The Southern States of America have some of the most beautiful landscapes and climates this country has to offer. It also harbors some of the worst people and culture this country has to offer.
Having traveled all over the US, being to every state other than Hawaii and having lived in a total of seven, four of them being Southern States, I’ve had the chance to see what the country is like, it’s various cultures and the people that make up those cultures, and have a developed a strong opinion from my experiences.
That opinion: Fuck the South.
I vividly remember moving from a North Western state to a southern state as a child and experiencing the utter culture shock from the move.
In the NW, I was welcomed for who I was. In the South, I was not.
In the NW, I was able to be who I wanted to be. In the South, I had to be like them.
In the NW, you were judged by your character. In the south, you were judged by the cost and size of your material items.
This is not Red vs Blue States. This is the South vs the rest of the United States.
The utter amount of corruption in Southern governments from the Governors offices’ down to the local police departments is both appalling, but extremely apparent if you just stopped to actually take a look.
There’s a massive amount of suffering from those in poverty in Southern States because of the rugged individualism in the culture and the utter lack of empathy towards those they do not know. As long as they get theirs, that’s all they care about. In the Southern Culture, the mentality is not “we’re in this together”, it’s “not my problem if it doesn’t affect me”.
The South = “Me, Myself, and I” and always has been. Disagree? Then how else can you explain their history if not for their own selfish reasons?
Everyone’s main focus is themselves and their immediate family/friends. Everyone else just exists (barely) and if their existence is worse than the Southerners, then that’s their problem and the southerner will not lose any sleep over it.
The South’s education is abysmal.
During my time of puberty I was living in southern states.
I had no idea what sexual intercourse was or how it was performed until I was 14 because my health classes sex education was “abstinence only”.
I learned by watching pornography.
I didn’t know about the female reproductive system or how it worked until I was 16 when my girlfriend told me about it. When we talked about sexual intercourse and the reproductive systems of both men and women, we talked about solely about STDs and how losing your virginity causes you to lose a part of yourself (this was an actual lesson in the sixth grade, I shit you not. My teacher also talked about how pornography created Ted Bundy. Again, I shit you not).
It’s not at all surprising that teen pregnancies ravage southern states. How could it not? They purposely keep teenagers in the dark as a form of control. And if a teenager breaks out of that control and gets pregnant, then their punishment is to have the child and be a teenaged parent. But this isn’t surprising. The culture of the south has always been about controlling others. They literally betrayed and fought against the United States because of it. And even after they lost, they still could not accept losing control. The KKK was formed, Jim Crow laws established, and they repealed the rights of their fellow Americans. And this mentality still affects Southern Culture to this day with their weaponization of religion and identity politics. (Did you know the Department of Justice was created just to fight the KKK because they were such a big fucking problem?)
Southern culture is also a very cruel and hateful one. (I know! That seems ridiculous to think! But is it when compared to the rest of American Values?)
“What about Southern hospitality?” You may ask.
This is true. The South is known for being polite.
But being polite is not the same as being kind.
Politeness is the social norm of the south, but kindness is not.
Southerners only take kindness at face value. It’s not done out of the kindness of the heart, it is done out of egotism and the need to feel morally superior than those around them. Hence, they’re polite. Not kind.
In my experience, the southerner is the first to judge, but the last to take any criticism.
I could go on and on with little intricate criticisms like the priority of athletics over education (SEC is absolute proof of this), or how you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a picture of a village in a developing nation and small town in rural Mississippi, but I don’t want to be here writing all night.
Obviously the world is not black and white. I know not every southerner is a bad person. I know you can’t put everyone in a singular box as every person is different. But when it comes to defining the culture of the American South, it is an utter embarrassment of the United States and against what our forefathers wanted the country to represent. Freedom and Tolerance of others (Benjamin Franklin actively pushed for the tolerance of other religions in the US. Would the average Southerner do that?)
Our biggest mistake as a country was not completing the Reconstruction of the American South. It is because of this failure you still see confederate flags on the back of their trucks and monuments of traitors in the center of their towns. And now the democracy of the United States is at risk because of it.
Fuck. The. South.
Not an unpopular opinion. Fuck the south.
The South has some of the kindest, most generous people you can find. As long as you are white, straight, believe what they believe, fulfill your gender role, hate who they hate, and vote how they vote. It’s the most widespread cult-like behavior I can think of…
As OP said, they aren’t kind, they are polite.
Uh, okay? I’m saying they’re kind. Because they genuinely are! But only if you’re like them…
I’d say judging someone based upon all the criteria mentioned above is not polite.
They are conflict averse is what they are. But quick to change even that.
As someone living in the south I get some funny looks when people find out I don’t vote like them. I look and carry myself in a way that causes a lot of southerners to start acting thier true dark self around me. The fake nice personality drops and they say some fucked up shit like I’m going to agree with them. Then when I’m like maybe don’t be a shitty person for no reason I’m the bad guy.
The couple friends I know who live in the south are known to say,“Fuck the South!” quite often.
I think in US society at large it likely is an unpopular opinion. The south has successfully sold itself as: affordable, nice climate, with extremely hospitable people. My mom has a highly romanticized view of the south because it’s the setting of so many of the romance novels she reads. Not going to pretend she’s typical, but there’s going to be a decent chunk of people falling for that or the myth of southern hospitality.
My experiences are limited, but “southern hospitality” has always come across as performative and insincere to me. It’s a superficial level of ineffectual niceties done for social expectations while actually requiring no true kindness to be displayed. A lot of people fall for the myth of it all the same.
I’d bet that while a majority of people are not pro-south, the pro-south group (excluding southerners) is larger than the anti-south group — with a large majority of people not giving a fuck.
Going out on a limb here. Is your mom white as the driven snow?
Yep.
On paper she’s about as incompatible with the south as you could get apart from that. A liberal WASP that never practices religion (a WAS?). I used her as an example because I think she represents the relative indifference of much of US society on these matters. Politics starts and ends on election day; thinking about the South as a political entity and how their culture and political identities are tightly linked is anathema to her. It’s just getting too involved. Whereas she always hears how nice the people there are, and her books reinforce that idea, so it must be a wonderful place.
That’s about the level of thought most people will put into it. “I heard they’re nice; the media I consume broadly comports that. Therefor I don’t hate the place.” Younger, online generations that are in discussions like this are atypical.
I support making OP’s opinion a popular one, I wholeheartedly agree with it. I just suspect that it actually is unpopular overall (not on Lemmy.)
Ooh, I love “WAS.” It should be a thing.
Bro, I’ve lived in the South my whole life. Fuck this place with every fiber of my being.
Yup yup yup. Good thing we’re not too poor to get out :D cry with me
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I lived in Chicago, in rural Michigan, Ohio, SoCal, and Idaho before ending up in the rural south.
If you think that the north doesn’t have exactly the same problems as the south, then you aren’t getting out of any of the cities. Neo-nazis and neo-confederates have an enormous presence in Oregon and Washington state once you’re outside of Spokane, Portland, and Seattle. Far-right conservatives entirely control Idaho. The only reason that Illinois isn’t far-right is because of Chicago itself; outside of Chicago, the state turns pretty red.
The PNW has a very specific history with this, in the case of Oregon going back to how the state was founded, but it’s nowhere near as entrenched as in the south and most rural people up here have zero interest in such things.
Also you are incorrect that it’s strictly rural. At least in the case of Portland, in spite of our reputation in the rest of the country, there’s always been a relatively visible fascist fringe.
I went to school with a black woman from Oregon; she experienced a lot of shit, and she was in a pretty affluent suburb. So no, not strictly rural. But also not a strictly southern thing either.
I think that it’s reasonable to say that if you aren’t white, cis- het-, and at least Christian-adjacent, you’re likely not going to have a great time in most ofthe US.
Fair enough, but the overt racism, homophobia, et al. are more often a rural v. sub/urban issue. OTOH, sex ed. is very definitely a state level issue, but that still stems from the rural/urban divide. E.g., Texas is so fucking gerrymandered that rural areas–which are deeply socially regressive–are able to entirely control the state, despite places like Houston, DFW, Austin, and San Antonio being the population centers and being more broadly liberal, which in turn allows them to set educational policy that is based in nonsense.
Yeah, I was gonna say, OP has never lived somewhere like Atlanta. The South works like this: 1st world cities nested in 3rd world states nested in a 1st world country.
There’s no outside about Spokane. It’s right there out on the open.
I have done a couple of road trips that make me disagree with this. Yes I didn’t live a long time in these places but in every Southern small town I felt judged and at every small town elsewhere that vibe just was not there.
You can’t wave this away. It’s there.
This does not mean that there aren’t awful people and ideas everywhere. What’s being discussed here is that deep in the culture, being hateful of differences is baked into almost everyone. The South has no monopoly on it exactly, but the difference is certainly there and noticeable
I guarantee you that if you are an openly trans person, you’re going to have a bad time in rural Michigan or rural Ohio. You’re probably going to have store security following you around if you’re not white and you’re trying to buy groceries in Kalispell, MT.
Southerner here. I feel you. There’s a lot to love about the south. You mentioned the landscapes, for one. We have some absolutely beautiful country. And some of the folks out there are truly fantastic. There’s the good ol boys, we all know and loathe, but then there’s the actual good ol boys, backwater, country folk with a knack for redneck engineering who just want to get the days work done and go have some fun.
But. There’s always a but. I think it is actually largely a red vs blue thing. I’m fortunate to live in a city and yeah, we have some suuuuper shit politicians. Shit politicians beget shit people beget shit politicians. It’s a self fulfilling cycle, but man, some of us are really trying to make a difference.
Some areas are moving more and more blue, and in those areas things are slowly getting better. The times I run into that first group of good ol boys is getting smaller and smaller. It does still happen, but at least in the cities it’s getting to be the minority. I think we’re moving in the right direction overall, we’re just a bit behind the rest of the country. Y’all are all welcome in my little slice of the south, as humble as it may be.
Do you think a possibility of why southern cities are becoming more and more blue is because of the combination of several cultures from expats coming from different parts of the country and world?
Exposure to other cultures has proven to be able to kill ignorance and intolerance.
It would makes sense why those in position of power are doing everything they can to maintain that good ol Bible Belt culture we all know.
Oh definitely. Internet access and people from different cultures coming in have definitely made a huge impact. I’ll level with you, most of the hate is ignorance and fear. You don’t have any exposure to a culture besides your own, you just know about it through tales, and those tales that stick tend to be the scary ones. Soon as someone interacts with these cultures though, they realize they’re not actually all that bad, actually kinda like us. And then the door is open.
This only applies to the common man, soon as there’s a position of power and a reason to maintain status quo, they’ll fight with all they have. We have a lot of rural areas, and a lot of politicians who are good at getting ignorant people to vote against their best interest.
Grew up a southerner in a city with lots of northerners, now a northerner. Yes to this. And yes to many having family members move away and showing them what the rest of the country is like from afar.
That being said, and to the red vs blue comment, this is still a lot of it. I can say from personal experience, the visible lies and craziness of the MAGA movement, combined with the above, has swayed more than a few minds away from red ideologies, and made them more aware of those that aren’t like them. And we all understand that “knowing is half the battle.”
Quoting your original comment…
“This is not Red vs Blue States”…
Fucking hypocrite, go shove your opinion up your ass.
Dude, he didn’t bring it up. He was only asking questions.
The Southern states are red states and Republicans are notoriously hateful of those that are different from them. They’re against helping their fellow man. It’s not a coincidence. If you can challenge any of these facts with real data, I’d love to see it.
That’s literally quoting their 8th original paragraph/sentence/section, whatever you wanna call it. They conflict their own original post.
Strikes me as a troll post to stir shit amongst the rest of us. Don’t fall for it.
I’m going to go ahead and quote myself by repeating that he didn’t bring it up and he was only asking questions.
He’s allowed to do that. That’s how you learn.
Also, frankly, he hasn’t said anything even remotely controversial.
You didn’t read the entire post did you? I literally quoted it, word for word. 8th section of OP’s post, word for word…
“This isn’t Red vs Blue States. This is the South vs the rest of the United States.”
Please try reading the entire thing before attempting to argue. OP not only brought it up verbatim, they also proceed to deny it in comments.
I read the entirety of the original post.
Did you read this entire comment chain?
It’s not.
There are many red states, some I have lived in (ID, IA) that are just fine. Sure, I disagree with a decent amount of people who live in those states, but it’s not conservatism that I have trouble with. It’s the culture of the south that I cannot stand and am just stating my opinion which now I know is not a very unpopular one on this site now.
Quit being so grumpy crouchy, my jolly ol friend 👉😎👉
I don’t identify as a state, I live in a state. I don’t identify as red/blue/left/right, etc, regardless whatever color or side my state is considered. All that mess is about the political views of the politicians running the state. I’m not a politician, and I rightly do not even care about politics in the first place.
That has little to do with my point, OP themself initially said it’s not about red vs blue, so when did politics come into this? Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s when OP contradicted themself in the comments by mentioning and complaining about southern state colors.
It doesn’t matter what region you go to, there will be some nice people, some mean ones, some smart ones, some dumb ones, etc. That’s not even politics, that’s just observing the differences between people.
My first comment to OP attempted to express my nicer understanding side, while also being disappointed with their broad expression of hatred, and I got downvoted and criticized for that. Okay, there’s a flip side to every coin ya know. If trying to be nice and understanding doesn’t get anywhere, then what’s the point of even trying to be nice?
I hope you at least kinda understand where I’m coming from with this comment, and I hope you have a good day.
That’s not what they espouse, but when someone offers it up they are allowed to agree without being a hypocrite. You’re the one showing your whole ass by going for a nitpick you lil nonce
That’s literally quoting their 8th original paragraph/sentence/section, whatever you wanna call it. They conflict their own original post.
Strikes me as a troll post to stir shit amongst the rest of us. Don’t fall for it.
Is there a way on lemmy to block someone? Asking for a friend.
Yes. You can filter or block entire communities, instances, or users. It’s quite handy. The exact methodology will depend on your app, though.
Ok, thank you! It was sort of a joke, but the information is really helpful
Diogenes was a troll and we still discuss his ideas. Not all troll things are meant to be discarded
Could you educate a European and explain what states are regarded as the south?
Is it like Alabama, Luisiana and their neighbours, or does it include Texas, Flordia as well?
I’m guessing these might also be the least secular states as well?
Thanks in advance!
Typically easy of the Mississippi River and South of the mason Dixon line, which runs north of Maryland, is a good estimate for southern. It’s really more southeastern states. Florida is definitely southern. Texas is kinda weird. They’re not in the region typically defined as southern, it they have all the traits.
The Southern States started the civil war to protect slavery, and after the war fought reconstruction attempts in order to preserve white supremacy as part of the social order.
The stain remains to this day.
climate? hell no it’s not beautiful. Just give it a few more years and it will be the front porch of hell 9 months a year instead of 6.
Wouldn’t be that way if a bunch of the country, especially a specific region, actually considered the consequences everyone would face instead of the minor inconveniences they would personally deal with.
But again, “me, myself, and I”.
The mental gymnastics conservatives are going to do when Florida is finally submerged will be powerful enough to power all remaining homesteads in the United States.
Arkansas is a beautiful drive through state. Just don’t stop.
Good writeup, OP.
I think any vaguely non-mainstream person in the US has felt the wrath of the culture you’ve described here. However, I think it would be more accurate to label this phenomenon as “Christian assholery” rather than just generally referring to it as “The South.”
I’m from the UK and went to visit my family in America for a few months when I was 20. They were nice people (to me), however I’ll always remember how they spoke about others and how they would make fun of the homeless, or talk about people behind their backs.
I was always so shocked because I had never been around a group of people like this, and they were so nice to me, hearing them speak like that has stayed with me more than any of the positive memories I have.
Christian assholes are everywhere in the US, but only in the South do they hold the power to restrict women’s rights and attack LGBTQ people relentlessly.
only in the South do they hold the power to restrict women’s rights and attack LGBTQ people relentlessly
Dog, have you ever heard of a little state called Utah? Religious conservatives don’t just hold power in the South.
I’m the 5th generation southerner and I can say I saw most of this growing up. I hate the bullshit “politeness” that is ingrained in this culture. I never felt anything said to me was genuine and I learned that everyone was talking behind everyone else’s back. Even worse when someone try to better their situation. It was known that “caste” you were born into would be where the community expected you to stay. Try to move out of it and well “that’s just not what we do, honey.”
Growing up I heard 100’s of racist and misogynistic jokes and comments. It took awhile after I left to start to understand that those jokes are not just something that is part of every party and gathering. Materialism is second only to God as to how good of a person you are. Any one that came out of the closet was served a community death sentence. They were just “forgotten” about when invitations were extended for a party or holiday meal.
Wow I didn’t know how worked up your post got me but thank you for it.
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There’s two of us on Lemmy!!
(Did you know the Department of Justice was created just to fight the KKK because they were such a big fucking problem?)
The entire modern administrative state stems out of the South’s inability to follow the law and not be racist. That’s why conservatives still rail against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as the beginning of modern government overreach.
I dunno man, I think this opinion in general is pretty popular. Maybe not the extreme rant version you’re doing, but the overall opinion, yeah.
I’m not sure what drugs you’re on, but the climate in the south is fucking awful.
Wow, I typed out a whole reply based on this and the deleted it. I didn’t know I was so opinionated on humidity, but it’s the absolute fucking worst.
No kidding. This person clearly isn’t spending time in the south during the several months a year its over 100. This summer it was fucking 90 before the sun came out multiple days…
Not to mention the fire ants, aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus mosquitoes that stray far from water and will bite you in the high noon summer sun, Lone Star ticks that bite you and make you deathly allergic to consuming mammal and increase your risk of stroke dramatically if you continue to even eat dairy, and slow drivers in the passing lane that perversely makes the rightmost lane better suited for actually passing folks. Where high humidity makes 74 degrees feel like a sauna so I’m sweating just trying to get my kid in the car.
Chiggers, man. Fuck Chiggers…
And kudzu.
I feel like that’s by far the least important part of the post, by a landslide
It is nice in the winter, that’s about it. I’ve lived in the South (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana) for long stretches and the best part about it was calling up my family in January and laughing at the snow they were having to deal with. Well-compensated for by the racism and hatred of non-Christian religions (including Catholicism lol).
It’s not even nice in the winter. The humidity makes the cold bitter.
How is this an unpopular opinion? It’s like saying “Fuck mosquitoes” or “Fuck root canals”
It’s kinda weird to hate on a medical procedure. Sure they’re not fun, but try not having the option and then see how you feel about it.
I was trying to think of things universally despised. Maybe fuck hemorrhoids? Fuck cancer?
As someone who lives in the south, let me just say
FUCK THE SOUTH
Me: Eh the South isn’t so bad
Me traveling five miles out of civilization: Fuck the South
It’s true, most of what OP said never happened to me but I lived in a well developed, large, democratic city in the south and still do. But if I drive 10 miles outside the city limits it turns into a literal shit hole.
But being polite is not the same as being kind.
Example: “Bless your heart!” = “You’re an idiot!”
Politeness is like a weapon. Made me remember a speech adjacent to the topic that I like. There’s a bit by Cleese that explains this feeling. He calls is “solemn” instead of polite. I think propriety falls into the same camp. Tradition as well. No matter what this thing is called it isn’t wielded with good intention:
i think we all know that laughter brings relaxation and that humor makes us playful yet how many times have important discussions been held where really original and creative ideas were desperately needed to solve important problems but where humor was taboo because the subject being discussed was so serious this attitude seems to me to stem from a very basic misunderstanding of the difference between serious and solemn now i suggest to you that a a group of us could be sitting around after dinner discussing matters that were extremely serious like the education of our children or our marriages or the meaning of life and i’m not talking about the film and we could be laughing and that would not make what we were discussing one bit less serious solemnity on the other hand i mean i don’t know what it’s for i mean what is the point of it the two most beautiful memorial services that i’ve ever attended both had a lot of humor and it somehow freed us all and made the services inspiring and cathartic but solemnity it serves pomposity and the self-important always know at some some level of their consciousness that their egotism is going to be punctured by humor that’s why they see it as a threat and so dishonestly pretend that their deficiency makes their views more substantial when it only makes them feel bigger
Literally, the exact phrase that statement brought to my mind as well
I feel like this may only be unpopular in the South.
