The South

[Matt Damon™]

America will honestly be vastly improved when the scots-irish/blacks of dixie and the northern anglo-german scandanavians are absorbed/displaced by us latins.

[NOVA Green]

Thank you Neinrein ("not pure" auf Deutsch?) for pointing out many of the fallacies and stereotypes that some of the Northern Democrats on this forum have regarding the South. There have been multiple threads particularly in the past few weeks that have engaged in excessive attacks on an entire region and thrown much of the baby out with the bathwater.

The South, like all other regions in America, is not perfect and has its shares of flaws. There are certainly deep racial wounds from the history of slavery and Jim Crow, but yet little of the "closet racism" you see in Northern states like Oregon that have historically had only a small African-American population. Poverty amongst both Whites and Blacks is significantly higher than the national average, and most state governments have historically been lax in providing funding to a broad range of social services that is seen in wealthier Northern states.

I freely admit that I have not lived in the South, nor have had family from the region, unlike the West, Midwest, and Northeast. I do not pretend to understand the subtleties of Southern culture, nor do I judge an entire region of the country because of a Civil War that happened 150 years ago. From my conversations with native friends from the region there is a wealth of cultural treasure and complexity that exists which is not easily understood by most Northerners.

Politically, I agree that voting patterns at the Presidential level, as well as associated religious extremist movements, have had a negative effect on national politics in many regards. I disagree with the notion that the Democratic Party has to move to the right on cultural issues to somehow "appease" cultural conservatives in either the North or South. The South of course by no means has a monopoly on the religious right, and there are many people of faith from both parties that have much to offer this country.

I thank your cousin for his service, and hope that fortunes bring him a safe and fast return. I lost a friend outside of Taji / Camp Cooke in '04, and even though conditions are improving I know that this is still a risky job in an unforgiving climate.

BTW: Welcome to the Forum!

[Sam Spade]

Seriously, the things they must teach you kids today that turn you into such brainwashed idiots...  Amazing.

[Хahar 🤔]

You edited your post so it said 1968, fool.  Also, don't you dare insult Southern education: Duke, UVA, William & Mary, and numerous others are top schools, so shut up.

Hahah, is it true you are from Arlington?

Yes, and I've had family in Virginia for over 160 years.

So you're not a Southerner, you're a snobbish twit.

LOL.

I don't kknow what else an appeal to ancestry makes you. Does it make you a better person? I think not.

No, it doesn't, but I'm still proud.  And who are you to call me a twit?

Being proud is one thing. Appealing to your ancestry is quite another.

You're not answering the second question.  And there's nothing wrong with me saying I've had family in Virginia for 160 years.

The second question isn't worth answering, because it's designed to be inflammatory. I'm not biting.

And there may be nothing wrong with pointing to that, but what's its use here if not to brag? I don't see that as a legitimate use of ancestry.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Benconstine does not live in an area which has anything whatsoever to do with Southern culture today. Therefore he doesn't live in the South. The end.

[Matt Damon™]

Taking your absurd statement as truth let me raise a point One can be culturally southern without living in core dixie. After all, I live in upstate NY and am not culturally some whitebread anglo-german-irish person.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

But has someone who has never lived in the south be culturally southern? I could use that argument to argue that north Minneapolis blacks who listen to a lot of Memphis and Atlanta rap are culturally southern even if they've never been there.

[Matt Damon™]

unassimilated Black culture _is_ culturally southern. Try again.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So dumb suburban white "wigger" kids are culturally southern?

[Matt Damon™]

No. Stop trying to nitpick and quibble. Fly away, troll.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

LOL. Straha calls someone a troll.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Yes! Sperry's and sunglasses around my neck! Sounds like Charleston to me!

Haha, yeah it took me a little while to get used to that.  I was always wondering, "why is everyone so dressed up?  Is something going on today?"  Little did I know that's all I would be wearing in a short time along with nothing but polos.

Haha! I just met a friend of mine's roommate who was from Connecticut today, and he asked me if something special was going on today because I was wearing khakis and a polo and Sperry's.

Duke, the place where you live is quite exclusive, correct?

I live on Kiawah Island, but I also have a place in Charleston. Kiawah is pretty exclusive, yes. Does that change anything?

[Sbane]

This thread is one big /facepalm.

Haha this is the best post in this thread.

[© tweed]

One more thing.  Let's not forget that horrible day 7 years ago when New York City was hit by something worse than a hurricane.  Is that fixed yet?  No.

how was that "worse than a hurricane"?  psychologically, it is to many people who refuse to think rationally about it, but Katrina was "worse" than 9/11, by a lot...

watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmCC_jasq0E&feature=related

[GMantis]

Having myself faced prejudice based solely on the place I came from, I find this anti-Southern predjudice quite disturbing (though the reverse is also unpleasant). Wishing more Katrinas is completely disgusting. And especially coming from people who don't know much about the region - which I have also experienced. The South, even if it's more concentrated there, isn't the only US region rife in racism, xenophobia, sexism and homophobia.

[Josh/Devilman88]

If you guys really want to read a non-bias read on Southern life then you can read it here. There is no other place in the world like the south. The friendlyness and welcomeness most southerners have isn't found in other places in the US. The lay back, take life as it is feeling we have. The rich music history the south has. The pretty landscape it has. THe south is a great place, and if you come down to the south with the mind that you will hate it then you will.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

The south is a disgusting quagmire of religion and racism. Let's evacuate the few good southerns and burn it all.

[Brittain33]

Enough trolling.

Enough overreaction to the trolling.

Enough of threads with "South" in the title.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

LOL. Straha calls someone a troll.

He's less of a troll than you are.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

LOL. Straha calls someone a troll.

He's less of a troll than you are.

True that.

I've never really seen Straha as a troll.

[Matt Damon™]

I get that label because alot of atlas can't comprehend how someone can actually hold extremist/entirely non-mainstream views without being a fake/troll. I'm going to start calling the bulk of atlas trolls since I find the US or European unions mainstream political spectrums to be extremely morally and personally offensive.

[Serenity Now]

Woah.. It got busy in HERE quick.. The amount of stereotyping and generalizing in this thread is HORRIFYING.. I can see what Neinrein means..

[Brittain33]

It is worse than a hurricane and it is worse than a train wreck.  It was a deliberate action taken against us.  Talk to someone whose father died in a car accident and then talk to someone whose father was murdered.  Not the same thing.  A deliberate malicious attack is far worse than an accident or an occurrence of nature.  It may not mean anything to you in your detached little "nihilist" life, but to normal people with normal feelings, it means a lot.  Not all of us have manipulated our emotions so coldly as to brush off terrorist attacks as a part of life equal to a hurricane or a train wreck.  Of course we can't let it run our lives, but it can't be ignored.

9/11 was worse in some ways, for certain. If we're talking about day-to-day impact on the lives of millions of people, both in the short term and the long term, it doesn't compare to Katrina, which decimated an entire city and had people living in third world conditions for a week. If we're talking about the economic impact, or the unexpectedness of it, or its effect on U.S. policy, or how it changed the lives of the thousands of families directly affected, 9/11 is unlike anything else.

I don't think reducing it to the word "worse" is helpful at all. They were both godawful.

[Хahar 🤔]

LOL. Straha calls someone a troll.

He's less of a troll than you are.

True that.

I've never really seen Straha as a troll.

Because he's on your side now.

[© tweed]

One more thing.  Let's not forget that horrible day 7 years ago when New York City was hit by something worse than a hurricane.  Is that fixed yet?  No.

how was that "worse than a hurricane"?  psychologically, it is to many people who refuse to think rationally about it, but Katrina was "worse" than 9/11, by a lot...

watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmCC_jasq0E&feature=related

It is worse than a hurricane and it is worse than a train wreck.  It was a deliberate action taken against us.  Talk to someone whose father died in a car accident and then talk to someone whose father was murdered.  Not the same thing.  A deliberate malicious attack is far worse than an accident or an occurrence of nature.  It may not mean anything to you in your detached little "nihilist" life, but to normal people with normal feelings, it means a lot.  Not all of us have manipulated our emotions so coldly as to brush off terrorist attacks as a part of life equal to a hurricane or a train wreck.  Of course we can't let it run our lives, but it can't be ignored.

I appreciate the ad hominem.  real brilliant... they probably taught you that in the fake-pillar suburb you now pretend to reject

your idea that 9/11 is 'worse' relies completely on subjective human emotion, and how we are taught to think (which you interestingly define as "normal").  it may be 'worse' in that it is harder to emotionally reconcile for its followers, but the gross numbers stay the same regardless of cause. 

it worries me that you brush off alternate, independent thinking as some horrible thing and tacitly imply that I need therapy for even suggesting such a thing...  just take a step back

also "asking" families of victims is not a very educational thing to do as such people are in no position to make any sort of objective judgment.