Arkansas: Redneck Wasteland - Page 8

SkokieSwift · #**141** Posted **Mar 14, 2010, 7:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by srsmn

The issue-- so far as I can see-- have always been with his borderline xenophobic, hateful commentary.

It's not xenophobic and hateful to say that some Russellville residents are so xenophobic and hateful it has negatively affected his experience going to school there.

"You've been narrow-minded, and you've been manipulating these poor people that are your neighbors, and that you had the chutzpuh to take photos of-- unbeknownst to them, I'm sure-- for the purposes of exploitation....to stroke your ego, and to show the world-- anonymously-- the circumstances of their lives, as if to say 'Hey! Look how much better I am than these people! You guys can feel better by looking at them, too!'"

"I don't think it's respectable to live in piles of trash, no."

"I'm sure that 'liberal' means something very different where you are from."

"Miserable, nasty people find a way to be miserable and nasty anywhere. Guess which one you are?"

If anyone is being xenophobic, hateful, judgmental and holier-than-thou, it's you.

MolsonExport · #**142** Posted **Mar 14, 2010, 7:07 PM**

^not if they smell like old bags of cheetos.

N0rthcar0lina · #**143** Posted **Mar 14, 2010, 8:00 PM**

I think I see where you're coming from photo ( but excuse me if I'm misinterpreting) and I share a similar mindset to yours. I was "forced" to live in North Carolina due to unfortunate circumstances, and while it is nowhere near as bad as your situation, it is a lot more rural than I was or probably ever will be prepared to deal with. I came from a city setting, and being an urbanophile, it just wasn't feasible for me to "make things work" given my situation. The south simply lacked too much of what I craved, and I found/find myself hating it more and more as time goes by. I understand your resentment towards your surroundings as well as the citizens, even if others on the board won't. It's really an unfortunate event when you're living in a place you hate and I hope you get out soon because it's emotionally crushing to live like this.

srsmn · #**144** Posted **Mar 14, 2010, 10:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Since when does being liberal mean blindly accepting everyone's self-destructive lifestyles, or their intolerance and ignorance?

Now, I'd most definitely support increases in spending towards public education, public housing, and government investment in the creation of jobs in the region to help these people move up if they so choose. But in no way should or I or will I be tolerant of their (current) lifestyle choices - which again, cannot be blamed on poverty. Being poor is no excuse to live in a pile of shit, be racist, a religious zealot, do meth, etc.

When did anybody make any insinuation that he needs to "blindly accept everyone's self-destructive lifestyles"?

What I would like him to do is work a little bit harder to understand his neighbors, instead of bashing them anonymously on a message board. And that goes without mentioning lumping them all together in a generic group. Photo wouldn't like that if people did it to him, so why is he doing it to somebody else?

The very narrow judgements on their religion are the point-in-case of this argument, but I won't even go there....

srsmn · #**145** Posted **Mar 14, 2010, 11:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkokieSwift

It's not xenophobic and hateful to say that some Russellville residents are so xenophobic and hateful it has negatively affected his experience going to school there.

"You've been narrow-minded, and you've been manipulating these poor people that are your neighbors, and that you had the chutzpuh to take photos of-- unbeknownst to them, I'm sure-- for the purposes of exploitation....to stroke your ego, and to show the world-- anonymously-- the circumstances of their lives, as if to say 'Hey! Look how much better I am than these people! You guys can feel better by looking at them, too!'"

"I don't think it's respectable to live in piles of trash, no."

"I'm sure that 'liberal' means something very different where you are from."

"Miserable, nasty people find a way to be miserable and nasty anywhere. Guess which one you are?"

If anyone is being xenophobic, hateful, judgmental and holier-than-thou, it's you.

That's not what he is doing, though-- he's generalizing and bashing.

And therein lies an essential difference between what he is doing and what I am doing: I know enough about him from what I have read hear to pass a reasonable judgement. I am judging *one* person. Russellville, AR has 27,000 people. Are they all xenophobic, or hateful? Do they all live in piles of trash?

The big problem, though-- and I'm surprised that nobody has called him on this bs-- is that he is featuring pictures of churches and crosses in a thread supposedly meant to showcase redneck culture. So just because people are religious, they must be rednecks? What kind of a wonderful, xenophilic message is that?

This is crazy. I quit.

srsmn · #**146** Posted **Mar 14, 2010, 11:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photolitherland

^^^
You are passing judgement on me and being holier than thou by saying im a nasty mean person. The people that live in these conditions are opposed to any progress, I would know, I know many of them. This area is a dry county and its dry because the church controls the government here. If they had it their way, they would not allow the teaching of evolution in schools, would impose their religion upon everyone else, so on and so forth. These people are racist hardcore for the most part, in fact, one of my first experiences while moving here was in a gas station where a bunch of country types were gathered around and I overheard them talking about the damn mexicans and n%$gers. So, these people do not deserve to be respected and Im sick of all these comments bashing me when you people would hate it just as much as I do.

I'm saying you are nasty and mean because you're comments make you look nasty and mean-- not because you do or do not go to church, shop at Walmart, or throw refuse in your yard.

Do you understand the difference?

srsmn · #**147** Posted **Mar 14, 2010, 11:13 PM**

"Yeah Russellville is pretty much a cultural wasteland devoid of any sense of civilization.

I was ignorant that Arkansas would be this absolutely terrible.

I live in the most republican and one of the lowest income counties in Arkansas. Its pretty damn redneck

Most of them were wearing cammo jackets to Thanksgiving dinner, and afterwards we went walking around the property looking for a decoy duck her cousin had lost in a brush pile.

A lot of the jobs have left though and most of these people you see that live in the country in these run down conditions live off of the government and yet these people are staunch republicans, makes no sense to me

50 Arkansans? What is up with you people? This is representing the countryside and most people that live in the country here live like this.

A lot of you guys need to stop being so politically correct, do you live in Arkansas, no, I do, and yet again, it is really like this around here. For the last time, Im not pulling a fox news and being biased with how it is, it really is like this.
I just wanted to show other people on this forum who mostly live in cities and not in the country what I live through everyday. I grew up near downtown Chicago by the way. Not like that really matters. You just dont see any forums showing the grit of what a lot of the souths countryside looks like. Do you want me to change the title to something more pleasing, how about Arkansas:Redneck Wonderland, is that better, sheesh.
when you are in the towns, rednecks are definately a minority, but in the country, they are def the majority.
The blacks here dont wont anything to do with the rednecks, thats for sure. Its very strange, here in this small town even its very segregated. There is a distinct line between where the black neighborhoods start and then the white. It is almost like going back in time.
Sadly enough, it is really like that for a lot of people around here.
It costs a few bucks to take your trash to the dump so they would rather just throw their shit out in their yards, these arent even the worst examples of what Ive seen around here. Last week me and a friend went to Hot Springs and we drove down this one street and it was full of trailer homes and every single one just had mounds and mounds of trash, they pretty much lived in a landfill, and we were like, Ive never seen anything like that in my whole life. It was terrible.
They sure do love their big ass trucks around here. If you got a big ass truck you are pretty much guaranteed pussy. Its a status symbol here and whoever has the biggest wheels and has their truck jacked up the highest gets the trophy women.

They live in trash piles and if you think that is respectable than go ahead and defend them, as for me, I dont think its very becoming for anyone to live in piles of trash.

The people that live in these conditions are opposed to any progress, I would know, I know many of them. This area is a dry county and its dry because the church controls the government here. If they had it their way, they would not allow the teaching of evolution in schools, would impose their religion upon everyone else, so on and so forth. These people are racist hardcore for the most part, in fact, one of my first experiences while moving here was in a gas station where a bunch of country types were gathered around and I overheard them talking about the damn mexicans and n%$gers. So, these people do not deserve to be respected and Im sick of all these comments bashing me when you people would hate it just as much as I do."

Hmmm. Xenophobia, anybody? Narrow-mindedness? "These people" do not deserve to be respected? What's up with that, photo? Doesn't everybody deserve a little bit of respect, and-- dare I say it-- a little bit of help once in a while?

I especially like when you compare yourself to FOX News, though....that's certainly a level-headed move for anybody that wants to be taken seriously.

Yeah, I'm done with this one. I'll retreat back to skyscrapercity or peruse minnescraper for the time being...

photoLith · #**148** Posted **Mar 15, 2010, 2:21 AM**

^^^
Dude you need to chill out, seriously. You are like way overreacting to this thread. I am telling the truth as to how it is you freakin moron, damn. You are like taking this thread as a personal affront to yourself or something. You have been pretty much the only person that has freaked out about this thread. How about you come down here for a week and Ill show you around.

Buckeye Native 001 · #**149** Posted **Mar 15, 2010, 3:44 AM**

The mindset(s) of SSP in a nutshell.

Hell, my current neighborhood in Flagstaff looks like this (ask Glowrock), not to mention parts of Clermont County, Ohio where most of my family lives.

Clevelumbus · #**150** Posted **Mar 15, 2010, 5:27 AM**

^Yeah, you can find this kind of stuff in Ohio, especially the old coal towns and rural areas of the southeast.

Staying in Pine Bluff, Arkansas currently, I haven't really seen this type of stuff. Pine Bluff is worn down and dead, but in a more gritty midwestern way. I haven't driven around the countryside yet.

From my experience the delta region and western Kentucky are definitely the most concentrated areas of poverty and isolation (outside indian reservations) when looking at it from a regional level in the United States.

It is what it is when it comes to how these people 'choose' to live and the lifestyles they portray. But the poverty is quite sad it's not to be taken lightly. I have a much bigger problem with the 'redneck' who lives in suburban Avon Lake, Ohio.. Then I do the people that don't know any other way of living and are largely ignored.

I guess I don't understand why you would live there if you hated it so bad, even if you say your stuck because of your choice in colleges. Suck it up and find something good about it and roll with that. I can find something to do and admire in every single place I've visited.. From Glasgow, Montana to Greenwood, Mississippi to Junction, Texas.

SnyderBock · #**151** Posted **Mar 15, 2010, 1:20 PM**

Looks pretty normal to me. That's pretty close to how a good amount of the country looks outside major urban centers and/or urbanized corridors. South Carolina, up state New York, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Michigan, West Virgina, Texas... It all looks pretty much like this in areas cut off from the major urban centers. I guess California has 35 million people and none of them are rural like this, not even the farmers in the River Delta that think it's ridiculous to worry about some small fish going extinct?

rockyi · #**152** Posted **Mar 15, 2010, 10:34 PM**

Actually I can see that when I step out on my deck. One neighbor on the next block has a yard FULL of trash. Luckily the rest of the neighborhood is pretty good.

sync · #**153** Posted **Mar 15, 2010, 10:49 PM**

this thread reminds me of "my cousin vinny" for some reason.

i swear i saw the sac-o-suds in one of the pictures.

Dan Denson · #**154** Posted **Mar 16, 2010, 1:54 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnyderBock

Looks pretty normal to me. That's pretty close to how a good amount of the country looks outside major urban centers and/or urbanized corridors. South Carolina, up state New York, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Michigan, West Virgina, Texas... It all looks pretty much like this in areas cut off from the major urban centers. I guess California has 35 million people and none of them are rural like this, not even the farmers in the River Delta that think it's ridiculous to worry about some small fish going extinct?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you...are you saying California doesn't have areas like this?

rockyi · #**155** Posted **Mar 16, 2010, 3:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnyderBock

......I guess California has 35 million people and none of them are rural like this, not even the farmers in the River Delta that think it's ridiculous to worry about some small fish going extinct?

Huh? I remember visiting relatives in Apple Valley in the Mohave Desert and there were more than a few properties that were surrounded in debris and old cars.

JManc · #**156** Posted **Mar 16, 2010, 4:00 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockyi

Huh? I remember visiting relatives in Apple Valley in the Mohave Desert and there were more than a few properties that were surrounded in debris and old cars.

absolutely, saw a lot of that last month driving from LA to vegas. this sort of thing is prevalent in all 50 states and i would imagine most provinces in canada as well.

Style · #**157** Posted **Mar 16, 2010, 4:47 AM**

West Virginia was once called the "Retarded Frontier" and I think the emptying of America could be compared to the same. People think cities are hurting right now - but they forget 'main street.'

Intervention - "Meth Mountain" comes to mind in these photos.

LSyd · #**158** Posted **Mar 16, 2010, 12:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

The mindset(s) of SSP in a nutshell.

-

architext · #**159** Posted **Mar 17, 2010, 12:58 AM**

I wonder what would people in Russellville do if you just took them and put them in say, Vienna, Berlin, or Montreal... lol. Hell, even San Francisco.

they'd probably have a heart attack from all the liberalism.

Dan Denson · #**160** Posted **Mar 17, 2010, 2:35 AM**

By now a bunch of forumers know that I like to check out places using Google Street View when I'm looking at some of the threads. So...I looked around Russellville, and found some very nice looking neighborhoods. So it's like most places...a mixture of well maintained neighborhoods and those that are pretty awful looking. As someone said earlier, "it is what it is".