Real Time: The South Will Rise Again!!!

[DMX7]

[GSH]

There are dumb people everywhere - on both sides of the political fence. If you believe that she didn't cherry-pick the interviews, then you're as stupid as the people in the video. If you want to know why people are at each other's throats so much, it's the extremist bull on television and radio. And this is a perfect example.

And before of you try and insist that she didn't cherry-pick (because Bill Maher said so), consider this. She supposedly just "got off the plane" and started doing interviews. Have you been to Mississippi recently? What do you think the chances are that everyone she saw when she got off the plane was white? Pretty much zero. She picked out the most ignorant, polarizing people she could find. And then Maher claims that it's a representative sample of the state. That's like watching a television psychic, and believing that he and his subject don't know each other. It's easy to do a magic act, if the audience is willing to close their eyes at the proper times.

I'd love some of the left-leaning people here to be intellectually honest enough to call bull on this too. It would give me hope that normal people might be able to have discussions about issues, without the insults and theatrics.

Edit: Maher is insulting the state of Mississippi, but he's also insulting your intelligence. I think nearly everyone here is smart enough that, at some level, you know this is a bull stunt. All this kind of stuff does if fuel more hatred and polarize.

[Jacob1983]

I find it interesting how people from areas where there is a large dominant white population love to stereotype places in the South for being completely ignorant and racist. It's also funny because a lot of places in the South have more diversity than places in the North.

[Halberto]

There are dumb people everywhere - on both sides of the political fence. If you believe that she didn't cherry-pick the interviews, then you're as stupid as the people in the video. If you want to know why people are at each other's throats so much, it's the extremist bull on television and radio. And this is a perfect example.

And before of you try and insist that she didn't cherry-pick (because Bill Maher said so), consider this. She supposedly just "got off the plane" and started doing interviews. Have you been to Mississippi recently? What do you think the chances are that everyone she saw when she got off the plane was white? Pretty much zero. She picked out the most ignorant, polarizing people she could find. And then Maher claims that it's a representative sample of the state. That's like watching a television psychic, and believing that he and his subject don't know each other. It's easy to do a magic act, if the audience is willing to close their eyes at the proper times.

I'd love some of the left-leaning people here to be intellectually honest enough to call bull on this too. It would give me hope that normal people might be able to have discussions about issues, without the insults and theatrics.

Edit: Maher is insulting the state of Mississippi, but he's also insulting your intelligence. I think nearly everyone here is smart enough that, at some level, you know this is a bull stunt. All this kind of stuff does if fuel more hatred and polarize.

woah woah woah..... have you ever been to Mississippi?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I find it interesting how people from areas where there is a large dominant white population love to stereotype places in the South for being completely ignorant and racist. It's also funny because a lot of places in the South have more diversity than places in the North.

Mississippi just makes me think of Meridian and there is not much diversity going on there. Memphis has a lot of the same thing. I cannot really speak to the rest of those states but those two places did not have diversity at least not willingly.

[TeyshaBlue]

Mississippi just makes me think of Meridian and there is not much diversity going on there. Memphis has a lot of the same thing. I cannot really speak to the rest of those states but those two places did not have diversity at least not willingly.

I spent quite a bit of time w/ Peavey in their manufacturing and design plants in Meridian. Seemed to be a very diverse workplace, IMO.

[GSH]

woah woah woah..... have you ever been to Mississippi?

Have you? I did a consulting gig for a manufacturer, in Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina - and lived there for a couple of years. At the time, Miss. was somewhere around 40% African American. So if you have the idea that it's all-white because it is in the deep south, guess again. So for Maher to pretend that she just happened to interview a 100% white group is, as I said, an insult to our intelligence.

What would you think if someone "stepped off a plane" in Texas, and shot a video that made it look like all Mexican immigrants were lazy, stupid, and dishonest? It wouldn't be hard to do, if they selected only the worst of the worst to include in the video. Would it be meaningful? Or would it stir up a bunch of baseless hatred on both sides?

Maher is a hate-monger and a bottom-feeder. So is Michael Savage, for example. They appeal to the ignorant and damaged people who are willing to believe that all Southerners are a certain way, or all Democrats are a certain way, etc. You aren't one of those people, are you?


BTW - the blue collar workers in the company I worked with had a high illiteracy rate, and in order to make the project work I had to start a literacy program. (The big, bad corporation was more than willing to do what public schools had not.) I volunteered to teach reading classes at night, as did a fair number of those in management. I met some people like the ones in Maher's video. But the vast majority were nothing remotely like that.

[DarkReign]

BTW - the blue collar workers in the company I worked with had a high illiteracy rate, and in order to make the project work I had to start a literacy program. (The big, bad corporation was more than willing to do what public schools had not.) I volunteered to teach reading classes at night, as did a fair number of those in management. I met some people like the ones in Maher's video. But the vast majority were nothing remotely like that.

Dont care about the video, means nothing to me. Ignorance is everywhere just some places more than others. Like...Detroit for example.

But my question is, consider the bolded part, do you feel it is the public school system's fault that these people never learned to read? I am sure some of them (most of them?) were functionally literate but probably couldnt read aloud from a book.

Is that the public school's fault? Or is it theirs? Their parents? I didnt learn to read because my school system taught me, I learned to read because I wanted to. Sure, the repe ion of school instruction probably cemented fundamentals of the alphabet and pronunciation, but school did not "teach" me to read. I was taught the alphabet, spelling and pronunciation yet the whooooole time it was my parents and my want to read that taught me.

I ask only because I do not understand illiteracy on any level. Unless you were kept on a mountain, home "schooled" and never left the ranch, going your entire life never learning to or wanting to read sounds orders of magnitude more difficult than learning to reading. It must take a real conscious effort to never learn and it is something I am incapable of understanding.

[romad_20]

Being a native southerner, I think it's very hard for anyone who hasn't spent any time there to understand it at all. My wife is from Dallas, we live in Austin and people here consider this the South. They are sadly mistaken. Its nothing alike.

The South is racist, but its not because of ignorance, it just is, and its heavy on both sides. But in daily life its just another part of everyone's day. BTW 55% of all African Americans live in the south and most places are about 40-45% black populations.

[EVAY]

Being a native southerner, I think it's very hard for anyone who hasn't spent any time there to understand it at all. My wife is from Dallas, we live in Austin and people here consider this the South. They are sadly mistaken. Its nothing alike.

Truer words were never spoken.


Southerners never consider Texans southerners. Texas does, but people from Virginia, North or South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky do not consider Texas a southern state. I could have added Florida to the lost of southern states but nobody considers anyone in Florida to be a Southerner anymore except the Panhandle folks.

The only similarity that I have seen between Texas and the southern states (also being a native of the South) is that both have lots of racists in them. In Texas it is against Hispanics. In the South it is against blacks. Though they seem to be picking up on the hispanic thing fairly quickly, I notice.

[Halberto]

I've never lived in Mississippi, but I have spent some nights there. You are right about the black population not being represented there, the film maker was probably too scared to interview any of them. As far as the comment about Texan's not being truely southern, you should visit East Texas. Right now I spend about half my time in East Texas working (towns like Jasper and Woodville) and they fit the southern mold perfectly. That guy hanging his clothes up to dry has it better than some of the trailers I have to drive by.

[DMC]

Bill Maher is a got puppet for the liberals.

[DarrinS]

I've never lived in Mississippi, but I have spent some nights there. You are right about the black population not being represented there, the film maker was probably too scared to interview any of them. As far as the comment about Texan's not being truely southern, you should visit East Texas. Right now I spend about half my time in East Texas working (towns like Jasper and Woodville) and they fit the southern mold perfectly. That guy hanging his clothes up to dry has it better than some of the trailers I have to drive by.

What is it you think being "southern" means?

[Drachen]

Truer words were never spoken.


Southerners never consider Texans southerners. Texas does, but people from Virginia, North or South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky do not consider Texas a southern state. I could have added Florida to the lost of southern states but nobody considers anyone in Florida to be a Southerner anymore except the Panhandle folks.

The only similarity that I have seen between Texas and the southern states (also being a native of the South) is that both have lots of racists in them. In Texas it is against Hispanics. In the South it is against blacks. Though they seem to be picking up on the hispanic thing fairly quickly, I notice.

Texans don't consider Texans to be southerners. We know and don't want to be a part of "the south".

Texans consider Texans to be Texans (a whole seperate region unto itself.)

[Jacob1983]

Texas is probably the most liberal state in the South.

[romad_20]

Texas is probably the most liberal state in the South.

Its sounds crazy, but its true.

Also, east Texas is not the South either. It's just different. Take for instance the Civil War and it's effect on current Southerners. Almost everywhere I walked or lived was a battleground, cemetery, historical marker or something else from the Civil war. Southerners still take that very seriously. I grew up know that we lost a war, and still feel that way to this day. I'm sure people growing up in NY or Texas don't feel that way about the Civil war. It can't be explained to someone not from there, and no, its not able racism or losing "our" slaves.

Not to mention, there are a thousand other reasons why people don't truly understand the South.

BTW I love my home, but I don't think I'd ever live there again.

[Huey Freeman]

Its sounds crazy, but its true.

Also, east Texas is not the South either. It's just different. Take for instance the Civil War and it's effect on current Southerners. Almost everywhere I walked or lived was a battleground, cemetery, historical marker or something else from the Civil war. Southerners still take that very seriously. I grew up know that we lost a war, and still feel that way to this day. I'm sure people growing up in NY or Texas don't feel that way about the Civil war. It can't be explained to someone not from there, and no, its not able racism or losing "our" slaves.

Not to mention, there are a thousand other reasons why people don't truly understand the South.

BTW I love my home, but I don't think I'd ever live there again.

Interesting point
Even though Texas was apart of the confederacy. During the Civil War, Texas was a mainly a supply hub for the confederate army. No major battles were fought within the state. The Texans who fought in the war would have to travel to the Alabamas and Mississippis to fight. When the confederate states fell many southern states were left in shambles economically. Texas didn't feel the economic burden many of the other Southern states did during reconstruction mainly due to the oil industry. That may be the reason Texans dont obsess over the Civil War loss like people living in places like Mississippi.

[Th'Pusher]

Pilosi will be doing another video interviewing inner city dwellers. I think the point of the piece was to interview whites in rural Mississippi to show the dichotomy of the two environments. Regardless, the point stands - every single one of those people vote against their own financial interest when they vote republican.

[fraga]

[DMX7]

Only 12% of Republican Primary voters in Alabama believe Obama is a Christian.

[Nbadan]

That may be the reason Texans dont obsess over the Civil War loss like people living in places like Mississippi.

[Wild Cobra]

Only 12% of Republican Primary voters in Alabama believe Obama is a Christian.

I have to admit that I don't think he is.

[EVAY]

Take for instance the Civil War and it's effect on current Southerners. Almost everywhere I walked or lived was a battleground, cemetery, historical marker or something else from the Civil war. Southerners still take that very seriously. I grew up know that we lost a war, and still feel that way to this day. I'm sure people growing up in NY or Texas don't feel that way about the Civil war.

Man, have you checked out the Alamo "Shrine" lately? Talk about not getting over a loss!!!

[Drachen]

I have to admit that I don't think he is.

I have to admit, everyone knew this.

[Drachen]

Man, have you checked out the Alamo "Shrine" lately? Talk about not getting over a loss!!!

I understand what you are saying but, it was a lost battle in a won war which delayed the enemy advancement for a few weeks.