Memories

One year ago

Try That in a Big Town

The vitriol pouring out of liberal media attacking “Try That in a Small Town” is purer than the purest EverClear and just as toxic.

There’s no cogent argument against the contention that ‘the country is divided.’ Most any subject, political, social even sports-related, can ignite a firestorm of 4-alarm proportions anywhere, anytime at the drop of an innuendo.  Jason Aldean’s sudden blockbuster hit is different. After 55 years in radio/TV, I never experienced anything close to this. John Lennon’s 1966 comment, “We [the Beatles] are more popular than Jesus Christ,” came close, but without the instant communications of cable and the Internet, the ‘storm’ blew over quickly enough.

Listen to the lyrics. Maybe twice. Then, read the comments on social and MSM media. They've been removed now, but here are a couple copied off FaceBook:

"Ah yes, small towns, where corruption reigns, incest is hidden, teenage pregnancies are highest, education is lowest, misogyny is acceptable, nepotism is the norm, and if you ain't one of the good ol' boys you don't b'long round here son. Wunnerful lil ol' small towns."

"I wonder how small-town America likes being confirmed as a pack of racist bigots by one of their own?"

"Hillbillies and rednecks on Facebook. Amazed they can even spell “town".

Then there is this fetid fece from NPR “How Jason Aldean's 'Try That in a Small Town' became a political controversy”, scribbled by one Emily Olson who “ serves as a general assignment reporter, covering everything from Donald Trump's criminal indictment to a 5,000-mile-long blob of seaweed heading towards Florida”. How impressive!  Considering the source, the predictable megalomania and condescension do not disappoint; it merely disgusts. Littered with all the required liberal bromides to impress the Uptown Raised Pinky Set – “racial dog whistles, FOX News, Donald Trump, … right-leaning political views, …clips of vandalizing, riots and police encounters, much of which is evocative of racial injustice protests” even hopping in the Way-Back machine to mention the courthouse setting for the video was once the site of race riots and a 1927 ”lynching” endorsing all the non-existent racist slurs. According to the liberal’s PC barometer, the 75-year-old history should have been known and avoided by the producers. Not knowing and obeying ‘critic’s advice’ is a major liberal no-no. The funny thing about a dog whistle is that only the person blowing it knows it. Invariably, it’s the liberal critic making the accusation, so there’s that. Aldean’s history and well-articulated explanations denying the absurd allegations go for nothing. As we’ll see, they weren’t spoken the correct way. 

On a larger scale, one can marvel at the hate, ridicule, and ‘short bus’ stereotyping spewed from north of the Mason-Dixon’s tony media outlets. Typically, the author wastes no space failing to insert words and motives into the comments of Aldean and all involved without the professionalism of quotation marks. Prescience is a special talent reserved exclusively for insightful Liberals when exercising conservative criticism. Self-assumed, non-credentialed ‘social psychologist’ is a common elitist congratulatory title, along with ‘social critic’; both are equally worthless in real-world application. 

That analytical brilliance and a fair load of media history somehow disappear in reflection. Who can remember when Hollywood needed a character ‘less than astute’ whose scripted lines were not consistently spoken with a Southern drawl? Vaudeville, radio, TV, movies, Broadway, advertising – pick a media platform, and the ‘less intelligent’ was always a Southerner.  Ditto TV sitcoms: Gomer Pyle, Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Dukes of Hazard, Mayberry, RFD. Green Acres, Hee-Haw. New York and Hollywood producers made millions ridiculing Southerners and everything about the South in general. The ‘rural purge’ in the early ’70s, mostly by CBS, afraid of losing the lucrative youth demographic, wiped their schedule of hit shows that drew huge but older-skewing audiences…” “CBS canceled everything with a tree in it — including Lassie. -  Pat Buttram,

As they say, ‘the rest is history’ and ‘that’s show biz’. Today – and for some decades-  the entertainment business has been run by the very people who  New York network execs hated, the hayseed programming that made them millionaires and solidified their careers. Their progeny - Gen Z and younger demos – get to pull the plugs now and foist their laughable, prejudiced notions on the rest of the media consumers who can, at best, ignore their empty rants and screeds, take them for what they aren’t and move on. Try that in a small town; it will get you canned in a big one.

BW

Thanks for reading this far. At the time - a year ago - this piece had more readers than the two dozen preceding it.

I’m posting it again to give you an idea of how far our National blood pressure has risen.