Critics of Jason Aldean's new song, "Try That in a Small Town" should be "silenced and in shame," said gospel legend Pat Boone on Newsmax.
"What we're calling wokeism is really whackism," Boone said Friday during an appearance on "John Bachman Now" about the controversy over the song.
"It's programmed insanity. It's incredible stuff that children should be able to know the difference only if parents will only let them use their own intelligence instead of letting them be subjected to all these preposterous proposals to change their gender and all this stuff is insane and we're letting it happen," he added. "It's coming on us in such profusion and we've become weak, mentally and intellectually, to let things that are stupid suddenly become popular and then become almost necessary and the government and business is actually kowtowing to the gay pride situation.
"If you don't have a rainbow flag and you don't let all your advertisement reflect it, then you're going to pay a price."
Aldean, a Grammy Award-winning artist, said the song represents an "unspoken rule" for people raised in a small town.
"We all have each other's backs, and we look out for each other," he said.
Critics have raised concerns about certain lyrics in the song that they believe may promote gun violence, specifically a section where Aldean narrates a story about a gun he received from his grandfather, and he sings, "they say one day they're gonna round up/Well, that s*** might fly in the city, good luck."
There's also backlash over a scene where demonstrators are clashing with police and over the video being filmed in front of a Tennessee courthouse that was the site of a lynching.
On Twitter, Aldean called the references "not only meritless, but dangerous.
"There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it- and there isn't a single video clip that isn't real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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