Accents and their effects

Whether they see them or not, they're there. The same could be said about many foreigners in other countries...they don't always pick up on cultural differences among the natives.

>>The image of the South and Texas here is quite bad, to say the very least, and tends to be associated with things that are generally thought of as being the antithesis of, well, Wisconsin's general image of itself. Conservatism (to the point of outright reaction), religious fundamentalism, general ignorance (I'm not speaking of language standards here, but rather on a more general level), and so on.

Travis, I think you've been spending too much time in Madison (a.k.a. Little Moscow). Conservatism is not the antithesis of Wisconsin; rather, it’s her foundation. Some may point to the creation of the Wisconsin Green Party as evidence of her progressive nature, but let’s not forget she also gave birth to Joseph McCarthy. To be fair, you specified reactionary conservatism, but no state, not even Texas with its large metropolitan areas, can be classified as reactionist. I’m surprised you’ve found that the image of the South is bad, here. Even growing up in the city where one would assume sentiments toward the South would be poor, my observations have led me to conclude people couldn’t give a rat’s ass less about it.

The thing is that the kind of conservatism we have here in Wisconsin is generally a different sort of conservatism. It's about suburbanites complaining about their property taxes being too high and things of that sort, and if anything, tends towards business conservatism rather than religious conservatism. It may be very well rightwing (just look at the composition of the Assembly here in Wisconsin...), but at the same time, it's still culturally different nonetheless.

And by the way, if anything, them milieu around here in Madison (and in more left-of-center sections of the Milwaukee aera) tend more towards weak-ass liberalism than Stalinism, even though the ISO (Internationalist Socialist Organization) sorts here are quite fun to heckle, whether they're trying to have "sponsored" protests, where of course the only people who come to them are ISO members, or are trying to sell newspapers to people.

Travis, I understand what you mean. Here across the river, we have pretty much the same attitude. Not that anyone would give a 'rat's ass' if someone moved here who has a Texan accent, but the percieved notion of the south and it's inhabitants (and accents) as being backwards, stupid, conservative, etc. is not only ingrained within the culture, but is constantly reinforced when learning about or discussing politics or American history. For example, our high and mighty president is made fun of simply because of his accent, and some of his 'colorful' phrases and metaphors. Plus, open a history book, and you learn about the Civil War (fought over the economics related to slavery [in the south]), and slightly more recently, in the race rights events in the 50s and 60s. Also, northerners aren't as likely to be impressed with country music, bull-riding, or watching cars go 200 mph around an asphalt oval as a southerner. I wonder what southerners think of us?

american nic, I've heard plenty of people proudly say that they'll listen to /any/ kind of music *except* specifically country music, or both country music and rap music myself. And yes, people here don't seem to have gotten over the civil war and the civil rights events in the 1950s and 1960s, with respect to their views of the south, even though many people here's ancestors didn't even live in the US at the time of the civil war.

>>tend more towards weak-ass liberalism than Stalinism

I was referring to the political beliefs Moscow (i.e. Communism) rather than the enforcement thereof (i.e. Stalinism). Weak, of course, and mighty vitriolic.

Considering that you're speaking to someone whose political views you may not be the most favorable towards, considering what you have said up to this point, well, that's not much of an issue to me. My main problem with such sorts is their overall weakness position-wise, and they're more tending to effectively beg to the state, rather than to try to assert their will. Freedom is not given. It is taken. This is something they do not understand.

American Nic - just out of curiosity, what are people's views of Dr Phil - he's Texan, takes no prisoners and seems to have a brain?

I, for one, can't stand Dr. Phil, but that's because of the advice he gives. He seems intelligent, though.

>>American Nic - just out of curiosity, what are people's views of Dr Phil - he's Texan, takes no prisoners and seems to have a brain?

I know this wasn't addressed to me, but I like him. Then again, I like anyone who's forthright enough to tell a deserving someone to pull his head out of his ass and take responsibility for his life.

I didn't like him at first but I've grown to like him - its kind of his teddy bear personality and his drawly accent

>>Freedom is not given. It is taken. This is something they do not understand.

Are we lacking in this?

Bubbler, what I'm referring is the general liberal tendency to ask the government for everything, including pretecting them against themselves, and the tendency to assume that the general person, first, doesn't know what they want, and second, cannot be trusted to really make decisions for themselves, rather than actually seeking to determine ones destiny for oneself, both on an individual level than on a collective level.

American Nic - just out of curiosity, what are people's views of Dr Phil - he's Texan, takes no prisoners and seems to have a brain?


I think the impression of him here is generally positive. That would make sense because he is intelligent, doesn't make up words (like Bush does), and offers general, life-related advice.

Whoops, that should be "protecting" in my post above.