As a cultural emigrant from one group to the other, I am acutely aware of their differences. Sometimes I view members of the elite with an almost pri… - JD Vance

I don’t believe in epiphanies. I don’t believe in transformative moments, as transformation is harder than a moment. I’ve seen far too many people awash in a genuine desire to change only to lose their mettle when they realized just how difficult change actually is.

No person's childhood gives him or her a perpetual moral get-out-of-jail-free card — not Lindsay, not Aunt Wee, not me, and not Mom.

I’m not saying ability doesn’t matter. It certainly helps. But there’s something powerful about realizing that you’ve undersold yourself — that somehow your mind confused lack of effort for inability. This is why, whenever people ask me what I’d most like to change about the white working class, I say, “The feeling that our choices don’t matter.” The Marine Corps excised that feeling like a surgeon does a tumor. A