Jason Aldean has been facing a wave of criticism over the new music video for his song "Try That In A Small Town." Critics claimed that the music video, which contains footage of some of the more violent components of the Black Lives Matter riots, was opposed to the BLM movement. Others went further. On CNN, Nicole Hemmer claimed that the song was a racist dog whistle in support of lynching.

"Aldean sings about his grandfather’s guns and warns that people who step out of line in his town won’t last too long," Hemmer writes. "It does not require much skill or imagination to connect those dots."

The outcry has already had an impact. CMT pulled Aldean's music video from circulation, and opponents of the song are crowing about how they got the song canceled.

Aldean has forcefully denied the accusations of racism. In a Twitter statement, he wrote , "In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song … and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous."

Aldean's statement is the right way to respond to the cancel culture mob. If more artists were willing to stand their ground in the face of baseless accusations (rather than kowtowing to them ), then cancel culture might be less prominent in our society.

Why is Aldean's response so powerful? One reason is that courage is contagious.

In the 1950s, psychologist Solomon Asch ran an experiment in order to test our social willingness to conform. The experiment consisted of a single subject who thought he was being given a vision test and who was asked to identify which of three lines was closest in length to a fourth line.

There were other people in the room also ostensibly being given the vision test, but what the subject didn't know was that these were confederates. They were in on the study, and their job was to give the wrong answer. Asch wanted to understand how many people would knowingly give an incorrect answer to a very obvious question just because their peers did so.

The results were concerning, and they say a lot about our desire to conform. Asch found that subjects went along with the incorrect answer given by the rest of the group  roughly  one-third of the time. In other words, about one-third of us will sacrifice our convictions in order to go along with the group. 

Asch's experiment has clear implications when it comes to cancel culture. Lots of people probably condemn the excesses of cancel culture, but few of us are willing to stand up because social pressure goes so strongly the other way. No one wants to go against the prevailing headwinds. 

However, there's hope. Asch ran a follow-up experiment and found that if even a single confederate gave the correct answer, then the subject was far less likely to conform to the incorrect answer. When the subject had an ally who was willing to tell the truth, their willingness to go along with the lie  dropped to  5%-10%. 

Or, to put it another way: When one person stands up, it gives others tacit permission to do the same. When a big name such as Aldean pushes back on the people trying to cancel his song, it can encourage other artists to take a similar stand when the mob comes for them. If enough people stand up, then cancel culture will become a thing of the past.

Of course, when critics make a valid point, we should listen. If Aldean's song truly did endorse lynchings, then an apology would be warranted. But when the mob's accusations are baseless, the best thing is to stand up to them.

Julian Adorney is a writer and marketing consultant with fee.org and has previously written for National Review, the Federalist, and other outlets.