I am from Kentucky and I am NOT illiterate.

[Ykcutnek]

I also wear shoes, have running water, and even bathe regularly.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Prove it.

Here's what the national Republicans are saying about us Cheeseheads: "I don't want to say anything about your Wisconsin voters but, some of them might not be as sharp as a knife."

Unfortunately, after the double 2010-2012 Walker fiasco & the tightening of their grip on the State Legislature, I got no leg to stand on in disagreeing with them.

[Worried senior]

75. Saw this on FaceBook

and agreed that some are not sharp as a knife but then they vote republican.

[jberryhill]

2. Might I suggest you take your shoes off before bathing?

[lpbk2713]

3. It was marrying your cousin that did you in.

Some times it doesn't pay to take DU too seriously.

[jaysunb]

4. But, will you be voting for Allison Lundergan-Grimes ? n/t

[JI7]

5. tell that to dick cheney

[bravenak]

6. People are jerks!

Period.

[BlueJazz]

7. Don't feel too outraged. My IQ is only 76 but since I live in Florida, I feel like a Genius.

[Marrah_G]

102. LMAO

[notadmblnd]

8. A learning disability is nothing to be ashamed of.

I kid. Yep don't take DU seriously or personally, else there are those that can ensure that your time here will be short.

welcome

[NYC_SKP]

9. I've work with a half dozen great people who live in Kentucky.

And they are awesome, kind, intelligent and GENUINE more than many one might meet from other parts.

Some of the republicans holding sway there give the state a bad name, and these same republicans have repressed certain initiatives that would serve the population and shine a light on all the good there, but I think that's changing.

Damn, I can't wait for Grimes to win, I hope I hope I hope I hope!

Go Kentucky!

[Solly Mack]

10. I'm from Georgia. I love wearing shorts in the winter and the feel of grass on my bare feet.

I sometimes shower twice a day. I love bubble baths.

My water doesn't run so much as it flows.

I love shoes.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh. Otherwise you'll stay pissed off all the time.

[theHandpuppet]

11. I hear you.

I'm sick of it, too. I don't find classism funny.

[rufus dog]

12. Can you count your teeth on one hand?

Does each hand have five digits?

Just kidding, welcome.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

13. My great-grandmother was from Letcher Co., KY.

My family has a long history in Appalachia, and I am *proud* of my heritage. They were and are smart, tough people who have survived hardships most people can't even imagine. Unfortunately, most people know nothing about the region and don't care to learn, because it's more fun to ridicule us. There aren't many groups left that it's socially acceptable to mock -- we're one of them.

[theHandpuppet]

14. Welcome!

I think you would appreciate this article:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1272594

Also, please consider this an invitation to join us at Appalachia Group (the url is my sigline).

[WhiteAndNerdy]

86. Thanks!

I'll check out the article & the group!

[CherokeeDem]

56. I have a cousin living in Letcher County...

and my mother and father's family are from Eastern Kentucky. My parents move to South Carolina and I was born and grew up there. What you said about the people there is so very true, and I am proud of my heritage, as well.

I get so tired of the bashing that goes on around here. I thought Democrats were supposed to be inclusive, not mocking, but I guess it takes all kinds.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

87. Thanks for your comment.

My mom's family moved to that area from North Carolina. My great-grandmother was a Hall & her mother a Starr.

[petronius]

15. Your water is running?

Then you'd better go catch it!

[SheilaT]

16. My mother in law was originally from Kentucky, and there

was a family joke about when she got her first pair of shoes.

I just wish no one here would take any regional or specific state insults seriously. While I have my own personal favorites among states, they aren't important to anyone else. And even when I say there are some places you couldn't pay me to live in, guess what? No one is offering me to pay to live there.

Every time I start thinking that some particular place or city or even region of the country is one I wouldn't want to live in, someone here talks about how much they love that place, that state.

I will be specific: Mississippi is not a state I would have thought I'd want to live in. But a while back my younger sister lived there. I visited her several times. I got to see all of the wonderful things about that state. I am no longer very likely to say that Mississippi is terrible, and no one should live there. No place, not state is as simple as that. Can be reduced to that.

My personal preferences are exactly that, personal. I have my own opinion about what makes a place a great place to live, or a crappy place to live. But they are only my personal preferences. They are informed by my own experiences, and may not be the same as your. For instance, I don't think that a real winter with snow , is all that terrible. You may disagree. It does not mean that one of us is right and the other is wrong. It just means we disagree. And so it goes with every other aspect of life.

I have never lived in Kentucky. I have barely visited that state. That means my opinions of that state have almost no basis in reality, and certainly not much in personal experience there. In general terms I prefer colder weather to warm, and Kentucky is in a warmer part of the country. So my opinion is only my opinion.

I once spent a long weekend in Paducah and liked it very much.

I also like to say that we live in a wonderful country with 50 wonderful states. I really do mean that. We are so lucky, all of us.

[scarystuffyo]

17. 1.6 million Americans don’t have indoor plumbing. Here’s where they live

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/23/1-6-million-americans-dont-have-indoor-plumbing-heres-where-they-live/




even if you didn't you aren't alone

[Blue_In_AK]

70. We didn't have ndoor plumbing when I was a kid in SW Ohio,

and even today in rural Alaska, there are entire Native villages that don't have a water/sewer infrastructure.

[raven mad]

85. And the Fairbanks (AK) North Star Borough is one of the top - many do so by choice.

Most because drilling a well is extremely expensive and hooking up to a local water line is impossible once away from town.

If running water were a qualification for establishing intelligence, 1/2 of the students at University of Alaska Fairbanks would fail.

[mahina]

18. My favorite teacher was from Kentucky.

She taught 8th grade and had very high standards. She broached no bullshit, smoked Pall Malls and drank black coffee, and was the embodiment of literary excellence.

Aloha oe, Edith Caudill.

I can't believe anyone would think that of someone just for being from Kentucky. There are idiots everywhere.

Now Alabama….

I kid.

[JohnnyRingo]

19. I'm from Ohio, and I can relate...

It's just the absolute height of ignorance to pick out a random state and make general pokes about how backward and uneducated the citizens there are. Besides, it's not our fault all those people from West Virginia came up here.

[Fumesucker]

20. Welcome to DU!

Being a liberal in a red state is tough enough, then you come on DU and find out that you're a shoeless illiterate and no real liberal would ever live where you do.

Interesting how parochial people who pride themselves on their open-mindedness can be.

Bless their hearts.

[get the red out]

21. Me too!

Two of us! How weird is that? 😜

My 7th grade Kentucky history book had a picture of an impoverished family in really bad shape on the cover. I remember it made me mad because of the lack of balance even then.

Edit to add that I just had to shell out for another crown on a tooth. Expensive, but I've still got 'em.

[whistler162]

22. Hate to tell you....

but a stream out back behind the outhouse isn't considered running water.

[Kablooie]

23. Do you ever wear a Kentucky derby?

or a Kirwood Derby?
(There's an obscure reference for ya.)

[Martin Eden]

24. Moose and Squirrel

(obscure reference to your obscure reference)

[Art_from_Ark]

101. The Kirwood Derby--

guaranteed to make even the densest Moon Prince (or Moose) a regular Einstein

[Gidney N Cloyd]

42. And do either of his bare feet say "Rue Britannia" on them?

[valerief]

54. I used to watch The Garry Moore Show as a kid. Loved it! nt

[B Calm]

25. Explain why Mitch McConnell gets reelected over and over when clearly he has no

interest in representing the working class!

[valerief]

55. Ballot chucking?

[Sheldon Cooper]

79. Look, I'm from PA and we sent Rick Santorum to the Senate twice.

And, we currently have nut job Pat Toomey in that very same seat. Some things just can't be explained.

[RKP5637]

26. Welcome!

[QC]

27. I am from Alabama and I do NOT have six toes on each foot.

Neither do I have a vestigial tail.

[Silent3]

46. OK, on just one of your feet.

And yes, that tail is way too long to be merely "vestigial".

[JustAnotherGen]

28. I shared this with Handpuppet last week

Some of the NICEST people I've ever met in my life were in McCreary County KY. And Sunbright TN.


Don't even get me started on Wheeling or Stuart's Draft W.V. <----Kind, kind, kind.

[appalachiablue]

100. If Stuart's Draft is the Stuart's Rootbeer Place I went to when young in Htgn. WV

it's terrific, best hotdogs & Rootbeer.

[Shankapotomus]

29. Nice to meet you

I am from New Jersey and I am not a mobster.

I understand abstract art, own a bicycle and enjoy watching science lectures on YouTube.

P.S. Help me.

[JustAnotherGen]

78. I'm right here with you

But I moved here 8 years ago.

So - I volunteered for the abuse!

[Shankapotomus]

89. Sadly, our reputation is not entirely unfounded

It doesn't help that there are people in this state that are so frighteningly stupid they test your opposition to forced sterilization. Growing up I never would have expected to have encountered the personal intellectual negligence and outright blind opposition to a basic love of learning and curiosity about the world. I never would have imagined that Archie Bunker actually exists and at so many varied age groups, both young and old. I blame the idealization of the uneducated "street tough". Across every cultural group, people would rather be perceived as tough rather than as a fully actualized person. There are people here that walk around with a veneer of affected toughness because civility is "weakness". Tough and scornful of knowledge and science seems to be the magic formula that they think will get them everything in life.

[Adrahil]

30. Ah... But you didn't say you have all your teeth! NT

[Snotcicles]

93. The tooth brush was invented in Kentucky. Anywhere else it would have been called the teeth brush.nt

[cordelia]

31. Glad to know you. Despite

being hated and dismissed by some on this board just because you are from (insert state/region) here, you will find the majority here are actually liberal and kind and caring.

The others? Their problem for being so small minded and intolerant.

I was taught to wear shoes in rural Georgia in the late 50s by my liberal-minded Democratic parent.

[Vinca]

32. But do you have teeth??

[bigwillq]

33. Welcome to DU!

[Stellar]

34. If you don't know them...

It's usually the negative stereotypical things we see/hear about people that's believed.

For instance, some people believe what they hear about Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians, American Indians, any group of people, even people from the big city, from the south, etc....you name it. It's unfair and it hurts.

We all have feelings and we shouldn't insult people on what we think we know about them. I'm sure television has a lot to do with it, and how these people are portrayed.

[kickitup]

35. I'm from Kentucky too, and I have . . .

all my teeth except for one. I went to someone called a dentist who (and I know there are some on here who won't believe it) went to a dental school in Kentucky and he fixed my broken tooth.

[pipi_k]

36. OTOH...

Here, where I live, in supposedly one of the most educated (and Blue) states in the US, there are still people who can barely remember to put their pants on each morning with the zipper in the front.

Like a few others said, don't take regional insults/stereotypes too personally.

[theHandpuppet]

40. Not taking stereotypes too seriously is easy to suggest...

... unless you've been living one all your life and find there's no escape, even on a supposedly progressive website. This kind of stereotyping hurts people in ways you cannot possibly imagine unless you've lived it. There's no reason for it here, especially when it's combined with classism. Maybe some of you can chuckle when your family and friends are referred to as trailer trash, ignorant toothless fucks, outhouse dwellers, stupid hillbillies, possum eaters and an hundred other insults, but I can't and I won't. I know how they've suffered and they don't deserve this kind of derision and humiliation.

Hey, did you count your teeth? Just kidding.
Did you marry your cousin? Just kidding.
Do your hands have all their fingers? Just kidding.
Does a stream out the back door count as indoor plumbing? Just kidding.

Yeah, okay. Some of you can just kiss my hillbilly ass. Just kidding, of course.

[Gormy Cuss]

49. ^^^This^^^n/t

[Paladin]

51. Well said, tHp. Thank you. (nt)

[cordelia]

60. VERY well said.

[pipi_k]

62. Really?

Not taking stereotypes too seriously is easy to suggest...


... unless you've been living one all your life

Do you actually believe you're the only one, or one of the few, who has ever been stereotyped?

People are stereotyped all the time for things like their politics, religion, weight, height, gender, the car they drive, their age, the clothing they wear, and even the color of their hair.

I've certainly had my share of ignorant, stereotypical jibes thrown my way. Some of them quite vulgar, in fact.


People who live in the South can move if they don't want to deal with the stereotyped remarks. People who are very short or very tall, or who might be stereotyped because of some other physical trait...they can't change that.

So there are two things a person can do.

1. He can whine about it or

2. He can take to heart the words of a very wise woman (Eleanor Roosevelt) who said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent".

So, yeah...sometimes you just have to find a way to deal with it. Especially if it's on an internet discussion group.

[theHandpuppet]

63. You forgot door number three

Confront it.

I'm an older, lesbian feminist in Appalachia whose wife is Latina. Do you think if people on DU referred to LGBTs as faggots and dykes I should just deal with it? Should my wife just laugh it off if she's called a "pool digger"? Her boss once asked her is she would be spending her vacation picking fruit. He, too, was just kidding, of course.

"People who live in the South can move if they don't want to deal with the stereotyped remarks."

Or we could just stop using them. We can do better.

[snooper2]

72. that is why The Stereotypes Song was written, we should dance dance dance

to these stereotypes!

[pipi_k]

76. Yes, I agree that we can do better

But what I saw in the OP was an attempt to be a victim of what others think about people who live in the south.

It's not who they ARE. It's where they LIVE.

Totally different from your situation.


Your reply points that out very well.

I live in a northern Blue state. If southern Conservatives want to paint a certain negative stereotypical picture of me based on where I live, well...go for it. They can call me a "moonbat" from here till eternity and I don't give a shit.

If, OTOH, someone wants to paint a negative stereotypical picture of me as a "psycho" or "crazy person" based on mental issues that are a part of who I am, then that's a whole different story.

Although it's still not going to bother me all that much if it's someone I don't care about, AND I don't allow what they say to define me.


So, in the end, there's a big difference between where someone lives and who that person is. I have issues with people being insulted because of who they are.

Not so much sympathy for stereotypes based on where someone lives.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

88. "It's not who they ARE. It's where they LIVE."

Come on. It's not the PLACE that people have a problem with. It's the people.

[Jamastiene]

106. They honestly expect us to up and move.

To where? If our family is where we live now, what do we do? Just throw darts at a map of the US and move there? Why, exactly? They think we should have to move because of their prejudice. People could just quit showing their own ignorance with the snobby stereotypes instead. It would be much easier.

[Jamastiene]

105. Tell you what...

Give up every penny you have. Move to a town where Walmart is the major employer there. Even if you get a degree at the community college, you can't use it for employment because those jobs are not in your area. Work at minimum wage in the south for a while, pay the rent, power bills, groceries, gas, water, etc. Then tell me how someone in the south can "just move."

When you've done all that and figured it out, please share it with the rest of us. I want to see how you do when an entire month's pay in a town like mine wouldn't even cover the groceries in a more expensive larger "civilized" city, much less a security deposit, much less rent or the cost to move or getting electricity hooked up, etc. Even the closest bigger cities would take months to save up for just the security deposit and first month's rent and that is if you are able to save every dime you make and don't have to pay rent to stay where you are now. It is not as easy as you seem to think it is. Nowhere near as easy as you seem to think.

While I am at it, how do you pick a place to live other than where you grew up, completely away from your family? Do you just throw darts at a map of the US until you hit a town that doesn't seem too bad? Or what? They make rednecks in northeastern states too, you know. They make them out west too. How DO you decide where to move just to get away from stereotypes? Can you name a single town anywhere in the US that doesn't have bigots who stereotype people? I got news for you, if you can, you weren't paying attention.

Or, people could just quit assuming they know what it is like in some areas of the country based on their own ignorance and snobbery, and bother to get to know a few people. You know, educate themselves and quit being ignorant snobs who stereotype people.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

107. *applause* nt

[Glassunion]

52. Would you say the same

for racial or religious insults or stereotypes?

[pipi_k]

66. What does

race or religion have to do with a thread where the subject is about stereotyping based on geographical location?

I was actually one of the few who DIDN'T make some wisecrack joke about teeth or shoes or running water.

And a couple of others also suggested not taking comments of that nature too seriously.

Yet I get singled out for the third degree?


Sorry, but if you're looking for a fight, you'll have to go elsewhere.

[theHandpuppet]

73. I realize that you were not one of the people who was using insults

But I perceived your remarks about those insults as dismissive, perhaps because I was already steaming at that point. As to some other posters, telling folks you were just kidding only after you've made the insult seems a bit disingenuous.

I'm really too angry right now to continue posting in this thread. My apologies for finally blowing my stack at your post. It was not intended to single you out.

[pipi_k]

77. OK...

thank you. I appreciate that.


I'm also sorry for the negative interaction we had.

[Glassunion]

90. Now I would hardly consider my question the 3rd degree.

You were simply being dismissive of stereotypes. I was asking if you would be so dismissive of other stereotypes. So there is the common thread.

When I see posts here on DU where someone from spends an entire thread bashing Texas let's say as a racist state. Simply because folks in that area of the country decide to wear a specific type of hat. I'm not even from Texas, never lived there, but it's a bullshit stereotype and should not be tolerated.

[randome]

37. Oh, yeah? Then tell me when it's okay to split an infinitive!

I'm waiting. Oh! Too late.

(Just kidding.)
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[snooper2]

38. do you have grass growing down the center of your driveway?

[Paladin]

39. Yeah, yeah. I'm a 5th-generation Texan and a life-long liberal Democrat.

What are you expecting around here? Universal support and understanding from progressives? Avoidance of regional prejudices by the supposedly enlightened? Not bloody likely. Treat the haters as the empty-headed fuckwits they are, and keep moving forward in your own fashion. There is no cure for their sickness; keep their ability to rent space in your head to a minimum. Bon chance.....

[TBF]

41. Bless your heart -

at least you're not from Texas.

We can't speak or vote properly and we've got the e-bola.

[theHandpuppet]

45. Oh how I miss Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards and Molly Ivins!

All heroes to me.

Good luck with the Davis campaign!

[TBF]

50. Millions voted for Obama in this state

and they will vote for Wendy. We may not be quite there in numbers overall, but we're close.

[still_one]

103. It may not happen this time, but it will happen with the demographic changes that are occurring in

your state

[ieoeja]

43. I am from a farm in southern Indiana, and Republicans treated me like shit.

I moved to suburbs of Chicago in the mid '80s after graduating college. The suburbs were clean, orderly, quiet, and authoritarian. In other words, everything a hillbilly farmboy wasn't. It was also universally Republican. I spent two years in suburban hell being looked down upon and just generally treated like shit.

Then I moved into the most liberal area of Chicago. Did they welcome me because I was like them? No. That would be impossible. The area was too diverse. There was no "norm" to be like. They welcomed me because they welcomed everybody.

Actually, they welcomed me more than most because, as a hillbilly, I almost spoke english.

I'm a hillbilly so I get to tell that joke. In fact, we didn't have running water when I was really young. So I'm more hillbilly than you. But that did not stop us telling Kentucky jokes in southern Indiana!

----------------------------

I'm not kidding about that "suburban hell" thing. Those were the two most miserable years of my life. Constant insults, fights, etc. The only people I got to know well were the police. It isn't strictly illegal to walk around the suburbs, but it is apparently highly suspicious to the police.

As my Black-Scottish-Mexican-Apache son found the first time he went into the 'burbs by himself. Took him an hour to walk from the train to his friend's house. It wouldn't normally take that long, but the police stopped him 6 times that hour.

[closeupready]

68. Suburban Chicago is dead boring.

That's the way they WANT it. No wonder their kids can't wait to hightail to places where stuff actually happens, lol.

[TBF]

84. I am trapped in the suburbs in Texas.

That's right. But I'm not sure if you or I win the thread. This is most definitely a special level of hell, but I can walk my dogs without being stopped by the police (I am white of course). They haven't caught on yet that I've been training them to pee on every Abbott sign we walk by.

[Go Vols]

44. Pics or it didn't happen

[Silent3]

47. I'm from New Hampshire and I don't sound anything like that guy...

...in the old Pepperidge Farms commercials.

That's the people from Maine.

And I only wear the suspenders and the hat on weekends.

[Rex]

48. And your point is? I'm from Texas and I don't wear a cowboy hat

or ride a horse. So what.

[LanternWaste]

64. Quite obvious to the open eye.

" And your point is?"
Quite obvious to the open eye.




"Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter: that when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still."

[underpants]

53. How do you pronounce the state capital - LouEEville or LouUHville?

[Sissyk]

57. Haha!

That's an oldie.

[KamaAina]

69. Frank-furt.

[Sissyk]

58. Hi! I'm right below you in Tn.

I have running water and bathe daily, but damn! I really dislike shoes.

I'd much rather walk barefoot and feel the soft, warm (or cool) grass under my feet. One of my little pleasure in life.

Welcome to DU!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

59. and?

[RedCloud]

61. What color is the grass there?

[closeupready]

65. But you spell backwards.

So there.

[Blue_In_AK]

67. Well, okay, then.

I'm from Alaska, and I can NOT see Russia from my house.

[KamaAina]

71. Grandma and Grandpa lived in Fort Mitchell for a time.

Mom grew up there for a little while.

All three are/were literate.

[kentuck]

74. I am from Kentucky and I am illiterate.

I plan on leaving this world the same way I came in - bald-headed and no teeth.

[Quackers]

81. You should write your congress person about that.

[Quackers]

80. What's wrong with being barefoot?

[treestar]

82. I'm from a state nobody makes fun of

Though maybe they should.

Maybe it's better to get negative publicity than not be noticeable at all.

In fact, what state gets positive publicity - none. It's either be known or not!

[Glassunion]

91. I personally can think of nothing negative about DE.

I drive through it all the time to get to MD.

[ieoeja]

92. You just identified something negative about DE.

It's in your way. Your ride to Maryland would be shorter if it wasn't in the way.

[Glassunion]

95. I would not say that.

It's quite pretty, and I would not consider it in my way, but part of the journey.

A friend owns a small plane and we have taken short flights from Allentown PA, down to DE and back. We all chip in on gas, and have a great time. He gets to rack up his flight hours. Win win...

[appalachiablue]

98. Delaware and DELMARVA have great beaches, sunsets, ocean beauty, wildlfe

and a relaxed environment. Three hours away.

[MoonchildCA]

83. I'm from California, and I'm not a tree-hugging, hippy liberal...

Oh wait! Yes I am...

[leftyladyfrommo]

94. I'm from Missouri and I'm not, either.

People on DU talk about us like this is the worst place to live in the US. It's not true. There are lots of really nice people here. And they are nice even if you don't agree with them.

[Bluenorthwest]

96. Kentucky is home to Actor's Theater of Louisville, one of the country's finest and largest producers

of live professional theater. I highly encourage residents and visitors alike to enjoy one of their nearly 600 performances a year. It is one of the cultural treasures of the United States and contributes greatly to the evolution of the American theater.
http://actorstheatre.org/

[appalachiablue]

97. I didn't know about the Actor's Theater of Louisville, KY. Thanks.

How are you familiar with them Bluenorthwest?

[Mister Nightowl]

99. What part?

I'm originally from Kelly, myself.

[Jamastiene]

104. K&R