m an expert on stupid."

"You’re..."

"Like, I can spot stupidity, because I know it so well. The way an exterminator knows bugs really well, and can spot where they’ve been? I’m like that. A stupidinator."

"Never say that word again," Prof said.

• Brandon Sanderson, Firefight

I’ve already written enough about Jason Aldean and the video for his song, Try That In A Small Town. Yes, it’s a racist dog whistle and intended to advocate for violence against those not like you. I think I’ve made a pretty good case for that, and I don’t think there’s much of an argument to be made against it.

And, as someone who grew up in a small town, I’m here to tell you once again that Aldean’s depiction is 100% pure Grade-A, top-shelf, USDA-Prime bullshit. None of it’s true. No one in my small town behaved so aggressively and/or violently. We all had to live together, and the adults had to set an example for their kids. Sure, there were disagreements, but they were far more often than not settled like adults.

After all, we all had to live together in our small town.

Sadly, rationally settling arguments and disagreements doesn’t sell records; conflict does, and the video creates the visual background for that. Now the video is being changed. The scene from a Black Lives Matter protest in Atlanta in 2020 has nothing to do with life in a small town, though the Washington Post reports the change is due to “third-party copyright clearance issues.” Way to cover your tracks there, eh? Why admit to making a horrible, if thoroughly intentional mistake, when you can claim “third-party copyright clearance issues?

In the end, though, none of that matters if you’re trying to sell violence and racism to a MAGA-fied audience already receptive to that message.

The music video for the song “Try That in a Small Town” by the country music star Jason Aldean appears to have been edited to remove violent images of Black Lives Matter protests after criticism that the song and the accompanying video were offensive.

The updated video, six seconds shorter than the original, no longer includes video clips from Fox News in Atlanta showing police violence against protesters during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. However, the video is still set at a Tennessee courthouse that was the site of a lynching, and it includes other clips of criminal activity and clashes between protesters and the police.

Portions of the Fox News clip appeared twice in the original music video, first projected against the exterior of the courthouse as Aldean sings about actions that he claims would not be tolerated in a small town: “carjack an old lady,” “cuss out a cop,” “stomp on the flag.”

I’m not sure what Aldean was thinking (he grew up in Macon, GA, after all, pop. 157,000+), but “carjack an old lady,” “cuss out a cop,” and “stomp on the flag” have nothing to do with living in a small town. And that’s what I fail to understand about the song. Why would anyone think those things have anything to do with living in a small town?

The removed clip was filmed in Atlanta during the nationwide protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. The demonstrations grew so tense in Atlanta that the city’s mayor urged protesters to go home, and the governor of Georgia declared a state of emergency.

So Atlanta- not a small town, right? The removed clip is relevant only if you intend to speak to those already inclined toward seeing violence as a response to any destruction caused by racist protests- like Antifa or BLM, f’rinstance.

Jason Aldean was trying to stoke racist anger in the same way The Former Guy used the riots here in Portland and elsewhere in the summer of 2020 to pump up his “law and order” bona fides. The video was as intentional as it was targeted.

Of course, by now, Aldean’s been laughing all the way to the bank and back. Try That In A Small Town has reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, which means that Aldean and everyone associated with him has made a shit-ton of money. So there’s no reason for Aldean or anyone else to care, because no one’s worried about where their next Big Mac’s coming from.

His fanbase is primarily comprised of White Conservative Christian heterosexuals- the same MAGA-fied folks who believe Donald Trump is the Messiah. They love Aldean and his music; like him, they don’t think he’s done anything wrong.

The sad thing is that Jason Aldean could’ve used his music to unite people. Instead, he’s chosen to whine about “cancel culture” and how he’s being treated poorly by the PC crowd.

Cry me a freakin’ river.

Aldean, 46, has been one of country’s music’s biggest hitmakers for two decades. He has denied that race played any part in the song’s lyrics, which were written by Neil Thrasher, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy and Kelley Lovelace. He has also denied that it is a “pro-lynching song,” saying on Twitter that “these references are not only meritless, but dangerous.”

He commented on the response to the song at a tour stop in Cincinnati on Friday.

“Cancel culture is a thing,” he told the crowd at the Riverbend Music Center, according to Rolling Stone. “It’s something where if people don’t like what you say, they try and make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life, ruin everything.”

This is what Far-Right Conservatives do when they’ve been busted for being thoughtless, self-serving assholes. Despite Aldean’s foolish claims, it’s not “cancel culture;” no one’s out there waiting to wipe him from popular culture. No, it’s more accurately called “consequence culture.” He doesn’t get to be racist, homophobic, sexist assholes without dealing with the consequences that flow from that place.

“Cancel culture” is not a thing.

Reap the wind, sow the whirlwind, knowhutimean??

And you don’t get to complain when the consequences come home to find you. In Aldean’s case, he knew precisely what he was doing with the video. He knew the images would be raw and controversial. And he also knew that controversy would draw eyeballs…and, with them, dollars.

He was spot-on, probably far more than he could’ve anticipated.

(For my money, Simon and Garfunkel did a far better job of nailing life in a small town. Ah, but what do I know? I only grew up in a town of 941 frozen souls.

Nothing but the dead are dying back in my little town….)

For him to complain about “cancel culture” is disingenuous at best and beyond absurd at worst. His self-serving bellyaching insults anyone intelligent enough to understand what he’s up to.

Here’s an idea- grow up and be brave enough to admit what you were doing, especially when anyone not wearing a MAGA hat knows precisely what the original version of the video of Try That In A Small Town was about. It didn’t take an advanced degree in rocket science to figure that out.

OK, that’s about enough of this silliness, don’tchathink??