 start with, let's start with the song. You know the song actually deserves doing a whole show on this and I will I think probably we'll see maybe maybe this weekend I'll do a whole show on this because and it's not really the song it's it's the whole phenomena that the song represents which I think is worth is worth talking about and and reflecting on and it requires it requires a lot more than just just what we the time we have for the newsy stuff but I wanted to at least cover it in terms of news and I think part of what I'll do when I talk about the song as a whole as a whole show is talk about the reactions to song I mean I mean this is now this is now being defined by Matt Walsh as the protest song of our generation this is you know Oliver Anthony is now the Bob Dylan and the Joan Baez of 2010 this is this is the the defining song of our generation and Matt Walsh will know because he has so much in common with Oliver Anthony I mean their lives are just just parallel so much I mean they're just so similar I mean I'm sure Matt Walsh's complaints about the world are just exactly the same as as Oliver Anthony's Oliver Anthony is the is the songwriter and singer of of the song which man which man north of Richmond yeah so we're gonna we're gonna talk about we'll talk a little bit about the responses but we should devote a lot more time to that anyway this song came out I think it was six days ago was loaded up online it is being watched on YouTube over 12 million times which is a lot it is the number one country music song in the country it is become a big hit among a right wing commentator conservative commentators this as you heard Matt Walsh considers this the the modern the anthem the the protest song of of this generation yeah this is this is every way I listened to the song you guys should it's not particularly good as a song and it's certainly not getting all this attention because of its qualities as a song Bob Dylan does not have anything to worry about in terms of either the poetry of the lyrics or the ability of or the melody or the ability of the singer I will give credit to Oliver Anthony you know it's a song fill of emotion so there's anger there's real anger in the song and I think that resonates with people so it's there's a certain sense in which it's authentic but it's not good from musical perspective even for country right I can I can enjoy a country song and country songs office often have you know very catchy and and fun and you know pretty melodic lines this one just doesn't it's just it's not a particularly good song it's not particularly good music there's no accident that Oliver Anthony has not been known not be known in the past for his music let's get to the lyrics though because I think it's a lyrics that resonate with people and the lyrics associated with anger you know this is a song about the alienation of American working class this is a song about the alienation of the people who are dying deaths of despair this is a song about the working class not making enough money this is a song about exploitation about about the working class being exploited I mean if you had if you had shown these lyrics to somebody 10 years ago if you'd shown these lyrics to somebody 20 years ago they would have said yeah this is this is a this is a leftist socialist song that you know Woody Guthrie could have gotten behind there's nothing nothing that would have suggested to anybody 20 years ago that this song was right wing and and this song is I think more than anything of reflection of where the right is today and and the the the tragedy of the fact that there is nobody nobody out there that actually represents individualism freedom free market it's capitalism all those boring terms that nobody finds interesting anymore that the right is complete the right today has flipped you've got you know again this could be sung by Woody Guthrie it could be saw in the 60s 70s 80s 90s it doesn't really matter it's it could be sung by somebody in the 1850s it could have been sung by Dickens or Karl Marx in the 1850s there's really nothing here that's right wing except you know some complaining about welfare but you know not in any kind of really serious way there's some complaints about well for there's some complaint about taxes but no complaint about taxes as they've applied as they've applied for to rich people it's just taxes on the on the working class it's a complaint you know there's there's a little bit of a complaint maybe about inflation dollar ain't shit you know that maybe that's the complaint about inflation but really you know there's a hint at pedophilia which is like the kind of the right wing thing these days but I mean thing to complain about but really this is just a song that is of the left I'm gonna I'm gonna read it to you I'm not gonna sing it to you I'm gonna read it I've been selling my soul working all day overtime hours for bullshit pay all right yeah working all day overtime hours for bullshit pay a pay in manufacturing which is what this is relating to steadily up pretty much if I ever you know I looked at some graphs for United States manufacturing jobs 26 bucks and 47 cents on average as of July 2023 that is significantly above 2016 which was a 20 bucks or 2002 when it was at 15 bucks or 1960 when it was I don't know three four bucks something like that an hour for manufacturing jobs so manufacturing jobs have increased they've never paid phenomenally well the reality is the the value added of manufacturing job in the United States is very limited and and the consequence of that is that oh god why is this not doing that you know these jobs are done cheaper and as well in other countries in many cases these jobs are done better by robots machines a big chunk of the more productive parts of these jobs are done today by by computers and yeah in spite of that wages are steadily rising the number of people working at these jobs has declined from its peak the peak was in 1979 19,500,000 19 and a half million people were working in manufacturing jobs in 1979 today it's about 13 million so they've declined from 19 and a half to 13 million but still 13 million Americans working these kind of jobs were they were they are they poorer today than they were in 1979 probably not purchasing power quality of life standard of living might have have increased dramatically might have increased dramatically gives again but has increased you know 1979 wages I'm just looking at this graph probably about seven and a half bucks an hour today it's 26 and a half that seems to have outpaced inflation from 1979 to today I'd have to run the numbers wait a second I wonder if this is this is already inflation adjusted anyway it's um no these are not inflation adjusted so uh if you're looking inflation adjusted they're making more money so yeah you know manufacturing jobs have always been tough they're hard they're grueling you don't make a fortune you're certainly not going to become rich working as a manufacturing laborer you're going to be middle-class you're going to be maybe lower middle class depending on that's an average wage people in in managerial jobs make a lot more than that within manufacturing and people just starting up make a quite a bit less than that but so the average is 26 with with a little bit of tenure and stuff maybe you're making 30 35 and so people have been complaining about these jobs forever so I sit out here and waste my life away drag back home and draw my troubles away now so he's bitching complaining about his life and a lot of people are complaining about their lives but who's the responsibility is it his life um why is he wasting his life away why is he sitting out here why isn't he pursuing something better I mean this is the this is where the left and right completely fail right they completely fail why doesn't anybody care about personal responsibility why doesn't anybody challenge these people to do better I mean I think that's the cause of death to despair is they're not challenged they're not taking responsibility for their own lives that they're just okay this is it this is manufacturing job 26 bucks an hour this is what I'm going to do I work I waste my life I know I'm wasting my life I do nothing about it I don't have the balls I don't have the guts I don't have the ability I don't know I think it's the guts and the balls I drag back home draw my troubles away yeah alcohol drugs whatever it's a damn shame what the world's got what the world's gotten to for people like me and people like you wish I could just wake up and it's not be true but it is oh it is was the world for people like how many different 30 years ago 40 years ago 50 years ago in rural Virginia wherever he's from was it really that different now I think it was in the sense that there was a lot less envy in American society there was a lot less looking at what other people have those people north of Richmond and by the way you know north of Richmond so that's all of northern Virginia it's it's wealthy people so it's a lot of less envy a lot more satisfaction what people had a lot more taking responsibility for your own life and and trying to do something with whatever you had there was a lot more about building families and building communities and and building a life today there's a lot of bitching complaining moaning and comparing ourselves to people north of Richmond and not matching up living in the new world with an old soul is it a new world really is in that sense at a new world these Richmond north of Richmond Lord knows they all just want to have total control want to know what you think want to know what you do and they don't think you know but I know that you do because you're dull ain't shit and it's taxed to no end because a rich man north of Richmond so yeah taxes are too high way too high including on these working people who uh you know he would pay probably about 20 to 25 percent of his tax of his income in taxes way too much he probably doesn't have a lot of the deductions a lot of stuff to deduct but remember that out of that 24 25 a big chunk of that right a big chunk of that what is it probably over 10 percent so almost half is so security medicare is anybody out there in the heartland or any of the manufacturing workers want to give up their medicare and social security probably not and they're going to use much more medicare than they put in they'll get their social security back if it doesn't system doesn't go bust they'll get it but their medicare they're going to use a lot more than they put in and they want medicare because that's what i'll pay for the healthcare after they reach 65 are they really willing to give that up is that what the song is about i want to privatize healthcare i want to privatize medicare i want to privatize social security no we know that that's not what it's about yeah they're complaining about the people of north wanting total control good reason to do that they do want total control i would say the powerful men north of richmond want total control they want to know what you think they want to control you left or right they want into your life they want into your mind they want into education they want control over who you are so it's a protest song about people who are too powerful and want to control us too much you right i wish politicians will look out for the miners and not just miners on an island somewhere that's reference to epstein right actually miners if you look at wages for coal miners this is not far from coal mining territory significantly higher than manufacturing they get a premium because of the risk they take so it's about 20 percent higher than it is for miners now it is true that those jobs are going away because of the whole climate change green energy stuff so yeah in that sense politicians are not looking out for the miners lord we got folks in the street ain't got nothing to eat and the obese milking welfare i mean unfortunately uh yeah some obese are probably milking welfare but obesity is a massive problem in the united states it you know when you can talk about why it's a problem maybe i go back to the issue of personal responsibility uh where is that um so he's complaining about obesity in america as everybody should it's terrible he says well god if you're five foot three and you're 300 pounds taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds uh the empirical evidence about how much food stamps are being used you know to to to make obesity worse not really there but yeah i mean i'm against welfare i'm against food stamps and but you know but who's the problem right we've got a lot of people with obesity and and it goes to the same thing right it goes to the same problem is the problem the wages is that why they were obese is the problem welfare is that why they were obese in a sense yes because welfare sends everybody a signal don't take care of yourself don't think for yourself don't worry about yourself obesity might also be part of the epidemic of death of despair obesity might be part of the alienation and the and the depression and the suicide and just and the alcoholism just the fact that so many people out there feel so you know so uh just depressed about the world as this song reflects but again what's the cause is it is it really rich men north of richman they're causing all this young men are putting themselves six feet in the ground because all this damn country does is keep on kicking them around a young man being kicked around i mean lord it's a damn shame what the world's gotten to for people like me and people like you wish i could just wake up and it'd not be true and then you know the last the last line is i mean selling my soul working all day overtime hours for bullshit pay same way it opened i mean this is a song of frustration this is a song of angst this is a song of anger um embraced by people who met Welsh who i don't know if he's ever worked in a factory in his life i don't know if he knows what a factory looks like i don't know maybe maybe he has maybe i'm not being fair um picked up by by by intellectuals who have a strong incentive strong incentive to promote this kind of angst to fuel it to fire it up to use it for their own political means i suspect matt walsh belongs more to the rich man north of Richmond than he does to the rule of virginian that uh you know works in a manufacturing job that this uh that this song represents uh just like this angst was picked up by the left in the 1960s and 70s this kind of angst and angst and frustration and angers picked up by the right today they're no solutions they're no answers all these populist right wing or left wing all they want to do is use this to enhance their power all they want to do is tap into this how many how many people who listen to the song and who support the song and have embraced the song how many of those people are middle-class kids how many of those people wouldn't know what this kind of angst looks like how many of those people are much more interested in the politics of this than interested in actually resolving the problem of deaths of despair of youth suicide of people really struggling out there all right anyway that that's the song you know there's a lot more to talk about this you know the whole attitude that exists out there in the country um nathaniel brandon wrote a really a really good essay um years ago in the 1960s for iron rand on um i think it's in capitalism not an ideal on alienation and i think it's so fits our time it's so fits our time in terms of in terms of the way people feel it's not about what existentially is out there it's not about how much money they make it's not about the quality of life of standard of living it's not about any of that it's about how they feel about their life it's about how they relate to their own life it's it's our educational system is so corrupted them is that they can't relate to their own life they feel impotent in the face of the world before them they feel that they cannot take control of their own life and the question is why do they feel that and I think it has to do with the philosophy and the culture of the education and the culture and everything else