Do I understand the South better than krazen?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

My credentials:

• While I'm not from the South, I grew up in a farming town that suffered from cultural angst regarding urbanization in other parts of the country.
• I have family ties to the Tidewater and the Delmarva Peninsula and other personal ties to Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, all of which I have traveled in.
• I am in a field of study that necessitates the general ability to understand other people and societies.
• A lot of the culture that I like is Southern and that which isn't, and is American, is usually from mountainous rural regions.

His credentials:

• He hates gay people.

[Ban my account ffs!]

My credentials:

1.  While I'm not from the south, I grew up in a small logging/tourism/education centered town that suffered from brutal winters that are themselves a subject of angst among others in urbanized areas of different parts of the country.

2.  My aunt, uncle, cousins, and their children live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and my step dad's mother grew up in rural North Carolina in an old textile town and his sisters now live in Atlanta despite all of them having grown up in the Bay Area in a house about 3 blocks from the Jobs household. (They all went to Homestead High School)

3.  I am in a field of study that necessitates the general ability to use my general human decency so that I can understand other people and peoples and peopleses.

4.  While I pretty much hate the south, and don't consider them to be "real 'muricans", I do have a love of mountainous rural regions... especially those on teh womyns.

Krazen's credentials:

1.  He once fed a grape to a raccoon and thought he was being multicultural.

2.  He hates gay people.

I have both of you beat.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

People who hate the south need to open their minds up a bit. I would never judge a place by its politics or worst attributes. Every place in this country has its positives, well, except maybe Mississippi. The fact is, the south is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes, finest universities and most beautiful women.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

3.  I am in a field of study that necessitates the general ability to use my general human decency so that I can understand other people and peoples and peopleses.

Yikes, I just realized how twee 'people and peoples' sounds outside an academic context. Thanks for that.

People who hate the south need to open their minds up a bit. I would never judge a place by its politics or worst attributes. Every place in this country has its positives, well, except maybe Mississippi.

Delta blues.

[Ban my account ffs!]

3.  I am in a field of study that necessitates the general ability to use my general human decency so that I can understand other people and peoples and peopleses.

Yikes, I just realized how twee 'people and peoples' sounds outside an academic context. Thanks for that.

People who hate the south need to open their minds up a bit. I would never judge a place by its politics or worst attributes. Every place in this country has its positives, well, except maybe Mississippi.

Delta blues.

No problem

[Хahar 🤔]

I would have answered yes no matter the subject because you have a desire to understand things, whereas he does not.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

krazen is one of the most annoying types of conservatives, a type that's kind of hard to classify easily in traditional categories but essentially someone who believes that liberals are all driven by hatred for various groups and want to enact policies simply to damage these people, and it's not a case of being misguided, having a different set of values or even extreme selfishness in seeking things that benefit only themselves, but rather simply a desire to wreck havoc and do evil for kicks. Liberals only want to legalize gay marriage to piss off religious people who are offended by it, not because they care about gays who wish to do so or believe it would be beneficial for society. Liberal economic policies are clearly defined only to harm various groups liberals don't like. Liberals support unions because...well both unions and liberals are inherently evil (seriously that's pretty much his thought process if you read his posts about unions.) For old timers who remember dazzleman, he was basically the same way.

It reminds me of when idiot libertarians use the argument (which should be a strawman but unfortunately isn't because they probably believe that who they're arguing against ACTUALLY THINK THIS WAY), that liberals and "big government conservatives" always support expanding government and are hypocritical for opposing any type of government expansion, the goal isn't the use of government to their ends but rather simply increasing government power for the sake of it.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm dismayed by the paucity of votes for the Flannery O'Connor option.

[dead0man]

People who hate the south need to open their minds up a bit. I would never judge a place by its politics or worst attributes. Every place in this country has its positives, well, except maybe Mississippi. The fact is, the south is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes, finest universities and most beautiful women.

Right, the South is fine.  I lived there, I should know.


It's the people that live there that bothered me

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

What the hell is a krazen

[Fuzzybigfoot]

What the hell is a krazen

I'm not sure, all I know is that you can buy one in a sex shop. 

[Ban my account ffs!]

What the hell is a krazen

I'm not sure, all I know is that you can buy one in a sex shop.  

No silly... it's the generic brand version of a Craisin®

[Alcon]

Side comment: If this forum has taught me anything, it's that there are plenty of people who don't even understand where they actually live.

[Fuzzybigfoot]

Hmm, I wonder who voted no. 

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Side comment: If this forum has taught me anything, it's that there are plenty of people who don't even understand where they actually live.

It's a fact that brings great joy though, is it not?

[TJ in Oregon]

Hmm, I wonder who voted no. 

Me actually, why do you ask?

The reason why I voted no was because so much of our understanding of the south needs to be viewed through the lense of opposition to a coastal elite which enforces social change upon the south while viewing them as backward and stupid. While Nathan is a pretty smart guy, I think krazen often takes the same sentiment as many southerners in his posts, thus I voted he understands it better.

[angus]

Somehow, I read the title as "Do I understand South Koreans better than krazen?" and then I clicked on the thread and it made me confused.

I'm still confused, but now I realize that you're talking about Alabama and Virginia and such, not about the city of Seoul and Hyundai cars and overpriced, small apartments.  Well, I lived in Columbus, Mississippi for three years, and I still don't understand The South, but then it doesn't really matter.  For what it's worth, I've lived in Iowa for nearly five years and I don't claim to understand the Upper Midwest.  But I do like to eat corn, and I'm not adverse to tall, busty, white chicks with big butts who call soda "pop" and refer to groups of females as "you guys", and I sometimes attend state fairs, and I own six--count 'em, six--snow shovels.  Credentials are one thing, but giving a shit is another matter entirely, don't you think?  I suppose you do, and maybe that's your point.

I'm gonna vote for the third option, I think, although I can't remember what it is. 

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Hmm, I wonder who voted no. 

Me actually, why do you ask?

The reason why I voted no was because so much of our understanding of the south needs to be viewed through the lense of opposition to a coastal elite which enforces social change upon the south while viewing them as backward and stupid. While Nathan is a pretty smart guy, I think krazen often takes the same sentiment as many southerners in his posts, thus I voted he understands it better.

Oh, no, I understand that sentiment too (though, being arguably an at least peripheral part of the 'coastal elite', I don't share it, at least not in its pure form). I don't actually disagree with that part of krazen's analysis of the South; I just think he fails to contextualize it or examine how it relates to the South's voting pattern on other, particularly economic issues and how that's changed over the years.

[dead0man]

Side comment: If this forum has taught me anything, it's that there are plenty of people who don't even understand where they actually live.

Maybe, but what does this thread have to do with that?

[Alcon]

Side comment: If this forum has taught me anything, it's that there are plenty of people who don't even understand where they actually live.

Maybe, but what does this thread have to do with that?

Snowguy's "credentials" post reminded me of how much "trust me, my family's from the South"/"trust me, I go to school in Indiana" posts come up during election season...seems to have a lot to do with the thread.  No?

[opebo]

...and overpriced, small apartments.  

I didn't find the apartments that expensive in Korea, angus.

But as for krazen - he appears to understand nothing at all, much less the South - a mysterious and spooky place.

[angus]

I didn't find the apartments that expensive in Korea, angus.

I guess it depends upon your perspective.  Whether you move to Korea from Iowa or, say, San Francisco, makes a big difference in your perceptions. 

According to the "cost of living comparison calculator" making 60K in Cedar Falls, IA is like making 107K in San Francisco, CA.  Most of the difference is accounted within average rent ($676 versus $2264).  Unfortunately that particular website doesn't list foreign cities.

Well, it was just a glancing blow, and my first thought was, "Does anyone really understand Korea?"

[opebo]

When I was in Korea the school rented me a very comfortable apartment and I was given to understand it was only around $500 or so per month.. of course I was in a far suburb or satellite of Seoul.

[angus]

When I was in Korea the school rented me a very comfortable apartment and I was given to understand it was only around $500 or so per month.. of course I was in a far suburb or satellite of Seoul.

When I lived in Manhattan, my one-bedroom apartment cost $3000 per month.  When I lived in Columbus, Mississippi, my two-bedroom apartment cost $290 per month.  It's all relative.  I guess $500 is about what you'd pay here for a reasonably well appointed, newly-built one-bedroom apartment here.

[opebo]

When I lived in Manhattan, my one-bedroom apartment cost $3000 per month.  When I lived in Columbus, Mississippi, my two-bedroom apartment cost $290 per month.  It's all relative.  I guess $500 is about what you'd pay here for a reasonably well appointed, newly-built one-bedroom apartment here.

Yeah, Korea was roughly about the same prices as St. Louis, but the buildings were tremendously nicer.  Of course this was around half a decade ago - prices in both places have probably declined since then due to the Deflation.