Just a simple argument against crapping on the "South".

[JanMichael]

We (what I perceive as a norm here at DU and in the general population) seem to always call the Pacific Northwest super liberal in terms of tolerance as compared to a perceived ugly monolith called "the South"; I however don't buy in to that theory; at least not when it counts in terms of race/sex/homophobic illegal violence. In other softer gentler ways perhaps. But...

Fun Fact - Portland is almost always heads above Charlotte in Hate Crimes as reported by the FBI. Crazy eh? In 2009 Portland had a hefty 35 incidents and Charlotte, NC (bigger by almost 200k and 35% African American while Portland is like 4% (at best) African American) had 9.

Huh? Oh and almost half (15) of the Portland incidents were attacks/incidents against gays. More than all of the Charlotte reports.

I've lived in all over this country and in other countries. There are shitheads and decent folks in all. North Carolina compared to places I've lived before, while having its own share of A-holes, is pretty damned decent.

Plus Chapel Hill (the oldest Public University in the USA) is still called "Commie Hill" by Reich-wingers. Asheville is a lefty, hippy, free-spirit mecca (although somewhat gentrified in the 90s and 00s). All of the major metro areas voted Obama (and all are mostly disappointed now but alas)...

My point is maybe best exemplified by the movie "Norma Rae": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079638 /

It's easy (in varying degrees) to bitch about "the man" in super liberal areas. It takes a real physically aware toughness and guts, and a certain amount of insane feistiness, to do it in "the South". And there are a TON of those feisty types here.

I'm not trying to put down Oregon (I hope Oregon destroys Auburn in the BCS Championship!!!!) because I love many of its physical and historic heritages. My god the movie Reds ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reds_ (film) )was centered on Portland Communists. Yes I appreciate that as I am am a fairly well known Socialist.

What I don't like are the broad brush strokes (in many threads which I will not call out here) that seeks the separation/alienation of all those not in the liberal "Valhalla's" which - aren't as pristinely perfect an "liberal" as advertised.

But the fact remains that we should all be in this together and not apart. It's like calling all black people the "N-word" and calling all "white people" either "crackers" or poor white people "trailer trash". I hate these dividing and demeaning terms.

All of these separating and dividing tactics of the working classes and so-called middle classes is ignorant and well "dividing".

Stop dividing please.