How is a red neck different than a repug?

[captain queeg]

Or whatever other derogatory terms are thrown around on this site?

I got some grief recently for using the term “red neck” and accused of being condescending and lumping people into narrowly defined groups. I’d think people who objectively read my posts would draw a different conclusion, but my real concern is how so many derogatory terms for RW Trumpsters are thrown around with impunity. I use them myself but do not mean that everyone in that group matches in lockstep.

I would hope we all realize, even when using terms like these for convenience sake that we are trying to generally describe a set of attitudes.

[brush]

1. Alert! Alert!

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

2. I've always called myself a redneck, because

I was in construction and drove a truck for a good while, but I've always been a democrat. I use the term generically, as in blue collar, when referring to myself.

There are always posters who take issue with how something is phrased, while ignoring the point being made.

[tblue37]

3. "Redneck" originally referred to the way the back of a white farmer's neck got burned, then

permanently tanned to a ruddy shade from working long hours in the fields.

[CrispyQ]

5. Thanks for that!

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

11. Right

[CrispyQ]

4. To me the term means someone in a rural area who is uneducated or disdains education.

So, yeah, usually a republican. I see above, someone associates the term with blue collar workers in general.

I try to stick to "asshole" as my main derogatory term.

[Iggo]

6. Aw.

[NCTraveler]

7. Im a red neck.

[Docreed2003]

8. Liberal redneck here...

[Lint Head]

9. How is a racist bigoted sexual predator who loves the murderer Vladimir Putin different than any

Republican?

[world wide wally]

10. Red neck as a colloquialism means small minded to me

[DinahMoeHum]

12. These rednecks sure ain't Repugs. . .

https://www.redneckrevolt.org

[captain queeg]

13. For myself it really is referring to blue collar workers

But to expand on that, generally white and conservative. In my circles it’s not really derogatory any longer though I am sure that’s not the case elsewhere. I work with highly skilled union employees, but unfortunately those groups are getting smaller and smaller. I’d tend to think of red necks as working, and proud of it. They can look at the end of the day and see physical manifestations of what they accomplished that shift. But I am real glad and fortunate to join the ranks of the pencil pushers just because that work would have crippled me if I kept going.

[Orrex]

14. I choose to avoid causing offense, so I call them idiot racist fuckheads instead.

I'd hate to offend those delicate snowflakes.

[GulfCoast66]

15. Proud redneck here

Well, urban redneck. That likes international travel. But I hunt, fish, have a truck and boat. Wear camo and boots. Used to dip Copenhagen. Etc.

I can rig most anything to make it work.

[easttexaslefty]

16. Liberal redneck here.

Never voted for a republican in my life.

[randr]

17. Red Neck origination is a great part of American history

Most recently striking coal miners took to wearing red bandanas back in the day. Federal troops sent in to "eliminate" them started calling them Red Necks.
Even the early union organizers took the wearing of red bandanas from an earlier time:
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="

" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[appalachiablue]

19. Righto. Coal Miners resisting authorities, esp. in the infamous WVa mine

wars of 1901-1921 during the struggle to unionize wore red bandanas, and officials aimed to fight the 'Red Necks.'
The Red Neck miners were supported by national labor leaders Mother Jones, Eugene Debs and John L. Lewis, and also Frank Keeney, local labor leader and determined advocate of worker rights.
In 1921, over 10,000 striking Red Neck miners gathered to face authorities in the largest civil uprising since the American Civil War, the Battle of Blair Mountain, in Logan County, WVa.

The term 'Red Neck" originates in the period when Scottish, Irish and English indentured servants- 'Red Legs' and 'Red Johnnys' were transported to work in the fields in the Caribbean. Later in America the term referred to farmers and laborers who also became sunburned on their heads and necks from working outside.

- PBS, The Mine Wars, American Experience (2016)

- The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, WVa.
https://www.wvminewars.com/

- Forgotten Matewan Massacre Was Epicenter of 20th Century Mine Wars, Smithsonian
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/forgotten-matewan-massacre-was-epicenter-20th-century-mine-wars-180963026/

[captain queeg]

24. I remember we got a warning there would be a May Day demonstration in front of my office

Last edited Fri Jan 19, 2018, 05:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Some pea brain coworker of mine made some comment about the damn commies. I told him those demonstrations are why he had a 40 hour work week.


I don’t remember the details of the original May Day. I think it was a demonstration in Chicago with a huge blue collar work force. What I remember is the police employed machine guns (the real ones, not some dinky submachine guns) to break it up.

[lunasun]

31. Yes it was here in Chicago . People were killed for fighting for the 8hr day

https://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday

Not surprisingly the entire city was prepared for mass bloodshed, reminiscent of the railroad strike a decade earlier when police and soldiers gunned down hundreds of striking workers. On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public's eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists.

[appalachiablue]

18. Glad I saw this, interesting. Unnecessary to reply to your other post now.

Your points are coming through here. So redneck is widely used for convenience, to describe a set of attitudes of a very large range of people. In the US that includes suburbanites, rural and city people of any background and not associated with any particular geographic origin, profession, class, race or gender. From trades people to those in high office that distain education or are uneducated, are racist, usually republican and idiots. Quite a variety, but here it is! Viola.

[randr]

20. Just like a lot of American history

the recent fright wingers have stolen everything from patriotic to moral as their own with out so much as a whimper from the proud upstanding leftists.

[appalachiablue]

27. It's a sad era to say the least, co-opting more and more with few realizing it.

JD Vance, Silicon Valley corporate lawyer and occasional cable news commenter wrote the recent bestseller, 'Hillbilly Elegy' last year. It was widely acclaimed by the center left and right. A highly self-congratulatory story, it centers on his life and rise to Yale Law School beyond dysfunctional circumstances, mainly his addicted Appalach mother, the govt. which he disparages and poor white communities that spend all their money on big TVs and junk.

Written when age 30, Vance with his 'Elegy' was soon regarded as an expert on working class whites, even though his book included no historical perspectives of the region or research by respected authors on the subject. Released right after the 2016 election, it quickly bolstered long held stereotypical beliefs which will cause more harm and fuel justification for additional social services cuts for this distressed population. Courtesy 'native son', Silicon Sellout.

[randr]

28. Cultural appropriation

[appalachiablue]

30. For sure.

[Duppers]

21. Here's Trae on the subject...

"Redneck" is okay with him, bigotry is not. He's quite defensive here..

Being from the South myself but having moved to a blue border state, I can compare and am torn. Why are most rural southern states so damn red? I have my own conclusions.

[pnwmom]

22. Rednecks can belong to any party. Rethugs are Republicans. n/t

[JI7]

23. Bill Clinton refers to himself as a Redneck

Redneck itself isn't about party or political views but more about where one came from.

[mia]

25. One divides Democrats, the other doesn't.

One describes Republicans, the other doesn't.

[walkingman]

26. Maybe it is because I am from Texas but I prefer to use the terms

"SHITKICKER" and "RETHUG".

Shitkicker refers to rural Texans (mostly ranchers....you might think cowboys are cool but wait until you get to know a few) and Rethug refers to the people that like to think that the earth is still flat (or maybe not a good as the 1950's) and those greedy bastards that feel superior to those that are not as fortunate as themselves.

[stonecutter357]

29. I'maredneckcomeatme!

[lunasun]

33. Apples Oranges that's how

[captain queeg]

34. never really thought about what "redneck" means to me

Looking thru the posts and comparing them to my own ideas I did realize that contempt for education is really a pretty common attribute, though certainly not universal. No single attribute, or even a couple of them, would satisfy my interpretation. It would take more than a few of the attributes combined. I decided its sort of like a very large Venn Diagram. I thought I'd grab a screen shot somewhere to illustrate. However, when I googled Venn diagram the entire first page that came up linked to democratic underground posts, so obviously you guys know what I mean.

[TomSlick]

35. Like Bill Clinton, I refer to myself as a redneck (I insist that it's one word).

A liberal redneck but a redneck. You can throw it as me as a derogatory word but it doesn't sting.

The miners referenced above in the West Virginia coal wars were the descendants of the original rednecks, Scottish Covenanters that wore red kerchiefs around their necks to show willingness to lose their heads resisting the imposition of Anglican impositions on the Scottish Kirk.

A redneck now is an Scots-Irish American - usually one from the American south. So yeah, I'm a redneck.