gotta say as an australian that listening to the granola coastal-metro american left theorising about the american south is one of the most fucked up & surreal anthropological moments — like reading the noble savage tales of victorian england

listening to some Berkeley professor right now sweetly explaining that southern people are kind only to people they know or who share their beliefs whereas the coastal-american granola kindness extends with utilitarian accuracy to whoever needs it most

idk dude I went to the south and they just seemed like regular cool people lmao

the Nobel Savage version of this is like “they’re no *worse* than us liberal elites, they’re just *different*... parochial, simpler folk? you know they’re probably happier than us haha.. we just know too much ”