Hate towards Southern USA on the internet

[Catta]

Let's be fair. Libertarians have a very clear definition of what small government is, namely a government that exclusively protect individual rights. And a libertarian would also tell you all regulations that don't specifically protect an individual's right were unnecessary. In other words, I believe libertarians believe in a completely free market. Whether you agree with this philosophy is a different issue, but I don't think that libertarian definitions are very susceptible to allegations that they are vague. I would say that they're very explicit, but fairly naive.

But if corporations are people shouldnt they be protected from other people?

[Drakain]

But if corporations are people shouldnt they be protected from other people?

I'm sure you're being facetious, but Stephen Colbert's interpretation of the SCOTUS ruling on corporate Freedom of Speech rights doesn't mean they have the same individual rights as you and me.

[Faloestin]

Let's be fair. Libertarians have a very clear definition of what small government is, namely a government that exclusively protect individual rights. And a libertarian would also tell you all regulations that don't specifically protect an individual's right were unnecessary. In other words, I believe libertarians believe in a completely free market. Whether you agree with this philosophy is a different issue, but I don't think that libertarian definitions are very susceptible to allegations that they are vague. I would say that they're very explicit, but fairly naive.

Vague to the point of nonsense, if you ask me. Vague both about how to handle anything communal (roads, common defense, mail, etc.) and vague about just how exactly a market works without a government. Not sure you can have a market without government of some kind.

[Deleted]

U.S.A to europians : fat ppl controlled with popular culture.

I dont see any hatered against south or north here :s

[Feel The Power]

I lived down south for years, now I live up north in Pennsylvania. There are far more redneck whitetrash morons in Pa than I ever encountered down south.

[Reeve]

I lived down south for years, now I live up north in Pennsylvania. There are far more redneck whitetrash morons in Pa than I ever encountered down south.

Great name for that post, btw.

[Cotton123]

Okay I have lived in the south all of my life with 2-3 years in Texas due to the fact of being a military brat for awhile.
1) The whole people saying everyone is an idiot and such and has no education whatsoever is nonsense. The University of Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, and Tennessee are four of the higher ranked colleges in America due to their massive departments in Engineering, Medicine, and Forensics. By the way..js, Bama has the most national championships in football if you don't count the 50+ years it was only done in Yale, Harvard, and Princeton and all of their players almost are going into being doctors or chemical engineers.
2) The south is just like everywhere else almost when it comes to racism and opposition/acceptance towards gay/bi people. I know plenty of people that are gay/bi and most people honestly don't give a crap.
3) Yes there are still idiots and such stuck in the past on the whole "South Will Rise Again" Thing and KKK crap. Just like there is anywhere. I've been to New York for a trip for a week and I saw more racism and hate towards different people then I do here in Bama. TV crews and such just like to find the most stupid and idiotic people to interview for big events and such that happen making us all look like inbred retarded apes that cant even do basic things.

[dantian]

Could you explain to me, why "small government" (means a government that generally avoids regulation where unnecessary) doesn't improve the competitiveness and quality of life?

When one makes a claim in a debate it's for you to substantiate it, not ask the other person to disprove it. If you can't offer reasons to support your point there is no reason to bother rebutting it.

Also, "small government" is a pretty loose term. Does "small government" have regulations against someone selling themselves into slavery? Does "small government" have laws against price gouging, lying in advertising, and selling dangerous products to children? Define your terms.

Fiscally, small government and capitalism have worked throughout history, fueling the industrial and technological revolutions.

Some worked, some didn't.

The liberal ideology has failed wherever it has been implemented, both historically and in the modern world. Large government and increased spending has not only produced failing markets, but whenever the government increases its spending, it also increases control on civil freedom.

This comment is demonstrably false just looking at the whole of the first world today. Europe is filled with large government economies that have far, far more civil liberty than you'll find in the United States. The 'failing markets' comment is also false, the results vary. Germany has a very strong economy, Greece does not, the world isn't as binary as your conservative propaganda tells you.

Usually, a reform force demands its rights, through government intervention. When the government is done intervening, the original reform force finds that the rights they wanted to secure are securely in the hands of government. If you want real world examples, they range from extreme forms of government control in communism, all the way to the failed experiment of liberalism in the EU. Sweden would be the best example of liberalism that isn't failing, but the reason it isn't is because it is a smallish welfare state supported by a capitalistic market. Without that capitalism, it would implode just like the rest of them.

Communism failed hard and always will. For some reason conservatives love bringing that up, but I don't see the relevance. You aren't debating Mao Tse Tung, and to me it looks like a straw man erected by someone who can't make a good case without misrepresenting his opponent.

A liberal could go on about how conservatism fails because of them Nazis, but that would be disingenuous and stupid.

all the way to the failed experiment of liberalism in the EU. Sweden would be the best example of liberalism that isn't failing, but the reason it isn't is because it is a smallish welfare state supported by a capitalistic market.

This line is especially misinformed. Greece is failing hard financially, but that's one nation out of seventeen. "Supported by a capitalistic market"? All of Europe uses the market economy model, not just Sweden.

[Wessernache]

Being a Southerner born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, I have never noticed anything that I would call hatred towards the south, both on the internet and on the street. How can you even hate something you don't even know? Unfortunately for the South, we spend a lot of time hiding who we are and will not tell anybody directly what is on our mind, especially if we know it could risk our social standing. We exercise and extreme form of tact that does not facilitate effective communication, as such talking with us is much more difficult than talking with a Northerner, who will likely be far more blunt, or talking to a Westerner (and I don't actually know any dialectic markers that actually affect communication for the West).

Along with it foreigners having a hard time talking to us, we have a hard time talking with each other. As the topic and hand is of the South, the conservative Christians here have been mentioned here, and I will be dealing with that soon anyway, I will use this example. I attended a certain Sunday school class for high school students (in a Nazarene church, even though I have no specific denomination), and we were talking about something I barely remember, but the topic of creation or something had come up and the teacher told us that whenever you encounter somebody saying the Earth is billions of years old or a spontaneous creation, tell them such and such verse. I think was a verse in John saying how God spoke the world into existence. I was baffled by the ignorance of telling high school students to waste their breath and brain cells just shouting off a Bible verse so someone who doesn't believe. I was about to challenge her on this and explain that to a non-believer, the Bible has no value as a credible argumentative device, especially when you are likely talking to someone who thinks it is of the same quality as a fairy tale made up by a second-grader. But as I opened my mouth and challenged her, I realized I was about to tear this lady a new one, probably call her an idiot in my rage, and then ruin not only my reputation but that of my Aunts who were kind enough to take me there in the first place (I asked to go). Taking this into account, I dropped it, and discussed it later with a youth minister who happened to agree with me.

So there is both a slice of Church life in the South for a young'un and a picture of why a Southerner is much less likely to speak his/her mind. Another problem is that just like the North, West, and Europe don't quite understand what exactly goes on in the South, the South is not so keen on what goes on elsewhere. A lot of us really are ignorant of the rest of the world as nobody else except Japan is as indirect as we are. We feel like Northerners are assholes, not because they sacked the South (If the North didn't do that, we would have still ended up in a horrible economic disaster), but because they are not afraid to tell us their surprise that we actually do wear socks and shoes and still have more than half of our teeth in tact. As it is always difficult to get used to someone with a different culture than yours, frustration may arise. A Northerner will express frustration in a way a Southerner would view as extremely rude and hateful, and then return home with stories about what dicks they can be. Meanwhile the Northerner stands confused as to why the Southerner got so indignant at his expression of distrust, confusion, or annoyance.

As these linguistic and expressive problems mount up, you then have to deal with the political divide and how they are portrayed. As I don't watch T.V. in the North, listen to what people talk about up in their Cafe's, or stay tuned into their political stuff a whole lot, I cannot say with abundant confidence that we are on different pages regarding information. Couple that with the Southern preference for Fox News and the Northern preference for what I assume is anything but, we are exposed to what we want to hear: conservative stuff. There are, it is worth mentioning, plenty of Liberals in the South, and they are every bit as stupid as the Conservatives. While I digress to say this, I have learned from observing these two groups (there are other groups), both have the same proportion of uninformed people who don't care enough to actually think about what they support and what they want. Back to the main topic, in the News I see quite a bit of programs discuss horrible happenings going on in the South. If there is a good thing happening for the Gay Rights movement, it's probably a parade in San Francisco or maybe New York. On a bad day for the LGBT movement, a gay kid is being bullied in a southern school and kills himself.

There are very good reasons for why a gay student would commit suicide, it has to do a lot more with the Southern communication structure and fear of stepping outside of the norm than it does Christianity or Conservatism, though those two provide the ammunition fired. A child grows up to be a gay high school student. Chances are not terribly low he has gone to, or currently goes to Church. In said Church, because the Gay Rights movements have been given lots of publicity and certain Christian denominations in the North and West have begun openly proclaiming homosexuality as not only tolerable, but viable and sanctionable, they must actually take a stance due to pressures from various "Christian" organizations trying to get them to swing one way or another. Most Churches immediately swing to anti-homosexuality, and the drop it there. Nobody will talk about why this homosexuality is wrong outside of a few Bible verses being mentioned. Some churches will try to do a homosexual rehabilitation program which has poor results. So the kid begins to think that he is a horrible person and is going to Hell because he likes other boys. He ponders ways to avoid his gruesome fate, but when nobody is willing to discuss homosexuality for fear of being labeled a Liberal Christian, as opposed to being what you all have so graciously called a Fundamentalist Christian. Neither is the kid going to talk to anybody directly about his problem, for he is both ashamed of his sin and unwilling to put that stigma of being a homosexual on himself, knowing the odds of him receiving any help or comfort are near zero, and only more hatred will be spread. Then he goes to school. I have found that any homosexual who embraces his gayness does not really get bullied that much, it is those who are ashamed of this. Because the gay kid is probably ogling some fine peace of man-ass a bully will notice, then the mocking begins. Eventually it will get so bad a teacher will notice, or worse, a principal. The principal calls the parents and explains he is being bullied, the parents will want to know why, and then the bombshell explodes. It will not matter if the kid is or is not gay, the discussion is out there. It has to be talked about, and the Kid will inevitable either confess his gayness and be excommunicated, or kill himself and not suffer the shame after months to years of self loathing because nobody wants to actually think about what's going on with homosexuality in America.

So this kid dies, which puts the LGBT movement in moral high ground as now the enemy has struck again, and they must be defended. Or he lives, and probably abandons Christianity because of the whole "I can't believe in a God who doesn't love me" or "why did God make me this way" thing, which are ALSO questions nobody in the Church wants to really try to answer, because someone is going to bring up homosexuality and we return to step one. Southern Fundamentalist Christians have either way lost one of their flock, and are either way made out to be assholes (which they may be, but primarily because they're morons and sissies, and ironically the Bible condemns their complacency on all of these issues, lolololol). Now the Southern Christians are under attack, which makes them even more defensive, which makes them more ready to jump the gun, which makes them more hated, and the cycle continues and expands until a couple decades from now it all come crumbling down.

So now you all get to hear these wonderful stories about how gay teenagers are verbally and sometimes physically abused and how Southern Fundamentalist Christians are the villains. Both of these statements are true, but both of these statements are not helpful to anybody without understanding what is actually going on. And nobody knows what the fuck is going on because all parties involved do not like to be direct about their feelings (Unless you have the support of very many other Southerners).

I managed to cover a lot about Religion and the south in the explanation of how you are all exposed to the negative elements of Southern society. Upon re-reading this, I seem to have made Southerners to be extremely bad. Unfortunately my thoughts were not formated like this and I digressed a lot, (wanted to digress a lot more). This is an incomplete picture of the South and why there are misunderstandings, or compelled disdains of the South. I will be seeing where this thread goes, assuming it's not dead already, and will try to tell you all more later.

[Vasti]

You're misunderstanding the internet.
The internet is about stereotypes or special famous snowflakes.


Also most hate is likely aimed directly at all of the USA instead of just the south. You know, stereotyping as the internet does.
Everyone on the internet thinks they are right and everyone else is blind to the facts (except me, I know I am right and you all must worship me for my clairvoyance and supremacy! xD)

But, yeh......it is like with religion.

So many muslims do not like the act of enforcing a religion on non-believers, but does the internet care? They mostly think all muslim are extremes and hate america (although I can't say they are fond of america, most muslims are not extremes, else the extremes would actually being a non-enforcing muslim, but that aside)
Same with other religions. Christianity for example, most chrisitians don't condone the crusades that happened before, but people still think that current-day christians are bad for what other people did under the same name. They don't care about the details like differences in beliefs or such.
Same with everything that is being harrased online.

People need to be educated before being allowed online. I guess it is true what was written:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge

[matt4pack]

Yeah we sure are stupid. In my town Indians are close to being the majority so they must not think it's to bad and we have companies such as let's see

Cisco
NetApp
Lenovo
IBM
GE Aircraft
RedHat
Epic Games
Citrix
EMC
and many more

Sure there are stupid people around like everywhere but there are a lot of intelligent people as well. If anything most people in the media are the idiots trying to pretend to be intelligent.

[Jersovic]

I am from the South, and I'm not a big fan of the close-minded, bible-thumping ways here.

What does get on my nerves though is the insinuation that the accent is reflective of your IQ.

Albert Einstein didn't have a German accent because he was smart, he had a German accent because he was raised by Germans.

It's the same thing with the South. Many intelligent Southerners do in fact have a Southern accent which is not at all related to low intelligence.

[anon22k]

Southerners aren't stereotyped as being stupid because of the accent. It's the Close-minded Ignorance that wins the prize!

[Dedweight]

I'm not from the south but I do have a few friends that were born and raised there and none of them meet the stereotypes for Southerners and while I've never visited the south I can't imagine it being much worse than here in Utah(save the humidity/hurricanes).

[FusedMass]

It's not exactly hate. It's stereotype ing. I don't exactly know many people who strictly hate "People in the South" they may be represented in the media how they portray them or even the butt of some jokes. But hate is a strong word.

[RoKPaNda]

A lot of people are simply intolerant and uneducated. "Oh no people in X place tend to vote differently from me! They're backwards!" "Oh no people in X place tend to have a different religion than me / have the same religion but have slightly different viewpoints on Y issue than me. They're backwards!" I live in one of the most progressive states in the nation, and I was raised in another very progressive state. I tend to vote democrat, I don't own a gun, I'm very tolerant of other people's thoughts and feelings and belief systems that contradict my own and I believe that variety is the spice of life as they say.

Except I was always under the impression that the south is filled with inbred rednecks because honestly that's how it's always portrayed. When you see a story on the news that takes place in the south it's like they go out and find the most insane person they can and put them on camera. Then about 5 years ago I had to travel to the south, one of the states that us northerners make fun of the most actually, and it was the best trip of my life. The people down there were fantastic, even the beggars on the street were better than the ones back up north. Every person I encountered was friendly and every person I encountered was able to hold a pretty decent conversation.

I was sitting outside of a Wal-Mart of all places while I was in the south and guy who looked like he wasn't doing so well financially came up and asked if I mind if he sat down. I said I didn't mind and he sat down and we had a fantastic conversation about the current (at the time) state of the country. No rambling, no ranting and raving, no bigotry, etc. As soon as there is a job opening down there in my field I'm applying and heading down there.

[Alilei32]

People are idiots, its just that simple. People are just as racist up North as they are down South, freed slaves werent exactly welcomed with open arms during the Civil War and once it was over. People are just as ignorant up North as they are in the South. And who came up with the Stereotype that all we do is watch NASCAR? Please go to NASCAR.com and look at where most of the races are now. Theres hardly any races left in the South and they wouldnt be expanding so far West and up North if it wasnt so popular in those places.

Also when people think South do you actually mean any state below the Mason-Dixon line that joined the Confederacy? Or do most people just bash the South as a whole when they really mean places like Alabama or Mississippi where pretty much every racist event has taken place. I live in South Carolina, out in the country, and its about 50% white and 50% black maybe even more blacks and I can tell you we all get along quite well. Everyone is polite towards each other and theres hardly any crime and no gangs or anything like that, but like I said maybe things are different in the Deep South (Alabama, Miss, Arkansas)We arent riding around in our bedsheets, in a pickup truck, burning crosses. I usually even take extra deer meat or wild turkey meat to the black families that live in front of my farm just because I cant eat all of it. Usually they will give me some fresh vegetables from there garden so everyone gets along at least where I live. And when my farmer comes all his help is black and we just hang out and drink beer sometimes after the crop has been cut talking and eating peanuts.

[Somali Pirate]

I don't belive the racism thing because the least racist person and most loyal friend ive made has been from the south.
I became pretty close to an mid 20's southern chick I met on wow. She was from Arkansas and a few years older than me and pretty much feel in love with me a month after i recruited her to my guild, so much so that she wanted to meet IRL. Im an African immigrant who lives in California.