What are your experiences on Alabama oriented websites?

[Syrinx]

In my real flesh and blood life, in Alabama, the vast majority of people I meet are perfectly nice, reasonable, polite people.

When I venture, rarely, into virtual Alabama (this forum doesn't count, obviously), I'm frightened by what I witness.

Many of the opinions I see on these sites make me think of Ayn Rand being tea-bagged by young Nathaniel. (Sorry, but I think that expresses it, if anyone understands what I'm saying.)

There's so much hate of the poor. (And I suspect some of the offenders are probably poor, themselves.)

There's so much support for the rights of giant corporations to squeeze as much out of the people as they can, by the same people that call Obama a "fascist." The ignorance and contradictions are (what's the opposite of "awe?")-inspiring.

And there is still some much overt racism, that it is shocking.

This is nothing like I experience in the real world, but it seems like the internet brings out the worst in Alabamians.

:(

Can anyone confirm or deny this?

[trof]

1. Them freeloaders just need to get a job.

Etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.
Read the 'comments' section of the Mobile Register at al.com.
Especially if the story is about Obama.
:eyes:

[Syrinx]

4. you know, I realize only 15 to 20 percent of white folks voted for Obama

CNN says even less than that. But I've crunched the numbers a little and I don't buy that.

But I wonder really just how many of us are just still hard-core racists that would never vote for a black guy, no matter what.

There are things I love about my state. But we do seem to be blessed with more than our fair share of nitwits. I try to convert them when I can. But they are definitely a hard sell. And I just don't really know what to do about it.

It makes me sad about any chance that we'll ever have anything more to be proud of than "at least we ain't Mississippi." (No offense to any Mississippi folks that might be reading this. My daddy was from Mississippi.)

The younger people don't seem as race conscious as the rest. The people that are about twenty or so today.

I'm in my forties, and I guess maybe Alabama will become a normal place right about the time I die.

I'm not sure I should rejoice in that, or simply break down and cry.

[Frances]

2. I read Left in Alabama

although I know that site represents about 3% of the people in Alabama. But it makes me feel good to read it.

[Syrinx]

3. there are plenty of good people here Frances

But I think the bad people are much more aggressive. Sadly.

[Frances]

5. The bad people have been much more aggressive

in every state I have lived in: Alabama, Massachusetts, Maryland, and California

There is one Repub guy at the Senior Center my husband goes to in California who has so alienated Dems that they will have nothing to do with him. The Dems have tried positive reinforcement when this guy talks about non-political things and they have tried asking him not to discuss politics with them; in other words, they have tried "nice." The man is so bitter about his own life that he just can't forget his own failures for very long. I think his goal is to make everyone around him as unhappy as he is.

[JoeyT]

6. That's about my take on it, too.

Though I'm not sure if it's just different people or the people that are nice in person being given the courage of anonymity.
It could also be a bit of confirmation bias on our part. We tend to think of most people we deal with as fairly nice people, but only because we tend to avoid dealing with people we can't stand more than once.

As for the racism, how much you see depends largely on where you are and what you look like. Especially if you look like what people here tend to think of as "Mexican". Which could be an actual person from Mexico, someone from South America, someone from India, an American Indian, or just someone with a good tan.

I seriously don't get the hatred of the poor. It just baffles the hell out of me. I once had a service call where a guy spent 30 minutes railing about how much the poor suck...And he lived in a trailer where you had to walk on boards he'd placed over holes rotted in the floor to get from room to room. I'm not sure what the cutoff for "poor" is, but having to walk the plank to get to the bathroom seems like it'd qualify.

[sarah FAILIN]

7. Everything you've said is true.

I live in a county where they kept all the black people in one tiny section and that's still the general area where most of them live today. They called the "the N colony" and when that area incorporated they kept the name Colony as a reminder of the way things are here I guess. It's embarrassing to me to have people know where I'm from because people automatically assume I'm like the majority of the people here, meaning racist. You don't even have to get on the local boards to see it, but when you do, it will knock you down. During election night, there was literally a lynch mob mentality going on and some literally posted that certain black people they saw on TV needed to be taken out in the woods and put a bullet in the back of their head. I had some that were calling for me to be raped by my own father because I dared to speak out against them and in support of President Obama. These people are crazy around here. I don't dare get too close to any of them anymore in real life because I know how so many are from reading their posts.

[Dhalgren]

9. I came from Cullman County, too

and you are 100% correct in your "take". Just thinking about it makes me want to take a shower...

:hi:

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

8. You forgot one thing...

COLLEGE FOOTBALL!

You can't go ANYwhere on any Alabama posting site without 30% being about AU or UA or some football news.

It's often hard to tell which comes first to Alabamians... Football, Family, or God.

On any given day, it flip flops.

But to your point... like most posters... the liberals don't seem to think imparting their diatribes from the internet is very important to the grand scheme of things.. unfortunately those that flock to SHARE THE NEWS are the least progressive that think if they shout loud and long enough, someone will listen.

I doubt that's just in Alabama.. but what's the Alabama score again?

[Dhalgren]

11. So what the hell's wrong with football?

Elitist much?

[Frances]

13. I'm not sure which comes first either

One fall when I was visiting my father's grave,I happened to notice that someone had put a wreath with Auburn colors on one grave; there was a wreath with Alabama colors on another grave.

I think those wreaths were an indication of how important football is!

[bamacrat]

10. So many of the poor in Alabama think they will be rich someday so they hate on programs and policies

that will help them. If they tried socialism they would love it but their pastors tell them its bad. Also its stupidity I grew up in Morgan county, the east side of Morgan County i.e. no black people and a high Klan representation. People there hate black people, most know none but think its cool and funny to be racist.

[Dhalgren]

12. Dead on. Good observation.

You can't blame the people, who have been systematically oppressed and suppressed for generations. We can look to the ones doing the oppressing, though; they have some answering to do...

[Name removed]

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