Jason Aldean knows something about the impact crime can have on a person's life.  On October 1, 2017, he was performing at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas.  Jason was actually on stage when a shooter opened up, firing more than 1,000 bullets, killing 60 people and wounding 867.  Like many Americans, I pray I will never be subjected to such an ordeal.  However, like many Americans, I also worry about falling victim to less spectacular criminal behavior.  I don't want to be car-jacked, robbed, or attacked by young thugs who have nothing better to do with their day than beat up an old lady.

Apparently, such matters have been weighing on Jason Aldean's mind after surviving a mass shooting.  On May 19, 2023, he released a song, "Try That in a Small Town."  The video, released on July 14, is well worth watching:

The news is that the video is getting pulled from various platforms, including CMT (Country Music Television).  Apparently, the left has taken offense, not only to the lyrics, which warn that small towns will not tolerate the violence and riots and crime of big cities, but to the video itself.

It seems that Jason filmed the video at the Maury County courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where a black man, Henry Choate, was lynched in 1927.  Jason did not choose the location and did not know the history of the place.  Nevertheless, the left claims that by recording a song that is against riots and crime at such a location, Jason is actually promoting violence against blacks.

Image: Jason Aldean.  Twitter screen grab.

It's true that the video shows a lot of violence.  It's also true that the violence is all from newsreels showing such things as Black Lives Matter protests, people spitting on police officers, and the American flag being burned.  Not all the criminals shown are blacks, nor is there a single word in the song that references race.

The left still wants Jason Aldean canceled.  This demand is so outrageous that even some of the ladies of The View are defending him against censorship.  Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, of all people, said on The View that Jason should not be censored or canceled or have his right to free speech curtailed.

As for Jason, he's hanging tough:

In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.…

— Jason Aldean (@Jason_Aldean) July 18, 2023

Pandra Selivanov is the author of Future Slave, a story about a 21st-century black teenager who goes back in time and becomes a slave in the old South.