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Americans Are Crazy
'Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing' makes it too clear.
Chicks: Fear of snark attack.
When I lived in the darkest depths of Little Rock, Arkansas, every morning my kindergarten class would clap their hands to their hearts and pipe out the Pledge of Allegiance. Even as a little kid, I remember thinking, "These people are nuts!" I stand by that conviction to this day, and neither Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing, the newest documentary from Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, nor the slightest return to sanity in the U.S. election, has done much to change that.
Shut up and Sing is the story of the Dixie Chicks (Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire) and their big mouths. On the eve of the American invasion of Iraq, during a concert in London, England, Maines quipped that the Chicks were embarrassed that the president of the United States was from Texas. In so doing, she unleashed an old-fashioned shit storm of Biblical proportions. Before long, former fans were burning their CDs, haranguing radio stations not to play their music and threatening to kill Maines.
As the American media descended on the story, what should have been a tempest in a teapot turned into a tidal wave, and all the while Kopple kept her cameras rolling, capturing what became a political awakening for these women and their families.
Hate them, dammit!
Sometimes documentaries are simply blessed, and so it was with this film. Only a few weeks earlier, the group had sung "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, and were riding high on a wave of American sentiment and schmaltz, all of which came crashing to a halt when Maines shot her mouth off. I use that term purposefully, since the power of the word is amply evident here. Mightier than the sword is the mouth of a snarky woman. Or so the old adage goes, women fear men killing them, but men fear women laughing at them. For Maines to make fun of the top man in the country was tantamount to heresy. Don't you dare dis daddy, girly. Whether he be God or Bush.
To her credit, Kopple places little argumentative narrative on top of the events; she simply records. Some of the moments captured in the film could not have been better scripted if a team of writers had been on staff. Who could even dream up some of the crazy stuff that ordinary Americans get up to? Take, for example, the enormous woman protesting outside a Chicks concert, who hefts her toddler, barking at him to say he hates the band. "Say it!" she snaps, giving the kid an extra jolt for motivation. It is a gift from the documentary gods, and you can virtually feel the glee the filmmakers must have felt capturing such a telling incident.
The film was made over the course of three years, during which a great deal changed. There is ample material to pick from, but it is often the quieter, more befuddled moments, when all the band's bluster tapers off, and the women just look confused and scared, that the truth of the film emerges. The place that they thought was home turns out to not be what they thought it was, and the betrayal goes very deep. It is probably a terrible thing to lose faith in your country, to be left alone and shivering in the cold, stripped bare of all the warm, cuddly notions about your chosen place in the universe.
Although the trio came to fame as plucky babes from Texas with vaguely feminist songs like "Earl Had to Die," they are ordinary women, not political radicals, and it is this quality that gives the film its punch. Like most artists, they're mostly interested in selling records, and are perfectly willing to use any media spin that will work to their benefit. But controversy is a doubled-edged tool, a quality that is especially evident in the sequences in which the Lipton Ice Tea executives, the tour's corporate sponsor, express their "concern" that the band's political posturing might negatively impact on the Lipton brand. In the entertainment world, women are still largely products themselves, trussed, coiffed and glossed like so much Christmas wrapping.
Chill, neighbour
Kopple is a smart director; she knows enough when to hang back and simply let the looks exchanged between the three women speak volumes about the pressure of money and media, in that order. When radio stations refused to play Dixie Chicks records any longer, the band was forced to find other avenues for promoting its album. Lately, they have been doing the rounds of televised interviews with Oprah, Regis and Kelly, Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer, courting a larger audience while the country music world still treats them like pariahs.
Tour dates in the southern U.S. still prove difficult while Canada has thrown down the welcome mat. It is very hard for non-Americans to understand why people would get so excited over a trifle like a joke made at a concert. The contrived nature of this controversy starts to seem just that, something that detracts from the real events taking place, as if all that the public can truly concentrate on is something simple. Any larger, knotty ideas are for the big brains in Washington to deal with, and all the people need are bread and circuses.
But underneath that truth is another deeper, even nastier one. Musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Neil Young have been far more political in their music and with their audience, and have been lionized in the process. (Albeit John Lennon and Yoko Ono found out the hard way that Americans don't take kindly to English men or Japanese women criticizing them -- he got killed; she got turned into catchphrase.)
But female artists can face a tougher crowd. Shut up or get beat up is the message from Fox network wankers. Sean Hannity called the Chicks "stupid bimbos," Bill O'Reilly said they "ought to be slapped around." And country singer Toby Keith threatened to boot Ms. Maines in the ass. The fact is, simply, that the Chicks are women, and the backlash they suffered was motivated in part by this fact. The notion that women lack the cultural authority to speak out isn't news; female columnists also routinely get booted about. As band member Martie Maguire says, "It was perfect." The most all-American girls, who're supposed to embody American values, talking out of turn, got hit hard. Although the Chicks' political awakening is amply evident, less so is the feminist one.
Women's rights and wrongs
One of the most curious things about fundamentalism, of any stripe, is that it is remarkably similar when it comes to matters of women. The Taliban might stone adulterers, and champion the burka, but in the U.S., even Wal-Mart employees feel they have to right to deny women access to birth control pills.
Author Sam Harris (The End of Faith), interviewed recently in the Sun Magazine, talked about the correlations between fundamentalism around women's rights, saying, "One example is that we now have a vaccine for the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer, of which 5,000 women die every year in the United States. The vaccine, which can be given to girls at age 11 or 12, is safe and effective. Yet evangelical Christians at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- political appointees -- have argued that we should not use this vaccine, because it will remove one of the natural deterrents to premarital sex."
It all starts to seem eerily similar. The U.S. might decry the abuse of women's rights in Afghanistan, but was happy enough to turn a blind eye for many years, even inside its own borders, to the rise of misogyny. But truly no country is innocent; the number of dead women in Mexico continues to climb, while in Vancouver, the recent death of Manjit Panghali has raised the issue of violence against women in the Indo-Canadian community. These truly are the times that try women's souls.
Daddy Rumsfeld
One of the points that Laura Kipnis makes in her new book The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability is that a colonialist mindset continues to wreak havoc, long after the colonizers have skedaddled. Extending the metaphor to the question of women inside patriarchy, she asks how deeply women have internalized their own subjugation. And answers, all the way down to the bone.
For Americans, it is probably a double-whammy of indoctrination, God and Country, and don't dis daddy. Kipnis states, "This massive overinvestment in paternal figures and institutions has such an Oedipal flavour."
Whether the ousting of the bad patriarchs (Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld) from the seat of power has any long-term effect on the national psyche remains to be seen. Somehow I doubt it. Americans imbibe their national mythology like it was mother's milk; it goes down before they probably even have time to understand what it is that they're swallowing. Thus the inherent difficulty in losing faith in what they have always held dear is terribly clear -- be it country, father or faith.
For the Dixie Chicks (perhaps, they'll change their name after this), the pain of this revelation becomes increasingly apparent, turning from bemused to horrified at the consequences of such a seemingly small thing, especially since the ability to open your mouth and say whatever you want is supposedly enshrined in the American constitution. Even as rap star Kanye West can shout that George Bush hates black people on national TV and face little consequences, the Dixie Chicks continue to struggle to even get their music played on country radio.
If the film has one thing to say, it's that sometimes it is the very worst things in life that force you to see anew your most deeply held beliefs. In a country that claims the holy mission of spreading democracy to the rest of the world, hypocrisy may be the deepest and most ongoing truth.
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51
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Right to Bear
5 years ago
Comments on "Americans Are Crazy"
Rock on Dixie Chicks...!!
Good article Dorothy Woodend. Exposing the challenges women have when they choose to speak out against the "machine" relative to men speaking out, was an interesting truth that even I realized many years ago…
I went to the Dixie Chicks concert the other day, and an they said something that was revealing. They said they told the Red Cross they wanted to donate a million dollars to their organization... The Red Cross turned them down. Imagine that!!!!!!.
More Peace,
-Bear
darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
Americans are't crazy, and they aren't nuts. There are 300 Million of them and they're as diverse (if not more so) than Canadians.
The sooner you stop treating them like they're nuts and like a homogenous group the sooner you can start looking at them through a lens of honesty, instead of a lens of bias.
James Burns
5 years ago
You mentioned Lennon and Ono, I certainly agree that on average Americans have less tolerance for criticism from non-Americans. I think that stems from the myth of American exceptionalism. Hell, I mean you even see belief in that myth from US boot licking non-Americans like Mcgee above.
Although I must admit I was surprised by the virulent response to the Dixie Chicks. But the way the current fascism in the US has structured itself is to constantly be on the attack. Anything that even hints at a departure from accepted American myth tends to receive a vicious response these days.
IAMC
5 years ago
I have listened to people who think the Chicks have been censored, and it's all an evil plot by Bush to drive them out of business. That the media has conspired to marginalise the Chicks, the evil right wingers are hell bemt on destroying them.
The Chicks decided to make a political statement. Their choice would obviously cause a reaction. As described so aptly by darcy, the Americans are all not identical. Half the people hate Bush, half the people love Bush. What the chicks did was alienate half their audience. The market took over. They challenged the market, not Bush. They were very stupid. Or were they? I have seen them on Oprah, I have seen them on SNL. They are everywhere. How can anyone say they have been censored?
Let's "make nice".
Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstad have all learned the hard way that not all Americans are the same. They don't all hate Bush. They don't all love Bush.
This is all so very silly.
anarcho
5 years ago
For the rest of the Western World the persecution of the Chicks was seen as bizarre beyond belief. I do think Fundi misogyny has a lot to do with it, but remember back in the days that Dylan wrote "Masters of War" these nuts were not running the country and they hated him as much as they hate the Chicks. It also represents a deep, authoritarian, anti-democratic strain in American life, one which saw the judicial lynching of the Haymarket martyrs, the actual lynching of trade unionists, violent attacks upon the IWW and Socialist Party, frequent mass murders of strikers, the expulsion of American citizens like Emma Goldman, The MacArthy era of the 1950's and COINTELPRO against the New Left and Civil Rights movement. While some of these things happened in other Western Democracies, it was to a much, much lesser extent.
Booker
5 years ago
A good article -- Nancy Pelosi, the new Majority Leader of the House has been getting the "uppity woman" treatment from the Republican thugs ever since she became Minority leader in 2004. It will reach a fever pitch over the next two years, but I think she can handle it.
I hope we Canadians can be careful in generalizing about "Americans". The Dixie Chicks, Barbara Koppel, Cecelia Peck, Sam Harris, and Pelosi also represent Americans. The loonies down there are not a majority in most of the country.
apathysux
5 years ago
darcy.mcgee:
I lived in the US for 10 years in a couple of different states. While yes they are very diverse, the general attitude is not. Whether I was in Utah, Idaho, Alaska, California, Arizona or Nevada and whether the various people I met were from New York, Florida, etc the All-American self_righteaous, holier-than-thou, better that everyone else, we can say what we want but don't dis us, big bully on the block atitude is basically the same. The only people I met who did not seem to have varying degrees of this attitude were survivalist types who lived off the grid, vietnam era draft dogers, vets and others who had nothing but antipathy towards the system for various reasons.
When in Hyder, Alaska just this past summer in a small shop just over the border, an American and his wife and daughter walked in, the first thing he said to the shop owner was 'Thank god we are finally back on homeland soil' the ride through Canada must have been hell. If you have ever been to Hyder you would recognize how laughable this comment was.( As soon as you cross the border into the USA the paved road turns to shitty potholed gravel) Or how about the father speaking with his son while in Stewart, BC CANADA looking at an eagle. The father with pride says to the son, 'that there is an American eagle', the son says 'what is it doing in Canada?'
Their collective arrogance, coupled with ignorance of all things un-American makes them not only crazy but the more dangerous mixture of stupid and crazy. The ones who are NOT that way are in my experience a minority, and a small one considering their population.
That, my firend, is looking at the collective American population through a lens of honesty.
IAMC
5 years ago
When I read views on Americans, such as those directly above this post, I can only think that some people are very stupid and preduciced. If anyone said what this dickhead apathsux said towards any other group, it would be decried as racist. Nobody should be glorified for hating an entire nation.
A smug Canadian is not appreciated by all.
There are two sides to this story. That's all I am trying to say. Not all Americans or Canadians or Jews or African Americans or gays can be lumped into some monolithic entity. It's simply not that simple. Well perhaps it is to some simple minds like apathsux.
anarcho
5 years ago
I don't recall apathysux saying anything about hating Gringos. These are merely criticisms of certain national characteristics. If you go to Latin America you will find the people there have a similar evaluation of the Yanqui. I should add that these same Gringos can be very friendly and generous (providing you don't criticize) so it is really more a matter of ignorance coupled with nationalism that makes so many of them that way. Nor is it limited to red neck types. Back in the 60's I helped bring people up from the states who were opposed to the Vietnam War, not all of whom were war resistors. Even some of these who were politically radical used to make chauvinistic comments about Vancouver and Canada in general.
apathysux
5 years ago
FYI; I was was commenting on MY personal experience with MANY different Americans over a large span of time. I have lived there and experienced the attitude for myself. I have many American friends (also two daughters who are US citizens and an ex-husband who was a member of the US military)who themselves despise the attitude (and also have the attitude)that is advocated,expressed and fed to their children in the schools, on TV, news etc. etc. it is all about pride, the American dream, etc. This attitude is force fed to them. If you hadn't noticed, even the Americans are getting tired of the attitude. (Note the change of power in congress) I was speaking of the
COLLECTIVE attitude that is very much American. You have to be blind not to see it and deaf not to hear it.
Why should a country that was supposedly built on the constitutional right of free speech have a major issue when they are disagreed with or critizized by others? In MY experience, it is those with the most serious of flaws that have the greatest denial factor.
I also know many who work in the tourism industry who experience the same attiitude on a regular basis when dealing with american tourists. You can call be racist if you like, I prefer realist as I am not so blind as to not recognize the difference between an American attitude and most of the rest the world.
I am not a smug Canadian as I am cuurently loathe to see the changes in current situations and attitudes and if we are not careful, we, like the americans (who have often had to pretend to be Canadian in order to get friendly service in European countries) will soon lose the respect of other nations. If this makes me a dickhead the, so be it. Simple minded, however, in my opinion, are those who only see their own reflection when looking into the stream of humanity.
apathysux
5 years ago
Sorry for blabbing on and for the spelling mistakes, kinda got my dander up. I hate name calling.
Thank you anarcho for making my longwinded point for me. It is a collective NATIONALISTIC attitude that has little to do with the colour of one's skin and, in general, is not well received or respected by much of the rest of the world.
Ranbir
5 years ago
First and foremost public education is so bad in the United States. Although there are differences between state to state but these are much larger than they should be. Kansas comes to mind. For example there is probably a higher variance between the dumbest people in the U.S. and the smartest people in the U.S. than there would be in a country with a better education system like Finland or Singapore. There is some correlation between elevated high school dropout rates and voting Republican. The problem I believe is with the education system and is not a genetic abnormality with the brain.
Secondly country music has more religious themes than other types of music such as rap or rock and roll. Therefore for a country musician to come out against George W. Bush who apparently relied on the religious vote to get elected is heresy. For a rock and roll musician or a rapper like Kanye it is no big deal.
Bytesmiths
5 years ago
...or expatriates! Thank you, Canada, for welcoming those of us who feel we no longer have a place in the US!
jimtan
5 years ago
Oh dear! Oh dear!
IAMC is the kind of American chauvinist that the world loves to hate. I can’t remember the number of times that I have heard Americans say, “you should be more like us.â€
Yes, Americans are appallingly ignorant and intolerant about other peoples and cultures. At this time, it is the end of the American half-century. Americans realize this and feel vulnerable. The neo-conservatives can be seen as a last gasp of western colonialism.
Within the American south, the macho white man is under siege from big government, minority rights, female emancipation, sexual freedom and high technology. It’s not surprising that they turn on the Dixie Chicks who seem like traitors. The ultra-conservatives are in denial about the world changing around them.
I agree with Ms. Woodend that Americans have become uncivil and deformed. In Vancouver’s Stanley Park, I witnessed an encounter between an American and some Asians who were harassing some squirrels. The American fellow got quite angry. He said to his companion, “Back home, I would have gotten out my magnum!â€
All this over squirrels!
It may have something to do with Hollywood blockbusters where there has to be an extended bloodbath before the all-American hero prevails. On the other hand, popular fiction may merely be a reflection of the American psyche.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, some locals put up graffiti saying, “Yankees go home! You are ugly.†There are nice Americans. Unfortunately, it’s their society that has lost its way.
anarcho
5 years ago
The Gringo combination of authoritarianism, arrogance and ignorance makes for foreign policy disasters. People with the opinions of Cindy Sheehan and Micheal Moore are mainstream outside the US. Yet in the US they are demonized as extremists. Kerry and the Clintons anywhere else in the world are center-right, but in the US they are “leftists.†Thus, the Gringos in their crusade against communism, overthrew many governments, none of which was actually communist, all of which sought reforms to help the ordinary person. These crimes made the US hated throughout the world. Mossedegh was a liberal democrat, Arbenz a populist, Goulart a social democrat, Pappendreo, (sp?) a social democrat, Allende a democratic socialist and the Sandinistas also democratic socialists. Rather than supporting left-nationalists like Sukarno and Nasser, the worked against them, sowing the seeds of present Islamic fundamentalism. And think of Castro. In the hands of less ignorant, less racist and less authoritarian politicos, Cuba could have become a Carribbean version of Yugoslavia (under Tito, not at present!) rather than an ally of the USSR.
dolphin
5 years ago
After a careful reading of the Bible I was unable to find one mention of a "shit storm" of any proportion (although King Saul did crap in a cave).
I do like their music. But if entertainers want to get into political activism, they shouldn't naively expect that it won't impact the scope of their popularity. Some entertainers appear to be good at doing both (Bono, Geldof) and some aren't (Linda Ronstadt, Maines). People want their entertainers to fulfill just that role and tend to get annoyed when they demonstrate that they actually have the usual range of human foibles and attitudes about controversial subjects. Look what happened with comedian Lenny Bruce. Perhaps the object lesson here is that entertainers may not be able to wear two hats at once and continue to look good to their entire fan base. I'm guessing Cat Stevens would have a hard time selling his albums to the post 9-11 crowd.
Colin
5 years ago
If they expect me to pay for a ticket to hear them sing, I expect them to sing and not tell me what to think. If I went to a politcal rally where they were singing and they spoke their views, that would be fine. As they feel that I should buy their stuff while they are preaching at me, then they can get stuffed.
Booker
5 years ago
Noam Chomsky; Woody Guthrie; Don Delillo, Susan Sontag, Nancy Pelosi, Ani DiFranco, Richard Ford, Malcolm X, Abbie Hoffman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert -- all are American too. For every Rush Limbaugh you can find an Al Franken. True, Americans can be pretty obnoxious, but so can we.
Right to Bear
5 years ago
Hey Colin...!
Nice to read you again bud…
I can appreciate what you are saying when you speak about an artist leaving their politics out of "it"... I know many that don’t express politically, but I also know a few that do. For those that do, it is a brave act to “speak†their truth, and open up to the potential for great persecution… Having walked it, it is the harder imo, of the two roads.
An example of this would be a wildlife artist (painter or sculptor). I know artists that do their work because they love the "new" and interesting texture\color they put on the grizzly bear simply because it looks like real\interesting fur. The color mixtures, the patina glazes, all provide this artist with the fulfillment they are looking for within their art. These artists do art for the sake of the art and that is it... Then you have the person, who works with deeper issues that actually motivates them to manifest in physical form. To them it may be a way of reaching out to people, and to be responsible to their given sphere of influence, whatever that may be. Perhaps they attempt through their art to make a difference to the Earth and issues that affect her. Thus the term "political artist".
Art to these people is a medium for expression, communication, primal love, and a hope for a better world. They need to be free to express their thoughts of what is important, and in their case perhaps it makes beautiful art as well...
I know it must be boring to get caught in the wrong concert, or someone’s art show which has a political slant that you disagree with, but Colin, if you do get caught in one, remember that everything, everything, went into this art via the hand of this artist. Blood, sweat, and in some cases tears are living within their work… The political artist usually are people who are doing the best that they can for the Earth and all that live on her… and hey, if the show is that bad, then silently slip out the back door...
Peace Colin
-Bear
anarcho
5 years ago
I disagree Colin. As you surely know there is a long tradition of singer-songwriters who are socially engaged and express this in their songs. Where would Jaque Brel, Leo Ferre, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Joe Hill etc be without their socially conscious songs? A democratic and libertarian populace (like the French, say) not only accepts such engagement, but honors it, and indeed demands it. Only a society where a large number of people are authoritarian, socially retrogressive and anti-democratic would wish to suppress this.
Right to Bear
5 years ago
Exactly anarcho, and well said. The freedom of voice would include ones expression through art... Art has been the "voice" of people forever, and will continue if we live in a healthy democracy...
Just a small point,...I would include Neil Young and Bruce Cockburn on that list "a" :- )
Peace,
-Bear
Working Man
5 years ago
I once had a beer with an American in Seoul, South Korea. He as going on about how indoctrinated Korean were, how hyper-nationalistict the country Korea was, etc.
I replied, "And you Americans are not?"
He lept across the table, lunging at me. I got out of the way fast enough and the bouncer turfed him out.
anarcho
5 years ago
Just a small point,...I would include Neil Young and Bruce Cockburn on that list "a" :
Darn right. They belong there for sure...
pure
5 years ago
I love the chicks and the dixie! lol
Bailey
5 years ago
Waking up in America must be a remarkable experience. America believes certain things about herself that aren't true. Maybe never were true.
Believes them absolutely, with the passion of people so deeply invested in fantasy that they are in danger of being lost should their fantasy be exposed as false.
In the 60s, during Nixon's crimewave, hundreds of thousands found themselves unable to sustain the complicated lie, and were cast out so violently that thousands of them landed completely outside. The ones who landed here seemed surprized to find people who'd seen the truth all along. Their vision has been spreading.
But still. If you see the truth in the country of lies, it will sear you like the West Texas sun. Burn the American right off your soul and leave...a human being.
http://www.sorryeverybody.com/
Coyote
5 years ago
darcy.mcgee:
I agree with apathysux. They are collectively fukin' crazy.
Canadians are more than a tad pathetic, collectively, but they are crazy.
Which doesn't mean that individually there aren't lots of good people amongst them and us.
Amd you want to see crazy, check out that pathetic IAMC. He carries the shittload from both of us around.
Nothing more pathetic than these US Empire Loyalist wannabes in this country.
jimtan
5 years ago
Colins says that he didn’t pay to get politics with the music. Why was the reaction so venomous if the issue was merely about dissatisfied customers? Why the hatred and persecution?
What are the facts? One singer made a casual personal remark on stage to some members of the audience. The band isn’t political. They are not activists. They are/were loyal Americans.
Suddenly, they are flamed from all directions. There are attempts to drive them out of business, and turn them into Judas goats.
One of the problems with a consumer society is the hollowness in many people. Cults flourish because they give direction and certainty to followers. Unfortunately, the Republicans are prone to cult purveyors of hate.
Those talk show hosts spew vitriol and stroke the hatred. This is what happened to the Dixie Chicks and to Tom Daschle, a patriot who attempted to stop the slide into madness. Under the right conditions, these conservative hate-mongers would be no different from the Nazis or the Taliban.
God save America!
pure
5 years ago
The Dixie Chicks can host me anytime there little hearts desires.
Reader11722
5 years ago
Good for the Dixie Chicks, they beat the gestapo. Always stand up for Free Speech (especially if you despise it). Censorship is becoming America's favorite past-time. The US gov't (and their corporate friends), already detain protestors, ban books like "America Deceived" from Amazon and Wikipedia, and fire 21-year tenured, BYU physics professor Steven Jones because he proved explosives, thermite in particular, took down the WTC buildings.
Last link (before Google Books caves to pressure and drops the title):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-38523-0
BLONDE PITBULL
5 years ago
How many of you have actually heard the Chicks' song "Not Ready To Make Nice"? Find the words and read it.Better yet listen to the song a few times. The words use to be on the JRFM website months ago when the song first came out but I doubt they are still there.
The Chicks got blasted by the freedom of speech given to them by the first admendment. In a sad, sad, ironic way they found out that most people are only for freedom of speech when its something they want to hear.
I support them in both their musical careers and their right to say how they feel about anyone.
crh
5 years ago
I say we should invite the Dixie Chicks and their families to come on up to Canada to live. I respect them for their talents and convictions.
IAMC
5 years ago
I have ' Not ready to make nice' on my IPOD. I am a conservative [ IAMC ] yet I have this song on my IPOD. I payed 99 cents for it. It's the only Dixie Chicks song I have. I like their music. That's a choice I make. It's a choice that I am grateful for. Nobody had an influence on MY CHOICE. There is no FBI, CSIS of CIA investigating me for downloading that song. To here some of the posters here, you would think that the Chicks have been censored. The only thing that can censor this is me.
The free choice issue trumps all of your tired arguments that there is some kind of evil American agenda out there that is trying to stifle free speech. We are champions of free speech.
macsasquatch
5 years ago
It had been a few minutes since I had read the article because I was reading evryone's comment here. So I buzzed over it quickly again just ot check my first impression. Quite a few people here have said that the article (and film) have to do with the peculiarities of American insanity-so different from ours.
Also touched on in the article, and film, tho is the gender differences. Even in some of our comments these differences are suggested. Could be that the Dixie Chicks and Ronstadt and jane Fonda are treated much differently than are male celbs who speak out and act politically. (Actually, I didn't think that Maine's words were that big a deal...perhaps it was the push at that time for everyone to join in hte lynching of the Hussein bunch in Iraq that made them a bigger deal. I mean, Scott Ritter didn't get the same treatment as the Dixie Chicks, and his criticism was far more trenchant.)
As I noticed what Woodend said about genders and the whole Joan of Arc heresy (She wears men's clothes, Mi Lord!) I thought of recent stuff I've seen about Belinda Stronach in our media. Ms Stronach is treated differently, I think, than male politicians.
So, I think that at least as important as is the comment ithe article about American nationalism is the comment on our attitudes toward gender.
doggone
5 years ago
Grace Slick sang:
"I used to stand with my hand on my heart."
"You were my Father and my Brother."
At least 50% of my contemporary aged freinds are Canadians due directly to the confusion of the "Vietnam" war and none of them are Vietnamese. When they return from a visit to their country I listen to their comments about family and friends there with interest.
I do not think this discussion is "silly" as one comentor said above. In fact the attitudes of people do influence the actions of their governments (and vice versa, obviously).
Nothing I have seen lately gives me a lot of hope that the country which has run the tread off the words "freedom and democracy" actually uses those words as they are defined in my dictionary. Unfortunately I am now also having trouble understanding most Canadian political rhetoric.
IAMC
5 years ago
Oh yeah, there are male celebrities that go off on America, [ you forgot Barbra Streisand ] Alex Baldwin is a classic meat head for the lib's, as is George Clooney, Michael J Fox, Sean Penn and others. I just want to clear the air here. There as many wacky left wing Hollywood types that are men as those that are woman. I wouldn't want to be hypocritical on me condemnation of left wing wingnuts.
Right to Bear
5 years ago
macsasquatch...Thank you for sharing your informed take on some outstanding issues relative to this thread. Well done "mac".
Peace bro,
-Bear
Nana
5 years ago
Sadly, few Canadians realize just how deeply we are involved in the US war machine.
http://coat.ncf.ca/Slides/3in1/001.htm
Right to Bear
5 years ago
So true Nana...how we can't see the depth of our involvement in the US war machine is a hard one to imagine. I can only think we are like the frog in a pan of cold water, slowly heated and he stayed... That imo is us. We are desensitized to the realities of the war we are in. What will it take...???
Bob Dillion "Masters of War"
"You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly".
Peace and Truth,
-Bear
doggone
5 years ago
Coat slide show very interesting: I was late for supper watching it.
Especially (for me) the NGO "Aid" organizations who pulled out of Afghanistan and their reason (besides loss of life) for doing so:
Blurring of the lines between combat and "Aid".
Last time I was arrested for "Spying" as an "aid" worker in a foreign country I could at least self rightiously proclaim innocence (and beleive myself). Apparently this is no longer an accepted defence.
So with most NGOs who attempt to be impartial removed from the area who is going to succeed in the "winning the hearts and minds" department?
Should not a western government bent on such a mission be sure that they actually have "won the hearts and minds" of the majority of their own people?
rkewen
5 years ago
IAMC(luless) sez:
WE are investigating you for downloading this song AND verifying that you actually paid (note spelling) the 99 cents as you claim. If I told you who WE are, We would have to kill you, so WE are being nice by sparing you that costly knowledge.
You may continue to listen to that song now.
in security,
WE
rkewen
5 years ago
If that Toby Keith guy was half the man he likes to pretend he is and could get that boot out of his big mouth, perhaps he could take it over to Iraq and boot some Iraqi ass - being such a macho American ChickenHawk and all!!!
Obviously his boots are being wasted while he hides out in Nashville. Maybe his manly boot (in the right Middle Eastern location) is all America needs to achieve Victory in Iraq!
Right to Bear
5 years ago
Toby Keith, raw-raw America... If he feels sooo strongly about the US war machine, maybe this big, strappin', musical idiot should consider volunteering his death to "the cause", what-ever the cause is eh??
Peace,
-Bear
Phude
5 years ago
At the high school where I teach, a young student sang "Travellin' Soldier" for the remembrance day ceremony. Many teachers, parents and students were in tears after hearing it. I am not a big country fan, but, on an emotional level, the music of the Dixie Chicks is compelling.
The media which are controlled by the G.O.P. are the ones to blame for the looniness which seems to be everywhere. The fact that the Republicans lost the Congress and Senate is proof that they are NOT all crazy and we should never be so foolish as to paint an entire society with a single brush
BC Mary
5 years ago
Woodend speaks eloquently of the U.S. educational ritual which caused her, even as a little kid, to question their sanity. Lucky Dorothy, to have had the smarts to understand.
Often I've wondered why freedom-minded U.S. citizens haven't rebelled against the mandatory indoctrination of their children with that "I pledge allegiance ..." thing.
It's obscene to drum a political message into little kids like that. Isn't it?
But if it's OK, how about a little more brainwashing such as: Love thy neighbour ... Thou shalt not kill ... or Fifty bucks on Progenerator in the 5th race today.
rkewen
5 years ago
Mary,
I attended high school in the Republican/Military Industrial Complex valhalla of Northern San Diego County. I was strictly math and sciences, all the time all the way, as these courses were the only ones that had any integrity, resources allocated to them and little or no spin on how issues were presented. I didn't even realize that I had any interests or aptitude for the arts, social sciences or writing until I got away from there to university.
An example that will illustrate my point:
In Grade 9 or 10 Social Studies, our big semester project was to produce a map of the USSR. The main object was to identify and mark primary and secondary nuclear targets in that country. Though there was some marks for presentation (neatness and accuracy of the map) the main grade was based on the perceived success at picking targets based on the destruction of defenses, infrastructure and maximum enemy casualties (Big Cities, like Moscow, St. Petersburg-Leningrad then) rated bombs from our primary and big bomb bag. We were even supposed to estimate the total casualties with no differentiation between military and civilian, with the goal being to maximize this number.
Not ONE SINGLE PARENT even questioned the appropriateness of this type of assignment as a way to learn about peoples of the world. By the way, I got an A on mine.
At that time we knew that:
"Sonic Booms are the Sound of Freedom in Action"
BC Mary
5 years ago
rkewen: that is so appallingly awful ... it shakes one's faith in humanity.
Peter Evanchuck
5 years ago
Dixie chicks stood tall above 'em all to tell it like it was while most artists other than Michael Moore and a handful of others stood silent collecting the big cheques and growing balances too 'yella' to face the loss of moola instead had a loss of heart and soul.....I'll buy DIXIE CHICKS go girls !!
peefer
5 years ago
Every citizen of every nation is indoctrinated with baloney. The U.S. is just the absolute best at doing it, bar none.
This is why Americans are shocked at the world reaction to their imperialism. Citizens really believe in the premise that “We’re bringing democracy to the world.†America has over 700 military bases in over 130 nations all over the planet. You’d think that bringing something so wonderful to the world, you wouldn’t need to back it up with the military oppression of a whole planet.
But there’s too much smugness on the part of Canadians, too. Some Canadian myths: We’re peace loving, peacekeepers, lovers of the land, protectors of the environment, tolerant, non-sexist, non-racist and that we’re better than those guys on the other side of the border.
Not so much.
Americans get their baloney with their mother’s milk. We get ours the same way.
massromantic
5 years ago
IAMC, isn't michael j fox canadian?
kimball
5 years ago
I was raised in central Alberta and I remain a bit of an anomaly on the left here in Vancouver as a country music & rodeo fan. The most interesting thing to me about Shut Up & Sing was not the idiot pro-war protesters, but the fact that the Dixie Chicks emerged from the country music scene as opponents of the war, and that millions of Americans loved their stand. They continue to generate huge sales and concert draws in the U.S. Instead of dismissing Americans or country music fans as fascists, we need to find ways to reach out to all those who oppose war. Looks in fact like the majority south of the border these days.
Marysue
5 years ago
Kimball,
There are, indeed, plenty of anti-war organizations in the States that we support...or I do, anyway!
There is one problem I've seen. It's Americans' ingrained xenophobia and unreasoning belief that their country IS THE One and ONLY. They believe their own films--that's the problem.
But then the Brits and French and Romans and Greeks and Chinese, etc., were all sure their culture, etc., was the BEST and ONLY.
As a Canadian, with 200-300 years of Scot-English-French immigrant mixed in with some thousands of years of First Nation North American living invested in my DNA (I'm really old, myself;), I happen to think that Canada (outside of its ugly cities--anything over 6000 people)is the Best and Only, too:)