Oliver Anthony became a viral sensation with Rich Men North of Richmond. We sent @heyjohnrussell to an Oliver Anthony concert in Michigan to find out why the song still resonates. The answer tells a bigger story about what people want in this election—and for this country.
Yeah it really feels like they almost have a sense of class consciousness and when you tear away the “politics” from the politics, they know who’s fucking them over.
I feel like a ton of conservatives would actually be socialists if they had any idea what socialism actually was. Mostly they have only known the word as a synonym for ‘thing I don’t like,’ but I always find it striking how much socialist language conservatives use when they want to get their base on board with something. Even the introduction for project 2025 goes like: socialist idea, socialist idea, socialist idea, statement condemning socialism as the cause of the world’s problems, positive sounding authoritarian statement presented as a solution. Then it goes back to socialist statements to keep the reader engaged and feeling like the author is working in their best interest. It’s like some weird rope-a-dope bait and switch strategy.
I bet if socialism got a rebranding that stripped out all the language that usually triggers the conservatives, you’d see a lot of conservatives jump on board with it. At least until the billionaires spin up their media machines to destroy it again.
What it often is, is they want an easy solution. The idea that things are bad isn’t lost on them, but when presented a choice between someone laying out a multistep plan and someone presenting a convenient scapegoat, they’re happy to run with the scapegoat every time.
It’s not even entirely an inherently conservative thing. Many of us can fall prey to it due to the fatigue of late stage capitalism and just running with something we want to believe without researching the underpinnings.