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Comment by kirse | Hacker News Reader

Yea, and I also learned how to become a doctor by watching House and ER, fish for Alaskan crab by watching Deadliest Catch, and learned all about how to have relationships by closely studying Friends and Entourage!

So no, that episode of Top Gear does not bring up any "good points" to draw legitimate conclusions about the American South. All it shows is that if you insult the average person enough, they'll get pissed off enough to deliver a few minutes of good footage. Meanwhile, back here in reality (not in TV land) -- if you visited down South you'd find that, given a broad sampling, Southerners are far kinder and warmer than us from New England. (p.s. I'm not from the South).

It gives me great concern that we as Americans assume so much truth from our 30 minute highlight reels.

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Weird. I had a two friends get spat on their first day in the South, and it went downhill from there. They were an interracial couple. The local sheriff asked them when they planned on leaving, as if they were the problem. This was 2010, not 1950.

I'm sure the South is more welcoming for some people, but I wouldn't assume it to be the case for everybody. And I'm sure it depends on what areas of the south you go to (its still one of the most segregated areas in the US).

You ever been with someone with a strong southern accent in the north? I heard them called "hick" and "redneck" any number of times, and a black man said (direct quote) "I ain't helping no racist" when he was asked (politely) for directions.

You ever been with someone with a strong southern accent in the north?

Not sure if DC is considered the North or not, but I had some friends from Florida visit me in DC. No one called them "hick" or "redneck", but honestly their accent was so strong that I don't think it would be identified as southern. Sometimes I literally couldn't understand what they were saying. But they also dressed about as sharp as anyone I know... that probably fights some of the stereotypes.

But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the North is the most welcoming place in the US either. I simply think your perception of the hospitality of a region is not something uniformly agreed upon.

For example, I'd find a Confederate flag or Swastika offensive, and not welcoming. Whereas I'm sure others would rationalize the postive aspects of their respective histories and not find them offensive in the least.

One of the best experiences I've ever had was dressing up as a Confederate general with very prominent Dixie flags for Halloween in NYC.

I spent the day walking around Manhattan. People (mostly white middle-aged women) went out of their way to tell me how offended they were. I told them to "think of the heritage." I'm not American (well, I sort of am, long story), so to me it was both instructive and hilarious.

What was really interesting in hindsight is that none of the Brooklyn hipster transplants at the parties I went to that night thought anything about it.

Reminds me of the time I was visiting South Carolina from Montreal. I was in a gas station waiting to pay when I overheard two guys talking in the thickest southern accents imaginable. I couldn't hear what they were saying and I chuckled to myself at how much they sounded like dumb hicks.

It was only when they got closer did I hear that they were talking about nuclear physics.

It was a good reminder about judging books by covers, etc.

I was in a shop when I heard the lilting strains of a woman with an Irish accent at the next table over.

Being quite partial to an Irish accent, I decided to eavesdrop and sate my desire.

The first words I heard her say once I 'tuned in' - and I swear this is true - were "potato potato potato". I had to leave the shop quite quickly for fear of losing my composure :)

On a thread about how Americans are good and kind people, you attempt to justify the behaviour of the Southerners but only show that there are rotten Northerners as well.

In any case, these negative comments are a bit irrelevant, because it only takes one person who's willing to spit on you to say "we got spat on there, so people are rotten", but the vast majority has to be kind to you for you to say "we were treated well there, people are kind".

I went to San Francisco and saw many helpful people, I saw a few people who didn't care either way (the bus drivers didn't bother to reply to my "thank you"s or "hello"s) and a guy on the bus shoved me and shouted because he judged that I wasn't giving him enough space.

On average, people have been much nicer to me in London, but I wouldn't say people in SF suck because of that one guy on the bus. There were kind people there as well.

I am consistently amazed at how many people think that episode is a genuine unscripted documentary.

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