{"id":31901,"date":"2023-09-22T11:30:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T15:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=31901"},"modified":"2023-09-22T11:31:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T15:31:18","slug":"online-encyclopedia-declares-inflation-a-right-wing-talking-point-in-response-to-hit-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2023\/09\/22\/online-encyclopedia-declares-inflation-a-right-wing-talking-point-in-response-to-hit-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Encyclopedia Declares Inflation a \u2018Right-Wing Talking Point\u2019 in Response to Hit Song"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=31902\" class=\"attachment wp-att-31902\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/oliver-anthony_inflation-1024x573.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"802\" height=\"449\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-31902\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/oliver-anthony_inflation-1024x573.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/oliver-anthony_inflation-300x168.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/oliver-anthony_inflation-768x430.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/oliver-anthony_inflation-214x120.jpg 214w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/oliver-anthony_inflation.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 802px) 100vw, 802px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new folk song with edgy lyrics is causing quite a stir in America, and it\u2019s not \u201cTry That in a Small Town.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oliver Anthony&#8217;s blue-collar anthem &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond&#8221; exploded across the internet, racking up 66 million views on YouTube since debuting last month.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anthony\u2019s mournful ballad has an almost Depression-era feel. Sporting a bushy red beard and a twangy guitar, the Virginia native channels the struggles of working-class Americans while strumming away in the woods in front of what appears to be a hunting blind.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;ve been sellin&#8217; my soul, workin&#8217; all day \/ Overtime hours for bulls*it pay \/ So I can sit out here and waste my life away \/ Drag back home and drown my troubles away.&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s a damn shame what the world&#8217;s gotten to \/ For people like me and people like you \/ Wish I could just wake up and it not be true \/ But it is, oh, it is.&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Livin&#8217; in the new world \/ With an old soul \/ These rich men north of Richmond \/ Lord knows they all just wanna have total control \/ Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do \/ And they don&#8217;t think you know, but I know that you do \/ &#8216;Cause your dollar ain&#8217;t sh*t and it&#8217;s taxed to no end \/ &#8216;Cause of rich men north of Richmond<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The song has resonated broadly with listeners, but it has also become a sort of political bellwether with lyrics that take aim at taxes, <a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/how-inflation-drinks-your-milkshake\/\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" data-toggle=\"popover\">inflation<\/a>, and welfare.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sqSA-SY5Hro?si=-No3SPfw2T4Ssn0v\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>The Los Angeles<\/em> Times<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> notes Anthony\u2019s song has been criticized by leftists, who\u2019ve dubbed the tune an &#8220;alt-right anthem&#8221; that&#8217;s &#8220;offensive&#8221; and &#8220;fatphobic.&#8221; <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Guardian<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, meanwhile, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2023\/aug\/16\/rich-men-north-of-richmond-oliver-anthony\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">accused<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Anthony of \u201cpunching down\u201d and mocking the poor.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right wing pundits have seen things differently, including Matt Walsh who called the song \u201craw and authentic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOne interesting thing about \u2018Rich Men North Of Richmond\u2019 is that he (rightly) attacks the welfare state,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MattWalshBlog\/status\/1690043917046099970\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tweeted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Walsh. \u201cMany conservatives think that it isn\u2019t populist to criticize entitlements but in reality blue collar Americans are sick of having their money stolen to prop up a system that functions as nothing more than a vote buying scheme for Democrats.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not exactly a surprise that Anthony&#8217;s hit song would be received differently by the left and the right, which increasingly operate in different cultural ecosystems with totally different values.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But some are getting a bit carried away in the effort to turn Anthony&#8217;s blue-collar tune into a right-wing screed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wikipedia\u2019s page on \u2018Rich Men North Of Richmond\u2019 initially <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/miltimore79\/status\/1691867853673132516\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">claimed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that \u201cthe song\u2019s lyrics revolve around common right-wing themes such as inflation (the dollar ain\u2019t sh*t)&#8230; .\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did you catch that? Inflation apparently is now \u201ca right-wing talking point\u201d instead of an economic phenomenon broadly defined today as a general and sustained increase in consumer prices and a decline in the value of money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wikipedia\u2019s claim, which is now slightly reworded (following my tweet), is bizarre. There is nothing partisan about inflation, after all. It affects everyone. Rich and poor. Republican, Democrat, and Independent. People of every sex, race, and creed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For decades, the term &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/07\/04\/inflation-is-the-silent-killer-as-many-retirees-are-feeling-the-sting.html\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">silent killer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; has been used by scholars, economists, and financial asset managers to describe inflation because of the gradual and often unnoticed erosion in purchasing power it causes.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inflation has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/insider-economy\/hyperinflation-in-the-roman-empire-and-its-influence-on-romes-collapse-446486dcda63\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">destroyed civilizations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Rome) and ushered in totalitarian regimes (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/what-china-s-hyperinflation-in-the-1940s-can-teach-americans\/?utm_source=epochtimes&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=jon-op-ed&amp;utm_content=wikipedia-mao-in-china\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" data-toggle=\"popover\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mao in China<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), which is why it has been decried by an array of intellectuals who were hardly \u201cright-wingers.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The writer Ernest Hemingway, who moved to Spain during the Spanish Civil War to oppose Franco and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1982\/11\/29\/nyregion\/article-hemingway-wrote-for-pravda-in-38-is-published-in-english.html\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wrote for Pravda<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because he hated fascism so much, called inflation \u201cthe first panacea for a mismanaged nation.\u201d (The second, he added, was war.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Maynard Keynes, the staunch anti-conservative English economist who became arguably the most influential macroeconomic thinker in history, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www-tc.pbs.org\/wgbh\/commandingheights\/shared\/pdf\/ess_inflation.pdf\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">warned in 1919<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Vladmir Lenin \u201cis said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBy a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens,\u201d wrote Keynes. \u201cThe sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security but [also] at confidence <\/span>in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.\u201d <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(emphasis added)<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;\">\n<div id=\"om-fqmeg7lcejd7fy5oro5r-holder\">\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"om-lxkcubhhqwmdm0lkjkbp-holder\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More recently Lawrence Summers, the former President of Harvard and an economist that served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, warned that inflation is undermining confidence in the American political system.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s clear that inflation is significantly contributing to distrust in the institutions and to pessimism about the future,\u201d Summers recently <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2022\/02\/pandemic-only-partly-to-blame-for-record-inflation-says-lawrence-summers\/\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">told<\/span><\/a> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Harvard Gazette<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearly, one needn\u2019t be a right-winger to be concerned about inflation. Anyone who goes to McDonald\u2019s and is stunned to see <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeterSchiff\/status\/1683155170501312517\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a $50 receipt<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> after ordering a few burgers, fries, and drinks has a right to be concerned over the erosion of their money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">None of this is to say that there are no political undertones to Anthony&#8217;s song. There clearly are, and this fits snuggly in the long tradition of country music.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyone who has ever listened to Hank Williams Jr. or David Allan Coe or any number of artists can tell you weaving poverty and politics into songs is hardly out of the ordinary in the country music genre. Consider these lyrics from a popular song from Alabama tune, \u201cSong of the South\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cotton on the roadside, cotton in the ditch&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We all picked the cotton but we never got rich<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daddy was a veteran, a southern democrat&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They oughta get a rich man to vote like that<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well somebody told us Wall Street fell&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But we were so poor that we couldn&#8217;t tell&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cotton was short and the weeds were tall&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Mr. Roosevelt&#8217;s a gonna save us all<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alabama\u2019s song is more overtly political than Oliver Anthony&#8217;s\u2014it mentions a political party and president\u2014but you\u2019ll find no mention of it being left-wing on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Song_of_the_South_(song)\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wikipedia\u2019s page<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the song.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The primary difference, of course, is that Alabama\u2019s song praised government anti-poverty programs, whereas Anthony&#8217;s song attacks them.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sadly, it\u2019s quite possible that we\u2019ve reached a point where any kind of criticism of the federal system is considered \u201cright wing\u201d by many. (After all, even everyday activities such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gq.com\/story\/far-right-workout\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">working out<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@anthonybernardi\/why-waking-up-early-is-rooted-in-white-supremacy-f487b04376f1\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">getting up early<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have been described as such.)&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But adding inflation to this list of partisan topics is not just unwise, but dangerous. There is, I suppose, one silver lining.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wikipedia\u2019s labeling of inflation as a right-wing talking point is tacit admission that the real cause of inflation is not corporate greed <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/stop-blaming-inflation-on-taylor-swift-and-beyonce\/?utm_source=epochtimes&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=jon-op-ed&amp;utm_content=wikipedia-swift\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" data-toggle=\"popover\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or Taylor Swift<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Inflation is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/what-happened-in-1971-edward-snowden-and-jack-dorsey-want-to-know\/?utm_source=epochtimes&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=jon-op-ed&amp;utm_content=wikipedia-1971\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" data-toggle=\"popover\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">policy<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the powers in Washington, D.C. who are printing trillions of dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If pointing out basic economic realities makes one \u201cright wing,\u201d I\u2019m not sure what that says about the left.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/opinion\/inflation-labeled-a-right-wing-talking-point-in-response-to-hit-working-class-song-5477317\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><em>A version of this article first appeared in The Epoch Times<\/em><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<h5>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/fee.org\/people\/jon-miltimore\/\" class=\"steem-keychain-checked\"><br \/>\nJon Miltimore<br \/>\n<\/a><\/h5>\n<p class=\"brief-bio\">\n<p>Jonathan Miltimore is the Editor at Large of FEE.org at the Foundation for Economic Education.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic;\">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/online-encyclopedia-declares-inflation-a-right-wing-talking-point-in-response-to-hit-song\/\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new folk song with edgy lyrics is causing quite a stir in America, and it\u2019s not \u201cTry That in a Small Town.\u201d&nbsp; Oliver Anthony&#8217;s blue-collar anthem &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond&#8221; exploded across the internet, racking up 66 million views on YouTube since debuting last month.&nbsp; Anthony\u2019s mournful ballad has an almost Depression-era feel. Sporting a bushy red beard and a twangy guitar, the Virginia native channels the struggles of working-class Americans while strumming away in the woods in front of what appears to be a hunting blind.&nbsp; I&#8217;ve been sellin&#8217; my soul, workin&#8217; all day \/ Overtime hours for bulls*it pay \/ So I can sit out here and waste my life away \/ Drag back home and drown my troubles away.&nbsp; It&#8217;s a damn shame what the world&#8217;s gotten to \/ For people like me and people like you \/ Wish I could just wake up and it not be true \/ But it is, oh, it is.&nbsp; Livin&#8217; in the new world \/ With an old soul \/ These rich men north of Richmond \/ Lord knows they all just wanna have total control \/ Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do \/ [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15],"tags":[898,3984,2253,3983],"class_list":["post-31901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-news-and-politics","tag-inflation","tag-oliver-anthony","tag-politics","tag-wikipedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31904,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31901\/revisions\/31904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}