# To all the ignorant people out there - stop making the South out to be some unique villain. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 2, 2015, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024 "2015-07-02T04:59:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/201 "2015-07-03T04:42:37Z")
Oh, and I meant to address this: > [@Shagnasty](#): > > I was going to respond to your other points in detail… No, you weren’t, because you can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/202 "2015-07-03T04:52:36Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I was going to respond to your other points in detail but then I realized that you don’t have any idea what you are talking about when you dropped this turd. Many counter-examples were already given earlier in this thread. Read it, think about it and then get back to us when you have well informed opinions. Thank you in advance. ~Shagnasty But you analysis is wrong. Most people don’t “hate the south”. They hate the racists who live there and they hate the people who defend it’s racist past. You, standing up to “defend the south” is exactly what pisses people off. There are good people in the south, I know, I live here, but there is nothing good about slavery or segregation or the flag or Robert E Lee. You are blaming people for judging the south while simultaneously defending it’s worst aspects. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/203 "2015-07-03T04:53:09Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > (Emphasis added) and while addressing the descendants of those who died at Hitler’s command, would you try to tell them how hard their killer’s family has it? Or would you display a shade more class than that? I indicated that the sentiment is worthy of respect – his family did not do anything to deserve the punishment that will inevitably follow his name. But is the hearing the appropriate place to make the point? With the Confederate flag flying proudly at full mast just outside? > > That, for me, is pretty damn classless. And it demonstrates that our glorious South is producing this type of person, in this type of culture, that makes that sort of statement seem perfectly reasonable. > > ETA-- and some may feel that the family does deserve a bit of the credit - they didn’t teach any better than that. While he may have been a racist killer no matter what, what influence did the family have on his belief system? I don’t know. I have no way of knowing, frankly. But can you say his family is totally blameless in his evil? This isn’t generations later trying to escape the stain of an ancestor. Don’t get me wrong, I personally would not do that but I understand why a judge would say it at the same time. His parents and family are going to be instantly sentenced into a virtual prison of their own for the rest of their lives just because they had a child turn really badly. It happens sometimes even in the best families. I have seen it happen several times even to really good parents. I make no judgement in this case because I don’t know all the facts about the family but having a notorious mass murderer in your family is never a good thing. It will cause loss of employment, extreme legal bills and eventual bankruptcy with no end and no way to get out of it for people that may have had no real influence in the crime. Do you think the Columbine shooter’s familes were fundamentally evil? I am certainly not taking up for Dylann Roof nor does any Southerner I know. If you need an executioner tonight, I will be completely up for it and I could gather up a large posse if you want horses and rope involved. That son of a bitch needs to suffer as badly as possible. Luckily for him, the South Carolina Justice system is a little more nuanced and procedural these days. ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/204 "2015-07-03T05:00:04Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > … If you need an executioner tonight, I will be completely up for it and I could gather up a large posse if you want horses and rope involved. That son of a bitch needs to suffer as badly as possible. Luckily for him, the South Carolina Justice system is a little more nuanced and procedural these days. Yes, you’ve told us before about how much you’d love to have an excuse to [murder someone](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6931360&postcount=2). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/205 "2015-07-03T05:04:12Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > It’s already been pointed out to me and I now pay it forward that “stars and bars” doesn’t actually mean the familiar battle flag, but the now-lesser-known original version of the CSA national flag, which to me looks like a low-res version of the USA national flag. Yes, I know, which is why I mentioned both. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/206 "2015-07-03T05:04:52Z")
> [@splatterpunk](#): > > Yes, you’ve told us before about how much you’d love to have an excuse to [murder someone](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6931360&postcount=2). That was a joke that you missed. I hope I never need to kill anybody but I am not opposed to the idea in extreme cases. Those cases would not be ‘murder’. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/207 "2015-07-03T05:14:40Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > That, for me, is pretty damn classless. I believe the word is “tacky,” taught to me by a Southern lady of a certain age, and spat out with all the venom an elderly belle would allow through her lips. “_We_,” meaning Quality, “don’t do _that_,” meaning something that Trash would do, though she was too polite to even mouth the T word, preferring to ignore such people. White people, of course. Don’t think she even noticed black people. Wish I could remember her name. It was classic. Eulalia, or something. Charming lady. Been dead these fifty years. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/208 "2015-07-03T05:16:55Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > That was a joke that you missed. No, it wasn’t. > [@](#): > > I hope I never need to kill anybody but I am not opposed to the idea in extreme cases. Those cases would not be ‘murder’. Uh-huh. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/209 "2015-07-03T05:34:05Z")
> [@splatterpunk](#): > > No, it wasn’t. > Uh-huh. Uh-yeah. I am certain that I will never murder anyone. Self-defense and the death penalty are quite different in my opinion and those of legal scholars. I already saved three people from dying (2 from drowning and one from a car accident) so I am already up three. I would be willing to take 1 point loss for an especially terrible person like Dylann Roof. Character assassination isn’t a good debating tool especially when you are trying to go up against someone like me or Scylla. He is better than I am but we both have really good credentials. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/210 "2015-07-03T05:47:43Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The repeated use of the word Mammy is a very offensive slur to someone that helped raise me from a baby and I loved very much. Her name was Lola and she was like a surrogate mother to me from a toddler all the way through high school. I will have to kindly ask one time only that you do not ever and I mean NEVER again use slurs against my effective family ever again in your lifetime. I loved her with all my heart as and I resent the vapid Gone With the Wind references to something you know nothing about. Here’s a “Southernism” for you: _That dog don’t hunt_. Dude, you’ve used the term “Black Mammy” yourself (do I need to post a link?). There’s no way you grew up in the South without knowing that the term itself, even used just one time, is an extremely offensive slur. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/211 "2015-07-03T05:51:01Z")
Bless your heart. You tried to strawman your way out of our Southern strategy of defending our (rather disgusting) history of racism. I’ve said this a lot to people, but it bears saying again (why, I don’t know): “That other guy also does it” is not an excuse I accept from an 8 year old. Why in hell should I accept that sort of argument from an adult of presumably sound mind? Even if you were right that the South is not some sort of unique bad guy (not really being claimed by anybody not made of straw and not especially true as you argue it, but whatevs), it’s an atrocious argument: “we’re not the only bad guys, so it’s not as bad as it seems”. Seriously? That’s one shitty argument. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/212 "2015-07-03T06:19:16Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Bless your heart. > > You tried to strawman your way out of our Southern strategy of defending our (rather disgusting) history of racism. > > I’ve said this a lot to people, but it bears saying again (why, I don’t know): “That other guy also does it” is not an excuse I accept from an 8 year old. Why in hell should I accept that sort of argument from an adult of presumably sound mind? > > Even if you were right that the South is not some sort of unique bad guy (not really being claimed by anybody not made of straw and not especially true as you argue it, but whatevs), it’s an atrocious argument: “we’re not the only bad guys, so it’s not as bad as it seems”. > > Seriously? That’s one shitty argument. No it is really not when locales as different from St. Louis to Los Angeles are having severe racial and economic troubles of their own as do other major cities like Chicago. Meanwhile, parts of Texas and the rest of the South are absolutely booming. My parents suburb near McKinney, TX outside of Dallas i s struggling to build suburban housing and schools quickly enough to accommodate demand. It is almost exactly like Detroit in the 1950’s. Toyota USA decided to move their headquarters there rather recently because California taxes were too expensive and the sheer volume of construction going on to support that is mind-boggling. It goes on for many tens of miles with three new elementary schools just within a few miles of my parent’s house plus three new large subdivisions with large houses for not much money. If you want to see where the U.S. is doing well, that is it. New Orleans (the most unique city in the U.S.), Houston (incredibly diverse), Atlanta (with the busiest airport in the world), Charlotte, NC (the banking center of the U.S.) are all doing very well. The stereotype that the South is nothing but a bunch of hicks living in the woods is not correct in the least. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to live in the swamps and hunt alligators all day but I also have an Ivy League education and that pays the bills better so that is what I do - for now. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/213 "2015-07-03T06:25:01Z")
Nice to see you around Scylla. > [@Scylla](#): > > 1. There was a time when the Confederate flag was about short denim shorts on hot girls, fast cars, beer, Lynyrd Skynyrd, moonshine, and showing people that you were an anti-yuppie who was fun loving and unpretentious. It meant racist things before that time, and it means racist things now, but there may be some legitimate confusion or backlash by some well-meaning and let’s face it… Slow-minded individuals who’s perceptions are still stuck in 1980s Hazard County. You can see these people on You Tube all the time. Usually under “Redneck fail”… Ok, but the NE hipsters (sic) that I went around with during the 1980s weren’t exactly into the Confederate flag. Here’s my take of that period: > [@The white hood: heritage, not hate!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-hood-heritage-not-hate/723050/303): > > When I was in college, one freshman put the Confederate flag in his window. It was fairly prominent: I would pass it every day. I never knowingly met the guy. > > I grew up in the Northeast and this struck me as seriously weird. Ditto for another NE friend of mine. We figured some Southerners were living in the past. But mostly we were baffled. Why revere a rebellion dedicated to keeping slavery and possibly low tariffs on manufactured goods? (Today I buy the latter even less: I had an AP knowledge of US history at the time.) > > Another friend from Virginia told me that the guy [flag displayer] was actually from upstate New York. Wow. Even weirder. When I asked why, I was told that the guy thought it was cool. … > > It was also explained to me that among some, displaying the Confederate flag was a way of showing solidarity with the Klan. Oh. Didn’t know that. [Brrrrr.] > > The flag remained in place in this northeastern college for 2 consecutive semesters, after which the guy moved elsewhere. I don’t recall anger or outrage. Personally, I was pretty quizzical [and a little freaked]. > > TLDR: I don’t think the Confederate flag produced rage so much as weariness or perhaps confusion among non-Southerners. Again, I’m just adding to the historical record. Finally, > [@Scylla](#): > > Nobody goes around asking Northernors to apologize for “Jersey Shore.” But you know they really should. So on behalf of myself, New Jersey and Governor Christie I hereby apologize for _Jersey Shore_. Thankfully those 3 terrible years are now in the past and I implore my NE comrades not to erect monuments to that dark era. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/214 "2015-07-03T06:29:55Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The stereotype that the South is nothing but a bunch of hicks living in the woods is not correct in the least. > > Don’t get me wrong, I would love to live in the swamps and hunt alligators all day LOL ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/215 "2015-07-03T06:31:33Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Here’s a “Southernism” for you: _That dog don’t hunt_. Dude, you’ve used the term “Black Mammy” yourself (do I need to post a link?). There’s no way you grew up in the South without knowing that the term itself, even used just one time, is an extremely offensive slur. Fair enough. I only repeated the term back because it was a term that other people insisted on using. I didn’t take enough offense at it at the time but it eventually wore me down over time. You can tie this one straight back into the ‘microaggression’ thread that we just had. It really pisses me off now because it is disrespectful to a person who I love but is now passed away. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/216 "2015-07-03T06:44:15Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Spatteplunk, Nemo… Several others, and I apologize for not naming you… Have consistently come up with the celebrating of racist icons that seems to occur in the South, but not the North. > > And it is true, the North does not go around celebrating, it’s pre 1804 racism. I guess that I could argue that George Washington had slaves, and we all seem to get past that and think he was a good guy, so why the problem with Southern culture? Southern culture basically got a hard stop with slavery, and if we say “southern culture,”. Slavery is the biggest association. George has other associations that come before slavery. You can like George Washington without anybody thinking you are a racist. > > The other thing is that the confederate flag, the south, and southern culture is a magnetic icon for current racists and for those that oppose them. > > This is a problem for somebody who is a southerner, who never owned slaves, is not racist, but who is justifiably proud of the South for its culture, cuisine, hospitality, gentility, etc. > > To me, I think that beiing a conscientious southerner means he’s just got to give up the Confederate flag due to its baggage, recognize that racists and neonnazis and assholes in general are attracted to these icons and history and are making them far more relevant than they should be. They also need to be realize that acerbic Noetherners are always going to be intrusive stuck up pricks (I say this as a Northerner.) > > Another thing that Northerner’s don’t seem to get about the South ( Frankly, I don’t get it either,). Is that the South seems to have a thing for reformed villains, like they are better than somebody who was never an asshole in the first place, George Wallace being the prime example of this, being extremely popular with the black vote during his latter terms. Go figure. As you point out the South has a long history. But southerners themselves have chosen to identify their heritage with one four year period of their history. There wouldn’t be this issue if southerners wanted to talk about Hernando de Soto, John Smith, John Rolfe, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Nathanael Greene, James Madison, Daniel Boone, Sequoyah, Pushmataha, Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, Winfield Scott, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Huey Long, Robert Johnson, Elvis Presley, and Martin Luther King - all of whom were major historical figures. But if you ask a southerner about southern history, the story usually starts at Fort Sumter and ends at Appomattox. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/217 "2015-07-03T10:13:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > …There wouldn’t be this issue if southerners wanted to talk about Hernando de Soto, John Smith, John Rolfe, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Nathanael Greene, James Madison, Daniel Boone, Sequoyah, Pushmataha, Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, Winfield Scott, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Huey Long, Robert Johnson, Elvis Presley, and Martin Luther King - all of whom were major historical figures. But if you ask a southerner about southern history, the story usually starts at Fort Sumter and ends at Appomattox. Have you been hanging out in the Deep South? Maybe I don’t count–I was born in New Hampshire & have spent most of my life in Texas. Which is a Southern state but has its own identity. Who needs the Battle Flag when you have the Lone Star? Oh, we’ve got too many Old & Neo-Confederates here–but Clarence Fucking Thomas stood with the Liberal Supremes to reassure the State of Texas we did _not_ need to add that traitorous symbol to our license plates. Just because the Sons of Confederate Veterans won in 9 other states. (That’s changing now.) The ranks of Confederate memorials on the Capitol grounds have been joined by the [Tejano Monument](http://www.tspb.state.tx.us/SPB/Gallery/MonuList/19.htm). I’ve got a lot of Hispanic/Latino/Tejano additions to the list–starting with [Cabeza de Vaca](https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fca06), shipwrecked buck naked near Galveston, who trekked across Texas & the Southwest & learned to care for the people. Musicians? John Nova Lomax used Ricky Perry’s sick flirtation with Secession as an excuse to list the musical Patron Saints & Bastards Sons from the _5 States of Post-Secession Texas_. [Palo Duro](http://www.houstonpress.com/music/a-musical-guide-to-post-secession-texas-palo-duro-6772357), [Trinity](http://www.houstonpress.com/music/a-musical-guide-to-post-secession-texas-part-2-trinity-6519083) (warning: Dallas bashing!), [New Texas](http://www.houstonpress.com/music/a-musical-guide-to-post-secession-texas-new-texas-6518154), [Rio Grande](http://www.houstonpress.com/music/a-musical-guide-to-post-secession-texas-rio-grande-6500434) & [Brazoria](http://www.houstonpress.com/music/a-musical-guide-to-post-secession-texas-houston-and-brazoria-6503602). Governor Sam Houston fought like a lion against Secession. When he lost the vote he offered to stay as President of an Independent Texan (as he had been before) but balked at swearing allegiance to the CSA. Houston said Jefferson Davis was “As ambitious as Lucifer and as cold as a lizard.” From the rest of your list, even Andrew “I Can’t Believe He’s Still On the 20” Jackson stood for the Union. George Washington saw the USA as a country & spent his energies on his last agonizing day of life to ensure his slaves would be freed; he couldn’t free the ones that Martha from her first marriage. Or their descendants–the descendants of whom were eventually inherited by Mrs Bobby Lee. I’m not supposed to say rude things about Jefferson on this anniversary of His Great Accomplishment, but he used his long life to help the South sink further into agrarian, slaveholding doldrums. Yeah, some of those folks in the moss-draped Deep South (that overlaps with East Texas) are too inbred to think straight. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/218 "2015-07-03T10:13:24Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Fair enough. I only repeated the term back because it was a term that other people insisted on using. I didn’t take enough offense at it at the time but it eventually wore me down over time. You can tie this one straight back into the ‘microaggression’ thread that we just had. It really pisses me off now because it is disrespectful to a person who I love but is now passed away. Hmm. It seems the answer to my question is, “Yes; please do post a [link](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17936124&postcount=8).” Note that I’m not talking about the use of the word in this thread, but when you used it and were rightly taken to task by **Guinastasia** in the very next post after your use of the term. Again: that was in another thread. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/219 "2015-07-03T12:02:31Z")
When it comes to people like Washington and Jefferson, when we celebrate them, we do so for the things that are still admirable about them. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/220 "2015-07-03T13:38:39Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The stereotype that the South is nothing but a bunch of hicks living in the woods is not correct in the least. Quite true. Unfortunately the stereotype of otherwise educated and progressive Southerners celebrating backward ideas and symbols on the grounds of “heritage” is alive and well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024.md?page=12)