This is amazing.

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I listened to that rich men from richmond song and at the start I was very confused why some people were angry at it and then the welfare stuff started and yikes.

Imagine making an anti government song that explicitly attacks millionaires and then derailing into hating poor people in the middle of it.

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At first glimpse, the video clip looked like my kind of music: a young bearded guy up in the woods of Appalachia, playing a resonator guitar. As soon as he started singing, I was on board. “I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day, overtime hours for bullshit pay.” Preach, brother! When Anthony sang of “rich men north of Richmond, they want to have total control” I had in my mind corporate America, the tech bro billionaires whose companies monitor their workers all the way to the bathroom and back. I was still with him when he highlighted “folks on the street with nothing to eat” but was brought up sharp when he followed it with “and the obese milkin’ welfare”. Whoa! What is he saying here? Homeless hungry people need help, but not if they’re overweight? When the next line attacked short, fat people who receive welfare only to spend it on chocolate biscuits, I figured the song was a parody. Why didn’t he rhyme “tax” with “snacks”, the songwriter in me thought. But it isn’t a parody. Anthony really does punch down on the poor. The lives of ordinary working people are being torn apart by the rich, he laments, but we can fix it if we cut welfare – and taxes too. Listening to the lyrics in that context, I came to understand why the song had gone viral among rightwing figures in the US. It’s a classic example of the divisive narrative that bosses have used to pit worker against worker since the days of Joe Hill. If the poor are fighting one another over racial hierarchy or cultural grievance, their anger will be directed away from the people responsible for their plight – the rich who exploit those in work and abandon those in need.

Remy: Rich Men North of Richmond (Federal Employee Version)

I gotta be honest, I was kinda on board with Rich Men North of Richmond at the beginning where it was a generic, “f*ck the government” piece (although to be honest, the lyrics lack any real poetry to me) but then it turns on it’s heels and starts going after those who need financial assistance…after talking about people hungry in the streets. I thought we were mad at the government? Now we’re mad at people using food stamps to buy chocolate? Is it more acceptable for people to be needy if they’re lacking basic necessities? What does that have to do with the rest of the song and why did that need to be weaseled in there?

Check where those taxes are going, buddy. I don’t particularly want my tax dollars funding a multi-billion dollar military-industrial complex but at least if I complain about that, I’m still railing against the government I seemed to be complaining about in the beginning of the song. It sounds like a lazy attempt to shoehorn some phobic bullshit into your song.

I don’t know why people are acting like this is some refreshingly revolutionary piece of music. The lyrics are uninspired, the song doesn’t even know where to point its ire, and the message is far from “fresh”. There are plenty of artists, especially in that genre, who have been singing the anti-government line for years now—you just haven’t been paying attention. It’s vague enough for most people to get behind without realizing it’s not saying much of anything.

I will say the guitar and singing are fine…pretty standard for the genre these days.

P.S. the most “clever” line I guess was the miners/minors thing but since they’re pronounced the same, it doesn’t really work in song the way it does in text soooo…nice try?

🤣👏🏼 God damn, I love how dumb conservatives are 🤣👏🏼🎀

I was initially excited to learn that an acoustic song by an independent country singer was projected to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, but...

Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat And the obese milkin' welfare Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds

And this is supposed to be an anthem for the working class??

I am, admittedly, a rich (by global standards) person who lives north of Richmond, Virginia. But I know for a fact that there are plenty of poor southerners whose reaction to these lyrics, just like mine, was "Fuck off."

The Battle Cry of every American 🇺🇲

I just finished this book and plan to restart it next week and do a much deeper dive. But all I can say is that you need to read this book. If you are at all concerned about our culture, homes, children, and men, read this book. Husbands and fathers read this book. Wives and mothers read this book. Everyone drop everything and read this book.

Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground

'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down

And it's not just young men, but young women also.

Reactions to the Anon singing his song: "Rich Man North of Richmond"