When people read Breitbart every single day and convince themselves that Barack Obama is a foreign terrorist, that is not a problem of government. Th… - JD Vance

Oddly enough, we think we attend church more than we actually do. In a recent Gallup poll, Southerners and Midwesterners reported the highest rates of church attendance in the country. Yet actual church attendance is much lower in the South.

So, to Papaw and Mamaw, not all rich people were bad, but all bad people were rich.

Their paper suggests that hillbillies learn from an early age to deal with uncomfortable truths by avoiding them, or by pretending better truths exist. This tendency might make for psychological resilience, but it also makes it hard for Appalachians to look at themselves honestly.