# What's the difference between hillbillies, rednecks, and briars? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 5, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-hillbillies-rednecks-and-briars/193202 "2003-08-05T21:21:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-hillbillies-rednecks-and-briars/193202/81 "2017-06-29T17:23:41Z")
Rednecks - drive trucks, Go mudding, drink lots of beer, proudly live a rural lifestyle. Recreational drugs may or may not be a part of it. They often have a typical job in an office or store. A few are real farmers. It’s a cultural thing. I very rarely use hillbilly. Hillbilly - are people who were born into a unique lifestyle. Often extremely poor. Limited education. I’ve known a few families and they were very hard working people. Others I wouldn’t want to get near. Drugs, particularly meth is a problem because of the poverty. Trailer trash is the most pejorative term around here. I don’t use it. Often it’s chronically unemployed people that sell drugs or commit minor crimes to live. They are often found living in run down trailer parks. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-hillbillies-rednecks-and-briars/193202/82 "2017-06-29T19:22:23Z")
> [@Orwell](#): > > Hmmm. Interesting. I did read what you wrote, but it didn’t ring true where I live. Never visiting there, I am surprised that people from rural Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas, let alone Alaska, would take offense at being called rednecks. Those are exactly the people I was referring to who I would consider rednecks but not white trash. What do the proud rural dwellers there call themselves? > > I live in rural PA, and people generally don’t take offense at being called a redneck. In fact, many proudly brag about being rednecks and their rural lifestyle with pickups, muddy ATVs, 30-packs of canned beer, hunting, fishing, scraggly beards, etc. I don’t recall anyone taking offense at being called a redneck. “White trash” or “hoofty” are another thing altogether, and are absolutely used as insults. With the western states I think cowboy/rancher comes to mind more than redneck, not that there aren’t rednecks out there, too, since they exist everywhere. The two might have some things in common but for one group it’s because it’s a part of their way of life, whereas the redneck is looking to portray an image. For example, a rancher drives a pickup and uses ATVs because they are most suitable to access their land. A redneck has a jacked up coal-roller just because. Cowboy hat vs baseball cap. Rednecks might like the outdoors, hunt, and fish but could care less about conservation, unlike a real outdoors man. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-hillbillies-rednecks-and-briars/193202/83 "2017-06-29T22:49:58Z")
> [@Orwell](#): > > I would still argue, however, from my experience, that redneck and hillbilly are more neutral in terms of character and honesty than trailer trash, white trash, hoofty or hoopie. I hadn’t heard of “hoopie” until this thread, but I’d otherwise agree with your characterization except that redneck is slightly more pejorative than hillbilly to me, since “redneck” to me implies an _active_ anti-intellectualism – someone who doesn’t cotton to the book larnin even if they have the opportunity – whereas “hillbilly” does imply more ignorance of the world than average but doesn’t make a judgement about whether they are eager to cure this or not. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-hillbillies-rednecks-and-briars/193202/84 "2017-06-30T00:13:50Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I hadn’t heard of “hoopie” until this thread, but I’d otherwise agree with your characterization except that redneck is slightly more pejorative than hillbilly to me, since “redneck” to me implies an _active_ anti-intellectualism – someone who doesn’t cotton to the book larnin even if they have the opportunity – whereas “hillbilly” does imply more ignorance of the world than average but doesn’t make a judgement about whether they are eager to cure this or not. I agree. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-hillbillies-rednecks-and-briars/193202/85 "2017-06-30T01:06:09Z")
Yeah…kind of like “colored” is less perjorative than “nigger.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-hillbillies-rednecks-and-briars/193202.md?page=4)