Sure, Kid Rock's T-Shirts Are Terrible, But They're Also Ugly

Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images (T-Shirt Graphic Added by GQ)

Turns out, most of us are living in "Dumbfuckistan."

Kid Rock voted for Donald Trump. He's not shy about it, and it's weird to think the guy who coined the term "Bawitdaba" would still have any sort of cultural weight in a year that isn't 1998. And yet, the man is a bonafide success, branding himself into a sort of inverse Miley Cyrus, but instead of being a problematic white female artist for young white people who need a banger at karaoke, Kid Rock is an obnoxious white man for white people who take an unusual amount of pride in words like "pickup truck."

So, I guess we shouldn't really be all that shocked that Rock's new merch is insanely bigoted, divisive, and emblematic of the "take back our country" attitude white supremacists have been hollering about all election. The T-shirts, which feature a simple graphic of the states that went in favor of Trump as "The United States of America," and the ones that voted for Hillary as "Dumbfuckistan," are also just poorly designed and ugly. It looks like a bitmap file found on an online pawn shop.

In either case, the Great Merch Wars of 2016 have taken a sudden, unexpected twist. Implying that half the country resides in "Dumbfuckistan" doesn't just reek of Islamophobia, but as a portmanteau it's clunky and not particularly clever. It's especially impenetrable when you remember that 2.7 million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump.

* On his 2015 album First Kiss, Kid Rock attempted to channel Johnny Cash with a song called, well, "Johnny Cash." Thing is, Cash was actually a vocal supporter of Native Americans, in 1964 releasing a Native American-themed concept album called Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian. Guess that means he would have been a part of "Dumbfuckistan," too.

Now, Kid Rock and Trump share quite a few similarities, the least of which is a habit of leveraging the values of the working class to line their pockets. Rock is a cartoon, if a passably authentic* one, but that doesn't excuse the more bigoted shit he puts on merch. Trump, on the other hand, is a Manhattan billionaire scam artist who, pending some extreme change of heart, will gut America's social safety nets, write off $7 million tax deals for corporations as moral victories, and hire ex-Goldman Sachs employees to continue funneling wealth up the chain with tax breaks for the 1 percent. One person who stands to benefit? Kid Rock, with a net worth of $80 million.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS ONE

http://ift.tt/2g1XyKd

Best Product Soap
Defense Soap Bar 4 Oz (5 Pack) All Natural Antibacterial Antifungal Therapeutic

Kirk's Original Coco Castile Bar Soap, 4 Oz, 3 Count

Raw African BLACK SOAP Organic From GHANA Pure Premium Quality CHOOSE

Dial White Antibacterial Deodorant Soap, 4 Oz, 10 Count