You may have heard about Oliver Anthony, a Virginia-based folk singer who has become a conservative folk hero on account of his populist anthem, “Rich Men North of Richmond.”But Anthony’s populism is, as Eric Levitz details for New York magazine, decidedly right-wing. Resentment of inequality and the precariousness of working-class life pervades the rest of the song too. But Anthony persistently channels these resentments away from the bosses and shareholders who profited off his ill-compensated labor and onto targets sanctioned by conservative orthodoxy: tax-hiking politicians, pedophilic cabals, and obese welfare moochers. I don’t have any particular interest in either Anthony or the song in question (although Levitz’s piece is good and you should read it). One of the most common misconceptions about Jim Crow is that it came directly out of the defeat of Reconstruction.

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Persons: Oliver Anthony, “ Rich, Eric Levitz, Anthony, pedophilic cabals, Jim Crow, ” Organizations: North, New York Locations: Virginia, Richmond, Farmville, Va, —, Petersburg, In Virginia