Song is blowing up in popularity. Of course the media is just uncritically referring to it as a “working class anthem”, because of the fundamentally reactionary nature of this country. It’s not “working class” in the true sense. It just reinforces the idea that conservative white men with jobs in the trades deserve a good life because of the settler mentality and white supremacy. Capital has always “taken care of” these white men - they buy off their allegiance in exchange for exclusive economic and social privilege. Now that capital has been less generous to them under neoliberalism, they’re big mad they’re not getting the same deal (at the expense of others) as they used to. Some selected lyrics:
It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to / For people like me and people like you
Right out of the gate, Anthony is making his screed exclusionary. For a country music song, already the audience is gonna skew white and reactionary. The rest of the lyrics of this song just highlight how the world sucks now for “people like him”, and fuck everyone else.
These rich men north of Richmond / Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Of course politicians suck. But notice how capital isn’t the target. The target isn’t even say corrupt politicians who take bribes. It’s the politicians who want to “control” you. In conservative circles, this always means things like “they want to force you to accept that LGBTQ folks are valid” or things like that.
’Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
Sure, inflation and taxes suck but I’ve never known anyone outside of the top 10% of earners who complains about taxes who wasn’t doing so from a deeply anti-poor reactionary stance.
I wish politicians would look out for miners
Ahh, the beloved white miners of conservatives dreams. The mining industry employs way fewer people than Walmart, but funny how a “working class anthem” from a white man doesn’t include any solidarity with retail workers…
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Sound of Freedom noises intensify
cw: fatphobia
spoiler
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Wow, a regular ol’ working class man taking time in his song to slam the racist Reagan-era notions of welfare queens. Just wonderful.
This song sucks but it really captures white grievance politics and how they steal our correct notions of class to further their own agenda.
This song and the "try that in a small town song" show that this modern pop country is gonna swing hard into fascism. Blue jean beer and truck worship wasn't enough, they're gonna start quoting the Elders of Zion by 2025.