F U T K

I wanted to write an article about the Dixie Chicks and free speech, complete with links and quotes and all that shit, but unfortunately, I missed the boat by a few months and I’m having a hard time finding all the articles that I read back when their album came out.

Anyway, I’m gonna wing it.

Maybe you don’t like the Dixie Chicks, maybe you don’t like what they had to say about the president, but I don’t see how you can’t admire them for sticking up for what they believe in.

I’m not here to debate whether it was right or wrong, publicity-mongering or people genuinely sticking up for what they believe in, I’m just going to assume that they do feel the way they claim. Seeing as they’re being shunned by country music as a whole and canceling tour dates left and right, I can’t see why they would hold on to such an unpopular stance if they didn’t stand behind it.

That said, here is how I view what happened:

They spoke their minds. They mouthed off, they were flapping their gums, whatever you want to call it.

In the immediate backlash, they apologized. I have a feeling this has more to do with their PR machine putting pressure on them than a genuine feeling of remorse, but that’s really my point here.

They basically back-tracked at this point, saying they weren’t sorry. Country music went nuts. They were banned from different stations, DJs got fired for playing their music. I don’t know if there was a Goebbels-style “CD burning” ceremony anywhere, but I wouldn’t put it past anyone.

What I want to talk about is the immense pressure put upon them by numerous sources to apologize and take back what they said.

If you haven’t agreed with anything I’ve said so far, you can’t doubt that this pressure existed. As a multi-platinum selling act, they were responsible for making a lot of people a lot of money. And those people weren’t ready to say, “good for you, stand up for what you believe in, even if it costs us all a ton of cash.”

I’m not even saying they should. There’s nothing wrong with looking out for your own interests, I guess. Not in business, anyway.

All I’m saying is that with all this pressure to shut the hell up and make friendly with people again, the Dixie Chicks told everyone to fuck off.

In this day and age, that is rare. It takes balls and I applaud them for it.

The articles I made reference to at the beginning were mostly along the lines of different program directors for the big country stations across the country saying it was a ‘fuck you’ to the fans that they released a song called “Not Ready to Make Nice” as their first single.

“Release something else,” was the predominant philosophy. Get the people into Walmart to buy the album and let them discover that song on their own – or not.

“Why do you have to cause trouble like this?” the parties with a vested interest seemed to be saying.

Here’s the thing: it is a big fuck you to their fans. But if your fans are willing to ditch you that fast, don’t they deserve a fuck you?

Everybody has the right to their own opinion and if your opinion is that what the Dixie Chicks said was wrong, then exercise that right by not buying their albums. Call the radio stations and request they not be played. But then don’t sit there and scratch your heads when they suddenly don’t want to be your friends anymore.

That’s the part of the equation that these program directors and record executives missed. I saw plenty of criticism against the Dixie Chicks for being surprised that people didn’t want to buy their albums,

I found this quote from President Bush on Wikipedia:

"[T]he Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say ... They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out ... Freedom is a two-way street ... I ... don't really care what the Dixie Chicks said. I want to do what I think is right for the American people, and if some singers or Hollywood stars feel like speaking out, that's fine. That's the great thing about America. It stands in stark contrast to Iraq ..."

That’s true enough, but it goes both ways. Why is it OK for the “fans”/DJs/program directors/record executives to have their feelings hurt when the Dixie Chicks suddenly tell them to shove it, that they’re not going to play their game anymore?

And that’s what it is: a sense of betrayal. “Here’s our advice, you didn’t take it, well fuck you too.” Again, I wish I had one of these articles to quote, because there is an attitude pervading all the statements I read that smacks of bitterness.

Why am I making such a big deal about this? Because people often talk about defending free speech, but few people ever do anything about it. It seems that you’re more likely to get people to help you if you’re a Neo-Nazi and you want to hold a rally than you are if you’re dissenting from the party line in this country.

I am reminded, over and over again, of the book “The Chocolate War”. This sense of “just bow to the pressure and everything will go away and be all right again”.

Ask Howard Stern about this. For a while, he was pretty much on his own. Unfortunately for America, he is in increasingly large company. Now you can ask the Dixie Chicks.

The problem with this administration and the climate of the country, in general, is not that we’re going to war with Iraq. It’s the attitude that to speak out against the war is “un-American” and more importantly, the idea that a philosophy like that is acceptable in a free society.

It is not.

People with the courage to stand up for what they believe in, regardless of the validity of what they’re saying, are a dying breed.

Am I saying that every idiot with some crackpot theory about 9/11 be applauded for their bravery? No. But we should recognize their right to say it? I think we have to. Because who are we going to entrust with the authority to sort out the crackpots from the dissident voices that make sense? The government? I hope you see the lunacy of that idea.