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Deer Hunting with Jesus
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War | Joe Bageant
25 posts | 11 read | 11 to read
After thirty years spent scratching together a middle-class life out of a dirt-poor childhood, Joe Bageant moved back to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, where he realized that his family and neighbors were the very people who carried George W. Bush to victory. That was ironic, because Winchester, like countless American small towns, is fast becoming the bedrock of a permanent underclass. Two in five of the people in his old neighborhood do not have high school diplomas. Nearly everyone over fifty has serious health problems, and many have no health care. Credit ratings are low or nonexistent, and alcohol, overeating, and Jesus are the preferred avenues of escape. A raucous mix of storytelling and political commentary, Deer Hunting with Jesus is Bageants report on what he learned by coming home. He writes of his childhood friends who work at factory jobs that are constantly on the verge of being outsourced; the mortgage and credit card rackets that saddle the working poor with debt, i.e., white trashonomics; the ubiquitous gun cultureand why the left doesnt get it; Scots Irish culture and how it played out in the young life of Lynddie England; and the blinkered magical thinking of the Christian right. (Bageants brother is a Baptist pastor who casts out demons.) What it adds up to, he asserts, is an unacknowledged class war. By turns brutal, tender, incendiary, and seriously funny, this book is a call to arms for fellow progressives with little real understanding of the great beery, NASCAR-loving, church-going, gun-owning America that has never set foot in a Starbucks. Deer Hunting with Jesus is a potent antidote to what Bageant dubs the American hologramthe televised, corporatized virtual reality that distracts us from the insidious realities of American life. From the Hardcover edition.
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keithmalek
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Pickpick

Bageant describes school shootings as "rare and declining." To be fair, this book was published in 2007, and sadly, Bageant died in 2011, long before Sandy Hook, Uvalde, etc. Other than his views on gun control (which I'm confident that someone as smart as Bageant would have eventually altered had he lived long enough), I agree with him on everything else. The closing chapter American Hologram is brilliant. #2024Book18 ?✝️

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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It's gotten worse. This book was published in 2007. I recently read that 56% of Americans are now functionally illiterate. By the way, for me, the fact that there are so many stupid people out there who are wildly successful is single-handedly the most painful thing about being alive.

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keithmalek
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...poor diabetic person manages to survive insulin shock and lives to make the payments on the credit card he used for that emergency room visit, he is welcome to join a hundred others like him down at the community center for a wellness talk and a free brochure paid for by a leading pharmaceutical company.

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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"Tough beans, because nobody can stop ignorant folks from having ignorant fun and spectacle, which is pretty much the only kind of fun and spectacle available in this country."

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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OrangeMooseReads For some reason this stat doesn‘t surprise me. 6mo
7 likes1 comment
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keithmalek
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🤣

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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5 likes1 stack add
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keithmalek

But are poor whites any better-off than poor blacks? And does the fact that most of the super rich are white help poor whites any more than the fact that most millionaire rappers are black helps poor blacks?

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keithmalek
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...of gadgets, well, they figure they have plenty for which to be grateful even if they do have to buy groceries with a credit card from time to time. People are starving in India, right? Judging from the wall-to-wall double-wide rumps in the pews, no one is starving here. God provides Big Macs and supermarket bakery cakes.

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Andrea313
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Mehso-so

I wish I'd read this book when it was first published. 15 years later, this territory feels not only well-worn, but also exasperating. Years and years of think pieces on the culture, values, and voting tendencies of the "white working class" have left me cold in the wake of 2016. I'm not sure what I was expecting this one to do for me; maybe I hoped to find some new enlightenment about our current situation? Spoiler: I didn't.

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Andrea313
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#ColeCat makes a handy bookmark (even when you never asked for his help). #CurrentlyReading #CatsOfLitsy

LitStephanie What a cutie! 3y
Andrea313 @LitStephanie Aw, thanks! He's a sweet old man, and definitely lets me know when I've been reading for too long. 😂 3y
24 likes2 comments
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Wellreadhead
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I was asked to put together a collection of books focusing on the Appalachian region for a gift exchange. These are some of the ones I included.
Which books would you have included?
Photo credit: Adam Sexton
#appalachianliterature #athinsliceofanxiety #appalachianstudies #ourregion

Crazeedi @Nebklvr that's a good book 6y
Nebklvr @Crazeedi Lots of atmosphere!! 6y
See All 7 Comments
Crazeedi I will check books I've read, I know i read a few set in Appalachia that were good. I will let you know 6y
paulfrankspencer Cormac McCarthy has a few set in Appalachia, but I think his best work comes from the southwest. 6y
Wellreadhead Thanks guys, I‘ll check these out also! 6y
95 likes7 comments
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Wellreadhead
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Pickpick

Book review for Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches From America's Class War by Joe Bageant
http://www.athinsliceofanxiety.com/2017/07/review-deer-hunting-with-jesus_22.htm...
This was my very first blog post, started exactly one year ago today!
#joebageant #athinsliceofanxiety #anniversary #workingclass #america #blog #deerhuntingwithjesus

DrexEdit This has been on my TBR a long time. Need to move it up the list. 6y
Wellreadhead @DrexEdit Cool (edited) 6y
83 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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roneea
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Best party of birthdays: flowers and books! My sister spoiled me with all of these and a chocolate tart!

DGRachel Happy Birthday! 7y
Redwritinghood 🎉🎉🎂🎂 7y
8 likes2 comments
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teresareads
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Published 10 years ago. So I guess this is the "later" he's referring to. But now the dangerous dimwit wears a red ball cap instead of cowboy boots.

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Hoopiefoot
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Pickpick

This book gave me so many feels I'm going to be sorry to give it back to the library.

Nuwanda I want to read this one! 8y
29 likes4 stack adds1 comment
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Hoopiefoot
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Starting to feel like the sun might never come out. Starting #HelloOctober with a 90 minute ride on my indoor trainer.

LeahBergen This books sounds great. 8y
Hoopiefoot @LeahBergen It's really good. Nearly 10 years old but much is still the same today. 8y
30 likes3 stack adds2 comments