nonbinary cowboy

Garth Brooks winning video of the year at the ACMs for a song about how none of us are free as long as there's racism and homophobia

Reba McEntire charting with a gothic horror song about an innocent man being executed by an incompetent judge and a corrupt sheriff

Willie Nelson being, well, his entire self tbh

Dolly Parton recording the hating capitalism banger of all time

listen. Alan Jackson, the archetypal mister big hat man sitting on a tractor singing about a pickup truck, wrote a shockingly normal song about 9/11 that was like "yeah I don't know jack shit about politics but my copy of the bible says we're supposed to love everyone" and then went on the radio and explained how he specifically wanted to write a song about that day that "wasn't vengeful". Miranda Lambert took the southern leftist slogan "y'all means all" and made it the title of a corny ass pop-country song for the Queer Eye soundtrack. Kenny Chesney stole a horse from a cop and Tim McGraw put the cop in a chokehold defending him, and I know that's not about their music but it is, and this is very important, fucking sick as hell

Luke Combs covering Fast Car and keeping the line "I work in the market as a checkout girl" and doing an interview about how he couldn't change a single word because it's not his story. king shit

Morgan Wallen doing I Had Some Help, literally the first song that spoke to me as a male survivor of domestic abuse. also shoutout to the guy for getting caught saying a racial slur and responding by specifically telling his fans not to defend him and raising a bunch of money for the Black Music Action Coalition. bro had an engraved invitation to the culture war and said "nah I'd rather be normal"

Shaboozey just absolutely obliterating the drunk roadhouse anthem glass ceiling

Maren Morris and Brothers Osborne with a song that okay, released in 2019 but I didn't hear until recently, about how good friends mind their own business and let you love whoever you want and also get high with you when you're broke

Kimberley Perry! If I Die Young Part 2!! "actually I'm glad I lived, bitch" ass song that I bet is gonna mean a LOT to kids fighting depression

Wildlife in North Carolina, July 1968.

Maynard Dixon

H. ABC Book. 1923. C.B. Falls, artist.

in fact, the restaurant used the vegan identity and environmentalism as fuel for their marketing in quite cynical ways. at the same time they had a deal with Whole Foods (implicated in prison labor allegations btw) to source ingredients, meaning that there were transcontinentally shipped produce lol. for example we used frozen blueberries that were product of Chile. for a restaurant in the pacific northwest region in the united states of america. there are blueberry farms in oregon, washington, etc. But it’s cheaper to exploit south american farms than get local blueberries i guess. (which still by and large exploit the labor of migrant farmworkers from mexico and south and central america, but i digress)

Basil Nightingale (British, 1864-1940). Wings, 1931. Oil on canvas.

Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) Wild Horses of Nevada. 1927.

Yeehaw, despite the gloom | West Chester, PA | Nov 2024

because they're the ones who built saturn v. you know, the rocket that got astronauts to the moon for the first time. alabamains also built explorer I. you know, nasa's very first satellite launched into earth orbit. they also built the lunar rover. and significant portions of the hubble space telescope. and the international space station. and the chandra x-ray observatory. and they're the leader in development for deep space exploration.

nasa is one of the largest employers in the state. and alabama has fourth highest number of aerospace engineers, and the second highest concentration of said engineers in the country.

i am on my hands and knees begging y'all to recognize that alabama (and the south/appalachia as a whole) is not the bigoted, racist monolith y'all want it to be.

the treatment of and attitude towards "rednecks" speaks to the larger issue surrounding the superiority-complex held by folks living in blue states who believe they're better than folks who live in red states.

when you act like racism is something that only happens in red states, you're ignoring the fact that bigotry ain't contained within state lines. happens all over the country. and when you act like it's not happening where you live, you're doing a huge disservice to the marginalized and minoritized folks in your community. because they're the one's who are subjected to the racism and bigotry you think has magically disappeared just because y'all's state government is full of democrats.