Welcome back, Kotter.

I just watched the Netflix movie; I have yet to read the book Hillbilly Elegy.

All I can say is:

I live next to (8 miles away from) Middletown. I am intimately familiar with the local vibe, how people are raised here, the social norms here, and how people achieve or don't achieve around here.

First of all almost every review I see of the movie pans it as overacted and over dramatized with shitty writing. THIS IS EXACTLY how people here live, it's total reality. The briars (Appalachian born and moved to OH and MI for auto jobs in the 40s through 60s) have a very coarse attitude and the movie depicts the gamut of their behavior and how they speak and act very well.

Hillary C, imagine trying to convince someone who doesn't come from your area what the blacks that lived next to your dad were like. Most liberals and even a lot of normies would think you're an over the top racist, but I trust your observations. Same with Middletown and the "lack of authenticity" of his story.

You actually do have frowsy pill popping middle aged moms around here who screw guys to have a place to live. And the local culture is extremely demeaning to the individual, and you do have to move away to have any real achievement if you're smart.

That's the childhood story. As far as his track from Yale and his later career, I don't know. The guy is super intelligent - he has a list of 10 favorite conservative thinkers that he finds most valuable - he positions himself as an intellectual, but an actual principled intellectual. And he did join the Marines. Being formerly deployed+ super high test scores almost certainly opens doors.

I had doors open for me briefly when I graduated high school as a PSAT/NMSQT semifinalist and got a scholarship just because of great test scores. With Vance being a veteran and having his intellect, I think receiving financial assistance to go to Yale is pretty reasonable.

As far as his rise in fame, he seeks publicity aggressively.

Also go check out my movie review of Hillbilly Elegy.

My gut feeling is that Vance is 100% authentic and his life mirrors a lot of my early experiences. If anything did NOT match up you can be assured that some leftie interest group would find a bunch of hungry assholes in Middletown who can be paid to say that they knew JD and he was nothing like his autobiography describes.

And as far as his exceeding his childhood background - his early life was shit and he moved away and joined the Marines and later pushed through law school because he was motivated. Desperation makes people do remarkable things.

I watched Whitney Webb (Unlimited Hangout's) dissection of the Vance-Palantir connection. She makes excellent points. I don't know how to compute that with him.

All I know is campaigns have to get money from somewhere.