Hillbilly Elegy

Hillbilly Elegy

has Veeky Forums read this? it's pretty depressing and more autobiographical than i was expecting

reminds me a lot of loveline if anyone used to listen to that

I've dismissed it as a meme and have no intention whatsoever to read it. I remember an article that appeared in the NYT and the Boston Globe, probably other papers too. One man said he planned to vote for Trump because he'd been a churchkeeper for three or four decades and basically his "life wasn't getting any better." I suggest people like him, especially those worse off, these hillbillies, move out of their decaying milltown and into cities where they can actually contribute to a functioning society. I have little sympathy for unemployed meth and heroin addicts living in the middle of nowhere who don't bother improving their situation. Why have Fox News commentators begun scolding politicians for ignoring opioid addicts while drugs have been a problem for decades? I assume because the 'victims' are white, but I digress

We have to understand those people to most effectively deprogram them from decades of brainwashing and a lack of education.

Rod Dreher keeps writing about how it's his favorite wank material, so I was gonna get around to reading it eventually.

I plan on it

>t.liberal elitist
Come over to the dark side and become a pinko, my champagne swilling friend.

Literally one of the worst post I've ever read

>Why have Fox News commentators begun scolding politicians for ignoring opioid addicts while drugs have been a problem for decades? I assume because the 'victims' are white, but I digress
This is such a specious argument. Fox news' hypocrisy has no bearing on whether or not drug addicts should receive sympathy.

>"The International Left finds itself in the awkward position of having to draw up plans for the extermination of the proletariat": the post
Who cares if it's because they're racist? If you're a Marxist, you're meant to be non-ideological; what matters in a materialist conception of history/politics is ~materials~. Stop whining that you don't like others' ~reasons~ for being helpful, and just start trying to be more helpful than them.

(And stop insisting people should leave their homes; they have cultural attachments to these places - if your only reason for considering which attachments illegitimate, by the way, is that they're white people in the new world, then that, categorically, functionally and dialectically, is ~racism~.)

I read it. It's shit.

For the most part I actually agree with Vance's politics and prescriptions, but the book itself is awfully written, clunky, and is essentially a badly told 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' autobiography.

It is in no way an elegy. There is no real introspection or any deep look into hillbilly culture. It's empty.

I have no idea why the book got so much praise in the press. There is much, much better stuff out there.

I dunno man. I was lukewarm on it, but I thought quite a lot of the book was, implicitly or not, hand-wringing and sighing over the flaws and failures of his culture. I can't believe you could read it and not pick up on that. Maybe it's not particularly insightful or nuanced introspection, but the book is like 75% introspection.

I have to read this for my American History class
the class is so fucking shit, literally the only thing we talked about during reconstruction was the KKK and black injustice, which is fine and important but that was the sole thing we focused on for two weeks, and now we're moving into the early 20th century and the only thing we're talking about is women's rights in the U.S. which again, is important, but it shouldn't be the only fucking thing we're taught during this time period. It feels like I'm in an SJW class.
sorry for the rant, I'm kind of excited to read this, as I haven't read anything like it before.

It was all surface level stuff though: 'My parents would make crazy scenes and behave incredibly selfishly, and never admit a problem or ask for help. I guess that impacted me, and I should be willing to ask others for their input and help when I need it.' No shit, Sherlock.

The parts where he's trying to say his mom and her third (?) husband were lower class/impoverished even when they were making six figures also strains credulity a bit.

Like I said, for the most part I agree with the guy, but I didn't find his story particularly compelling, and his writing on a basic mechanical level leaves a ton to be desired.

It's actually garbage. Author is a self-indulgent prick, a bourgeois piece of shit that, like so many others of his class, wants to siphon vitality from an impoverished group (in this case, Appalachian Scots-Irish) by identifying with them -to a degree- but ultimately just wants to snub their noses at them. He doesn't know and doesn't care about the history of the region or people but thinks being a marine makes him a fucking genius (literally tries to argue that Scots-Irish are a unique ethnic group because they say "mawmaw/pawpaw," ignoring that this is just a universal thing among Southerners).

This book is literally made for simples like yourself.

>No shit, Sherlock.

Americans live in a country of brainwashed retards for which this is not obvious and those of them smart enough to pick up a book still need that kind of shit spoonfed to them.

The only reason to read this book is to figure that out and then figure out how to actually reach these people through their ideological indoctrination and get them to vote for a democrat

Posts like this make me grateful that the electoral college exists.

I bet you unironically complain about people "voting against their own self-interest"

I'm usually a calm and collected person but reading this made me want to beat the shit out of you.

I've been meaning to read it ever since I saw a socialist website refer to it as "right wing propaganda." They really hated it so it must be worth a read.

Please suggest these better books. I'm not being sarcastic; I want to read books like this.

Can't handle those tough facts?

i downloaded it a few months ago, haven't read it yet. i live in WV but grew up in the northeast and was looking for a little more insight into why this area of the country is so fucking terrible.

i recently finished, 'white trash: the 400 year untold history of class in america', which i'd recommend to people interested in the history of this segment of the population.

Mods please ban

Rural people of society need to be eliminated. They offer very little. I don't see how they believe their way of life is sustainable and electing trump isn't going to change natural selection. Hopefully all but a few towns will die out from a combination of crime, drugs, and no viable income.

wow such good bait teach oh memelord
the posts falling for it are worse

>Rural people of society need to be eliminated.
Rural people could fuck up the highways and bridges of this decrepit nation and every single person in the cities would starve to death.

You coastal elitists are nine missed meals away from total barbarism.

have fun starving retard

>You coastal elitists
nice identity politics