Editorial: Why liberals OK with shaming Appalachia?

[roamer_1]

I stand with the hillbillies of Appalachia. Screw the liberal writers.

That's right.

[Fishrrman]

Rich urged Democrats to ignore those voters: “Let them reap the consequences for voting against their own interests . . . They’ll keep voting against their own interests until the industrial poisons left unregulated by their favored politicians finish them off altogether.”

Hmmmmmm......
Lemmmmeeee get this straight, Frank.

So, if the West Virginia coal miners were to "vote in their own interests", they would have voted for o'er-the-hillary, who openly stated she wanted to kill the coal business and leave them jobless and with little hope for employment in their future?

Yup.
That's in a working man's interests!

The left hates these folks because once they were "reliably democratic" -- and now, they're wising up.

If the "hillbillies" started votin' democratic/communist again, they'd be lovin' 'em like the Bolsheviks gave lip service to the proletariat (while stiffin' 'em, of course).

[kalee]

Thanks for posting.

[Doug Loss]

Rich urged Democrats to ignore those voters: “Let them reap the consequences for voting against their own interests . . . They’ll keep voting against their own interests until the industrial poisons left unregulated by their favored politicians finish them off altogether.”

Hmmmmmm......
Lemmmmeeee get this straight, Frank.

So, if the West Virginia coal miners were to "vote in their own interests", they would have voted for o'er-the-hillary, who openly stated she wanted to kill the coal business and leave them jobless and with little hope for employment in their future?

Yup.
That's in a working man's interests!

The left hates these folks because once they were "reliably democratic" -- and now, they're wising up.

If the "hillbillies" started votin' democratic/communist again, they'd be lovin' 'em like the Bolsheviks gave lip service to the proletariat (while stiffin' 'em, of course).

Whenever one of these clowns starts talking about anyone "voting against their own interests," I stop them and say, "Do you understand just how insulting that claim is, that you know our (or their) best interests better than we (they) do?"  They never do get it; the whole idea that we lesser people could possibly know better than they do about anything is just incomprehensible to them.

[Cripplecreek]

Whenever one of these clowns starts talking about anyone "voting against their own interests," I stop them and say, "Do you understand just how insulting that claim is, that you know our (or their) best interests better than we (they) do?"  They never do get it; the whole idea that we lesser people could possibly know better than they do about anything is just incomprehensible to them.

Talking to my liberal sister is infuriating because of that. She complains about people on welfare voting against democrats and refuses to grasp the concept that those people are voting for a better future than the one government provides. Yet at the same time, she recognizes that welfare is a trap.

My sister should know better because our mother was a social worker once and walked away from it when it stopped being about helping people stand on their own and started being about getting and keeping as many people on welfare as possible.

[Gefn]

Some years ago, James Carville described Pennsylvania (much of which is the northern end of Appalachia) as "Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, separated by Alabama."  He thought he was insulting the folks in PA outside of those two cities, but most everyone there said, 

Well, New Jersey has been described as "the armpit between New York and Pennsylvania "

What exit are you from?

And thanks to our last three governors (mcgreevey, corzime, and Christie) we are the laughing stock of I think the other 49.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Whenever one of these clowns starts talking about anyone "voting against their own interests," I stop them and say, "Do you understand just how insulting that claim is, that you know our (or their) best interests better than we (they) do?"  They never do get it; the whole idea that we lesser people could possibly know better than they do about anything is just incomprehensible to them.

Definitely agree with this.... and the claim is illogical first and foremost because we had Obama for 8 years and apparently their lot in life didn't get any better, so how are they voting against their own self interest.

Liberals are a bunch of self-absorbed, self-satisfied, smug assholes who truly enjoy the smell of their own farts.

[catfish1957]

Easy—because Appalachians can't be corrupted. There's a vein of pride and independence in this part of the country that no amount of government bribery will win over. They've lived lives of poverty, and survived without help. The only reason the left sees them as contemptful is because they can't crush that spirit among these people.

i.e line share of these folks are of Scotch- Irish ancestry.  Ulster Scots (I'm about 10%) are a fierce independent sort of folks who have a huge distrust in government.  The kind of people the left detests.

[Sanguine]

I know we all like blond jokes, but a good case could be made that they fall into the same category as this story.  Where it used to be socially acceptable to make all kinds of racist/ethnic jokes against Poles, Jews, blacks, hispanics, whatevers, those have become socially toxic.  For some reason, it's still OK to make jokes about rednecks, hillbillys and blonds.  As we know, rednecks got that nickname because they work outside, in all kinds of weather, and they get red necks from the sun. They do the work that hipsters wouldn't and couldn't do.  Hillbillys?  We wouldn't be the country that we are without them.  Without their pioneering, can-do, make-it-work spirit we'd still be New England.  And, blonds - wow, using a physical descriptor to make fun of a racial/ethnic type?  I thought that was totally off limits?

To add to my hipster comment:

Nordstrom sells jeans with fake mud on them for $425; Critics let loose


http://www.wxyz.com/news/national/nordstrom-sells-jeans-with-fake-mud-on-them-for-425

[catfish1957]

Kind of reminds me about 15 years ago when my son wanted to buy some jeans that were already torn and had holes in them.

Guess I just don't get fashion.

[Sanguine]

The Barracuda Straight Leg Jeans feature obvious splashes of what Nordstrom calls "caked-on muddy coating," giving the effect of being worn on a day in the dirt.

In its description for the pants, the company says they "embody rugged, Americana workwear that's seen some hard-working action" and that, when worn, they show "you're not afraid to get down and dirty."

When he discovered the product this week, "Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe posted about them on his website, saying the Nordstrom jeans were proof of "our country's war on work."

"They're a costume for wealthy people who see work as ironic — not iconic," Rowe wrote on Monday in a post titled, "Jeans made to look like you work hard so you don't have to."

On Fox News Tuesday, "Fox & Friends" co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Ainsley Earhardt criticized the jeans, with Kilmeade saying "if you're going to wear muddy jeans, you should earn the mud."

http://www.wxyz.com/news/national/nordstrom-sells-jeans-with-fake-mud-on-them-for-425

[skeeter]

I know we all like blond jokes, but a good case could be made that they fall into the same category as this story.  Where it used to be socially acceptable to make all kinds of racist/ethnic jokes against Poles, Jews, blacks, hispanics, whatevers, those have become socially toxic.  For some reason, it's still OK to make jokes about rednecks, hillbillys and blonds.  As we know, rednecks got that nickname because they work outside, in all kinds of weather, and they get red necks from the sun. They do the work that hipsters wouldn't and couldn't do.  Hillbillys?  We wouldn't be the country that we are without them.  Without their pioneering, can-do, make-it-work spirit we'd still be New England.  And, blonds - wow, using a physical descriptor to make fun of a racial/ethnic type?  I thought that was totally off limits?

Leftists are as racist/classist/sexist/ageist, etc, by their own definition, as anyone can be. The only thing they consider is a given group's general voting propensity.

Vote wrongly and they'll let fly in a way to make George Wallace blush.

[Sanguine]

Leftists are as racist/classist/sexist/ageist, etc, by their own definition, as anyone can be. The only thing they consider is a given group's general voting propensity.

Vote wrongly and they'll let fly in a way to make George Wallace blush.

Which is exactly why they think we are - they are projecting their own prejudices and bigotry on conservatives. 

[roamer_1]

To add to my hipster comment:

LOL! add those fake work jeans to those pre-bent and laquered straw hats, and you've got a cowboy, right? At least from a distance...

[Restored]

I graduated from Appalachian State and it is "latch-chun".

Even liberal writers in Appalachia push the stereotype of us being hillbillies bitterly clinging to guns and religion. We can always tell when the Roanoke Times is losing a writer because they write the obligatory article about the "shootin' arn totin' hillbillies". Liberals love the idea of the hippie enclave nature of the hills (i.e. Floyd, Va and Boone, NC) but recoil at the idea of free-thinking people who don't agree with them.

There was an enclave in Floyd County  that has vanished , even though it had a fairly strong presence for a while. It was a bunch of conservative technical types who were convinced Y2K was TEOTWAWKI  http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/27/news/mn-17823

[skeeter]

Which is exactly why they think we are - they are projecting their own prejudices and bigotry on conservatives.

And why they have no compunction about going straight to racial stereotypes when running against black and female republicans.

[Sanguine]

I graduated from Appalachian State and it is "latch-chun".

Even liberal writers in Appalachia push the stereotype of us being hillbillies bitterly clinging to guns and religion. We can always tell when the Roanoke Times is losing a writer because they write the obligatory article about the "shootin' arn totin' hillbillies". Liberals love the idea of the hippie enclave nature of the hills (i.e. Floyd, Va and Boone, NC) but recoil at the idea of free-thinking people who don't agree with them.

There was an enclave in Floyd County  that has vanished , even though it had a fairly strong presence for a while. It was a bunch of conservative technical types who were convinced Y2K was TEOTWAWKI  http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/27/news/mn-17823

Sounds like an interesting group.  Wonder what happened to them?

[roamer_1]

There was an enclave in Floyd County  that has vanished , even though it had a fairly strong presence for a while. It was a bunch of conservative technical types who were convinced Y2K was TEOTWAWKI  http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/27/news/mn-17823

Yeah we had em all up in here too for a while... Through a string of mild winters... The next one was a lulu, with deep snow and forty below for a couple months... After that, a stream of VW buses and ramshackle school buses heading south.

Funny thing is, there wasn't nary a single hillbilly truck going with em...

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I graduated from Appalachian State and it is "latch-chun".

Even liberal writers in Appalachia push the stereotype of us being hillbillies bitterly clinging to guns and religion. We can always tell when the Roanoke Times is losing a writer because they write the obligatory article about the "shootin' arn totin' hillbillies". Liberals love the idea of the hippie enclave nature of the hills (i.e. Floyd, Va and Boone, NC) but recoil at the idea of free-thinking people who don't agree with them.

There was an enclave in Floyd County  that has vanished , even though it had a fairly strong presence for a while. It was a bunch of conservative technical types who were convinced Y2K was TEOTWAWKI  http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/27/news/mn-17823

Sounds like the same sort of kooks who read Zero Hedge.

[Sanguine]

Sounds like the same sort of kooks who read Zero Hedge.

[Restored]

The guy who ran the project ended up going to prison. Apparently all that religion didn't take hold. The church seems to have disappeared.

http://www.roanoke.com/webmin/news/men-sentenced-for-roles-in-bizarre-property-scheme/article_a0bf891e-10e5-518b-9131-975eb54f3ca8.html

I wonder if Pastor Gary North did the eulogy. There are still a pile of hippies in Floyd but it is now a bluegrass mecca. We travel through there going to church in Meadows of Dan (bluegrass church).

[Sanguine]

The guy who ran the project ended up going to prison. Apparently all that religion didn't take hold. The church seems to have disappeared.

http://www.roanoke.com/webmin/news/men-sentenced-for-roles-in-bizarre-property-scheme/article_a0bf891e-10e5-518b-9131-975eb54f3ca8.html

I guess being a visionary means you don't follow the rules, even the ones you should.

[Restored]

I found it really fishy that the founder was a programmer. Programmers should know that computer hardware doesn't deal with time per se. It deals with the amount of time that has passed after a specific time.  They were really into homesteading and sustainability but needed to come up to speed very quickly. There is an Amish presence in Floyd so they probably worked with them. We have several Amish homesteads nearby. They even built a house for someone near my church. There is an Amish store over towards Nobusiness in Bland County.

When you live here in the hills, you get used to just about everything.

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[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

The guy who ran the project ended up going to prison. Apparently all that religion didn't take hold. The church seems to have disappeared.

http://www.roanoke.com/webmin/news/men-sentenced-for-roles-in-bizarre-property-scheme/article_a0bf891e-10e5-518b-9131-975eb54f3ca8.html

I wonder if Pastor Gary North did the eulogy. There are still a pile of hippies in Floyd but it is now a bluegrass mecca. We travel through there going to church in Meadows of Dan (bluegrass church).

Ken Griffith, the founder of the Rivendell community; David Gregory Mueller; and Normand Thomas Turgeon stood trial in November on conspiracy, wire fraud and mail fraud charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennie Waering argued that the men conspired to scout land they didn't own in Floyd, Montgomery, Smyth, Russell and Tazewell counties, then sold timber off the land.

Now that would be the name of a place I should retire! If you notice my name. 

[Sanguine]

Now that would be the name of a place I should retire! If you notice my name. 

It comes across on Twitter as: Weird Tolkienish Fig.  Not sure which one I like better.