Kid Rock shot up cases of Bud Light in a viral video as an apparent response to the beer’s parent company Anheuser-Busch teaming up with a transgender influencer and activist for a promotional campaign.
While Kid Rock didn’t mention the reason for his violent tantrum, Bud Light’s partnership with Dylan Mulvaney has caused uproar among conservatives amid increasing transphobic rhetoric from the right.
“Grandpa’s feeling a little frisky today,” Kid Rock says in the video posted Monday, adding, “Let me say something to all of you and be as clear and concise as possible.”
He then picks up a semi-automatic rifle and fires at cases of Bud Light set up on a nearby table.
“Fuck Bud Light, and fuck Anheuser-Busch,” he adds while flipping the bird and wearing a Donald Trump “MAGA” hat.
Anheuser-Busch defended its partnership with Mulvaney, telling Fox News, “Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points.”
The stunt comes amid a moral panic over transgender people that has resulted in a record number of anti-trans bills introduced across state legislatures, including bills that force people to use the bathrooms that correspond to their birth certificates and a federal bill that would codify narrow biological definitions of “man” and “woman,” VICE reports.
The debate over transgender rights is commonly framed as a “culture war,” a term we think is overblown — we’re talking about people going to the bathroom and being free to live the life they want to live here. And people like Kid Rock using guns to make their points only underscores the need to cool down the rhetoric. Transgender people are more than four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault, according to a 2021 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. The anti-trans rhetoric seems to have only intensified after reports that 28-year-old Audrey Hale, the shooter of the deadly attack last month at Nashville’s Covenant School, identified as transgender.
On social media, Kid Rock’s video was met with support but also derision from people pointing out that his apparent call for a boycott failed because he had to buy the cases of beer to shoot them. Others noted that despite using a magazine Kid Rock seems to be a lousy shot, as some cases appeared to be unscathed.
We think it’s probably time for someone to take away cranky old “Grandpa” Bob’s guns.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
