Charlie Daniels is dead.

[Drunken Irishman]

No comment.

[bigtree]

1. I'll say it

...right-wing pos dies.

[texasfiddler]

2. I was inspired by a lot of fiddle players

Charlie wasn’t one of them. Maybe he got so excited from one of Trump’s race speeches he croaked. The world has one less redneck.

[MurrayDelph]

50. Right now, down in hell

The devil is saying "Motherfucker, I won that contest!"

[Cirque du So-What]

3. He will be missed

but not by me.

[dware]

4. RIP Charlie Daniels.

Hated his politics, but loved his music.
Cross gently.

[Maru Kitteh]

25. Being a screaming homophobic racist isn't somebody's "politics."

It is LONG PAST TIME to stop excusing people's violent hatefulness with the framing "I didn't agree with his politics." It's a bullshit way to sanitize a hateful, racist heart into something more acceptable.

[dware]

34. Whatever.

I stand by my post, I hated his politics but I loved his music.

[cwydro]

56. Apparently Bob Dylan liked his music too.

He played with him.

I have to admit, I never really kept up with him since his moment in the sun back in the day. I had no idea what his politics were, nor do I really care.

I hate these kind of threads. People gotta chime in to denigrate a dead guy just to prove...what?

[StarfishSaver]

38. Everyone can't split the baby like that

Once I find out someone is a racist - you know, that they have a worldview that sees me as less than and/or empowers those who see me that way - it kind of ruins everything else about them for me.

[Demovictory9]

32. was he a bigot?

[USALiberal]

52. Politics...lol. nt

[SidDithers]

5. Bye Felicia...nt

Sid

[CanonRay]

6. One less Trump vote.

[jcgoldie]

11. Right! Plus Neil got his US citizenship!

We're on a roll!

[2naSalit]

19. Neil

[jcgoldie]

22. Neil Young.

[2naSalit]

23. Thanks.

I had no idea who you were referring to. I am glad he did too.

[Zambero]

7. The Devil finally gets his due

[blitzen]

8. His early music was good, and he was a good musician (played on Dylan albums, etc.). n/t

[tenderfoot]

9. Later in life Charlie Daniels was the result of right wing media consumption.

It's what turned your family members and classmates into lunatics. It is astounding how much damage it has done to the country as a whole.

Rest in Peace Charlie Daniels.

[Maru Kitteh]

28. 1988

"I grabbed her by the hair it came off in my hand
And that beautiful girl was just a beautiful man
And old Jim just got sick right there on the floor

He dropped that dude like a shot from a gun
Smeared his lipstick made his makeup run
And me and old Jim started fighting our way to the door"

Ummm "The South's gonna do it again?" 1974

[tenderfoot]

31. Ummm played a fundraiser for Jimmy Carter... voted for him twice...

don't know what happened to him in the ensuing years but he was a progressive at one point in time.

"Jimmy Carter is a good man," Daniels told Nashville's Tennessean newspaper in 2014. "He came along, a fresh-faced young man out of Georgia, and he spoke plainly, saying, 'I never will tell you a lie.' I don't think he ever did tell us a lie. I voted for Carter the second time, too. He wasn't part of the establishment. The town of Washington ate him alive."

Read More: Remember When Charlie Daniels Played a Fundraiser for a Democrat? | https://tasteofcountry.com/charlie-daniels-jimmy-carter-fundraiser/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

[StarfishSaver]

47. That was a blip

He talked about how he was raised to be racist and then he spent his last years embracing Trumpism.

His support for Jimmy Carter was more likely based on their common Southern heritage than any lack of bigotry on his part.

[tenderfoot]

49. I just learned this too...

from NY Times responses:

Left out of this story is that Charlie Daniels was a Vietnam draft-dodger.
Later he, like Trump, came to wrap himself in the flag, of course. He did not support the Dixie Chicks. He was very pro Iraq War. As he got richer, his politics moved way to the right-wing stuff.
I liked his music of the 70's, but that's it.

[Tipperary]

51. Oh? You knew him well then?

[StarfishSaver]

39. He was like that long before "later in life."

[yonder]

10. This fiddler will not miss that fiddler.

[Hoyt]

16. +1.

[texasfiddler]

17. Same here

[tishaLA]

12. One less confederate flag defender

[blitzen]

13. Ray Wylie Hubbard to the Devil: "I thought your solo was the better of the two"...

Well, it looked like I was gonna be stuck here as far as I could tell
I thought I might as well suck up, you know what the hell
I said you, "You know that song that Charlie Daniels did
About how you went down to Georgia and played fiddle against that kid"
He said, "Yeah it broke my heart but you know what are you gonna do
I said, "To tell you the truth
I thought your solo was the better of the two."

"Everybody is down here", I said
"Who's up in Heaven with God and the Son"
Oh, some saints and mystics and students of metaphysics one O one
People who care and share and love and try to do what's right
Beautiful old souls who read a little stories to their babies every night
What you wont find up in Heaven are
Christian Coalition Right Wing Conservatives
Country program directors and Nashville record executives

[liberaltrucker]

14. Hated his politics, but love his music

RIP

[Maru Kitteh]

30. Being a screaming homophobic racist isn't somebody's "politics."

I'm going to repeat myself here because it is worthwhile:


It is LONG PAST TIME to stop excusing people's violent hatefulness with the framing "I didn't agree with his politics." It's a bullshit way to sanitize a hateful, racist heart into something more acceptable.

[KG]

15. too bad he turned into such a right-wing butt-munch in later life

[Maru Kitteh]

29. He ALWAYS was one, it was simply excused.

[StarfishSaver]

40. He didn't "turn into" one. That's who he always was

Charlie was from a different generation, one who could remember a time before rock & roll, and one who grew up in the thick of institutional racism. Daniels never denied this, recounting to journalist Mark Kemp in 2004 that he “never went to school with a black person one day in my life. My mind was conditioned in such a way that I felt they were an inferior race. That was just the way things were. And the thing about it is, when you’re raised that way, when you’re indoctrinated that way, it’s not even a conscious thing to you. It was a cultural thing.” https://medium.com/@sterlewine/the-souths-gonna-do-it-again-charlie-daniels-the-confederacy-and-the-rise-of-the-new-south-in-ebbce1059d51
...

[Laelth]

18. .

-Laelth

[irisblue]

20. He had a child and wife. I am sorry for his families loss.

[Tipperary]

24. Thank you for a decent post.

I used to think the grave-dancing here was Just for rw politicians and their families., which is ugly no matter who it was. Now du is chortling about dead musicians. Smh.

[dware]

36. Yeah,

upthread, I got chastised for saying that I hated his politics, but loved his music.

Oh well, what can one do.

[Tipperary]

55. It is good that we have those so much wiser here to show us how we should think, is it not?

My, oh my.

[StarfishSaver]

41. Pointing out that Charlie Daniels was a racist isn't "grave-dancing"

It's just stating a fact about him.

And, for me, that fact tarnished and diminished him in life and is why his death doesn't make me feel the need to lionize him. That's not grave-dancing. I take no joy in his death nor do I revel in it or mock him. But I'm not going to compartmentalize him, either.

[Hortensis]

42. There's a vast ground between demonizing and lionizing,

and that's where both decency and honesty lie for most. We're all people of parts, with good and bad facets in various proportions.

No excuses for those facets that weigh to the bad for him, if it's the case (I don't know).

But we all must continue to evolve from the very imperfect present that formed us. We have a way to go. And in future, I am quite certain many of us will be ashamed of what we said back in this era and just hope an old internet post isn't chosen as our epitaph, or shown to our grandchildren.

[StarfishSaver]

45. I'm basing my opinion of him not on a post or a tweet

But on many things he actually said and behavior he evidenced over the years. And, as evidenced by his embrace of Trump in his later years, he didn't evolve much at all.

He also adopted and promoted the kind of "good-ole boy" persona that make many black people uneasy. Men who present the way he did terrify me and steer clear of them for my own safety and well-being. He came across as no different than the guys I see at Trump rallies, waving Confederate flags, giving the rebel yell, bragging about nooses and talking about how everyone needs to love "their" country or get out
.
Frankly, I think it's much easier for white people to parse and compartmentalize this kind of attitude as no big deal or one bad facet among many good ones than it is for people of color. For me, racism is almost always a deal-breaker.

That's not demonization. That's just a reality.

[Hortensis]

48. And I'm not talking about him at all. I'm talking about

righteous leaps to judgement without considering whether what is despised in him is also in oneself. Bias and hostility against whole groups is wrong. And stupid. Period.

I just read an OP pushing the imagined virtuous belief that white women are toxic, not just some by their behaviors, but all by virtue of their race, so you can see where I'm coming from.

Race hate is toxic. No acceptable targets and no acceptable excuses for anyone, not excepting those aiming it at themselves.

Racism:

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group,

the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.

a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles

[Tipperary]

53. I so value your insight.

Thank you.

[Brainfodder]

21. I can enjoy one's creations and ignore that creator's personal failings?

The list of qualifying assholes in that category is long?

[StarfishSaver]

46. Racism isn't a "personal failing."

At least not to the people subjected to it.

[prodigitalson]

27. Good thing he won that contest. nt

[Happy Hoosier]

35. Finally lost that fiddle duel. NT

[Takket]

37. one of his last tweets...........

Link to tweet

?s=20

[smirkymonkey]

43. But you are, Charlie.

Sorry. I am not mourning this loss.

[oasis]

44. "Benghazi ain't going away". Maybe Charlie's final thoughts could

have been put to better use.

Oh well

[USALiberal]

54. Him: "in the future Darwinism will be looked upon as we now look upon the flat earth theory"

[Goodheart]

57. Shitty man made shitty music.