This also isn’t a matter of opinion, Appalachia has been defined by Congress as 423 specific counties; you’re either in one of those counties or you aren’t. That said, some of eastern and southern Ohio is considered part of Appalachia, but not the part JD grew up in.
Some of that selection seems suspect to me. It’s weird to include central Mississippi, but exclude the blue ridge mountains. With government definitions like this comes money, so I bet there was a lot of politicking involved. That said, jd’s hometown is definitely not Appalachian, though I dont think he claims that. He claims (and this is my memory from reading the book when it first came out), that his family is Appalachian, so he claims heritage that way. Not to defend him, cause I think he’s a POS, but I think it is fair to claim he feels Appalachian.
There’s plenty of substantial things to criticize him for
I’m not sure what you mean, the Blue Ridge Mountains are included from what I can tell?
The Shenandoah valley, which is bounded on the east by the blue ridge is not included. That’s several counties that you can see carved away between rockbridge County, VA, and Jefferson County, WV. The blue ridge continues further south from there, and a lot of it is left out on the map, too.
I grew up one county away from Middletown Ohio. It’s nothing like the other Appalachian counties I’ve been in. It’s like a very rural suburb of Cincinnati. You’re 5~10 miles from a crap ton of big city amenities. I went there all the time for sports, and they came to my much more urban high school to play too. Yes, it’s got some very large rural areas but it’s not geographically isolated the way the rest of Appalachia is and has parts of it that are very suburban (vs truly rural).
I wouldn’t be surprised if he had season passes to King’s Island. That’s totally like growing up in rural Appalachia, right?
I mean, as starving college students my GF and I would get season passes to KI for the next year when they went on sale in November. They were half price, so two passes, plus VIP passes to skip the lines, plus gold member parking passes came to $75-$80. We literally had to go twice a year to have saved money. Mondays and Tuesdays seem to be the best days to go. We would drive up to KI on the first day of our weekend, sleep in the back of my SAAB and drive back home to Lexington on the second day after the park closed.
Admittedly even being a full ride scholarship student, and therefore “poor” by Transy standards, I realize that I had a good bit of privilege as a young adult.
I don’t get it. (Lemmy is my only source of political news)
I’m not sure I get it still, was his family rich when he was growing up? Southern Ohio is still pretty rural, it’s what brings the state to the right during most statewide votes.
I was in instacart driver. Some of the biggest orders to the nicest houses I went to were out in bumfuck missouri and Kansas . Just cows and Fields and then suddenly I’m delivering to a house that has its own gate with a radio and it’s own covered bridge over a small pond leading up to the house
- You gotta get political news from more sources than here, this place is biased as hell
- Appalachia is a geographic, socioeconomic, and cultural region of the united States
- JD Vance claims to be as Appalachian as they come
- JD Vance is from west of Cincinnati, well outside if Appalachia
- JD Vance is a carpetbagging piece of shit
- A carpetbagger is an opportunistic colonial entering the region of the south or Appalachia (context dependent) to make a quick buck exploiting the poor of the region through various forms of grift, theft, and violence
I was exaggerating a little. I guess I should say I only get my political memes from Lemmy. Every other source I follow is quite serious
There have to be 100 better criticisms of Vance than this. I’m on the east side of Cincinnati and I often drive an hour to go hike trails in an area called the Edge of Appalachia. Real Appalachia is just a little farther.
He only said his family was from Appalachia, I have no idea when or not that’s true. But there are tons of self-described redneck/hillbilly types all around the outskirts of Cincinnati. I’m going to a Hardy show tomorrow (technically today) and although he crosses over into rock, his two opening acts are country and that show is going to be packed with people like I’m describing.
Vance absolutely grew up with money, I don’t know if he has misrepresented that. But lots of people around Cincinnati come from families that think of themselves as Appalachian. The dude is scary though, just talk about his politics and you’ll convince people.
Tldr: watch Zoolander, not Hillbilly Elegy
J D Vance is the Republican vice presidential candidate who got notoriety back in 2016 for his book Hillbilly Elegy about growing up in Ohio and escaping poverty (or something I haven’t read it). He is rich and some people criticize him for wearing eyeliner.
The picture is from the movie Zoolander when the titular male model returns to his home town to try and reconnect with his family and generally does a terrible job relating to them.
OP is comparing Vance’s distance from the people he claims connection with to a scene in Zoolander
Is this like that dude who said he was hiking the Appalachian trail but was really in Argentina having an affair or something
“Ahoo. Ahoo. I’ve got the black lung, paw.”
