Country music and conservatives? Start debating!

If you're living in a country where you think that there's some people who understand what's important, and a whole lot of other people who are out of what passes for their minds, then welcome to America. I'm not quite sure how we've become so sure of ourselves in a nation dedicated to the proposition that everyone is free to think and do whatever they want, provided they don't infringe on the rights of others. In some cases, we've come to the point where someone thinking and doing something other than what we think and do does, we believe, infringe on our rights, and we pursue their squelching according. We've gone way past conservative and liberal into a Mad Magazine cartoon of "Spy vs Spy," where all we want to do is exterminate the people who aren't exactly like us.

In other words, conservative and liberal are far from dead concepts. Rather, they've become hyper versions of themselves. In a piece by Will Wilkinson called Country Music, Openness to Experience, and the Psychology of Culture War, the author connects the values of country with the values of conservatives, not necessarily in a flattering way. You might want to agree with him, but at the same time, you're sorely tempted to offer counterexamples denigrating the opposition. It's very interesting reading, though. And I advise listening to all the music. It will bring a tear to your eye, of one sort or another.