Reddit Reddit reviews Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

We found 47 Reddit comments about Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NAMED BY THE TIMES AS ONE OF "6 BOOKS TO HELP UNDERSTAND TRUMP'S WIN" AND SOON TO BE A MAJOR-MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD
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47 Reddit comments about Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis:

u/N0PE-N0PE-N0PE · 56 pointsr/Showerthoughts

Reading books like Hillbilly Elegy and Between the World and Me back-to-back suggests that kind of defensive thinking is pretty universal.

"Getting too big for your britches" among poor white folks is pretty similar to the pressure to "keep it real" among poor black folks. Crabs in a bucket, basically.

u/Barton_Foley · 26 pointsr/Documentaries

There is a great first person memoir about this topic long the Kentucky-Ohio border, JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis It is a great read and sheds some light on the psyche of the poor white working class.

u/Brokenshatner · 25 pointsr/politics

Very well organized post - covers a lot of sensitive material concisely.

For those interested in understanding the decidedly NOT explicitly-racist motivations of many Trump voters, I recommend J.D. Vance's book Hillbilly Elegy.

I'm currently reading the 7th Harry Potter book with my kids, and we just last night got to the bit where Ron Weasley just can't believe anybody would stand by while the Muggle registry laws were rolled out. At time of writing, the inclusion of this exchanges was clearly meant to evoke good Germans just being glad the trains were running on time, but here we are again. To quote Professor Slughorn, these are mad times we live in.

u/Ericovich · 18 pointsr/Ohio

There's a historical basis to the accent you're hearing in Dayton.

We've talked about this on the local subreddit.

From the 1920s to 1940s there was a massive migration from Eastern Kentucky to Southwest Ohio. This is mentioned in the book Hillbilly Elegy.

What you're hearing is an Appalachian accent. It's extremely common in our part of Ohio, especially in working class white neighborhoods.

Edit: Pasted the wrong link.

u/keithkman · 14 pointsr/The_Donald

Another childhood friend defriended me on FB. She posted Meryl Streep's speech tonight. I told her Hollywood is out of touch with average Americans and she and Hollywood should read a great book called Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. De-friended. I wish more people would stop playing the victim and try to find understanding. It's going to be a long 8 years playing the victim. Believe me.

Seriously though, it's a great read.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062300547/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XzZCybGTXRFAK

u/hashtagslut · 13 pointsr/politics

It’s a memoir about why poor white people vote against their own self interests, and how trump’s rhetoric motivated disenfranchised poor people to go to the polls and vote him into office.

Hillbilly Elegy

u/MaterProtagonist · 13 pointsr/teenmom

This book caused a lot of stir this year when it was released in June. It explains the culture of the areas like Leah's where the poverty is generational. I grew up in an area in rural PA. It was thriving farming community in the 80's but now is run down and trashy, nothing like when I was a kid. I imagine the kids are a lot like Leah and her cousins.

It stuck a huge chord with many because this is a group of people largely ignored in America. If anyone likes reading this kind of thing, I linked its Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

u/TotesNottaBot · 10 pointsr/politics

I got it on audible and listened to it in about 2weeks. If we were going to have a "book list for the resistance" I'd say this one is crucial. Also, maybe think of these as prerequisites, I think everyone should read or listen to The Warmth of Other Suns and Hillbilly Elegy because, in my opinion, they describe the past in way that informs the present social strife that Trump used to divide and conquer to win the Republican primary and general elections. If the Left is going to have a political answer in 2 and 4yrs for the people who either declined to vote altogether or who voted Trump, we have to understand and have compassion for their plight.

I understand the emotional need to point the finger at Trump voters and say "Ha! You get what you voted for!" when their healthcare is taken away or their jobs are automated without a proper safety net, but that's such a vindictive and shortsighted outlook that isn't going to help with coalition building.

Edit: the hardcover edition of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible is in stock

u/eatcheeseordie · 5 pointsr/SeattleWA

> Can't make the living here? There are tons of other places in the country which are less expensive and where a barrista's salary-to-monthly average rent is far, far more attractive.

Have you ever moved across the country, or even to a neighboring state? It's really expensive. If you're in debt and living paycheck-to-paycheck, it's nearly impossible.

If you haven't already read it, I recommend Hillbilly Elegy. Vance does a good job of explaining why the "get your butt to another part of the country" plan isn't feasible for many.

u/veringer · 4 pointsr/politics

From what I understand, there's always been a tension between the colonial frontier states and the more coastal centers of wealth and political power. Without getting too long-winded, colonial America was populated in several waves that each laid claim to different geographical areas. The last wave was largely made up of poor, uneducated, war-ravaged people from the hinterlands of northern England/Scotland/Ireland. When they arrived they weren't accepted with open arms and given housing/jobs in Philadelphia and Boston so they could acculturate. No, they headed west into the wilderness and, more or less, carved out their own 'nation' up and down the Appalachians (living close to the bone, fighting natives, and mostly being left alone). The common thread in this culture is a more pronounced tribal instinct, bellicosity, skepticism toward highfalutin concepts related to Social Contract, and pride.

I don't want to unnecessarily piss people off by painting with too wide of a brush. I'll just say that there's a lot to admire about the Appalachian culture/nation. However, there are also a lot of flaws too. Most fundamentally, I think it's the pride that is the toughest to overcome. It's hard to convince one struggling person to swallow their pride and try an alternative approach. How do you convince millions?

EDIT: Shit! A whole paragraph got fat-fingered. Anyway, what I typed out was something like:

> Today the culture has adopted a contrarian stance using the confederate flag as an emblem of resistance/antagonism designed less as an honest affinity toward the Confederate mission, but more as a statement that they're unique and don't identify with the urban cultural centers. Sure there are hard-line organized and principled racists in the mix too, and they may be exploiting the current milieu. But (in my experience) the initial attraction that an average West Virginian might have toward the confederate flag is more about thumbing their nose at moralizing Yankees while signalling their membership in an alternate club. In short: librul tears.

Sources and references:

u/mushcloths · 4 pointsr/canada

If you don't understand someone, it's easy to call them stupid. There's a couple of books written specifically to help people understand those who voted for Trump:

Hillbilly Elegy:

>Now, along comes Mr. Vance, offering a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump. Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he’s done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans.

White Working Class

>White Working Class is a blunt, bracing narrative that sketches a nuanced portrait of millions of people who have proven to be a potent political force. For anyone stunned by the rise of populist, nationalist movements, wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feeling like a stranger in their own country, White Working Class will be a convincing primer on how to connect with a crucial set of workers--and voters.

u/GilesPennyfeather · 4 pointsr/tipofmytongue
u/cderwin15 · 4 pointsr/Libertarian

Oh boy have I got some books for you:

  • The Conservatarian Manifesto, Charlie C.W. Cooke --
    The editor of National Review Online argues the path to a better conservatism lies in a marriage with libertarianism.

  • The End is Near and it's Going to be Awesome, Kevin D. Williamson --
    National Review's Roving Correspondent argues that the American government is collapsing under its own weight and that's a good thing.

  • Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance --
    A former marine and Yale-educated lawyer gives a powerful account of his upbringing in a Rust-belt town and his family's connection to Appalachia.

  • The Evolution of Everything, Matt Ridley --
    The Fellow of the Royal Society and member of the House of Lords describes how spontaneous order is behind a great many advancements of the modern age and why centralized "design" is ineffective and prone to failure.

  • The Vanishing American Adult, Ben Sasse --
    The popular freshman senator describes the crisis of America's youth, and how the solutions lay beyond the realm of politics.

  • Our Republican Constitution, Randy E. Barnett --
    One of America's leading constitutional law scholars explains why Americans would benefit from a renewal of our Republican Constitution and how such a renewal can be achieved.

  • A Torch Kept Lit, William F. Buckley, edited by James Rosen --
    A curated collection of Buckley's best eulogies, A Torch Kept Lit provides invaluable insight into both the eminent twentieth century conservative and an unrevised conservative account of the great lives of the twentieth century.

  • Scalia Speaks, Antonin Scalia, edited by Christopher Scalia and Ed Whelan --
    This volume of Justice Scalia's finest speeches provides intimate insight on the justice's perspectives on law, faith, virtue, and private life.
u/wolfnb · 3 pointsr/goodyearwelt

>It didn't really change anybody's mind, and one's view on it was 99% shaped by what they were already thinking.

These books are about why they think that way. Hillbilly Elegy is about communities (mainly the non-urban communities that gave Trump huge support) that feel left behind and the recent history and thinking of those groups. The Big Sort is about the homogenization of social groups and thinking in the US, leading to why people feel comfortable throwing "grenades". The Righteous Mind is a book on the psychology of morality and politics in the US and why the ideologies are so different.

Trump may have won big with white voters of all stripes, but he also did better among Latinos than Romney, so it's obvious that it isn't just "poor uneducated whites", but if people don't try to figure out why the division is so strong and where the other side is coming from, what chance do we have for uniting and restoration?

I live in the most liberal district in one of the most liberal cities in the US. I have no difficulty in understanding that perspective and its driving forces. The other view is not so well illuminated

Edit: though I shouldn't have said anything in the first place. This is the one place I can go to avoid all the cross-talk about politics and ideologies. I like all of you guys and our light conversations about shoes. I'd rather not ruin that for myself.

u/rbegirliegirl · 3 pointsr/financialindependence

This year I read all four of Chris Guillebeau's books, Hillbilly Elegy, and Hand to Mouth. I enjoyed all of them.

I also often recommend books by Eckhart Tolle and The 5 Love Languages.

u/thewholebottle · 3 pointsr/politics

Sorry, poor WHITE working classes.

>Trump essentially won by just 80,000 votes in three states, maybe that, along with issues like the opioid epidemic and poor health outcomes, was enough to put him over the top. But the analysis also shows that a bulk of support for Trump — perhaps what made him a contender to begin with — came from beliefs rooted in racism and sexism.

It's important to note that the poor white working class was not integrated--they didn't work alongside poor blacks and Hispanics at the same jobs. They were surrounded by other white people.

https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522176550&sr=8-1&keywords=hillbilly+elegy

A good read.

I was painting with a broad brush, yes. It's probably better to say that Rosanne Connor is representing a very specific, individual person.

Edit: The three states being Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

u/sihtydaernacuoytihsy · 3 pointsr/changemyview

What I get out of this is that Rush:Conservatism as Jon Stewart:Liberalism--considering, analyzing, and mocking both the other side's attitudes--and particularly the other side's preferred media.

But no one serious on the left yields the discussion to the talk-radio or television. Ten years ago, the left was reading Robert Putnam and Thomas Franks; now, in an increasing show of empathy, they're reading even more serious authors.

Where are the Arlie Russell Hochschild, the Katherine Cramer, or the JD Vance of the right? Where are the calm, serious, extended analyses--the book-length treatments, and the informed, sober book reviews?

u/machlangsam · 3 pointsr/politics

Recommend Hillbilly Elegy for insight into this phenomenon.

u/Alvinarno · 3 pointsr/thewallstreet

Interesting.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062300547/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_AkidAb2T3C5JM

u/kerrielou73 · 2 pointsr/exmormon

While you do need a college education in this day and age, it doesn't have to follow a strict formula. My little sister just graduated with her PhD in Math at Rutgers at 36. Her road was a pretty long one. She got married to an asshole at 18, divorced him five years later (thank god no kids), went to community college, then a state school, and then got a fellowship for her PhD. She has ZERO debt. Her bachelor's took longer, because she was working full time and taking night classes at first, but then she scaled down the work to part time and college full time. She was just offered a position by her former employer at $150/hour for 10 hours a week and she has a fully funded post doc at UPenn for another 10-15 hours a week starting mid June.

My point is, you have time. Yes, you do need to get a degree, maybe more than one, but it's also not a race and if you get creative you can do it with a minimum of debt. She's pretty special. I mean, to get a PhD in math you have to be, but she is also EXTREMELY frugal and that made an astronomical difference.

If you have to take a year off to work full time and save money, then that's what you have to do, but SAVE THE MONEY! Don't get sucked into just making that your life, because a lot of people do. Ultimately, you want that degree so do whatever you need to, even if it's just putting inspirational quotes on your mirror to remind yourself of your ultimate goals, no matter how long they may take.

My little sis, who I am so fucking proud of, called me many many times wanting to quit, because she was used to being first in her class and now she was in the bottom third. I finally told her, if she quit now she would forever regret it, because she would never ever know if she could have made it or not. I told her that quitting was the same as failing and that if she just kept going they would either kick her out and she could go back to her corporate job or she would succeed. Even as incredibly smart and talented as she is, she had to face down reality and work hard hard hard and save save save and forego many little pleasures, but she fucking did it and she did it all by herself and you can too. You may not get a PhD in math, but if you get creative, don't spend a dime you could possibly save, and work as hard as you can, you will achieve so much. You will find out who you are in the process, what you want, what you can achieve through hours of hard and often tedious and drudging work with people you don't like very much, but you will come out the other side a complete and whole person. Not many people can claim that, but you have taken the hardest step, which is to be your own person and escape a mind numbing cult, even when it meant forsaking your own parents. That is an experience not many people can claim and it will make you stronger than you could possibly know. You will meet people in college and university who have NEVER had to grapple what you have had to grapple with and that experience will be a strength to you for the rest of your life.

No one can tell you exactly what to do and based on what you have said, it sounds like the road is going to be long and difficult, but that's okay, because when you get out there in the "real world" you are going to find that this experience is an asset, not a disability.

/u/olsh gave some great practical advice. You are in a very tough spot, but you can do it. It will take more than courage. It will also take a lot of endurance through many difficulties. I would urge you to read or listen to Hillbilly Elegy before you do anything else.

u/phillyalpha · 2 pointsr/politics

Has anyone interviewed that right wing apologist, soi-distant polemicist JD Vance?

Huh?

This guy.

u/moseybjones · 2 pointsr/Political_Revolution

(Before I get into this, I want to say that I love you and I hope we make it through the next four years. You feel shitty now. I feel shitty now. But the only way we save this is to work together and be optimistic. Don't give up, you beautiful prince. And with that said, watch my tone shift very abruptly because that's the kind of day this is.)

You honestly think she lost because a few Bernie people refused to vote for her? As I understand it, it's a whole heckuva lot more complicated than that, Foxy.

  1. Everyone sorely underestimated Trump's support.

  2. Hillary failed to motivate and energize working-class whites.

  3. Latinos and African Americans did not come out in as large numbers as was expected.

  4. When you make a joke of your opponent and act like you've already won months in advance, it's going to mobilize your opponent's voters and simultaneously breed complacency (I know several Clinton supporters who didn't bother voting because they were so confident). It's that Clinton hubris that Powell talked about.

  5. Hillary's public perception has been chiseled away for years. People talk about Sanders having not gone through the grinder like Hillary has. Well, at least he started off with a high approval rating. Hillary didn't. Personally, I think he would've fared much better.

  6. This was the year of the populist. The left failed to realize that, somehow.

  7. The democrats put up a candidate who has zero charisma and is viewed as dishonest and disconnected by a large portion of the country. That, sadly, negates all her experience. I want to make something very clear here: Feels trump reals, and that's the sad truth. Winning the presidential race is all about good marketing. Clinton, her campaign, and especially her supporters relied on logic rather than emotion. Logic doesn't sell. It doesn't matter if she's innocent. If the public thinks she's a criminal, that's all that fucking matters. Tip for 2020: If the people think your candidate is a criminal, DROP THEM FAST because they're going to lose. (Note: I have no idea how this affected Clinton and not Trump, who by all measures is much more of a "criminal" than Hillary... I'll have to figure this one out another time.)

    I bet there's a ton more, too. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, though. Listen. I voted for her yesterday. It fucking hurts. But you know what? The people have spoken. And you know what else? Somehow, I'm not mad at Trump. I'm mad at Clinton, the DNC, her campaign, and those of her supporters who have vilified Sanders supporters since the beginning. We tried to make an argument for our candidate and instead many of your fellow Clinton supporters decided to call us names and treat us like we were stupid. We understood that Bernie was tapping into a feeling that Hillary had no hope of grasping. It feels weird because democrats are now the party of diversity but the truth is that working-class whites of Greater Appalachia and the Midwest have suffered for a long time, and they're fucking pissed. Trump recognized that (somehow), and Hillary didn't (unfortunately). Trump didn't even need to provide a fucking plan. He just needed to identify that this group of people are hurting because no one else had the balls or understanding to do that. It sucks, but that's how it happened.

    I highly recommend reading Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance.

    Anyway. Like I said in the beginning... I love ya. We're all hurting today, and we're all pointing fingers (naturally; it's a necessary stage). I recognize your points and don't really refute them. I listed my points, some of which may be wrong... I guess I'll find out when the comments start piling on.
u/buyfreemoneynow · 2 pointsr/politics

> It seems to me like we have two 'extreme' personality types in America, one which looks back to the struggles of their parents and grandparents and idealizes it, and one which learns the lessons of those struggles but attempts to apply it to new experiences.

This is refreshing, and came up in a discussion I had recently. The book I was recommended is Hillbilly Elegy about this exact thing. I drove through a few states in New England and most of my drive was through dilapidated and forgotten towns where more than half of the buildings in the town center are boarded up and the main building is a huge church, which is typically their community center. Imagine growing up in a town like that as a member of a family that is a part of the church and a member of a family that hates the church. Imagine growing up either in a house that's close to town and well-kept vs a house that's a little further outside of town with rotted siding and extra appliances and car parts strewn about your lawn.

Also, imagine growing up in a household where your dad beats everyone in your family into submission vs a household where your parents work together to expose you to the arts and other parts of the world. It's all about that early programming.

u/mhornberger · 2 pointsr/history

> Do you think this extends to disgracing people who migrate for work?

I don't know about "disgracing," but in my experience there is definitely a stigma about "leaving your people." Also when someone starts to get "above his raising" you can start to hear that "you think you're better than people. Well let me tell you... you ain't."

I don't think it's ubiquitous, but I have seen it. The education can also be resented, particularly if you now question or have moved away from the religion of your community, or even interject unwelcome information into a conversation. Your outside experiences and education have changed you, which means you're now different, and being different in these small rural communities is not easy.

Granted, I grew up in the 70s and 80s, so the culture might have changed. But from reading Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, I don't think my experiences were all that unique.

Regarding how the culture of honor ties in, I think it predisposes people to be hyper-sensitive for any perceived slight. If you come back from school or your city job with airs or big ideas, that can be seen as disrespectful and arrogant.

u/GhostofMarat · 2 pointsr/politics

>...while violent crime is still a problem in urban areas, many of them are in fact safer now than they’ve been in decades. The violent crime rate in rural areas, meanwhile, has climbed above the national average for the first time in 10 years. In Iowa, the overall violent crime rate rose by 3 percent between 2006 and 2016, but shot up by 50 percent in communities with fewer than 10,000 residents. Violent crime rates have doubled in rural counties in West Virginia over the past couple of decades, while tripling in New Hampshire. “Rural areas, which traditionally have had lower crime rates, have seen dramatic increases in incarceration rates,” says Jacob Kang-Brown, a senior research associate with the Vera Institute of Justice. “We see them now having the highest incarceration rates in the country.”

http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-crime-rural-urban-cities.html

More articles describing the problems in rural America:

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/29/magazine/the-alchemy-of-oxycontin.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/white-working-class-poverty/424341/
https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/20/politics/election-2016-white-working-class-donald-trump-kaiser-family-foundation/index.html

A series of Washington Post articles examining the myriad causes for the social problems among the rural working class:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/unnatural-causes/?utm_term=.ab7b22c86e2d

And I would recommend this book for a more comprehensive overview of this situation

u/neutronfish · 2 pointsr/pics

In Columbus and Cleveland, absolutely, by a 2 to 1 margin. The rest of Ohio loves Trump and fits into every stereotype of Trump country you see in the media. Hillbilly Elegy was written in large part about Ohio outside the major metros.

u/ColorinColorado36 · 2 pointsr/relationship_advice

Have you read Hillbilly Elegy? https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

The author grew up in Appalachia and went to an Ivy League law school. He writes about how unfamiliar the social terrain was, the way his classmates talked down about poor people, and how he made his way. It's one of the best books I read last year.

u/gillish · 1 pointr/Buddhism

Hi, I’m a Buddhist in the US. And I can answer this.

First of all, the US is a massive country. One state is larger than most European countries (and we have 50 of them!). The majority of our residents live around the coasts, but plenty of people still live in rural and remote places. This makes things complicated when it comes to national politics as there’s not just one type of American. We are incredibly diverse in background, values, morals, life priorities, etc, and that’s what makes most of our elections on the state and national level challenging.

When Trump was elected I woke up and couldn’t believe it. Hundreds of thousands of Americans felt the same way. How could this happen?

In my view there are three factors that led to his election:

  • (1) The plight of the economy in rural states
  • (2) Anti-Clinton sentiments lingering from the Bill Clinton Presidency
  • (3) Trump’s skill of telling people what they want to hear

    (1) After the 2008 economic crash, many rural areas didn’t recover. Factories closed and moved overseas; coal mining jobs evaporated as new EPA rulings came down limiting the use of coal and other dirty energy sources; people lost their homes due to the mortgage crash. The rural areas were by far the hardest hit, and these realities in people’s lives were the “proof” for their anti-immigrant and anti-EPA sentiments for example. When rural whites say “immigrants are taking our jobs!”, some of them actually meant it since the only factory in their tiny town outsourced to India. Or when someone from West Virginia says “EPA is over regulating our rights!” they really mean that the coal mining job, one of the only viable careers in West Virginia, is making cuts due to new regulations.

    (2) As the presidential election neared, it was clear the only democratic contender worth representing the party was Hilary Clinton. As much as I liked Bernie Sanders, he would have never one, as he was too left for most moderate Democrats, and we couldn’t risk splitting the party vote. Many people in my parents’ generation (age around the 60’s) loathe Hilary. The reasons are complicated, but she’s been tarnished since the Bill Clinton presidency. Some hate her for the way she acted during the presidency, others hate her for her political decisions she made as Secretary of State. So there was no way many people in my parents generation and older would vote for Hilary. That cut out a large number of possible Republican moderate votes that the Democrats could have gained in order to win.

    (3) Trump is a businessman used to getting what he wants through bullying and switch and bait tactics. He also is very experienced with television. This makes him incredibly skilled at telling people what they want to hear in order to garner support. During Trump’s campaign he spent billions of dollars traveling in rural midwestern and southern areas. He would say things like “Immigrants are taking our jobs and I’m going to stop that and build a wall!” in towns where factories where outsourced. In towns feeling a loss of jobs from new EPA rulings he’d say things like “I’m going to bring back coal!” Of course there are more than these two issues happening in rural areas, but you see how he realized that a large body of American people were still struggling after the 2008 crash and he found a way to prey on them for his own political gain.

    These three factors led to overwhelming rural turn out in the vote and he was elected. The sad thing is that Trump made promises to these people that he largely hasn’t kept. The Democrats saw that coming, but many Trump supporters were straight up duped. He said he’d find a way to get more jobs, but towns are still collapsing. He said he’d find a way to bring back certain industries, but they are still dying. He said he wouldn’t cut Medicare/Medicaid (what most rural people rely on to get health care), but he has.

    I am a Democrat and very anti-Trump, but I understand why he was elected. He was the “hope” that a lot of ignored Americans needed. I don’t agree with him, or many of their values, but I empathize with their situation. Living in rural places right now in America is very bleak.

    Source: I am a Soto Zen practitioner living in Washington DC. I am originally from the rural south and frequently travel home and I see first hand what these places look like.

    Edit 1: If you want to understand the mindset and experiences of rural white people living in America, I suggest reading [Hillbilly Elegy] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0062300547/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511706844&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=hillbilly+eulogy)
u/bdaacq · 1 pointr/politics

Have you read Hillbilly Elegy by J.D Vance?

u/Dynascape · 1 pointr/TotalReddit

Speaking of books... have any of you read Hillbilly Elegy?

https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

I've been meaning to pick it up but keep forgetting to.

u/Officialjuliemae · 1 pointr/SRSDiscussion

I have always kind of went back and forth with the same thing. I recently moved from a larger city to a small southern Illinois town and it's insane the amount of racism that stems from a very large, uneducated and poor population. I feel bad that it comes from a long lineage of just being ignorant and passing it along to family but that's also not really an excuse. I've known plenty of people who come from a racist background and even people who grew up very poor and they made the conscious decision to be different and compassionate towards all people.


You should read "Hillbilly Elegy" (link here ) the author grew up in what most call "white trash" household - poor, uneducated, drug use etc. he made the decision to change his future and end up differently and he went to Yale and became a lawyer ( and also a liberal) The book is good too because it goes into depth into that demographic of poor, uneducated and racists, how it all started and how it keeps continuing (and probably will continue forever, unfortunately).

u/Religious_Redditor · 1 pointr/Ask_Politics

General

  • The Righteous Mind - OP, if you only choose one book, it's gotta be this one. Trust me.
  • The Fractured Republic - Written by a committed conservative, but very fair. Critical of his own side and empathetic of the positive traits on the left. Also one of the best writers in political history/theory imo.

    Conservative - I'm keenly interested in the intellectual history of American Conservatism and could make this this list could go on forever. I'll keep it to three, but if you want more suggestions feel free to ask.

  • 10 Conservative Principles - Not a book, but essential to understanding conservatism
  • Conservatism in America Since 1930 - A reader that guides you along a chronological and ideological path of conservatism in America.
  • Hillbilly Elegy - Less academic, but very well written and explains the support of Trump from the rural white working class perfectly

    Liberal - You may get a better liberal reading list from another user, but I'll give it a shot.

  • On Liberty - Modern political dialog from the left still echos Mill's classic defense of cultural liberty. A must read for all Americans.
  • American Progressivism: A Reader - As you can tell, I'm a big fan of reading political giants in their own words.
  • The Affluent Society - The controversial classic that underpins progressive economic policy.
u/TheBurtReynold · 1 pointr/teslamotors

Exactly.

This sort of article is written by someone simultaneously educated enough to put together a decent thought piece while staying completely detached from the reality of how uneducated most people are.


Hillbilly Elegy speaks to this sort of (unintentionally) elitist thought bias.

u/gilbertgrappa · 1 pointr/politics
u/Nibble_on_this · 1 pointr/politics

Hey, have you read Hillbilly Elegy? You really should. The author is getting a lot of fire underneath him for a political run, actually, based mostly on the arguments you're raising in our conversation.

And I currently live in a new england suburb of a large city, so I finally landed among my tribe, but I spent many years in the rural, deep, bible belt south and in the extremely rural west (western Idaho). I know what you're talking about because I was raised around a lot of great "salt of the earth"-type people, but also a LOT of people who literally bragged about never reading a book.

That is WILLFUL ignorance. It's not an attitude that should be treated as just some sort of cultural peccadillo. It is WILLFUL. IGNORANCE. There's no excuse for that shit. Fuck those people.

u/Beardus_Maximus · 1 pointr/slatestarcodex

I haven't experienced this first-hand at all, but I did enjoy reading J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy which gives the topic and the people a wide-ranging and somewhat sympathetic treatment.

u/HellAintHalfFull · 1 pointr/politics

Absolutely. Many of them don't want to learn a new skillset, which puts the Dems in a tough spot (versus just lying that you'll bring the old jobs back). But in the end, that is the only possible answer. Coal isn't coming back. Towns that were built around factories, even if those factories came back, due to automation they would employ only a small fraction of the people they once did, and those jobs would be higher-skill jobs than the old ones.

Recommended: Hillbilly Elegy.

u/yasire · 1 pointr/NoStupidQuestions
u/FuriouSherman · 1 pointr/FanFiction

If you want individual thoughts, try reading the book Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. It's a first-hand account of what life as one of the people perpetuating the stereotypes you're talking about is like.

u/BoomChocolateLatkes · 1 pointr/CFB

Good book about it: https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547 -- lots about the struggles of addiction and the decline of WV, KY, and OH

u/EBGuy2 · 1 pointr/JordanPeterson

I remember trying to process this about a year. I'm still not quite there, but a couple of chapters of Hillbilly Elegy and time spent on knowyourmeme should help...

u/Schlagv · 0 pointsr/TrueReddit

There is a book that has had a lot of success in the bourgeois circles recently, to explain the Trump success: The Hillbilly Elegy https://www.amazon.fr/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

It's about the way polite bourgeois love to hate the dirty proles while doing a lot of virtue signalling to say that they love the Diversity.

You can find many interview on Youtube about it.

Also, take a look at a previous post of mine on the ideological denial of the inconvenient science.

I compare climate denial among the right and intelligence denial among the left.

https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/68zuum/trump_puts_critic_of_renewable_energy_in_charge/dh4ddpw/?context=3

-----

EDIT: I made another answer with more details if you are interested https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/6du6wb/leaked_documents_reveal_counterterrorism_tactics/di5r7m5/

u/UWantWhatUGet · 0 pointsr/worldnews

Homogeneous countries win.

If you backed-out the heavily democrat districts, which have a population of more than 9/10 combined in your list, the US would easily climb from 11th. But to what end?

The fact is we have millions of kids that do not care and will not put in effort because they are culturally programmed so. Voting Democrat allows their generational servitude to continue.

Read this: Hillbilly Elegy if you want to know what's going on in the US.

Trust me, if I could send all the Baltimore City Public School kids to any of those top-10 nations, those nations would drop out of the top 40 so fast your head would spin. In fact, given the handicap with which the US operates, it is amazing we are #11.

u/verylittlefinger · -4 pointsr/bestof

> A shift to community-based policing and more accountability for cops. An end to discriminatory practices like stop-and-frisk and the uneven enforcement and sentencing of marijuana and other drug laws. Legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. An increase to the minimum wage. More money to public infrastructure, like housing developments and mass transit.

How exactly would any of this help? I lived in Phila. Mass transit there was already great. Most of the people in inner-city communities are unemployed - and haven't had a job for generations, so minimum wage does nothing. Marijuana is actually a source of income - if you legalize it, you cut a money stream and actually hurting the community. Stop and frisk does nothing to economic well-being.

Source: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo18039324.html

> Roll-out of high speed internet to rural communities at affordable prices. Stricter regulation and anti-monopoly moves on large, predatory agricultural companies like Monsanto or industry financiers like Agstar. Worker protections, rather than corporate protections. Federal job retraining grants for dead and dying industries that will not return, like coal, to help workers transition to up-and-coming industries that don't need to be in big cities, like wind. Bringing back rescinded environmental protections (and creating new ones) to protect the game and wildlife of rural areas, keep those communities clean, and to ensure the health and viability of deteriorating farmland for the future.

So I happen to live in Seattle, and I also have a farm in Eastern Washington. So I get exposed to both a super-liberal and super-conservative part of the state.

> Roll-out of high speed internet to rural communities at affordable prices.

My internet access on the farm is better than my internet access in Seattle.

> Stricter regulation and anti-monopoly moves on large, predatory agricultural companies like Monsanto or industry financiers like Agstar.

That does absolutely nothing to a normal person working around here. Farmers are a very small percentage of the population, and they are relatively rich. What you think is a farmer is to a regular "peasant" what a city medium enterprise is to a regular worker. Monsanto is as relevant to a regular person in E-WA as Glass Steagal Act to a McD employee in Seattle.

> Worker protections, rather than corporate protections.

What does this mean for rural areas specifically? A large percentage of the population is unemployed or underemployed. Worker protections are about as relevant to them as caviar inspection to an urban African American - it's pointless to protect something you don't have.

> Federal job retraining grants for dead and dying industries that will not return, like coal, to help workers transition to up-and-coming industries that don't need to be in big cities, like wind.

If you think that wind can replace jobs 1:1 or even remotely that for coal, you need to move out of marijuana legal state. This is laughable. The fact is, ALL industries are dying and are replaced with automation. Some more, some less. Are you going to retrain everyone as a software engineer?

> Bringing back rescinded environmental protections (and creating new ones) to protect the game and wildlife of rural areas, keep those communities clean, and to ensure the health and viability of deteriorating farmland for the future.

How does this help economic well-being of people who live here? Oh yeah, it doesn't.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

> Time and time again, Democrats have been the party of the rural worker, pursuing policies that will improve their lives.

You people don't even understand how much you don't know. Really. Read the books above, you will sound less like a Hillary campaign worker and more like someone who can at least appreciate the reality a little bit.

> But because they also pursue policies that improve the lives of immigrants, or gays, or non-Christians,

They pursue these policies because their urban electorate is familiar with these issues. These policies do absolutely nothing to working class or rural people. That is what is called "identity politics".

> But if you're voting for a politician because he's "upholding the sanctity of marriage"

I am sorry to break your bubble, but that's not why people are voting for politicians. That's why SOME people vote for politicians, and it is convenient to push their quotes to dehumanize the enemy. How many rural people - actual, real rural people, not on reddit - did you ever speak politics with?

Source: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/