'Country' Trend

Off Topic
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[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
A bunch of kids do that around here too (south suburbs of Pittsburgh).

It’s funnier than hell seeing them all get out of a Range Rover with their cut off sleeves, purposefully messy jeans, and dragging the heels of their wal-mart work boots.

Kinda reminds me of Pinocchio- “Someday, I wanna be a real boy!”.
[/quote]

Okay, the heel dragging thing does drive me freaking crazy. I was unaware that it was associated with being country though.

It seems like there is a large percentage of the Japanese that do that too.

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[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
A bunch of kids do that around here too (south suburbs of Pittsburgh).

It’s funnier than hell seeing them all get out of a Range Rover with their cut off sleeves, purposefully messy jeans, and dragging the heels of their wal-mart work boots.

Kinda reminds me of Pinocchio- “Someday, I wanna be a real boy!”.
[/quote]

Okay, the heel dragging thing does drive me freaking crazy. I was unaware that it was associated with being country though.

It seems like there is a large percentage of the Japanese that do that too.[/quote]

I’m not sure if it is associated or not. It seems like they are trying to make believe that they worked a long day and are so tired that they can’t lift their feet, but that could just be my perception. They should also be untied with the laces flopping around and dragging behind.

The real red necks I know never do this though.

63

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]Achilles of war wrote:

[quote]Hell-Billy wrote:

[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
I often hear people tell stories of magical places that only have one or two country music stations on the radio.[/quote]

Hell, where im at in Alabama we only have 2, one for new pop country and one old pop country. [/quote]

what part of Alabama are you in hoe[/quote]

He forgot to mention, those are the only radio stations.[/quote]

Actually there are quite a few, a couple rap mostly pop rock & Christian type stuff and talk radio.

64

[quote]Brian14 wrote:
I go to high school in a town in upstate New York. Five years ago everyone thought it was cool to be a wigger, now everyone around here dresses and acts like a complete redneck. Im talking one in every five kids wears dirty Timberland or Carolina work boots, jeans with grease stains, sleeveless plaid shirts, and camo hats with fish hooks attached to them. Now everyone chews tobacco in the school bathrooms, gets in fights on Facebook about whose truck is better, and posts stuff on facebook like “gotta get ma hands on sum moonshine tanite.”

All of that stuff is just annoying because I know that the majority of those kids grew up in wealthy suburban neighborhoods and wore Abercrombie of few years ago, they’re just doing it to fit in. What is more disturbing, however, is that they also have confederate flags on their belt buckles, hats and in the back of their trucks. Many of them have suddenly turned adamantly racist.

Have any other parts of the country experienced this? Or has it just plagued my high school?[/quote]

Every high school experiences this, generally from 14-18 most kids have issues with personal identity as well as fitting in so resort to adopting a artificial persona as a alternative to self discovery.

65

I can’t be the only one to whom the idea of teenagers going through a “country fad” just sounds like an ridiculous prospect… Maybe it’s just Northern NJ, but as far as I can recall (and I’m only 25) I’ve only dealt with hipsters (more so in college), hippies (I’m blessed with many hippie friends), rockers (don’t know what to call this, but a lot of people I know were into the whole Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Doors, etc. thing and dressed like it, too - guess I could throw the whole grunge look in here also, such as NIN, AIC, Nirvana, Sublime, or whatever), gangsters, emo-kids, etc.

The only time I ever hear people even mention country music is whenever I ask somebody to describe what kind of music they listen to and it’s always invariably, “everything (expect country and techno.” lol

Edit: This is not to say that plenty of people don’t ever go through fads - knew a lot of kids like that, too - and, for the most part, most of the people I know now are pretty eclectic in their musical tastes and I don’t mind anybody’s personal style (this can tend to vary greatly) whether they dress like a hoodlum, a flower child, or a fucking normal person.

Edit 2: And on the subject of Northerners walking around eggshells, I don’t find this to be necessarily true either - I think it’s more of a socioeconomic thing (higher class, more pampered kids tend to be less blunt, but I’ve also found that they tend to talk the most shit when nobody else is around - guess it’s just a matter of upbringing).

66

I’m in update NY too. I’m 26 with a fulltime job, so I’m not around teenagers much. I’ve never seen this. When I was in high school, listening to rap, wearing baggy jeans, wearing doo rags, and wearing tons of jewelry were all cool for white kids. For a little while, ten years ago, I listened to some rap, had a few pair of baggy jeans, but never really thought twice about it defining me. Now what the OP describes is pretty damn stupid though. I never realized being “country” was cool.

67

Welcome to high school/college. Fashion trends will always switch back and forth every few years, it’s just life. I never really cared much to dress or “act” any one way (aka hipster/country/thug/etc), and I think I did ok for myself.

And FWIW, down south people wearing confederate flags on belt buckles/truck windows/flags in their windows is considered normal pretty much…it probably just weirds you out cuz it’s not as common up north. As much as I think it’s kinda dumb, I wouldn’t label it inherently racist either.

68

[quote]hungry4more wrote:

And FWIW, down south people wearing confederate flags on belt buckles/truck windows/flags in their windows is considered normal pretty much…it probably just weirds you out cuz it’s not as common up north. As much as I think it’s kinda dumb, I wouldn’t label it inherently racist either. [/quote]

I never saw it as a big deal either. It’s just a flag the South used in my eyes. But my 1st year at Rutgers in NJ, a pair of roommates hung it in their 3rd story window facing the main road. A lot of black and some white students went nuts over it. You never see it up here at all even though we get a decent amount of people from Va and North Carolina in the area.

69

[quote]hungry4more wrote:
Welcome to high school/college. Fashion trends will always switch back and forth every few years, it’s just life. I never really cared much to dress or “act” any one way (aka hipster/country/thug/etc), and I think I did ok for myself.

And FWIW, down south people wearing confederate flags on belt buckles/truck windows/flags in their windows is considered normal pretty much…it probably just weirds you out cuz it’s not as common up north. As much as I think it’s kinda dumb, I wouldn’t label it inherently racist either. [/quote]

Well, I’m not from up North, but still weirds me out. Let’s assume you can get over the obvious ties to slavery, then what is it? At best it’s some asinine sign of rebellion, which makes the people that wear it akin to the douchebags that wear Che Guevara shirts. At worst it’s a glorification of the needless deaths of 500,000 and destruction of the region of the country they are trying to represent.

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[quote]StructureInChaos wrote:

[quote]rcsermas wrote:

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
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Now, there is such a thing as Southern Hospitality, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more racists around here.[/quote]

You really believe that? The firehouse I volunteer at is comprised of the most stereotypical country rednecks you could ever imagine. They also do things like tell “off color” jokes that at least used to make me uncomfortable (Grant it, they probably tell more redneck jokes than anything).

BUT they are also some of the most caring and giving people you could ever imagine. I have learned not to mind the talk nearly as much once I got used to how they really felt. Every single one of them will literally put their life on the line to help someone else without ever considering a person’s race, religion, or creed.

It really hit me when we voted on the local parade grand marshal (the fire house runs the parade). Pretty much one guy was mentioned, and all the people went around the table saying how awesome and hard working the guy was and how he’d done so much for the town. I didn’t know who he was and had no idea until the parade that he was the former long time pastor of the local black church. Not one person mentioned or cared about his race, all they cared was that he was a good positive representative for the community.

To me that kicks the shit morally and ethically out of some super PC white suburban slacktivist northern liberal living in a 99.9% white community voting for “equality” and lathering their moral condescension on people who tell insensitive jokes.

I think that one of the reasons the rural south is that way is because people are literally more comfortable and confident with who and what they are. They say things that the PC police hate because race and stereotypes really don’t bother them. You could call them white trash and they’d tell you Ã???Ã???Ã??Ã?¢??damn straightÃ???Ã???Ã??Ã?¢?? with a big wise ass toothless grin. The reason people get offended by stuff like that is because they themselves identify with and care about it so much.

Who is more racist? The southern who talks with and about people of any race in the same (even if insulting) way, or the northerner who, when talking about or with any minority, walks on eggshells around topics that might be deemed offensive? It certainly seems less hypocritical than declaring the wonders of diversity by trying to get rid of and change cultures that don’t function like they think it should.

If race really is just a physical color of skin, shouldn’t we be able to joke about it?

If you are super worried about racial sensitivity, the rural south probably isn’t your cup of tea, but if get beyond that, it ain’t such an evil place.

The next time you see some white guy nervously and awkwardly invite a black guy to a fried chicken, watermelon, and coolaid cook out, realize, that’s a real racist.[/quote]

Great post.[/quote]

x2

But back to the original topic, yes, I have a lot of those where I am from. I think it started back when George W. Bush became president. All of a sudden it was cool to be a “cowboy”. There were certain regions in my hometown that all of the upper middle class yuppie kids decided they were country. Girls wore overalls, guys wore cowboy hats and boots. It never made sense to me, but fuck it, if that is what they like, more power to them. The bonfires they had tended to be pretty fun anyways.
[/quote]

Good to see the pointless North/South conflict still exists. Do any of you three have extensive dealings with any Northerners? Because from my experience, I have no freaking idea what that wall of text was describing…certainly not any Northerners I’ve met and spoken with. It was just “I tell it like it is” with a whole lot of fluffer.

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[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:

[quote]hungry4more wrote:
Welcome to high school/college. Fashion trends will always switch back and forth every few years, it’s just life. I never really cared much to dress or “act” any one way (aka hipster/country/thug/etc), and I think I did ok for myself.

And FWIW, down south people wearing confederate flags on belt buckles/truck windows/flags in their windows is considered normal pretty much…it probably just weirds you out cuz it’s not as common up north. As much as I think it’s kinda dumb, I wouldn’t label it inherently racist either. [/quote]

Well, I’m not from up North, but still weirds me out. Let’s assume you can get over the obvious ties to slavery, then what is it? At best it’s some asinine sign of rebellion, which makes the people that wear it akin to the douchebags that wear Che Guevara shirts. At worst it’s a glorification of the needless deaths of 500,000 and destruction of the region of the country they are trying to represent. [/quote]

Not to be one of the douche bags that defends the flag (I don’t wear it or anything) but arguments like yours are just as annoying. The US flag is then logically also I sign of rebellion. It is also a rebellion that in all likelihood prolonged the institution of slavery in the colonies. And likewise, it is a flag that flew over slavery much much longer than the CSA flag did.

They are both just stupid flags. I’ll spend my time getting offended about things that matter.

72

[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:

Good to see the pointless North/South conflict still exists. Do any of you three have extensive dealings with any Northerners? Because from my experience, I have no freaking idea what that wall of text was describing…certainly not any Northerners I’ve met and spoken with. It was just “I tell it like it is” with a whole lot of fluffer. [/quote]

My “wall of text” was comparing stereotypes. Hence, I was using the mythical stereotype of the morally superior Yankee. I do know some people similar to that, but not that exact person. But I’ve also lived in the south my whole life and never met your mythical southerner either. Your post sound like some overly sensitive PC police with a large does of bullshit.

73

[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
. . .some asinine sign of rebellion, which makes the people that wear it akin to the douchebags that wear Che Guevara shirts. . . . [/quote]

Very apt comparison.

Just like the Che idiots presumably don’t support communism and the massacre of children, I don’t think most of the Confederate Battle Flag (“Stars and Bars”) wearers have a clue what the flag actually represents, are probably not racist, and wear it as more akin to a “sports team” shirt.

Regarding the sub-theme of North-vs-South racism, I tend to agree that the North is actually more racist (or at least seriously racist) than the South, at least as as far as Jewish people go (which is all I know about). With the exception of one very unpleasant experience in Houston, I’ve never experienced anti-semitism in the South, even in the smallest of towns where they probably have never seen a Jewish person, let alone an Orthodox Jewish person. In contrast, any given subway ride or walk down the street elicits at least one anti-semitic cat-call in NYC. (For the record, my primary residence in the USA is NYC, although I have lived all over recently.)

74

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:

[quote]hungry4more wrote:
Welcome to high school/college. Fashion trends will always switch back and forth every few years, it’s just life. I never really cared much to dress or “act” any one way (aka hipster/country/thug/etc), and I think I did ok for myself.

And FWIW, down south people wearing confederate flags on belt buckles/truck windows/flags in their windows is considered normal pretty much…it probably just weirds you out cuz it’s not as common up north. As much as I think it’s kinda dumb, I wouldn’t label it inherently racist either. [/quote]

Well, I’m not from up North, but still weirds me out. Let’s assume you can get over the obvious ties to slavery, then what is it? At best it’s some asinine sign of rebellion, which makes the people that wear it akin to the douchebags that wear Che Guevara shirts. At worst it’s a glorification of the needless deaths of 500,000 and destruction of the region of the country they are trying to represent. [/quote]

Not to be one of the douche bags that defends the flag (I don’t wear it or anything) but arguments like yours are just as annoying. The US flag is then logically also I sign of rebellion. It is also a rebellion that in all likelihood prolonged the institution of slavery in the colonies. And likewise, it is a flag that flew over slavery much much longer than the CSA flag did.

They are both just stupid flags. I’ll spend my time getting offended about things that matter.[/quote]

Nonsense. Jewbacca touched on this before I read this, but that isn’t what the American flag represents. Sure, let’s just attach no meaning to anything. I really didn’t want to use the old swastika argument, but it’s fitting nonetheless. Meanings associated with symbols change with time, and of course that’s not what the American flag represents. Then again, I probably wouldn’t walk around Pakistan wearing a giant American flag. That’s because I’m not an idiot and I have some sense of what it might mean to someone else. Then again, maybe Southerners are not smart enough to evaluate context, but I think that would be an unfair stereotype.

75

[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:

Nonsense. Jewbacca touched on this before I read this, but that isn’t what the American flag represents.

[/quote]
Why? I think you mean, that’s not what it represents to you. Symbolism is entirely subjective. There are millions of people around the world that see the US flag as a representation of oppression and greed. The very nature of symbolism is that it requires interpretation.

My statement about worrying about important things directly contradicts this assertion about me.

But you mentioned the confederate flag in reference to slavery. and the death of 500,000 Americans… And mentioned that all the people you talk to who wear it think of it as southern pride…

What the hell happened to this notion in application to the CSA battle flag?

If the swastika started being used as a replacement for stop signs, you’d be okay with crossing guards wearing red arm bands with it? I don’t think you believe they evolve and change, I think you mean they evolve and change when you agree with it.

[quote]

Then again, I probably wouldn’t walk around Pakistan wearing a giant American flag. That’s because I’m not an idiot and I have some sense of what it might mean to someone else. Then again, maybe Southerners are not smart enough to evaluate context, but I think that would be an unfair stereotype.[/quote]

BUT, does it make the US flag a representation of evil?

Dress and behavior are forms of self expression. It really means whatever it means to the wearer. In the case of the stars’n’bars it could mean anything from racism (segregation not to long ago) to states rights, to hating the north, or just trying to piss people off. But trying to tell someone what their symbol means is like telling a painter what they were expressing with their work.

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[quote]Brian14 wrote:
Have any other parts of the country experienced this? Or has it just plagued my high school?[/quote]

You’re in high school? Great physique for 17! (basing this solely on your profile pic)

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[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:

[quote]Brian14 wrote:
Have any other parts of the country experienced this? Or has it just plagued my high school?[/quote]

You’re in high school? Great physique for 17! (basing this solely on your profile pic)[/quote]

I was thinking the same thing, Pimpy.

Kid’s got a great future ahead!

78

I tend to just laugh at ppl who fly the confederate flag, seeing them in the north, where i live, is usually just a sign of open racism. Sure it might mean southern pride or whatever to the person who flys it, but to everyone else it’s just openly showing you’re a racist, or a treasonous fuckhead.

79

Texas is chocked full of fake country people.

Never rode, roped, built fence a day in their life but dressed up like gunsmoke.

Lots of cool real country folk once you get away from the cities.

80

The rebel flag is not harmless. It is offensive and racist and always will be. That doesn’t mean that everyone who flys the flag is as much, (racist) just ignorant to a degree.