We Need To Watch Alllll These TikToks Of Appalachians Dragging JD Vance And Hillbilly Elegy
They do not seem to like him very much at all!
I have never read or seen Hillbilly Elegy. In fact, the latter might be the reason I never become the Glenn Close completist I always thought I’d be (we still love Glenn Close, okay?) — but ever since JD Vance came to the national stage I’ve been nominally aware of the fact that many Appalachians were not especially fond of it. Mostly because Wonkette’s own Jamie Lynn Croft (who lived in West Virginia for some time) told me that they were not.
However! I did not fully grasp how very, very deeply many of them disliked him, and the specifics of why, until I fell down a rabbit hole of Appalachians and people connected to Appalachia through family or otherwise talking shit about him, his terrible and insulting book, and the fact that he’s not really from Appalachia. As it turns out, they’re about as testy about that as people from Chicago are about people from Schaumburg saying they’re from Chicago. They also don’t much like people writing whole books about how lazy they are, making a lot of money off of such a book, and then not giving anything back to the community they’re profiting off of!
Appalachians — they’re just like us!
Let’s enjoy, shall we?
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These are the people we should be platforming right now. Also, I’m just going to say that watching these videos — the last one, especially — has put me very squarely on Team Andy Beshear for VP. To be fair, I was there already because he seems very nice and funny, checks all of the boxes, loves public schools and doesn’t have any baggage that will disrupt this lovely “Democrats in Array” thing we’ve had going on for the past three days. (It’s been so peaceful and nice!)
I shall leave you with one more video — a video of Appalachian folk singer Jean Ritchie (with whom I am deeply obsessed) singing and playing her dulcimer for Pete Seeger in 1966. Enjoy!
To save anyone the trouble of reading his book, the problem with those of us from Appalachia is "bootstraps." There's not a single new insight to be found. It's the same John Birch bullshit it's always been.
I also like Beshear for VP, because he managed to win statewide in a very red state, twice, and did it without having to "dial back" on issues like trans rights or abortion. He showed you don't have to be a Joe Manchin and adopt right wing framing on those issues, but instead could re-frame them for a broader audience. This would be an excellent strategy for the fall election, and if successful could lead to a rout for the Democrats--without having to throw any constituency under the bus.