Hillbillies Revisited

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In: ID Politics, Social

Jess: I thought I’d indulge myself by starting a new thread.  I’ve been reading J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy and I couldn’t resist but share a few pages.  It’s an interesting moment in a fairly graphic narrative memoir of his white-trash upbringing where he attempts a more objective look at and the people who inhabit it (effectively a people many of whom explain Trump).  It resonates with my own upbringing, and there is no irony lost on me.  Discussions of empire and first-world problems fail to obscure the image of disfunction masquerading as entitlement.

Hillbilly Elegy(4u)-2

Phil:

I can identify with this.  HIs grandparents were both my g-parents and parents. His mom tho, is something else.  I am guessing we are talking boomer gen in her case.  If so, I think there is a lot of good social study that doesn’t so much explain the value shift as document it.
He appears loathe to take on analysis that is common to the theoretical canon, yet even he cannot resist the descriptors “consumerist” and “isolated”.  I think political economy, such as Streeck’s analysis [I posted this eons ago], reveals the background circumstances.  Both education and media add to the fail.  Throw in drugs and perfect recipe for family/community breakdown and the rise of the isolated individual [lacking personal support]: the culture of “coping, hoping, doping and shopping.”
A graphic illustration of this disintegration and resulting despondency.
Jess: I too want “beautiful radiant things”  but they usually have complex grains and patinas.  I am drawn to earth tones and skittish around pastels, particularly pink.  Makes me dubious of self I must confess, but I am sure these proclivities do not come from a place of insecurity; I did dabble in the velvet gold mine in my twenties and grew to accept my latent racism in my 50s and 60s (I confess to not finding white people all that attractive).  As as for the paradox of advocating for equal rights and representation of women paired with my attraction to petite asians, I guess I’m a sexist feminist.  I’m learning to accept these things about myself, all the while, trying to be accepting of others in all their diversity.

Fred: After reading the pages of the novel you sent Jesse and then reading Phil’s comments and

link to Banksy’s, Dismaland, I began to think about the history of tourism specifically
for slums, public executions and the asylum. Unlike Dismaland these public
tours were and are not motivated by any sense of irony or humour and in fact act underline a conventional
morality/mentality towards the marginalised.
Here is a complementary article from the 90’s pointing to the american middle class fantasy for white trash and the hot quicky….

Chan: just back at my work desk.

will try to go through numerous links pending. (sub-window “view” on my browser has no “rotate” option)
have been turning over “identity politics”: what ALL does it really mean?

Phil: Bernier the bottom feeder.  Not for this minor scuffle, but for the it-all-starts-and-ends-with-me myopic political philosophy called Libertarianism.  No surprise he would trip this switch.

White guy comes over.  Finds people and calls them Indians because this is what’s on his mind, given this is where he was hoping to go.  Without apologizing for misnaming them Indians, he proceeds to steal their land, pushes them around, takes their kids, cuts their income sources.  When the Indians finally start to get past the trauma, and ask for their fair share of shit, the white guy says, “Why you trying to divide us, we’re all Canadian. All Canadian lives matter. Why do you do divisive identity politics?”
Uh…..  You simple, Dude?
YOU started all this shit, and now because people are calling you out on it, you want a level playing field?  No identity politics?  It is YOU who started with the identity crap.  YOU identified me as something I am not — a fever in YOUR mind that you followed up with muscle.  YOU made the mistake that you appear to want to forget or diminish.  Don’t you think it is time to figure out and fix the consequences of this mistake BEFORE we sensibly talk about a level playing field?
Dunno.  It all seems pretty straightforward to me.