# I'm officially disowning my hometown. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 14, 2008, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860 "2008-10-14T13:03:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/81 "2008-10-15T05:05:40Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Ah, so your argument boils down to “I don’t like liberal New Yorkers. McCain dipshits can do whatever they want including inciting violence towards a presidential candidate and it’s ok.” Got it. Yep, that’s it all right. Your powers of comprehension are sharp as a doorknob. :rolleyes: > [@sinjin](#): > > I am so glad you are not my neighbor. _You’re glad?_ 😃 > [@Terrifel](#): > > strongly suspect that **Starving Artist** is beginning to sorely regret having posted that particular clip by now, and is wishing that you would all stop bringing the subject up. Hah! You would be quite wrong about that. I even thought about making it the subject of a new Pit thread. The more you people talk about it, the more people will see it. And I’m confident that the more people who see it, the more people will be repulsed by it. Many people who read these threads don’t post to them and I’m quite happy to let them view it and decide for themselves. I never expected any of the usual suspects around here (hat tip to **Shodan** :)) to find it objectionable in the slightest. They’d have to change their own behavior if they did. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/82 "2008-10-15T05:15:24Z")
Mr. **Artist** , your brain doesn’t work correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/83 "2008-10-15T05:24:45Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Hah! You would be quite wrong about that. > I even thought about making it the subject of a new Pit thread. Really? You thought about it, did you? I take it that you ultimately decided against that course, in favor of your current strategy of posting it in every thread that strikes your fancy, and hoping someone else will take that bait? > [@](#): > > The more you people talk about it, the more people will see it. And I’m confident that the more people who see it, the more people will be repulsed by it. Many people who read these threads don’t post to them and I’m quite happy to let them view it and decide for themselves. I never expected any of the usual suspects around here (hat tip to **Shodan** :)) to find it objectionable in the slightest. > > They’d have to change their own behavior if they did. Oh please, I beg you. Start that thread, man. Spread the word, by all means. Speak out for your fellow oppressed and persecuted conservatives. Tear back the vinyl siding of our decaying society to reveal the pervasive dry rot within. But if you do, please promise that you’ll describe exactly what YOU think is going on in that clip. I think it’ll be instructive. Don’t forget to explain how the superimposed text supports your thesis. Don’t shirk your civic duty. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/84 "2008-10-15T05:49:30Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > Really? You thought about it, did you? I take it that you ultimately decided against that course, in favor of your current strategy of posting it in every thread that strikes your fancy, and hoping someone else will take that bait?Oh please, I beg you. Start that thread, man. Spread the word, by all means. Speak out for your fellow oppressed and persecuted conservatives. Tear back the vinyl siding of our decaying society to reveal the pervasive dry rot within. But if you do, please promise that you’ll describe exactly what YOU think is going on in that clip. I think it’ll be instructive. Don’t forget to explain how the superimposed text supports your thesis. Don’t shirk your civic duty. Now you’re just being silly. It’s late and I’m tired. I’ve certainly put in my fair share of posts around here today. If I decide to post a Pit thread about it, I’ll do so when and in what way I choose, mmkay? Hey, **Hector** , where are ya? It’s time to say goodnight! ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/85 "2008-10-15T06:12:29Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Now you’re just being silly. It’s late and I’m tired. I’ve certainly put in my fair share of posts around here today. If I decide to post a Pit thread about it, I’ll do so when and in what way I choose, mmkay? Hey, no worries. I am not the boss of you. You’re tired; I understand that. It’s been a long day. I think I’ve taken enough of your time. Oh, just one more thing… You’ve suggested that, unlike the anti-Obama clips which depict actions that are IN NO WAY representative of conservatives at large, the anti-McCain clip represents an unbiased and representative cross-section of typical New York liberal behavior. So my question is this: what kind of street festival are the pro-McCain people marching through? my little homage to Peter Falk ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/86 "2008-10-15T07:17:48Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Ah, so your argument boils down to “I don’t like liberal New Yorkers. McCain dipshits can do whatever they want including inciting violence towards a presidential candidate and it’s ok.” Got it. I am so glad you are not my neighbor. Actually, I think his entire argument boils down to saying “NO U!” over and over. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/87 "2008-10-15T11:10:42Z")
Over the past couple of days, I’ve become convinced that **SA** is simply a sad little old man. There’s no \*\*there \*\*there, ya know. He’s got the reasoning abilities of a toddler. “Once I touched the stove, and it was hot. The stove is ALWAYS hot. Bad, BAD stove wants to hurt me.” The difference, of course, between SA and a toddler is that a toddler will learn differently. SA’s days of learning are behind him. I’m not sure whether this stagnation is a choice on his part, or simply hardening of the arteries, but either way I pity him. I say we all just let him ramble his way into that good night, like we do with Grandpa. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/88 "2008-10-15T12:37:39Z")
Pennsylvania; two cities with Alabama between them. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/89 "2008-10-15T13:00:38Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > That’s one nice thing about Obama. You don’t have to go to his supporters to hear someone spout vile crap, Obama and Biden take care of that themselves. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/90 "2008-10-15T14:29:47Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Take a look sometime around nice neighborhoods where people keep up their lawns, pay their bills on time, and work hard for the nice lives they have. You’ll notice a preponderance of McCain/Palin lawn signs. > > Then take a look around the shabbier neighborhoods going to seed where the population tends to be people who squeak by with low-paid, relatively undemanding jobs and spend their evenings drinking beer and watching television. These are frequently the people who want the government to take money away from the prosperous, hard-working people in the nicer neighborhoods in order to provide them with what they’re not willing to work as hard for themselves. In these neighborhoods you’ll find a preponderance of Obama/Biden lawn signs. > > I don’t know about you (well, actually I do) but I’d much rather have people who are disciplined, hard working, and have their shit together making decisions about how to run this country than the other kind. Uh, my neighborhood skews EXACTLY OPPOSITE. The shabby-looking chainlink-fence places with angry dogs\* tend to be McCain/Palin, and the manicured lawns with well-kept gardens (and occasional non-angry dog\* or well-maintained picket fence) are predominantly Obama/Biden. For reference, I live in a very career-professional neighborhood in a college town but too far from the college for the professors or students to want to live (that area is pretty evenly split on sign distribution, and trash is measured entirely by “student = trash, professor = nice lawn”). - Dog anger measured subjectively based on how much they growl at me when I’m walking to the bus stop\*\* or biking. \*\* less for liberal support of the bus and more because parking downtown is impossible in college season. That and I need the walk–I deliberately picked a bus stop I gotta haul ass to. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/91 "2008-10-15T14:36:58Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Pennsylvania; two cities with Alabama between them. That’s both unfair and depressingly accurate at times. My hometown is living proof that you can have a town that’s (literally) got 90%+ of residents on some kind of state or federal assistance (judging SOLELY by percentage of shoppers in my dad’s general store who use food stamps/WIC) who nonetheless vote 75%+ Republican. I’ve talked to these people, and by and large they’re confident about two things: 1. The Republicans are going to lower their taxes AND keep their benefits 2. because they deserve 'em, and only cut benefits to the wetbacks and the ghetto inner city cheats who don’t deserve 'em. This may not be a reflection on the Republican party as a whole, but it’s certainly reflective of the type of rural, poor, white communities that I’ve lived in or on the borders of for all of my life. There is, like it or not, a crypto-racist wing of the Republican party. Random aside: The disproportionate number of veterans in my old hometown split 55-45 Republican/Democrat, and most of them vote across party lines and take that shit far more seriously than most people even here do. Many a good conversation was had with those guys when I was the volunteer bugler for the American Legion color guard. Bonus question: Guess what my party affiliation is and who my favorite politicians are. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/92 "2008-10-15T14:39:59Z")
> [@C3](#): > > Cite? You haven’t heard this one? Rand doesn’t discriminate between “statements that are vicious, hateful, or crude” and “statements that espouse policy that I disagree with” when he calls something “vile”. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/93 "2008-10-15T14:54:22Z")
**Starving Artist** , the only thing that your video proves is that if you march people with one political ideology through a town that doesn’t share that ideology, you’re gonna get people heckling the marchers. Those Republican marchers were doing what they did to simply get a reaction and video tape the heckling crowds. Round these parts, that’s called trolling. So what happens if you have people decked out in Obama/Biden gear march through Provo, UT during rush hour? I’m guessing the locals’ reaction will be much the same as the people in your video. What happens if you have a gay pride parade march through Abilene, TX? I’m guessing the locals’ reaction will be much the same as the people in your video. What happens if you have an anti-Iraq War march go through Clarksville, TN? I’m guessing the locals’ reaction will be much the same as the people in your video. The only thing your video proves is that people get fired up over politics. What the videos from McCain-Palin rallies prove is that a good deal of McCain-Palin supporters are openly racist and uneducated cunts. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/94 "2008-10-15T14:57:28Z")
I would also point out that any video that includes the phrase “Islamic radicals would be more welcome” in New York City, is by definition purely a propoganda tool, and must be taken with a grain of salt. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/95 "2008-10-15T15:21:45Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > So what? A lot of that effect is probably just geography. No high rise housing projects for poor rural Alabamans (Alabamians?) after all. **Starving Artist** has decided to start referring to liberals as “trailer trash”. I wouldn’t have bothered pointing it out otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/96 "2008-10-15T15:32:00Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > **Starving Artist** has decided to start referring to liberals as “trailer trash”. I wouldn’t have bothered pointing it out otherwise. Not quite. The contention is that liberalism - at least in this country - engenders and promotes trailer trash-esque behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/97 "2008-10-15T15:38:09Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Not quite. The contention is that liberalism - at least in this country - engenders and promotes trailer trash-esque behavior. Yeah. Lot’s of liberalism at them NASCAR races. Yee haw. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/98 "2008-10-15T15:39:25Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Not quite. The contention is that liberalism - at least in this country - engenders and promotes trailer trash-esque behavior. Oh give me a fucking break. It isn’t just liberals-and it isn’t just conservatives either, to be fair. It’s BOTH sides. Maybe, just MAYBE, you could pull your head out of your own ass, and look at videos of both types of rallies, (and yes, they do exist), and see that neither side is entirely innocent. I admit, I’m a liberal, and yes, I’m biased. We all are. However, I’m not going to sit here and say, “No, we NEVER do anything, it’s all the right!” No, it’s both. However, last time I checked, I haven’t seen any videos at Obama rallies with people yelling KILL HIM, and people bringing NOOSES. The Secret Service doesn’t investigate people flipping the bird. They DO investigate death threats. For you to try and equate the two is fucking SICK and psychotic. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/99 "2008-10-15T15:41:57Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > The point is that the righties acting like assholes are a small minority who planned their assholish behavior in advance. Nope. The point is that they acted out their crude bigotry at McCain/Palin events, and McCain and Palin thus had a responsibility – which they completely abdicated – to shut them down and kick them out. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860/100 "2008-10-15T15:46:37Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I believe that an alien landing here and reading the Straight Dope would quite clearly get the impression that people around here are of the impression that the racist fucksticks represent a significant proportion of conservatives in this country. Apparently McCain and Palin share that impression – they fail to throw people like [Monkey Man](http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/11/politics/fromtheroad/entry4515246.shtml) out of their rallies because they fear alienating what they perceive to be a significant fraction of their base. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-officially-disowning-my-hometown/467860.md?page=6)