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Comment by jofer | Hacker News Reader

Given the comments I've repeatedly received due to my accent, I'd disagree.

I'm a bit sick of being called an "ignorant hick" or a "fucking stupid redneck" just because everyone can tell where I grew up if they hear me speak.

Yeah, I can be outspoken, but being told that because I'm disagreeing about something technical in a professional setting really gets under my skin, and it happens a lot. People on the east/west coast really do hold it against you if you're not from the east or west coast.

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It's odd to call foul in a thread about climate change disasters when Texas politicians continue to deny that it even exists. Or to reject Federal aid to coastal states but beg for relief yourselves after Harvey. "Hick" is a supremely ignorant word to use but "hypocrite" seems accurate for the good ole' Republic of Texas.

And you assume we're all the same? All the cities in Texas are solidly democratic, fwiw. State politics are controlled by rural counties, similar to the US as a whole.

Not just Texas. When most of my friends were freaking out after the 2016 election I spent a bunch of time drilling down into the detailed election results. My take, there are no red states/blue states.

The divide is totally 'rural' / 'urban'. I put scare quotes because I think the definition is local and fungible. There are towns of 100,000 in New York that voted 'red' and little cities in places like Montana that voted 'blue'

Sure but pretty much all cities are solidly blue unless you look at Oklahoma or Kansas or something like that. The Texas oil industry has a unique place in skewing the discussion on climate change. Even if TX flipped blue, it will be hard to dislodge the prevailing denialism. Insert Upton Sinclair quote here.

That all said, I'm sorry you get roped into the same crowd pushing for Bible study and creationism in public schools. Identity and politics are viewed as inseparable these days.

Agreed. I grew up in the PNW, but in a predominantly black neighborhood. I married somebody who was from a very white new england suburb. They were downright intolerant of folks with a southern accent and literally called them stupid (the most memorable was an expert scientist being interviewed on NPR). It took several years of me bringing up that bigotry for them to come around and try to work on it.

Seconded, and I don't have much of an accent at all (especially if I'm focusing on it). Even without that, east- and west-coast natives hear I'm from Texas and jump to the "stupid redneck" thing.

I just wanted to corroborate this. Im originally from up north and have lived in texas for over 30 years and my brain still interprets a southern accent as ignorant/lack of education. I still have cognitive dissonance when I hear rocket scientists from nasa (houston) with southern accents.

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