Blake Shelton, You Dipshit, We See You Basically Endorsing Donald Trump

By Anna Merlan  |  July 28, 2016 | 4:00pm
Politics

Blake Shelton, who you best know for being on that singing show and for being in a totally real and passion-filled relationship with Gwen Stefani, has some thoughts on politics. Specifically, he has some non-subtle thoughts on mildewed corn muffin Donald Trump and “political correctness,” thoughts that function as a highly audible dog whistle. Blake Shelton: we fucking see you.

Shelton is the cover star of this week’s Billboard, for some reason, where he shared thoughts about his not-fake romance, and also this election. He lamented the way country music has been overtaken by political correctness (…has it?) and praised Trump for speaking his mind:

“In country music, we’re so politically correct and so afraid to possibly upset someone,” he says. Recently a tea party website announced, “Blake Shelton Sides With Trump on Issues of Political Correctness,” dubiously trying to claim him for the right wing.
Does the singer support Donald Trump? “I’m not going to have the political conversation with you about Trump, or about Hillary Clinton, but I will tell you this: Whether you love him or hate him, he says what he thinks, and he has proven that you don’t always have to be so afraid. A lot of people are pulling for him, no matter how much Hollywood fights it. I see people who don’t like him go and beat up people that do like him. You tell me, who’s crazy here?”
Shelton, who says he will vote in November, adds, “I probably wish there was another option, but there’s not.”

“Saying what he thinks” has, of course, been a cornerstone of Trump’s campaign boasts about himself. It rests on the idea that everyone has the same bigoted, Islamophobic, racist, woman-hating thoughts as Trump, but only he’s bold enough to say them aloud.

It’s not a hugely surprising stance for a wealthy white new-country star to agree with, but maybe don’t pretend like you’re doing something clever here, Shelton, or threading some kind of needle. It’s interesting, too, that Shelton would reference Trump haters “beating up” Trump fans. He probably means metaphorically, as opposed to the Trump fans literally beating a homeless man or sucker-punching protesters.

“Political correctness,” the boogeyman under the bed of every person with literally nothing else to oppress them, has been weighing on Shelton for some time. In June, he opined that the PC among us “need to take a chill pill” and stop reacting every time he tweets something dumb:

“More than ever, I’ve been hitting “delete” before I send out a tweet,” Shelton said. “I’m just tired of the drama that comes with it, the absolute crybaby reaction you get from how politically correct the world is now.”
“You just second guess everything: ‘I’ll upset this bunch,’” he continued. “It just sucks the life out of the world for me. Everybody needs to take a chill pill.”

Anyway, follow Blake on Twitter for more political opinions that he probably thinks are purposefully vague and non-partisan.

Update, 2:05 p.m.:

Blake says he hasn’t “enforced” a candidate; goes on to say a bunch of other things.

 
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