Help Received: Urban Dictionary lol

So what are hillbillies and what are rednecks? Are there any differences between the two? Both are generally regarded as relatively uneducated white people but the difference is in location. Hillbillies are typically only from the Appalachian region and are considered unsophisticated. Rednecks on the other hand can be from anywhere they are typically belligerent, drunks, gun owners and conservatives.. at least according to the left rednecks are known for being politically active on the right for anti abortion and gun rights organizations. this is in stark contrast with hillbillies who are historically a silent political group and feel left behind by american politics until recently. When trump ran for president he ran on the platform of bring jobs back to the forgotten people, and by the “forgotten people” he was referring to Appalachians. He wanted to move back to coal energy and wanted to enrich the extremely poor areas of Appalachia. this is the reason I think Trump got elected because the Appalachians were a largely forgotten people. Some other stereotypes of these two peoples are that Hillbillies are all moonshiners and anti government the “south will rise again types” and of course they sleep with their cousins. rednecks are a little more generic: Own an arsenal of firearms, exclusively shop at Walmart, overweight, ect.

Help received: The reading

McDonald’s is a representation for american society in a bunch of different ways. The one that comes to mind for me is the atmosphere of the restaurant. It is geared toward the blue collared american much in the same way that ford’s model t was in the early 1900s. McDonald’s represents America’s mass production economy and sometimes that can be a negative thing especially in foreign countries. Kincheloe even said that some McDonald’s locations in Sweden were bombed because the Swedes viewed them as American imperialism. But think about when you enter a McDonald’s restaurant nobody is wearing fancy clothes, Table manners are not a thing, and Everything is relatively cheap. It is the Walmart of the fast food world. Americans want it fast cheap and greasy and McDonald’s delivers, and is the epitome of american fast food. This can be linked to Appalachian society because many in Appalachia are poor so they do not have the means to afford much else other than McDonald’s so it could be viewed by some as a resturant for “Hillbillies” however I do not thing it is limited the Appalachia as it caters to low income populations of all types in the city or the country.

Patrick Keller

HR Stienburg article

To be completely honest I really have no idea why this was included in the course. The connection between Barbies and the scripture is already shaky, but I have absolutely no clue what this has to do with studying Appalachia. My best theory would be that people from Appalachia do not conform to society’s ideas on how people should look, act, live and that they are unfairly compared to things like barbies. this could negatively affect the stereo types of the region. When a young girl looks at a barbie she sees perfection and any part of her that doesn’t look exactly like the barbie she hates. This could be the way Appalachia feels about the rest of society. As a result of living in harsh conditions the Appalachians have sometimes a rougher appearance and maybe do not have the big house boats and cars that “barbie” ( the rest of society) has and this could cause them to feel inferior or even be embarrassed about their heritage. The point is is that being a “Barbie” or living the life of a barbie is impossible, the barbie itself is a Utopia that is not feasible in real life.

HR:articles

A book people may want to use critical discourse analysis on is Mien Kamph. This was brought to my mind after watching the movie “Operation Finale” today about the capture of Adolf Eichmann the quote on quote “architect of the final solution”. I think that the holocaust was probably the worst manifestation of racism in history and it was partially caused by this book so I think it would be worth using critical discourse analysis on so it does not happen again. For example critical discourse analysis studies the behaviors of groups as a whole. The discourse at the time was very negative in the Nazi Party. This was a result of antisemitism being spread by unstable leaders this just goes to show that individuals can indeed affect a groups tendencies towards racism. The groups discourse once established was very limited and censored. For example the Nazi party would hold rallies where there really was no discourse and was just antisemitic rants by the leaders of the party so when discourse breaks down in a group and everything becomes one sided there is a high likelihood that the groups will start to breed racism when it comes to issues of race.