While we’re discussing problematic right-wing country songs that hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, let me shift the conversation to Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town.’ This song was released in May to little fanfare but stirred up controversy last month when its video dropped.

The lyrics condone vigilantism in the face of big city violence, with the opening verse targeting carjackings, battery, and armed robbery before moving on to the more benign insulting of police officers and flag burning. Apparently all of these infractions are equally worthy of homegrown justice in a small town.

The video faced criticism because it was shot in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1927 lynching and a 1946 race riot. Coupled with footage from Black Lives Matter protests, that made the clip a little too on the nose, especially coming from a noted conservative like Aldean.

CMT pulled the video from its rotation, which of course led many on the right to come to Aldean’s defense. To be fair, the courthouse is a popular filming location featured in music videos, a Lifetime movie, a Tanya Tucker Christmas special, and Hannah Montana: The Movie. But as far as I know, none of those projects threatened protesters of police killings to “see how far ya make it down the road.”

Racial undertones aside, I’m even more bothered by Aldean fueling the flames of division in the country by playing to stereotypes of urban crime and small town purity. Indeed, a thoroughly researched PolitiFact article reveals that most of the incendiary footage in the video is from incidents in other countries. Manufactured outrage is the currency of extremists on both sides of the aisle, but it’s particularly pervasive on the right.

‘Try That in a Small Town,’ buoyed by the controversy, made it to #1 for a single week. It has since fallen back into the 20s. Its quick ascension to the top spot was largely due to the mass purchase of 99 cent downloads, a metric that weighs heavier in the Hot 100 calculus and is often used by music fans to bolster the performance of a track. It turns out Oliver Anthony’s #1 placement of ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ was similarly boosted.

Whether or not folks with an agenda are putting a thumb on the scale, conservative product does seem to be thriving in the culture right now. Country songs are making unprecedented appearances in the Top Ten, and the anti-child trafficking thriller Sound of Freedom has topped both Mission: Impossible and Indiana Jones at the box office.

There’s a lesson in that, I’m sure, but I don’t know what it is.