Brett Cooper (15:56)
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It is private, it's Christian, and it's affordable. Again, visit gcu Edu myoffer to learn more today. All right, now back to the story. What makes this whole argument over values and morality even more hilarious is that Kid Rock headlined the TPUSA Alternative All American halftime show and people online understandably were very quick to push back on conservatives and say, well, you're complaining about all of this, but what do you think about Kid Rock and his whole torrid history? But Kid Rock opening with one of his most lewd songs, Anomaly, the streamer he posted and he said it's hilarious that the conservative alternative to Bad Bunny was Kid Rock rapping about porno meth, crackheads and gang violence and hookers. These are the lyrics to the first song that he performed. Again, I will not be reading you those lyrics. And then this was also a great example. Allie Beth Stuckey said this about Bad Bunn. She posted and she said in response to the Washington Post tweet that we read, she said almost every single song was about degenerate sex with randos. But okay, but then she posted something positive about Kid Rock and the TPUSA performance and celebrating sharing the gospel. To which somebody responded and said, can we just cut the toxic empathy for Kid Rock, please? Lol. Like he's still a degenerate. He's just your degenerate. All I'm asking for is some modesty. And I do love that. Like Kid Rock is conservatives degenerate. Like they love him, but he is still kind of a degenerate. And I'm split here because I do get what Emily is saying, what Anomaly was saying. But I also understand why Ali Beth was celebrating Kid Rock's performance. And now we can get into that, because I do think it is often ridiculous for some of the most staunch conservatives to open their arms to any person who says a relatively based statement while simultaneously still chastising people on the left for doing the exact same thing. But what Anomaly and others are saying isn't totally inaccurate. And I know that I just said that when I had been on record acknowledging that the right needs to fight back against Cancel Culture and should be welcoming of people coming in, but you can welcome people with a healthy dose of skepticism and while not ignoring or lying about their degeneracy or the things that they continue doing even if they're saying based things anyway. So yes, what I'm trying to say here is that yes, Kid Rock did open with that song, and yes, he's kind of degenerate, but it was part of a broader story. By starting with that song with the lyrics that I will not read, he showed where he came from and where he used to be as a younger man. And then in the show it transitioned into this acoustic hymnal. And then he came on stage as himself, not Kid Rock, but Robert Richie. And he sang a cover of Cody Johnson's song Till youl Can't. And he added a verse at the end about making sure that you create a relationship with God, because one day it might be too late. So you need to do that until you can't. There was a purpose for him starting with that song. It showed redemption. It showed him coming to more traditional values. And the great thing is with Kid Rock, we could all understand it because it was in English. So thankfully, we can argue for it. We can all actually be on the same page. Now. I have also seen people commenting on my tweets and saying like, what did you think of the TV USA show? And if I actually watched it or if I actually watched Bad Bunny, like I posted a thing about Bad Bunny. And they were like, we, I can't believe you watched it. And I posted something on tv, o' say? And they're like, I can't believe you watched that. Yes, I watched both. We had one on tv, we had the other streaming on our laptop. And my take was that I am just glad that There was something for everyone. Like if you were angry about Bad Bunny, if you wanted to boycott it, we had an alternative which was great. It had great singers, it had great storytelling. It was wonderful. And to top it all off, if you didn't want any music, you could change the channel and you could watch the Puppy Bowl. Like there were so many options in the free market. Did SP speak in a lot of ways, because yes, Bad Bunny broke records, but so did tpusa, so did the alternative. I actually think that now it is one of the top live streams ever on YouTube. That says a lot. It showed that some people wanted something else, something more politically right wing country music, whatever it may be, they had an alternative. However, what I will not do is sit here and just say that the TBSA show was the greatest piece of art I have ever seen just because it aligned more with my political values. Because at the end of the day, it was still Kid Rock. It was still reactionary, per usual. Because that's just how it works in right wing politics. In fact, even Spencer Clavin, who is Andrew Clavin's so he acknowledged this to many jeers on social media in his comment section. And he was tweeting about Bad Bunny. And he said, meanwhile, the conservative alternative halftime show, however good it may be, is in its very essence an exemplar of all that is wrong with the right when it comes to the arts. If you are in the business of alternatives, you are already losing big L from the jump conceptually. If you can't look at that Bad Bunny halftime show and recognize its success independent of its political utility, then I regret to inform you that what you think of as your artistic taste is actually your politic politics in aesthetic form. Exactly. I think that Spencer put that really well. And so if you have also been bombarded by the outrage online, if the noise has gotten very loud and you haven't really known what to think, cause everybody is so angry, which is where I've kind of been sitting. I'm here to tell you that you didn't have to hate every aspect of Bad Bunny's performance. You also didn't have to love T. Posa's performance just because of your politics. It can be nuanced. You can appreciate both for what they are and listen, I agree with being tired of the reactionary alternatives. And I will say it here first before you comment, like I know I have been a of part. Those are things that I have promoted. So I'm sorry if I played a role in exhausting you I also exhausted myself. We'll try to move on from that, but I have seen a lot of people online sharing that sentiment. Katherine Brodsky on X made a great post breaking all of this down. I thought that it was very nuanced and kind. And she said, it's not as if conservatives are incapable of making art. Clint Eastwood, David Mamet, John Milius, Salvador Dali are some great names of people who made really good art. In fact, there are many more who don't fit conveniently into one political box, and some who keep their more conservative beliefs private. But the MAGA movement as a whole is utterly reactionary. I mean, they organized their own show just because they didn't like Bad Bunny. Come on. As such, their attempts at culture are hyper political. And then she goes on and she says that conservatives do have a way into culture. One way is through high quality biblical stories. Think Prince of Egypt and Noah and the Ten Commandments, It's a Wonderful Life, the Chronicles of Narnia series, the lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Bruce Almighty, et cetera. A lot of the things that Angel Studios is doing that I promote. That's why I promote them. And then she goes on and she says the other is through a rebellious counterculture strike, stories something like David Mamet or Tarantino can make something the more freewheeling type of artists might want to make. But right wingers are doing what they're upset with the left for doing. Hyper focusing on political views, which destroys cinema. All cinema politics has always been a part of creative storytelling. But when it becomes the story instead of the subtext that the audience stumbles across, you've lost the plot, literally. The things that people get upset about as being woke is just really bad storytelling. Cinema has always had sub moral positions, as it should. It was just, just done. Well, reactionary seems to work in podcasts and news segments. Hello. But not so much elsewhere, not in art. And I think all of us, even if this might be the first time that you're thinking of this, I think we all probably know that it doesn't really work because all of these alternative projects always have to be branded as the alternative or the conservative XYZ or the new Disney, whatever it is. And often, unfortunately, it's as cringy as blue sky. Like we all dunked on that. We all dunk on Kamala trying to be like as hip and cool as Team Trump on TikTok. We're doing the same thing here. And so when I see my fellow right wingers making great art that isn't just marketed through their political politics. I cheer it on because it's genuine, it's authentic, it's smart and you should too. Like that is where we should put our focus and what we should put our money behind, in my opinion. Anyway, I feel like that was kind of a side rant there, but it was inspired by the discourse about the alternative halftime show anyway. It felt relevant, but that's just something that I've been thinking a lot about, especially over the last couple of years. But the point is, thank goodness that amidst all of this there was something for everyone. Because while this decision made Sense for the NFL's goal for their goals, it was utterly ridiculous in terms of their relationship with the core fans who make them all of their money and the Americans who genuinely love the sport and love our country. And no, for the final time, it is not bigoted to want to hear and understand music in your own language when it is performed in your country. So we will end it with that.
