Browncoats and Blue States... Oh, and I think I mention the Dixie Chicks

POSTED BY: Terri
UPDATED: Thursday, October 26, 2006 01:26
VIEWED: 4667
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TERRI

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 4:58 AM

And HeightsRaider, if you read this, thank you for the nice comment about my icon. This would be the appropriate forum for any comments you'd like to make about the Chicks, I suppose.

So, I just recently made this really neato icon, naming the Dixie Chicks as honorary Browncoats, and I got a lot of feedback of it. Most ran the gamut of You Go Girl! to Browncoats? Yeah right! So it got me to thinking about this gut reaction I had naming these three women Browncoats, and why I would do such a thing. And I wanted to explain it, just for anybody who might have ever wondered about it. We’ve named other people Browncoats before, but it just seems that naming the Dixie Chicks in anything seems to get people’s temperature rising. Okay, firstly, this is not a flame thread. If you don’t intend to read this post in its entirety your responses are not wanted here. If you intend to just say Dixie Chicks suck (or Dixie Sluts or Dixie Hicks), then you’re not wanted here either. Firstly, I think to myself, what is the meaning of a Browncoat? What comes to mind when we think about Mal, Zoe, Tracey, or any of the others that struggled in their fight against the Alliance? Well for me, it’s pure and simple doggedness. They’re stubborn. They’ll be gorramed if they would have let the Alliance tell them what to do and think, and they’ll be gorramed if they’re going to let them do it now. They’re stubborn people. Now, did everybody agree with them? No way. Just because not everybody was a purplebelly didn’t mean there weren’t alliance sympathizers through and through. And that made it hard for them, but they fought anyway, and even today still fight for what they think. Okay, now to the Chicks. Now, I agree with them, let me get that out of the way here and now. However, if you look at what has occurred with them, you know that they have qualities that our comrades in brown possess. They said what they said. Yeah, we all know that. And they didn’t back down. That’s the main point I’m trying to tell people. Don’t focus on the message, (because some people don’t agree), focus on the brunt they took for it. Yeah, their record sales went down, but they have a whole nother group of fans that they’ve cultivated. And everybody’s talking about how they’re whining. People, they’ve received death threats. Their families have received death threats. Trust me. When they say that they think this thing has gone to far, I’m going to have to agree with them. They never said, don’t burn our records, they never said, don’t play our songs. They said, don’t kill our families. Don’t kill us. That’s a totally different ballpark. People who said they’re whining because people stopped buying their records, obviously don’t know the whole story. So, yes, I would say that they did try to instill that into the public, but I don’t see anything wrong with that. Okay, so they’ve stood up for what they believe in the face of threats of bodily harm. Need I remind you that a man came to their concert in Texas with all intentions of killing Natalie Maines, and was only arrested at the gate? This is a fact people. So, when is doing all of that not enough? When is standing up for something you believe in, no matter what other people think, even when they disagree with you, even when they threaten you, how is that not the makings of a Browncoat? They never said bomb America, they never said Kill the President, they didn’t like the way that things were going, and they said so. Is that so different as what Mal would have done?

AURAPTOR

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 10:22 AM

So, one nut case goes to their concert w/ the intent to kill one of the Chicks, and he automatically speaks for all those who don't agree w/ what the Chicks stand for ? Gee, guess I can't debunk that logic.

I've never owned any of their music, but some of it is clearly entertaining. They're talented, to be sure, but they should have stuck to music, and stayd out of politics. They've said some pretty ridiculous things, to be sure. But they made their choice, and I'm not losing any sleep over it.

But Browncoats ? I still don't see why.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

CITIZEN

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 1:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
So, one nut case goes to their concert w/ the intent to kill one of the Chicks, and he automatically speaks for all those who don't agree w/ what the Chicks stand for ? Gee, guess I can't debunk that logic.

You can? Really?

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

AURAPTOR

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 4:22 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:
Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
So, one nut case goes to their concert w/ the intent to kill one of the Chicks, and he automatically speaks for all those who don't agree w/ what the Chicks stand for ? Gee, guess I can't debunk that logic.
You can? Really?

Buffy said it first, but I'll say it again...

I think I speak for everybody here when I say "huh?".

Reading Is Fundamental.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

DREAMTROVE

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 4:34 PM

I like the chicks, but they need to mention firefly before I give them coats.

HERO

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 8:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Terri:
Don’t focus on the message, (because some people don’t agree), focus on the brunt they took for it. Yeah, their record sales went down, but they have a whole nother group of fans that they’ve cultivated.

At first I was in complete agreement. Then I considered Hitler. By your definition Hitler was a Browncoat.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the message makes all the difference.

H

TERRI

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 10:21 PM

Yeah, but you're saying that the message is wrong. What about me? I agree with them. Are you saying that I'm comparable with Hitler? I think that's a bit of a stretch. I don't think there's anything wrong with what I believe. In fact, I would say I'm just like a Browncoat that's bucking against the status quo and even the government. And I believe reading something on here about Thomas Paine, or some other historical person being a Browncoat, did they ever mention FIrefly? I don't think that should be a requirement. I'll give you this: They're Browncoats to different people (about 51% of the population), and to the rest, I guess not.

YINYANG

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 3:38 AM

You can't hold Hitler up against the Dixie Chicks. I don't see them going around promoting the killing of millions of Jew, Gypsies, political protesters (isn't that what they are, anyway?), or those with developmental disabilites (I do believe that is the proper term, regardless of the P.C. police). And, all that bull about "They're just singers, they should just sing" - oh, so they don't have a right to express their opinions, as concerned citizens?

If you don't want to hear it, turn the station or channel. And, if you just can't take it, find a deserted island. But, death threats?

Another reason there needs to be better mental care in the USA...

---
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love - it's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. No, not just for some, but for everyone."

http://richlabonte.net/tvvote

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 4:10 AM

I’m pretty sure that no one is comparing the Dixie Chicks to Hitler.

I don’t know why some Dixie Chick fans want to portray them as Martin Luther stamping their grievances on the door of the Bush Administration. The Dixie Chicks are not struggling underdogs trying to survive in a harsh world against an overbearing government or political activists. They are rich girls whose fortune was made playing music for the same people they now turn their nose up at. It seems to me that many former Dixie Chick fans have every right to feel slighted. That some fruitcakes respond to them with unnecessary and objectionable threats is unpardonable (and a tinny minority no doubt), but it doesn’t make the Dixie Chicks saints or right or Browncoats.

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

TKID

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 6:21 AM

What I'm getting out of this discussion is that you like the Dixiechicks, and you like Firefly, so you'd like everyone here to agree to make the Dixiechicks honourary Browncoats.

Saying something on stage that the majority of your fanbase disagrees with, thereby resulting in lost cd sales, is a tad Mal-ish, but doesn't make you a Browncoat.

I'm sorry, but until those three girls get up on stage and confess their undying love for Joss Whedon and the Firefly 'verse, they aren't Browncoats.

But as I understand it, Joss Whedon is a Dixiechick fan. If you check out the fifth season of Angel, Fred's office has a Dixiechick poster in it. In one of his commentaries on the DVD box set, he talks about how he loves the band and why the poster is up in Fred's office.

P.S. I'm not a fan of any musician who gets up on stage and makes political commentary during a concert. I didn't pay out a hundred bucks or more to hear a singer indulge in a 5 minute political satire, I paid a hundred bucks to hear the singer sing.

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