J.D. Vance’s book and the movie that was made from it have received a lot of attention since Vance’s selection as Trump’s vice president. This review gives a pretty good overview of the book, and may spare you the trouble of reading it. From F. Roger Devlin at unz.com:
J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, Harper Collins, 2016, $27.99.
This book was written before working-class Rust Belt whites handed the presidency to Donald Trump, but the widespread interest it has attracted — along with White Trash by Nancy Isenberg — may be due in part to that sudden reminder of the continuing importance of this long-despised class of Americans.
J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy actually made it to number one on the New York Times best seller list. Much of its popularity may be due to its format as a personal memoir that can be read as a modern-day Horatio Alger story: A boy from the Kentucky hills overcomes a chaotic home life to make it at Yale Law School and live the American Dream. Liberal readers are likely to come away from the book convinced of the need for a Marshall Plan for the Appalachians, but the author understands that his own success cannot be mechanically replicated for others by any government policy.
Life in Appalachia can be violent. The county where the author’s family originated was nicknamed “Bloody Breathitt,” and feuding was not uncommon. At the age of 12, the author’s grandmother caught someone stealing the family cow; she grabbed a rifle and shot him in the leg. According to family tradition, only the timely arrival of her father prevented her from finishing the man off.
While middle-class whites teach their children not to get into fights, mountain people teach theirs how to fight: “punch with your whole body, especially your hips; very few people appreciate how unimportant your fist is when it comes to hitting someone.” They do this because it is a practical necessity: Appalachia is home to a primitive honor culture, in which failure to avenge an insult is seen as proof of weakness. And life is very harsh on any hillbilly others think is weak.
Bilderbergers give it a high rating. (wink)
Does Trump rely on family too much for important picks?
Sadly for Vance those comments about Trump from the past are immortalized but Kamala did say some mean things about Jo Jo “Depends” Brandon.
Politricks isn’t a parlor game.
Bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran will be about as popular as blue and yellow dumpster items?
Breaking from Michael McDonald:
What A Fool Believes
“Appalachia is home to a primitive honor culture, in which failure to avenge an insult is seen as proof of weakness. And life is very harsh on any hillbilly others think is weak.”
This is possibly one of the stupidest comments I can recall being proffered seriously..
The Appalachian ‘Feuding’ syndrome is almost entirely an artifact of post Civil War factors. My own mothers paternal ancestor makes the walk, on crutches, from a Confederate military hospital in Va after Richmond fell, all the way back to Eastern Ky. Others in the region (39th Kentucky) fought for the Union, and this resulted in continued conflicts due to the fact that there was no post war occupation, since it was not a Confederate state.
Appalachia is really notable for being a mirror opposite or what the majority of its historical settlers were escaping from –
Lord Dunmore – 1774 –
“A set of people in the back part of this colony bordering on the Cherokee country to all intents and purposes have erected themselves into, though an inconsiderable, yet a separate country.”
The attempt to create a captive Ulster colony of permanent ‘renters’ led to the outflow of these people who are of Irish, English, Scots and Welsh extraction, and who essentially – as Lord Dunmore noted – evade the attempt to recreate this captivity within Virginia, by moving beyond the boundaries that the Royal Gov can control. The history of Appalachia is the history of people seeking ownership, in a world of Feudal Rulers and Landlords.
The ‘primitive’ Appalachians somehow ‘luck’ into defeating the Royal forces at the Battle of Kings Mountain with no support or organization from any central govt, elect their own leaders in the field, arrange their own strategy and supply train, with the help of more than a few Vance’s, btw – https://bkmnp.com/patriots-in-the-battle/
They subsequently form the backbone at Cowpens, and Guilford Courthouse, and within less than a year, force the surrender that emerges at Yorktown of the worlds greatest military power.. and then they just went home and did not seek to subjugate anyone.. what primitives..
A more factual source for those seeking actual information would be ‘Born Fighting’ By Jim Webb, or in a general colonial sense ‘Albions Seed’.
Anyone opposing Vance because he does not at all times and places say everything exactly as you want him to is falling into the always fatal trap of demanding a perfection which is the enemy of the good.