re: New Jason Isbell Song - Be Afraid

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Hopefully this isn't released as the lead track because it is the "best," because that will make for a disappointing album.

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It was released first because it’s “controversial.”

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Uh, no, it wasn’t.

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The album earned Isbell his first CMA Award nomination. It was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2017 ceremony. It won Best Americana Album at the 2018 Grammy Awards and International Album of the Year at the 2018 UK Americana Awards. Additionally, "If We Were Vampires" won the Grammy for Best American Roots Song.

So yeah, it was.

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several bad/annoying songs

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Just out of curiosity, which ones do you consider "bad/annoying"?

LSUballs is also documented as saying his favorite song is Super 8.

So take that for what you will...

Nashville sound had at least 6 GREAT songs on it. Are you triggered by white mans world?

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Furthermore, the notions that “Be Afraid” assert that if you speak out against the current administration or social repression, then you risk retribution is just incorrect.

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Sounds like Jason has become "ate up" with TDS.

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Also, “Be Afraid” is just another symptom of the way culture is being indoctrinated and polarized by the media into believing we’re living through the worst of times, when the work of Harvard’s Steven Pinker, to one statistic after another proving that crime is down, wealth is up, inequality is shrinking, and minorities and women are receiving more opportunities than ever are undeniable. That’s not to say there still isn’t incredible work to be done towards true equality, or that some people still live in communities that present severe challenges. But this idea that life in the United States is so severe, everyone must speak up and take action is simply a symptom of the proliferation of social media into our daily lives, and the polarization the electorate due to the political and media industrial complex gaming the American mind, and everyone wanting to blame everyone but themselves for the problems of the world. The notion Jason Isbell forwards in the song that the “facts” are always in favor of one side underscores this. People are pissed off at Trump. But polarizing every aspect of society until there is change is what is assuring there won’t be any, as everyone just retreats to their corners, holds firmer to their ideology, and nuance is bled from discussion.

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The fear of speaking out these days is not being shouldered by the left. It’s being sowed by them, branding anyone who dares to step out of a very narrow, black and white dogmatic ideology as racist, sexist, homophobic, or any number of other scarlet letters in the rise of cancel culture which is very directly stifling speech, and disrupting the free flow of ideas not seen since the repressive family values era of the Reagan Administration.

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I don't remember these "repressive family values" of the Reagan Administration, but the author is correct that the Left are the ones sowing intolerance.

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Also who the hell is marginalized because they “like science?”

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"Science" is code for climate change, so if you don't believe in man-made climate change, you're "anti-science," even if you're a scientist.

The author of that article is great:

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But as vogue as it is at the moment in Americana music to wax political (including recent albums and songs from the Drive-By Truckers, Will Hoge, and many others), “Be Afraid” takes the same severely shortsighted notion of how to effect change in culture, while completely misunderstanding why some people and performers—including the politically active, and including the politically active with views aligned with Jason Isbell—turn to music to divest from the politically-charged moments we live among, and shouldn’t be judged for doing so.

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There is a big difference between telling an artist to “shut up and sing,” and wishing they would not polarize their music or public persona with terse, political messages that cast wide aspersions on people, and in this case, simply for not wanting to get political in music. “Be Afraid” is latest example of letting anger and ideology cloud judgement, while passing severe judgement upon others for inaction, telling them their “words add up to nothing,” and from a powerful voice in American music, rendering this song not just misguided, but potentially dangerous in it’s terse, closed-minded, and severe ideology.

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The fear of speaking out these days is not being shouldered by the left. It’s being sowed by them, branding anyone who dares to step out of a very narrow, black and white dogmatic ideology as racist, sexist, homophobic, or any number of other scarlet letters in the rise of cancel culture which is very directly stifling speech

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James McMurtry is a more authentic version of whatever Jason is aspiring to be.

Which is sad, because Isbell has the background to tell the truth and be a great protest artist, even from a progressive/anti-trump perspective. He's happy to write about poor southern disenfranchised white men, but only so long as he can put the blame on a bank or on a GOP politician. I'm not opposed to him putting blame there, but don't leave out left-leaning elements of this country telling those men that their masculinity is bad, that their religion is stupid, that their hobbies are barbaric. Hell, talk about how Trump takes those broken people and gets them to foam at the mouth about immigrants if that's what you believe.

But don't write only about the parts of the story that keep you in the good graces of the enlightened people you now associate with. That's cowardice.