Bill Maher just said the "R" word.

[independentchristian]

When talking about my region, the south.

"Redneck."

"I think hunting is stupid, I think Civil War reenactments are stupid."

Hilarious!!!

:yourock:

[spanone]

1. I'm from the South and couldn't agree more with Bill.

[Pepperbelly]

3. Hunting is a good thing.

I don't hunt but I do realize its benefits to us. And yes, I have no idea what the fuck Civil War re-enactment is all about. Not a clue. :shrug:

[independentchristian]

13. I don't have a problem with hunting

But the way he said it with the "brush off" approach was just hilarious.

I wish the Democrats would just brush off stupid, lying statements from the GOP, not brush off Southerners. It was also funny when Maher said, "I don't have to try to convince anyone of anything because I'm not running for any office, I'm just going to tell you what I think.

[alcuno]

14. The only good thing about hunting is the dogs.

I was stuck watching a bird hunting show the other day and the retriever was terrific.

[Pepperbelly]

15. In Arkansas, the white-tailed deer herds are getting HUGE.

Their natural predators have been wiped out of the ecosystem and there is nothing preying on them. I fear they'll end up starving or else causing substantial agricultural damage.

And pot fields. Let's not forget the damage they can do to those either.

[alfredo]

42. They only re-enact Civil War Battles the South won.

They haven't gotten over it.

[LTR]

2. What are you watching?

:shrug:

[LiberalinNC]

6. CNN - Larry King Live

[LiberalinNC]

4. I saw that! He's awesome! and I agree w/ him!

Glad to see his show on HBO is starting back up on Friday!

[independentchristian]

7. I agree with 50% of what he says everytime that he comes on

Of course I agree with 0% of what he says about Bush "The Christian" because Bush is a Moonie, and you can't be both, and most of what Maher says about "Christianity" is just based on the fact that he can't stand the "concept" of it because he doesn't see the "logic" in it.

They'll get their religions out of the halls of congress when "Moonies in both parties" stop running the government.

Maher is clueless on this issue.

He should really learn more about Reverend Moon and his stranglehold on both parties. These people aren't "Christian", they are "antichristian" because they follow a false prophet like Sun Myung Moon and people who don't know the difference just try and lump all Christians into the same category with these "antichristian" Moonies.

And yes, clueless Christians think they are on their side although they could care less about them.

Maher is clueless about Bush and the GOP and certain Dems.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

5. Civil War re-enactments are interesting

people do them up here too-and Revolutionary war re-enactments. To each his silliness.

But redneck is not a kind term-there are 'rednecks' up North too.

[youthere]

8. We got rednecks

in Iowa too...complete with confederate flag...what's up with that?

[johnaries]

17. Sounds like it's time for everyone's favorite Jeff Foxworthy joke!

For anyone who's been to Nashville, it's well known that most of the people you meet here are not from Nashville. When I was bartending and joking around with visitors, eventually they would ask me where I was born. I would slip into the worst hick accent you ever heard "I wuz bourn n raized rat chere, in Nashvulle!" Then they would chuckle and inevitably ask "then why isn't your accent more.... well.." and I would quickly reply "Oh, that's because I FINISHED high school!"

Always guaranteed a big tip.

Hey, ya gotta play to the rubes! :evilgrin:

Ever been snipe huntin'?

edit: spellin, o' course. it wuz a public high school.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. Well, I know he's an animal lover

so it doesn't surprise me that he would have a low opinion of hunting, although I suppose he will get jumped all over on here for having expressed an opinion on it.

It may be insulting about the South, but sometimes the truth hurts. His big claim to fame is being politically incorrect, which I think just means saying things that may be true, but everyone is too uncomfortable to say. I suppose I'll get flamed now for defending him.

I didn't even get to watch it since I don't have cable anymore.:(

[tsuki]

27. I lost respect of him over Ann Coulter. n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

44. Yeah, wierd relationship that one.

It's always looked to me like the two of them were doing the nasty. Their sparring on his show has always looked a bit too much like foreplay for my tastes. <ewww>

[Clark2008]

40. I'm Southern - born and raised - and I'm not a redneck

Never have been, never will be.
So, it's not necessarily the truth, Crunchy.
There are rednecks everywhere.
Not flaming you, just making a point.
Wes Clark, btw, is ALSO a Southerner. True, he was born in Chicago, but he was raised in the South. ;)

[Crunchy Frog]

43. I know hon,

Actually, I myself have roots in Tennessee. My dad's whole family was from Memphis and he was the only one who moved from there. I never cared much for his side of the family, but I certainly never saw them as rednecks.

And we have plenty of rednecks here in Colorado too.:)

[Clark2008]

49. Working to change the world, one redneck at a time.

LOL!!

:hi: Crunchy!!

[angstlessk]

10. I think the neo-nazis marched in Dresden in order to do an re-enactment

of their victimhood in WWII. Does that make any more sense than to do an re-encacment of wanting to hold on to slaves? Maybe a little different, but a very little difference. IMHO

[lala_rawraw]

11. omg... is he back?

Where is he?

[William Bloode]

12. Some of you folks really need to get a grip.

Bashing working class rurals will get you no where. It only creates more animosity. You don't want to belittle, nor alienate redstaters, we need to be reaching out.

So many here exclaim how they are so tolerant and inclusive. Yet i see daily ridicule of red state people. It very unseemly behavior and it really disgusts me how some of you can revel in the belittling of other folks in such a broad fashion.

Shame on you, shame on Maher as well. This kind of stuff has to stop for the good of the party and ultimately the country.

[beam me up scottie]

16. Oh I don't know, I live in a red state and I ridicule myself all the time.

nt
:evilgrin:

[Crunchy Frog]

45. Yeah, me too.

:evilgrin:

[beam me up scottie]

53. Oh wow, no kidding. I thought you were a granola from Canada.

Speaking as a vegetarian, I really don't want to know what your un means.
:evilgrin:

[Crunchy Frog]

54. My username only implies

that I'm fond of eating certain types of innocent chocolates. Really.:evilgrin:

[QC]

19. Class snobbery is A-OK even among the most exquisitely sensitive liberals.

It puzzles me, too, but there you have it. People who would sooner tear their own tongues out by the roots with red-hot pliers than utter any other kind of slur have no problem with denouncing people for being poor and/or rural. Hell, some even seem to think it enhances their liberal cred to throw out a crack now and then about genetic throwbacks fucking their sisters in trailers out in "Jesusland."

And then, of course, they wonder why poor/rural people do not consider liberals their friends.

[beam me up scottie]

23. Ignorance is not a class issue.

If you are stupid by choice, it is not a class issue. I was raised in a very rural area and very few of our neighbors would have been considered "rednecks".

[QC]

31. Then why are terms like "redneck" and "white trash" never slung at

affluent, urban stupid people? They're only applied to poor, rural people, but whenever someone objects, someone else trots out the argument that those terms have nothing to do with class or residence.

When people start calling the likes of Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Perle rednecks and white trash, then I will believe that those terms don't have class connotations.

[beam me up scottie]

34. There are enough names for all of them.

I got used to crap like that when I was a kid. I decided I would never use the n-word and I never have (along with many others). Most of the redneck name-calling I hear is being done by the rednecks themselves. If someone tells me (or when I hear it in a country song) that they are redneck trash and proud of it, I can hardly argue with them. I tend to associate the word with ignoramuses of all social classes. Maybe others don't. But then again, I was taught to think for myself.

[QC]

37. So people who disagree with you don't think for themselves?

I hope I'm misreading you here, because if that's what you mean, it's an awfully dismissive response to someone raising a legitimate point about the inappropriateness of people on the Left using what many agree to be class slurs.

This issue concerns me because I would be a rich man if I had a buck for everyone who told me that he or she won't vote for the Democrats because "they look down on people like me." The Republicans have been using that "elitist" stereotype to kill us for years, and they are able to do it in part because some people on our side give them the ammunition.

[beam me up scottie]

41. If I thought you couldn't think for yourself,

believe me, I would say that. When I said that I was raised to think for myself I meant that my parents taught me to look past labels and stereotypes and ignore them when they were applied to me. And I have.
The point I'm making is that redneck doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. Rednecks (or at least the ones I know) seem to be proud of the title. It seems to be part of the new anti-intellectualism trend now that we've got another idiot in the whitehouse.
I understand what you're saying and I do understand the term was used to brand poor rural southern people at one time but I don't think it is used in the same way anymore.
No offense meant.

[QC]

46. Thanks--I'm glad to know that.

You raise a couple of interesting points.

It's true that people call themselves rednecks, but I think there's a difference based on who says it. You know, the bit about being inside or outside the group. When my best friend calls me queer, it's a very different thing than somebody driving by and yelling it at me. I think that's why Jeff Foxworthy can get away with it--he's "one of us." I suspect that the audience's reaction would be different if someone from, say, New York were telling those jokes.

Do you remember the mini-stink that took place when Janeane G. and Sam Seder were really going to town with redneck jokes on their show one day? They were shocked that people complained about it, and many here defended them.

But imagine the effect on a listener from, say, Alabama. Two New Yorkers with money talking about him that way. I know that if my dad, who is a staunch Democrat, had been listening, he would have been furious. He heard those insults enough during his bitterly poor rural childhood that they still sting. And while Janeane no doubt felt that she was not talking about people like my father, he would not have seen the matter that way.

That's why I try to avoid terms like redneck. If someone is stupid, I'd rather just call him stupid. If he's a murdering, thieving asshole, then that's a fine description. But words like redneck and white trash still have the capacity to hurt people who don't deserve it.

[beam me up scottie]

50. You are right of course.

Terms like that are still used to denigrate, like the n-word (I can never bring myself to say or even type the word) and all of the other ones we learned from the bullies in school.
I apologize. I don't think I have called ever called anyone a redneck but I laughed when I heard them (Janeane and Sam) use it. I never thought about how it would make someone like your dad feel. I just got so used to the comedians and country singers wearing it like a badge of honor.
Thanks, I learned something tonight. Even the tolerant can stand to be more so.
This is why I come here.

[QC]

51. You have also given me something to think about.

I tend to get a bit hot when I see people using words like the ones we discussed. Clearly, not everyone uses them to denigrate. I should talk with them before getting too irritated--it can obviously result in an interesting exchange.

Have a good evening!

[beam me up scottie]

52. Thanks. You too.

See ya around the underground!
:hi:

[applegrove]

39. If only the traditional hunters were the only ones hunting I would

be much happier & people who hunt to save money etc. It is when the rich Vietnam draft-dodging hawks go out and buy fancy clothes and a canned hunt to do some violent male bonding that I have a problem with it. John Kerry can hunt - he was in Vietnam ... he likely has good reasons to want to hunt (replace memories, etc.).

But these yahoos born in Connecticut!! That just stinks.

[independentchristian]

21. Comedy is most funny when it is the truth

That's why blacks love Chris Rock and whites love Jeff Foxworthy.

When you see yourself, you can't help but to laugh. Well, at least I can't.

And I believe in reaching out to people, but I also believe in telling them about themselves as well sometimes so that they will examine themselves.

If you just try to reach out to them and they don't want to hear it because they have drunk the kool-aid for so long, sometimes you need to chip away at their self-confidence.

The slap in the face that Maher just let out was great!

The one he let out against Muslims was great as well when he basically said, "hey, I'm not taking back anything that I said. They aren't steping up to the plate to change the image."

[lonestarnot]

22. I do not love Jeff Foxworthy... can hardly stand to watch that repuke

but I's do luv that Chris Rock...he nasty...pulls no punches...says it just like it is baby. So I guess I don't fit your stereotype.

[independentchristian]

24. Maybe I should have specified that Jeff Foxworthy is a redneck

If you aren't a redneck then maybe you don't relate, duh. Besides, there are always some people who don't like the guy just like there are some people who don't like Chris Rock.

You don't represent everybody, of course.

[saracat]

25. They are never going to vote for uas anyway. Stupid is as stupid does.

If people are ignorant by choice , I fail to see how our dumbing ourselves down in order to get their vote is going to make a difference.
You say we should be reaching out. To whom? How can that be done except for educated people to drop kick their principles? My giving up my priciples won't make these people smarter but it would make me a hypocrite.
I have no respect for ANYONE who voted for Bush. There is too much information available for anyone to have done that and made an informed decision, unless they are stupid or evil.

[beam me up scottie]

26. Exactly.

Stupidity by choice has no borders. The cure for ignorance is out there, some just don't want to get better.

[William Bloode]

29. Wow......

Thats one of the saddest things i have seen in awhile. All at one time you broad brushed us all as stupid, ignorant and uneducated. Do you not perceive sentiments like those have always helped the GOP. One of the reasons many red staters and rurals vote repuke is simply because they are fed this perception by the GOP. Ya know the whole "They don't care about you, they just think your a dumb ass yokel" Yet instead of working to fix it so many of you feed it. Thankfully Dr. Dean thinks different, maybe this will help.

Also just think about it. If you replace redneck, or hillbilly, red stater etc. with ni****, or ki**, sp**, and made such remarks you would be removed for being a racist.

So continue to wallow in you self serving superiority, it does not serve you well, nor the good of the country.

It takes someone of extreme character to overcome such bigoted feelings. Maybe some of you will find that strength for the good of us all.

[saracat]

35. Did you vote for Bush?

"All at one time you broad brushed us all as stupid, ignorant and uneducated. "

Who is the "us" you refer to? I would hope that no one on this board voted for Bush! What are you so sensitive about? This is politics, not religion, or are you of that persuasion that thinks they are the same? I don't have to love my enemy.

You seem not to have not read my post for comprehension. I merely refuse to hypocritically pander to self induced stupidity. I said nothing about red or blue states, or the GOP.

Why is it , I wonder, you don't think it necessary for the so called "hillbillies" and "rednecks" (your words, not mine)to overcome "their" bigoted feelings? Why don't you tell them to "continue to wallow in you self serving superiority, it does not serve you well, nor the good of the country."

Is it only liberal Democrats that should be forced to change? If that is what you think you may be in the wrong place.

[William Bloode]

38. Nope...

I did my duty and voted for Kerry. The us refers to the fact that i and many others are in that rural group that so many of you bash with vigour.

You don't have to give yp your principle, You just have to reach out in a non condescending manner. Look for common ground work from there. Rephrase arguments, use new strategies, and drop the bashing.

Your "enemy"? How about potential friend and ally? Try thinking about the situation in a different light.

[murray hill farm]

18. He is so funny..he says what he thinks...and so what!

I lived in the south for a good many years...and "redneck" is the politically correct term..or at least the nicest of many terms that basically have the same meaning..ha!

[tsuki]

28. We're fishheads down here. n/t

[lonestarnot]

30. Cheeseheads over there...n/t

[William Bloode]

32. No it's not.

Redneck is viewed as derogatory. The P.C. term is "Good 'ol Boy" or gal. Redneck even among rurals is supposed to be a connotation of white trash.

[diamond14]

20. the South could AT LEAST rally behind a war that they WON.....

there's a lot of other wars that America (North and South TOGETHER) actually WON, and rallying behind those wars would seem to show more BRAINS....


it's "low-level brain-power" to keep on celebrating a WAR, that they LOST....


the "civil war re-enactments" in Virginia are mostly just a thinly-veiled effort to sustain racists' and bigots' perceived superiority over Blacks, and their nostalgia for the days when Blacks were SLAVES.....perhaps one day, those re-inactments will pither out, like KKK and cross-burning....(sadly though, IMO, bush* is encouraging and helping the rejuvenation of the KKK and the cross-burners)...

[Fleshdancer]

33. I hate the rare moments when I miss CNN

Don't get me wrong, going cable free is painful with no Daily Show, but to miss CNN? How sick is that???

And yes, the Civil War re-enactments are extremely stupid. Why in the hell would you want to relive getting your ass ultimatly kicked year after year after year??? I'm from the South and I don't get it.

[Jackie97]

36. As a liberal redneck...

I take offense to that!

lol.

I'm a liberal and all, but I listen to country music, sometimes have a "bring it on" attitude toward right wingers, and I just act like a redneck at times. I think I am one because I'm a southerner. Oh well. The only thing worse than a redneck is a liberal redneck. They're mean as hell.

[QC]

47. Liberals could use more of that attitude, you know?

I'm tired of doormat Democrats.

[Hardrada]

48. Here in Iowa we don't really

Have reeneactments of much since there weren't any battles here. That must be why. I've only seen one little sort of half-assed fake battle over in Fort Dodge. Union won of course and someone portraying General Grant charged around on a horse a whole lot evidently under the impression that the Union commander was some kind of cavalry officer. Those recreations of battles only cover a few of the set piece battles anyway and give a false impression of the war. For instance, no one is ever going to renenact the summer battles of 1864 in Virginia which tended to be gruesome unromantic trench warfare or the Siege of Vicksburg either which was also mostly unspectacular. But effective.

[Name removed]

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