Do coastal people look down on Oklahoma and Kansas?

[angus]

Do coastal people look down on hillbillies?

Actually, they're looking up.  What with the interior having a higher elevation and all. 

This isn't a new phenomenon though.  Just as Bostonians look down on the hillbillies from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and Philly residents look down on the appalachian folk of central Pennsylvania, and Potomac River valley residents look down on the hill folk of West Virginia, the coastal peoples of Southern England look down on the Scots.  In fact, it's probably the case that the coastal Virginians are of English stock and the West Virginians are of Scottish stock.  After all, McCoy and Hatfield are the kind of names you find on Appalachian mailboxes.  And all those jokes Virginians tell about West Virginians and their fondness of sheep are probably imported from London as well, who say exactly the same things about the Celts.

So, yeah.  At least in the anglophone world, coastal people, fairly or unfairly, tend to be snooty about their urbanity and look upon hill folk as bumpkins.   I've noticed a similar attitude in Latin America as well.  Perhaps opebo can comment on whether this is also the case among the Thai.

[angus]

In fact, it's probably the case that the coastal Virginians are of English stock and the West Virginians are of Scottish stock.  After all, McCoy and Hatfield are the kind of names you find on Appalachian mailboxes.

Hatfield is actually an English surname (Yorkshire mainly), while McCoy is Irish.

Good to know.  To be honest, I'm not sure how common those two are in WV either.  I just pulled the names out of a hat, so to speak.  But there actually is an old feud from Americana involving the Hatfields and the McCoys.  Apparently it arose over ownership of a pig or something on the WV/KY border.  I do know that there's a strong Scot and Celtic heritage in Appalachia moreso than in the tidal marshes of the East Coast of Virginia, but I'm sure you already know this.   

In any case, lowland/coastal folks make fun of hill folk and interior folks the world over.  Something like 3 billion people live within a hundred miles of a coastline, and those 3 billion tend to be gathered in such a way as to have more interaction not only with one another but also with folks from other tribes when compared to the other 3 billion who live mid-continent.  Thus folks from the interior have traditionally been more insular than their more urbane counterparts from the seacosts.  But I also think this phenomenon is less pronounced in the United States than in other parts of the world, owing to the geographic and economic mobility hereabouts.  And nowadays with rapid communications such as telephone, television, and internet service, and rapid travel with airlines and high-speed rails, exposure to other points of view--both from within and from without one's culture--depends less on geographic location than on one's personal economic circumstance.