CDZ Hillbilly Elegy and Obama

[Dr Grump]

Reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance at the moment. It is an interesting insight into white conservative America. JD is a conservative, served four years in the marines and then went to Yale Law. Here is an extract and it fits so perfectly with those who despise Obama but love Trump. They remind me of a lot of posters on this board.

"President Obama came on the scene right as so many people in my community began to believe that the modern America meritocracy was not built for them. We know we're not doing well. We see it every day in the obituaries for teenage kids that conspicuously omit the cause of death (reading between the lines overdose), in the deadbeats we watch our daughters waste their time with. Barack Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities. He is a good father while many of us aren't. He wears suits to his job while we wear overalls, if we're lucky enough to have a job at all. His wife tells us that we shouldn't be feeding our children certain foods, and we hate her for it - not because we think she is wrong but because we know she is right."

Remember this guy is a conservative. Basically he is saying in this particular chapter, "Get off your arse and do something about it. Stop looking for excuses."

 

[Coyote]

I read that book also - very insightful!

 

[Shrimpbox]

Thank you for the excerp. I won't bother wasting anytime on garbage psychobabble that has absolutely zero insight into my life and those of many of the people I know. The constant insinuation that people who couldn't stand obama and voted for trump are driven by their insecurities instead of their values is insulting. After a while, people who are comfortable in their own skin get tired of neurotic projection.

 

[Dr Grump]

Thank you for the excerp. I won't bother wasting anytime on garbage psychobabble that has absolutely zero insight into my life and those of many of the people I know. The constant insinuation that people who couldn't stand obama and voted for trump are driven by their insecurities instead of their values is insulting. After a while, people who are comfortable in their own skin get tired of neurotic projection.

It goes a bit deeper than that. You'd have to read the whole book to get the picture. That was just an excerpt. And he came from that background. He even gave examples of people leaving their jobs - not high-end but enough to pay the mortgage and the bills - and then moaning about Obama.

That aside, anybody who voted for Trump based on his 'values' deserves to be called a Deplorable.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance at the moment.

Who was the prior author? LOL

 

[theDoctorisIn]

I havent read Elegy yet, but Vance is a moron.

I have some tenuous family connection to him - a cousin of mine is married to a relative of his wife's, I think - and I met him at some family event. Not impressed by him.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance at the moment. It is an interesting insight into white conservative America. JD is a conservative, served four years in the marines and then went to Yale Law. Here is an extract and it fits so perfectly with those who despise Obama but love Trump. They remind me of a lot of posters on this board.

"President Obama came on the scene right as so many people in my community began to believe that the modern America meritocracy was not built for them. We know we're not doing well. We see it every day in the obituaries for teenage kids that conspicuously omit the cause of death (reading between the lines overdose), in the deadbeats we watch our daughters waste their time with. Barack Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities. He is a good father while many of us aren't. He wears suits to his job while we wear overalls, if we're lucky enough to have a job at all. His wife tells us that we shouldn't be feeding our children certain foods, and we hate her for it - not because we think she is wrong but because we know she is right."

Remember this guy is a conservative. Basically he is saying in this particular chapter, "Get off your arse and do something about it. Stop looking for excuses."

"Get off your arse and do something about it. Stop looking for excuses."

That is most certainly the sentiment that came to my mind as I read the passage. It's also the sentiment I've expressed several times here on USMB.



My following comments reflect what I thought as I read the quoted sentences.

President Obama came on the scene right as so many people in my community began to believe that the modern America meritocracy was not built for them.

Then why not emigrate? It makes no sense to stay where one is ill suited to be.

If one joins a firm and later discovers the firm culture doesn't align with, as Jessica Rabbit might say, how one is drawn, one having any sense and self-respect would leave. One would not incessantly bitch and moan in an attempt to remake the firm, particularly when the extant firm culture works just fine for hundreds, maybe thousands who are there and thriving.

if we're lucky enough to have a job at all.

If one did what one was supposed to have done in the foundational period of one's life, having a job would not be a matter of luck. That luck has anything to do with it is a consequence of one's (bad? inapt?) choices.

His wife tells us that we shouldn't be feeding our children certain foods, and we hate her for it - not because we think she is wrong but because we know she is right.

I don't know the extent to which Vance has aptly described the thought processes, peeves and piques of the people on whose behalf he wrote Elegy, but if the emboldened comments above are representationally faithful of them, I have only to ask, WTF!?! Who does that? Does it and in turn allows that despicable etiology impel to express public and reprehensibly aspersive remarks and deeds? And why?

I mean, seriously. How does one devolve to a state whereby one rationalize actively hating the messenger who delivers a truthful missive one knows to be true? Just how turpitudinous must one be to do such a thing?

 

[Dr Grump]

I havent read Elegy yet, but Vance is a moron.

I have some tenuous family connection to him - a cousin of mine is married to a relative of his wife's, I think - and I met him at some family event. Not impressed by him.

You have met him only once. There have been many times in my life where I've met somebody for the first time and come away with a negative impression only to meet them again at other times and realise that I was wrong. And he did graduate from Yale. And he wrote a very well written book. Shrug...

 

[Shrimpbox]

He went to Yale so he has to be on point. If you voted for trump based on your values you are,a,deplorable. You convict yourself Dr. Grump. Debate is futile.

 

[usmbguest5318]

He went to Yale so he has to be on point. If you voted for trump based on your values you are,a,deplorable. You convict yourself Dr. Grump. Debate is futile.

If you voted for trump based on your values you are,a,deplorable.

Actually, voting for Trump based on one's values doesn't make one deplorable. Valuing the same things Trump does is what makes one, in all likelihood, deplorable. Having voted for Trump because one shares his values is merely a consequence of being deplorable; it does not make one deplorable.