Opinion of these online comments about West Virginia

[Santander]

There's a lot of racism in West Virginia. I don't know why that was ever a controversial statement.

The level of racism in WV does not even approach the levels of racism that you see in countries like Japan or Korea. These are countries where blacks are considered sub-human. Perhaps this forum romanticizes and over-zealously defends Appalachia, but people here talk about racism as if it is solely perpetuated by whites. I'm willing to bet that the attitudes of whites in this country towards homosexuality, miscegenation, and black Americans are far more progressive than those of both first and second-generation Asians.

We cannot live in a truly post-racial country until we admit that racism in this country flows in multiple directions and is not a white-only problem.

[This account no longer in use.]

Remember back in the day when IceSpear was a good poster?

[White Trash]

There's a lot of racism in West Virginia. I don't know why that was ever a controversial statement.

That doesn't mean that classism is OK, though.

Thank you!

[IceSpear]

There's a lot of racism in West Virginia. I don't know why that was ever a controversial statement.

That doesn't mean that classism is OK, though.

Thank you!

How is criticizing racist West Virginians classist? Not every West Virginian is a working class white coal miner, lol.

[White Trash]

There's a lot of racism in West Virginia. I don't know why that was ever a controversial statement.

That doesn't mean that classism is OK, though.

Thank you!

How is criticizing racist West Virginians classist? Not every West Virginian is a working class white coal miner, lol.

A good chunk of your comments about West Virginia come off as very thinly veiled classism. Seems like a very poor attempt at dog whistle politics. Take notes from guys who talk about "State's rights" and "Welfare queens".

[IceSpear]

There's a lot of racism in West Virginia. I don't know why that was ever a controversial statement.

That doesn't mean that classism is OK, though.

Thank you!

How is criticizing racist West Virginians classist? Not every West Virginian is a working class white coal miner, lol.

A good chunk of your comments about West Virginia come off as very thinly veiled classism. Seems like a very poor attempt at dog whistle politics. Take notes from guys who talk about "State's rights" and "Welfare queens".

Oh, would you care to show some examples?

All racists are terrible, I couldn't care less what their class is.

[White Trash]

As for why I dislike it, the Eastern part of the state is like West Virginia's deformed cousin. Horrible Dixiecrats who always vote straight ticket Republican like Santander and Kim Davis (thankfully both Republicans now), racist coal miners who blame the black guy for all their misfortunes despite the fact that the industry has clearly been declining for decades, poor whites who want to take government assistance away from "welfare queens" (aka blacks) in the inner cities while still keeping their food stamps and disability benefits, because unlike Shaniqua in inner city Chicago, "they earned it." Etc. etc.

It's not quite as bad as West Virginia since it does have some decent areas (like Louisville and Lexington), but overall it is just terrible.

Pretty good strawman you got to get angry at. Wailing about how those damn coal miners trying to make a living just don't get that their industry is declining. And all those racist white on welfare who don't understand the irony of their situation. It's just condescending man. It comes off as holier-than-thou and pretentious. You latch onto these stereotypes like they are the truth and propagate it.

Just take comfort in the fact that old West Virginia (outside of the East Panhandle and Morgantown) continues to lose population and have been losing population for about 70 years now.

Indeed. It is a wonderful trend.

Probably a joke. But celebrating the decline of an entire region? A place with families and with culture? Had you been celebrating the decline of black neighborhoods in coastal South Carolina, you'd be put on a pike.

Listen, I think you're a very good poster. You seem committed to your ideas and values, which is a trait few people lack. In fact, I was pretty damn unsure of myself after voting for Clinton in the primary, but your confidence (and the confidence of others) in her made me more confident. I think our beliefs are actually pretty close. But the thing is is that you are alienating a good chunk of people with these kinds of comments. And I probably shouldn't be getting too into this, but I'm emotionally invested. I'm not the type who will be offended easily, but I'm starting to. I come from a background and an environment very similar to West Virginia, and I grew up very insecure about my culture and economic standing.

It really doesn't make a difference to me anymore, but I just want you to understand that some of these comments aren't the political rhetoric and healthy discourse that so many people hide behind. Its blatant sh**tposting. And the joke is getting really close to not being funny anymore.

[IceSpear]

As for why I dislike it, the Eastern part of the state is like West Virginia's deformed cousin. Horrible Dixiecrats who always vote straight ticket Republican like Santander and Kim Davis (thankfully both Republicans now), racist coal miners who blame the black guy for all their misfortunes despite the fact that the industry has clearly been declining for decades, poor whites who want to take government assistance away from "welfare queens" (aka blacks) in the inner cities while still keeping their food stamps and disability benefits, because unlike Shaniqua in inner city Chicago, "they earned it." Etc. etc.

It's not quite as bad as West Virginia since it does have some decent areas (like Louisville and Lexington), but overall it is just terrible.

Pretty good strawman you got to get angry at. Wailing about how those damn coal miners trying to make a living just don't get that their industry is declining. And all those racist white on welfare who don't understand the irony of their situation. It's just condescending man. It comes off as holier-than-thou and pretentious. You latch onto these stereotypes like they are the truth and propagate it.

Just take comfort in the fact that old West Virginia (outside of the East Panhandle and Morgantown) continues to lose population and have been losing population for about 70 years now.

Indeed. It is a wonderful trend.

Probably a joke. But celebrating the decline of an entire region? A place with families and with culture? Had you been celebrating the decline of black neighborhoods in coastal South Carolina, you'd be put on a pike.

Listen, I think you're a very good poster. You seem committed to your ideas and values, which is a trait few people lack. In fact, I was pretty damn unsure of myself after voting for Clinton in the primary, but your confidence (and the confidence of others) in her made me more confident. I think our beliefs are actually pretty close. But the thing is is that you are alienating a good chunk of people with these kinds of comments. And I probably shouldn't be getting too into this, but I'm emotionally invested. I'm not the type who will be offended easily, but I'm starting to. I come from a background and an environment very similar to West Virginia, and I grew up very insecure about my culture and economic standing.

It really doesn't make a difference to me anymore, but I just want you to understand that some of these comments aren't the political rhetoric and healthy discourse that so many people hide behind. Its blatant sh**tposting. And the joke is getting really close to not being funny anymore.

If my secret motivation for hating West Virginia was because it was a "poor state", then by that logic I'd love Forsyth County, Georgia because it has many wealthy racist hicks, which is obviously not the case. That place is a disgusting hellhole as well.

Anyway, as I've stated before, the only reason I bash WV so much on this forum is because of how many posters hold it as their sacrosanct holy place that cannot be criticized, lest you get dogpiled. This despite the fact other states, places, people, etc. are bashed on this forum constantly and nobody bats an eyelash. West Virginia is not entitled to special treatment. I found it so hilarious that people reacted so violently to a West Virginia joke that I wanted to do more, and it has only snowballed from there. People on this forum care more about posting a picture of a hick off Google Images than they do about saying women should be beheaded for having abortions or that George Wallace was a freedom fighter. It has extremely misplaced and inconsistent priorities, particularly among the "progressive" contingent. Here was the thread that started it all: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=231503.0

Anyway, fair enough. I do agree the joke has probably gone far enough now and I've made my point. But I highly recommend that you do not take my posts, or this forum in general for that matter, so seriously. I never got why you guys get so angry at certain silly things, like TNVolunteer's angry NH women stuff. I find it hilarious which was why I decided to incorporate it into my West Virginia bashing.

Also, don't worry, I think Louisiana is a freedom state.

[White Trash]

I think that's fair enough. I probably got too far into it, since as a racist Southern hick I felt the need to defend my fellow racist Southern hicks. My post likely came off angrier than it was intended to sound, but I just wanted to get the point across without sounding limp-wristed or weak willed.

[IceSpear]

I think that's fair enough. I probably got too far into it, since as a racist Southern hick I felt the need to defend my fellow racist Southern hicks. My post likely came off angrier than it was intended to sound, but I just wanted to get the point across without sounding limp-wristed or weak willed.

Hey, no need to put yourself down like that. #NotAllSoutherners

[White Trash]

I think that's fair enough. I probably got too far into it, since as a racist Southern hick I felt the need to defend my fellow racist Southern hicks. My post likely came off angrier than it was intended to sound, but I just wanted to get the point across without sounding limp-wristed or weak willed.

Hey, no need to put yourself down like that. #NotAllSoutherners

#AGoodChunkOfEm

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

IceSpear, the reason everyone reacted so poorly to your West Virginia "joke" (in terms of that persona from awhile back) and most of your West Virginia bashing isn't because they love West Virginia so much and simply can not bear to see it bashed. It's because it simply was just stupid and not at all funny. No one on AAD cares if you bash West Virginia, or really anywhere that isn't a cool, hip liberal urban areas, and yet everyone there was plenty of complaints there about stupid that "racist hick" piece was and how it wasn't at all funny.

[IceSpear]

IceSpear, the reason everyone reacted so poorly to your West Virginia "joke" (in terms of that persona from awhile back) and most of your West Virginia bashing isn't because they love West Virginia so much and simply can not bear to see it bashed. It's because it simply was just stupid and not at all funny. No one on AAD cares if you bash West Virginia, or really anywhere that isn't a cool, hip liberal urban areas, and yet everyone there was plenty of complaints there about stupid that "racist hick" piece was and how it wasn't at all funny.

You know that the racist WV hick joke was long after multiple posters attempted to rake me over the coals for bashing WV, right? Off the top of my head, that thread from March I linked to, as well as the WV results thread in May where I was apparently literally Hitler and an evil latte liberal because I was rooting for Hillary to lose the state. lol

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

IceSpear, the reason everyone reacted so poorly to your West Virginia "joke" (in terms of that persona from awhile back) and most of your West Virginia bashing isn't because they love West Virginia so much and simply can not bear to see it bashed. It's because it simply was just stupid and not at all funny. No one on AAD cares if you bash West Virginia, or really anywhere that isn't a cool, hip liberal urban areas, and yet everyone there was plenty of complaints there about stupid that "racist hick" piece was and how it wasn't at all funny.

You know that the racist WV hick joke was long after multiple posters attempted to rake me over the coals for bashing WV, right? Off the top of my head, that thread from March I linked to, as well as the WV results thread in May where I was apparently literally Hitler and an evil latte liberal because I was rooting for Hillary to lose the state. lol

"Multiple posters" in this case is still just a handful. Most people couldn't care less either way about your WV bashing until you took it to such annoying and unfunny extremes.

[Figueira]

There's a lot of racism in West Virginia. I don't know why that was ever a controversial statement.

That doesn't mean that classism is OK, though.

Thank you!

How is criticizing racist West Virginians classist? Not every West Virginian is a working class white coal miner, lol.

If I thought that criticizing racist West Virginians was inherently classist, and that classism was bad, that would be incredibly hypocritical.

It's not who you're criticizing. It's how you're criticizing them.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

There's a lot of racism in West Virginia. I don't know why that was ever a controversial statement.

That doesn't mean that classism is OK, though.

Thank you!

How is criticizing racist West Virginians classist? Not every West Virginian is a working class white coal miner, lol.

If I thought that criticizing racist West Virginians was inherently classist, and that classism was bad, that would be incredibly hypocritical.

It's not who you're criticizing. It's how you're criticizing them.

I agree with this although my reasoning is probably a bit different, I wouldn't even care so much even if he was engaging in blatantly classist attacks (not so much because they're OK or acceptable, but because there is no point in getting worked up about people being bigoted or stupid on the Internet. You'll never be happy if you do.) as long as they weren't as cringeworthy and widespread and derailing as TNVolunteer's New Hampshire thing or jfern's "But Hillary!" talk. That's why it's a lot worse than some random alt-right Trump supporting moron on the 2016 forum.

Also the ratio of IceSpear West Virginia bashing to people pearl clutching and getting worked up and offended about it is at least 10:1.

[This account no longer in use.]

Frankly, I'm not against this because I like West Virginia or anything. It's just that your feeble, pathetic attempts at 'comedy' are the most unfunny, ridiculous endeavors I have ever heard of. At least TNVolunteer is entertaining in some ways. IceSpear, you used to be a good poster. What the hell happened? Nobody takes you seriously anymore because you get so triggered by West Virginia.

[Kingpoleon]

Better than yours.

[IceSpear]

Frankly, I'm not against this because I like West Virginia or anything. It's just that your feeble, pathetic attempts at 'comedy' are the most unfunny, ridiculous endeavors I have ever heard of. At least TNVolunteer is entertaining in some ways. IceSpear, you used to be a good poster. What the hell happened? Nobody takes you seriously anymore because you get so triggered by West Virginia.

Being a little edgy here I see?

The fact that you think I'm being "triggered" means you still don't "get it." I thought I made it fairly clear in my reply to Southern Gothic. Though BRTD does bring up a fair point that I may have extrapolated too much from a vocal minority of posters, the fact remains that for no other state is there a designated lynch mob set to pounce on anyone who bashes it. I'm sure all the other states are jealous, particularly those that are frequently bashed like poor Florida.

[This account no longer in use.]

Not really. If you tried making fun of Florida with the same lack of any skill in comedy whatsoever and beat that dead horse for this long, people would want you to stop. Frankly, it doesn't matter what state you would theoretically be posting about; it'd still be unbearable.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Not really. If you tried making fun of Florida with the same lack of any skill in comedy whatsoever and beat that dead horse for this long, people would want you to stop. Frankly, it doesn't matter what state you would theoretically be posting about; it'd still be unbearable.

Exactly. I don't think anyone here has a particular emotional attachment to New Hampshire, but that doesn't stop TNVolunteer's weird hangup about it being one of the forum's least favorite habits of any poster.

OK IceSpear here's a great analogy: Go read jfern's posts about Hillary Clinton. Including the ones where he brings her up in threads on completely unrelated topics or reaches at anything to have an excuse to attack her. And you don't have to be a big fan of Hillary Clinton, or even like her at all, to find his posting on this topic lame and cringeworthy. And tons of people do.

And that's basically how most people view your posts on West Virginia.

[IceSpear]

Not really. If you tried making fun of Florida with the same lack of any skill in comedy whatsoever and beat that dead horse for this long, people would want you to stop. Frankly, it doesn't matter what state you would theoretically be posting about; it'd still be unbearable.

The equivalent would be if a random poster made a "Florida Man" joke and a rabid gang of posters attacked them for being a sexist bigot who hates Southerners and men. Then they made another similar joke a month or so later and said gang dogpiled them again. Because again, the insane overreactions and pearl clutching predated the frequency of the bashing.

[IceSpear]

Not really. If you tried making fun of Florida with the same lack of any skill in comedy whatsoever and beat that dead horse for this long, people would want you to stop. Frankly, it doesn't matter what state you would theoretically be posting about; it'd still be unbearable.

Exactly. I don't think anyone here has a particular emotional attachment to New Hampshire, but that doesn't stop TNVolunteer's weird hangup about it being one of the forum's least favorite habits of any poster.

OK IceSpear here's a great analogy: Go read jfern's posts about Hillary Clinton. Including the ones where he brings her up in threads on completely unrelated topics or reaches at anything to have an excuse to attack her. And you don't have to be a big fan of Hillary Clinton, or even like her at all, to find his posting on this topic lame and cringeworthy. And tons of people do.

And that's basically how most people view your posts on West Virginia.

How often do I bring up West Virginia in completely irrelevant threads? This thread was completely dedicated to it at least, until you all hijacked it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Not really. If you tried making fun of Florida with the same lack of any skill in comedy whatsoever and beat that dead horse for this long, people would want you to stop. Frankly, it doesn't matter what state you would theoretically be posting about; it'd still be unbearable.

The equivalent would be if a random poster made a "Florida Man" joke and a rabid gang of posters attacked them for being a sexist bigot who hates Southerners and men. Then they made another similar joke a month or so later and said gang dogpiled them again. Because again, the insane overreactions and pearl clutching predated the frequency of the bashing.

If someone made a "Florida Man" account that contributed nothing of substance and only posted in extreme caricatures of notorious people from Florida with zero subtley and no wit or humor and people complained about it, it wouldn't be because they love Florida so much. The actual FloridaMan Twitter account is dedicated to profiling actual news stories about crazy things that happen in Florida. The equivalent would be profiling actual stories that show racism in West Virginia. Although if you did do so, people would still likely find it lame because it really doesn't prove anything and is basically a Hitler Ate Sugar sort of fallacy, and would be the same thing as how px75 feels the need to chronicle every single stupid comment made by a Republican who sits on a Soil and Water Board of Commissioners or every time some "Bernie Bro" on Reddit or Twitter said something stupid. Or actually for an even better example how old time poster CARLHAYDEN a few years back effectively ran a human RSS feed of stories about illegal immigrants committing crimes.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Not really. If you tried making fun of Florida with the same lack of any skill in comedy whatsoever and beat that dead horse for this long, people would want you to stop. Frankly, it doesn't matter what state you would theoretically be posting about; it'd still be unbearable.

Exactly. I don't think anyone here has a particular emotional attachment to New Hampshire, but that doesn't stop TNVolunteer's weird hangup about it being one of the forum's least favorite habits of any poster.

OK IceSpear here's a great analogy: Go read jfern's posts about Hillary Clinton. Including the ones where he brings her up in threads on completely unrelated topics or reaches at anything to have an excuse to attack her. And you don't have to be a big fan of Hillary Clinton, or even like her at all, to find his posting on this topic lame and cringeworthy. And tons of people do.

And that's basically how most people view your posts on West Virginia.

How often do I bring up West Virginia in completely irrelevant threads? This thread was completely dedicated to it at least, until you all hijacked it.

You bring it up in threads that are best very tangentially related. If people are discussing the role racism plays in the 2016 election saying "HAR HAR TRUMPSLIDE IN WEST VIRGINIA BECAUSE RACISTS!" is not a particularly interesting or enlightening insight. And is about as relevant to the outcome of the election in terms of analysis as someone noted the Bronx's high Hispanic population means that Trump will likely run poorly there and thus he does not have a good chance of winning New York.

That's not the point though. The point is you don't need to be particularly fond of West Virginia to find this schtick irritating and cringeworthy any more than you need to be particularly fond of Hillary Clinton to find jfern an unbearable sh!tposter.