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Most of America will tell you they belong to the "middle class". Redneck, white neck, blue neck, no neck, it's all in the domain of that seemingly expanded "middle". After living in both rural and urban environments, I'd have to say the noticeable difference was in the overall demographics, sharper divisions of wealth in the rural areas, ditto for the education levels, but more importantly, the amount of class distinction brought up by ALL the necks in everyday conversation was truly revealing of a vastly divided America.......
We’re getting too distracted in this thread by pejorative labels such as “hick” or “redneck”. Name-calling aside, the underlying implied set of traits is a combination of low educational attainment, little interest in intellectual pursuits, love of crude entertainment and lowbrow taste. It is not a matter of job-description or circumstances of one’s residency.
I don’t think that America is particularly noteworthy for having a populace with abundance of the above-mentioned traits, as compared to elsewhere in the industrialized world. What is however very noteworthy about American society is that the “common denominator”, for lack of a better term, tends to have outsized voice in defining the pace and appearance of the culture. Millions of Americans play chess, yet to be called a nation of chessplayers is about the furthest thing imaginable from a description of America. Instead, America is often regarded as a nation of Bud Light swilling, lifted pickup-driving, NASCAR-loving rubes. While many Americans do enjoy these pursuits, and some might fit the stereotype very fittingly, the “message” of America is for some reason dominated by such traits, far beyond the substance of America.
All nations have a lower stratum that consumes and adores the most contemptible schlock, instead of serious literature, good food and fine music. But somehow the national consciousness of Britain isn’t driven by soccer hooligans, or the national consciousness of Russia isn’t driven by unemployed alcoholic chain-smoking wife-beaters. At times I think that America revels in an anti-intellectual, repulsive populism, intentionally celebrating its worst elements. The real cultural life in America is actually very strong. Some of the world’s best orchestras are based right here. The plurality of Nobel prize winners live here. Many of the world’s best universities are right here. But these things don’t shine in the public eye. The result is a self-debasing that to foreign observers likely comes across as mindless and jejune.
The term 'redneck' denotes anyone, but mostly men, that work in a t-shirt therefore allowing their neck to be sunburned red. I first heard it in the 1960's from hippy types. I now consider it a badge of honor because I are one, a 'Southern Redneck', that is.
Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden, William Bendix' Chester Riley, Ernest Borgnine's Fatso Judson and Peter Boyle's Joe Curran (Boyle also reprised Judson in the late-Seventies TV remake of From Here to Eternity) all represented middle-aged blue-collar white males who relied far more on bluster than intellect, but the first two projected a far more sympathetic image. It's the critics with an axe to grind who sink into stereotyping.
You're the one who brought "blue state/red state" politics into the thread, so quit yer bellyachin' when somebody else uses stereotypes, too.
My reply was to GregW, who is one of a handful of left-leaning, but respectful participants at this site who do not interpret every point of contention as a personal attack. There are a lot of hot-heads at this site, on both sides of the aisle, who could get a good lesson in civility from this exchange.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 12-31-2013 at 05:55 PM..
But it's not the rural folks who were traveling internationally that earned themselves that term "Ugly Americans". Those were big-monied people who could travel about the globe.
The Ugly American is indeed a fantastic book. This is an interesting take:
Not that I ever heard them. A friend in UK says that the thug or wiseguy type is best known from movie stereotypes. He says redneck is much like their country people often called bumpkins. He once asked if Jersey shore was about junior wiseguys and their women.
There is clearly a difference between people who live in cities and with everything out the door, and those who live in less crowded, or rural areas where it may be one store over many and a drive for more. Culture is more insular, and rushed. I think this would apply in the US or Britan or any other place.
But one of my favorite shows is Doc Martin. A British surgeon from London, due to a sudden blood phobia, quits his position and moves to a small town in Cornwall to be their 'general surgeon', basically the towns only doctor. Its sort of the British version of Northern Exposure. But its filmed in Cornwall and uses locals and their customs and accets in the filming.
To his friends in London its nowhere's ville, and the ways of the locals are different. The accent and assumptions are far from London. He remains his sometimes insufferable self, but when he gets the chance to go back to London, he decides to stay. The story and writing are good, but Cornwall and the clearly different culture are the star. As Americans we don't look at them as a rural backwood but in a real sense for city dwellers they are. If you made them all Americans I doubt they'd be seen the same since they'd have a different label.
If by "redneck" one means "ignorant, backwards, and hateful," than America has that in spades - far more than what should be considered acceptable in a 1st world developed nation. Not that other nations in a similar positions don't have their own clowns, but in America, they have a solid political party and control of vast swaths of rural areas - areas that are still living in the 50's... the 1850's.
I work with some of these idiots - and I live in a blue state. They are a disgrace. One of them can't go a week without spouting off loudly to the whole department about how "black people are the cause of every problem" in the nation. The other one honestly thinks the KKK is just "expressing their 1st amendment rights" when they lynch or otherwise murder a non-white person and will gladly defend that hate group publicly. Those 2 examples in question are worthless, hateful, backwards creatures that are a disgrace to humanity, but there's no shortage of them in our nation, which is frightfully apparent if I can so easily find such dolts in Maryland. I shudder to think of the level of hate and ignorance I would find in a true Tea Party bastion of power...
If by "redneck" one means "ignorant, backwards, and hateful," than America has that in spades - far more than what should be considered acceptable in a 1st world developed nation.
I work with some of these idiots - and I live in a blue state. They are a disgrace. One of them can't go a week without spouting off loudly to the whole department about how "black people are the cause of every problem" in the nation. The other one honestly thinks the KKK is just "expressing their 1st amendment rights" when they lynch or otherwise murder a non-white person and will gladly defend that hate group publicly. ..
Oh, puhleeze!!! Let's turn off the stereotyping, demonization, emtionalism and self-righteousness, and look at the facts.
The last documented homicide that could reasonably be classified as a lynching was Michael Donald in Alabama in 1981. If we assume even a rudimentary grasp of right and wrong begins at age 6, that means you have to be almost 40 years of age to have any memory of your feelings at the time.
In the Donald case, two Klansmen were convcted of the crime, and the leader executed.
Beyond that, one has to go back to the Goodman / Schwenner/ Chaney killings in 1964, and then to Emmett Till and Mack Parker in 1955 (all of the above in the most backward areas of Mississippi).
So while you might not enjoy the company of your grunting and slobbering fellow employees, there is very little possibility of their putting their fantasies into action. And for every idiot like them, there are several who have adapted successfully to the rules of the new workplace. There will always be prize idiots, but the vast majority of blue-collar Americans, of any extraction, recognize them for the pathetic losers they are.
No, what really bothers you is that your employers and supervisors won't appoint you as judge, jury, and court of appeals, and pay you for lecturing and imposing your holier-than-thou stance on everyone else.
At the dawn of the Enlightenment, now two and a half centuries ago, a man named Voltaire said, on many occasions and in several variations, "I disagree with everything you say, but will defend to my death your right to say it."
I doubt that most of the Politically Correct could recognize the contradictions in the current "pop wisdom".
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 01-01-2014 at 04:22 PM..
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