To my Southern friends here on DU: [View All]

[brentspeak]

I came across a Southern/Red State-bashing DU thread today that was perpetrated by someone claiming to be a resident of my state, NJ. I've lived in NJ my entire life, and the kind of Southern-criticism spouted by that idiotic (who-shall-be-unnamed) DU poster just plain does not exist. What goes on in the South, the people there, etc. -- it's just not an issue, a topic of discussion, positive or negative, other than, say "Hey, did you hear about the huge hurricane in Florida?" or "If you're driving to Virginia, you might want to take such-and-such route, otherwise you'll hit a lot of traffic." In other words, the South as an entity or a culture is not an issue. There's no "we from the North are better than you in the South" attitude. The same goes for pretty much every other state in the northeast. It's a manufactured controversy.

So, if you come across more asinine threads and posts on DU composed by alleged northeastern/California/northwest residents/elitist-types that make you feel uncomfortable, understand that the people behind them are either a) weirdos with very little in common with the average person here, or, more than likely, b) RW trolls just trying to pi$$ you off, create division on the boards, aka, "divide and conquer". With the latter in mind, we'll almost certainly see more of the pathetic, divisive hijinks from now until Election Day. Don't take their provocations seriously.

:dem: