Thompson toured the South looking for evidence that his preconceived notions and prejudices were true all along. Southerners are people who believe (bwa-ha-ha!) in God, Fox News and the Republican Party. How backward can you get? Don't the Southrons know that such things are uncool in the snooty cocktail parties of Boston and New York?
"Better Off Without "Em" is a narcissistic, Northern exercise in snobbery and conceit, a way of saying "Look how COOL, sophisticated, enlightened and educated WE ARE compared to these laughable Southerners! We are just SO SUPERIOR!" However, Thompson's orgy of self-congratulation does underscore an important difference between Yankees and Southrons. The former (like Thompson) care deeply about their social standing, and desperately need validation, esteem and acceptance from other "sophisticates." In order to achieve this high level of snobbery, it is important to go to the right schools, hold the right opinions, and vote for the right (which means left) candidates. Southrons just don't give a damn, viewing such values as superficial and such attitudes as nonsense.
In spite of the book's rampant bigotry, however, it does reach a point we can all agree with. The South would be much "better off without 'em." However, the corollary isn't true. Just as Lincoln could not let the South go, neither can the modern day liberals and leftists of today, and for the same reason: they need our tax revenues. Parasites cannot survive without a host.
Update: See also the Wall Street Journal's review, reprinted in Southern Partisan.
"Just as Lincoln could not let the South go, neither can the modern day liberals and leftists of today, and for the same reason: they need our tax revenues. Parasites cannot survive without a host."
ReplyDeleteSo true. And you can add that they still need a whippy boy to satisfy there lust for denigration, Demagogging, and ethnic genocide. Just thinking out loud.
Deo Vindice
Yep, VS, they need to feel morally and intellectually superior to someone, anyone, which explains their constant posing and posturing.
ReplyDeleteMy jackass can beat up that jackass and my jackass is smarter than that jackass as well. Just braggin out loud.
ReplyDeleteDeo Vindice
I think it's interesting that there's a Republican elephant on the Stars and Bars when the South has traditionally been a Democratic stronghold. As for the "Dolly Parton-like" profile, I've seen that all over, not just in the South.
ReplyDeletei'm all for taking 'em up on their offer. Let the North have their socialism and we'll just sit back and watch all the jobs get outsourced to the South. Can't think of a better "jobs creation" plan than doing exactly that, seccession.
ReplyDeleteExcellent idea, my friend!
DeleteAbsolutely brilliant. And they say Southerners are slow thinking. Take that you carpetbaggers. Just my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteDeo Vindice
I have not been to the south for over twenty years on my childhood trip to Florida from Ontario Canada they seemed polite. Chuck Thompson may have run in to unfriendly people or was a spring break who got in trouble those spoiled party animals can really ruin a tourist fast. He may have missed romantic scenes and historical sites or watch too many reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard filmed in up states New York oh the irony.
ReplyDelete