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261
Hillbilly Elegy director Ron Howard says he’s ‘surprised and disappointed’ by JD Vance (www.independent.co.uk)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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Hillbilly Elegy director Ron Howard has taken a swipe at JD Vance, suggesting that Donald Trump’s Republican running mate has “changed” since he first met him.

Earlier this year, Vance was selected to be Trump’s possible vice president in the 2024 US presidential election race – but before his political career, he was known for being the author of memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which was later adapted into a Netflix film of the same name.

Since being announced as Trump’s running mate, Vance has been criticised for comments that saw him refer to women, such as Trump’s presidential rival Kamala Harris, as “childless cat ladies”. This prompted swift backlash and accusations of sexism, with Vance claiming the remarks were made in “sarcasm”.

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[–] inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 121 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (10 children)

“When we spoke around the time that I knew him, he was not involved in politics or claimed to be particularly interested. So that was then.”

I have a hard time believing that. Filmed in June 2019, and Vance was elected November 2022, I simply don't buy that he 180'd that hard just a year or two later. Perhaps Vance did not talk about campaign plans on set, but without question his narrow bigoted views would've been made clear. Ultimately, I too am surprised and disappointed, but in Ron Howard for making a movie about this ass.

[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 114 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Look into Vance a bit deeper. He's no hillbilly. Nor Appalachian. He was born in Middletown Ohio. He went to Yale. He's latched on to experiences only heard about in stories from his family. Pretending it was something he did. He's the lowest kind of low.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 58 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

The thing that f****** got me is he was all read this book and you'll understand why we respond the way we do. And you go through the entire book waiting for the other shoe to drop or the first shoe to drop.

It goes right from business drying up in Appalachia and drugs moving in, to him trying to scare the s*** out of the poor to hate the foreigners while taking their money and giving it to the corporations who don't give two f**** about the people.

The book itself is just a grift.

[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 35 points 2 months ago

Well I think it's pretty safe to say that when it comes to conservatism these days. There's nothing more genuine than being fake.

[–] APassenger@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's out front in a local Barnes and Noble in the SF Bay Area.

His grift worked, I think. So many people on the left want to understand the right, that they reward bad behavior and put themselves in positions to be tugged right.

It's okay to simply reject the book without reading it (or buying it). But here we are. And it's okay to not watch Fox News and reject their rhetoric without watching it.

[–] Clent@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's is possible to understand the right and not be pulled right.

The people who are pulled, are pulled because they have something in them that resonated with the right's hate filled ideology.

The ideology isn't that compelling and the right wing voters are not victims. They are all active participants in the spread of hated.

They see themselves as victims, their ideology is based in their own imagined victimhood. It is foolish to actually except their victimhood, that is their ideology tugging on you.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The people who are pulled, are pulled because they have something in them that resonated with the right’s hate filled ideology.

In my observation portions of conservative ideology may start with a valid premise or fact, but its quickly distorted or outright lied about with all supporting statements resulting in cesspool of vitriol that is today's conservative ideology. It requires consumers to accept the base premise without the follow-on critical thinking.

One common example I see a lot from them is something like "We don't have enough money [at this exact second] to fix all the problems that exist". That is actually a truthful statement. We have lots of problems and fixing them all RIGHT NOW would be monumentally expensive beyond any amount of money we have.

The critical thinker would look at what money we do have, triage the many problems we have begin allocated what we have immediately to the most critical needs. In parallel, new funding sources should be sought to bring more money to bear on the vast number of remaining problems.

Instead the conservative answer is "because we can't fix ALL the problems RIGHT NOW we should fix NONE of them and give what little money we do have on hand to people that are rich who already have the most money and the fewest problems".

[–] Hydra_Fk@reddthat.com 5 points 2 months ago

Waiting on that trickle. Any day now. 😂

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

In parallel, new funding sources should be sought to bring more money to bear on the vast number of remaining problems.

You cannot even bridge this subject with conservatives in my experience. There's no generating more income to the government through taxes or fees, only "we cannot do this without debt so obviously we need to cut programs". In their turd of an opinion, raising revenue is never an option when it comes to a debt crisis...even though it's a patently obvious solution to the "problem".

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[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh I didn't buy his book I just read it.

And I'm here to tell people that it's not worth their time or money. And I bring this up probably to the same 60 people every time just in case someone new happens to see it.

I, however, don't entirely agree on not watching Fox News. I certainly wouldn't make it a habit of watching it but their coverage of the DNC was actually pretty enlightening. I was at a local pizza place the pizza is great but the family are of course staunch Republicans. We were stuck in the last booth in the place and I thought oh great I'm going to just have to deal with this s*** until the kids get their fill of pizza. But I occasionally looked up and found that they really had nothing. They bitched and complained about a bunch of stuff that was kind of nitpicky but for all the negative they wanted to sell they didn't have anything meaningful to say about it. And that said a lot more than the actual CNN coverage of it.

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I read a few pages. It was pretty awfully written.

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[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Yeah and for those who aren’t aware, Middletown is in the Dayton-Cincinnati area. It’s not even a little Appalachian, but rather extremely rust belt

[–] KingGordon@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Im around Middletown and people around here hate that asshole vance.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Oh good. I went to high school there and was 50-50 on whether they’d hate his guts or like him because republican

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 55 points 2 months ago (1 children)

RFK also 180d from never wanting to go into politics to helping the Trump campaign. It's almost like there's something about the Republican party that draws in money-hungry grifters...

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 months ago

RFK Jr. is the real life Connor Roy.

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 42 points 2 months ago (1 children)

One of Vance's former friends detailed the downfall of their friendship as Vance rose in politics. Despite their differences they were still friendly until 2021. Full article : https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/27/us/politics/jd-vance-friend-transgender.html

During their last text exchange that was outlined in the article, they had this to say:

“I know I can’t change your mind but the political voice you have become seems so far from the man I got to know in law school,” wrote Nelson, later explaining their position “as a trans person who accessed needed health care so I could live a full life.”

It does seem like Vance did 180 from someone equating Trump to Hitler to Trump's running mate in just a few years.

[–] shinratdr@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 months ago

I don’t even know why this is a question, people can absolutely be radicalized in a short period time, especially the apolitical. Even faster when large sums of money are involved.

[–] GetOffMyLan@programming.dev 31 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (11 children)

On his press tour, he had a lot of negative things to say about Trump. In conversation with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, he said:

"I can't stomach Trump. I think that he's noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place."

In public, Vance said that Trump was, "unfit for our nation's highest office."

And in unearthed private messages, he compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.

From 2016. Seems he did drastically change his opinions on trump once in politics.

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

JD Vance's Wikipedia page:

In December 2016, Vance said he planned to move to Ohio and would consider starting a nonprofit or running for office.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 14 points 2 months ago

He did start a nonprofit for help with addiction. No money was spent to help those with addiction issues. It was graft that he used to funnel to his campaign.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Shouldn't that read "planned to move back to Ohio"?

[–] inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Jfc, good call.

Okay, suspected 🐂💩 to confirmed 🐂💩. Wtf Ron?

[–] breetai@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

His mentor says hillbilly elegy was written to propel him into politics. So I find it hard to believe he wasn’t interested when that was the reason for the book

[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Yes I find it much more likely that Opie was fed a line into that big gaping Gob of his. By a metro sexual upholstery fetishist who saw an easy mark.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

I said same thing not long ago when learned of the fucking movie and saw who directed it. I was sad to think that he was right wing and why would he direct this movie. Also fuck Netflix for funding it.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

You've never spent time around midwesterners, I see.

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[–] derf82@lemmy.world 79 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Ron was happy to cash a fat Netflix check for his bullshit memoir, now shocked he ignored all the signs Vance was an asshole.

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[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 53 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How ron? How? Why wouldn't a creepy grifter continue to be a creepy grifter

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Maybe he could have just been, I don't know, paying attention? Ron Howard is full of shit, here.

From JD Vance's Wikipedia:

In December 2016, Vance said he planned to move to Ohio and would consider starting a nonprofit or running for office.[54][50] In Ohio, he started Our Ohio Renewal, a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization focused on education, addiction, and other "social ills" he had mentioned in his memoir.[55] According to a 2017 archived capture of the nonprofit's website, the members of the advisory board were Keith Humphreys, Jamil Jivani, Yuval Levin, and Sally Satel.[56][57] According to a 2020 capture of the website, those four remained in those positions throughout the organization's existence.[58] Our Ohio Renewal closed after less than two years with sparse achievements.[55][59] According to Jivani, the organization's director of law and policy, its work was derailed by Jivani's cancer diagnosis.[60][61] It raised around $221,000 in 2017 and spent the majority of its revenue on overhead costs and travel. In subsequent years, it raised less than $50,000.[57]

During Vance's 2022 campaign for US Senate, Tim Ryan, the Democratic nominee, said the charity was a front for Vance's political ambitions. Ryan pointed to reports that the organization paid a Vance political adviser and conducted public opinion polling, while its efforts to address addiction failed. Vance denied the characterization.[62][63][c] Our Ohio Renewal's tax filings showed that in its first year, it spent more (over $63,000) on "management services" provided by its executive director Jai Chabria, who also served as Vance's top political adviser, than it did on programs to fight opioid abuse.[67][57]

[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Vance was born in Middletown Ohio. He never was a hillbilly or an appalachian. So it can always get worse. It would be an insult to veneers to call his projected identity a thin veneer. I don't think it's substantial enough to even be a laquer.

The dude is trading on stories told to him by his parents and grandparents when he was a wee little ottoman fucker. Passing it off as if it was his accomplishment.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah he’s as much a hillbilly as I am, except I actually lived in urban Kentucky for like a year once and sometimes date actual Appalachians. He’s just some guy who got into a good school and ditched the rust belt for the coasts, which I don’t judge, it’s a good decision and one I wish I’d studied enough for. But a lot of those folks build their identity on being from back here and it gets weird.

There’s this coastal idea of Ohio vs the realit. I think Ron DeSantis showed it best where they keep trying to act like Ohio is this salt of the earth conservative place, and like yeah it’s lost its swing state status, but it isn’t conservative like Miami or Orange County, it’s conservative like folks who haven’t met people different from them. It’s conservative but we love weed and abortion is contentious not hated. And also Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati aren’t conservative. Please coastal conservatives stop moving to Ohio cities and thinking we’re cool with your bigotry.

Anyways yeah Vance is a costal conservative and thinks he understands Ohio just because he lived in Middletown until he had the ability to bail.

[–] TammyTobacco@lemmy.ml 28 points 2 months ago

Fuck Ron Howard for making a movie about this guy to begin with

[–] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I want to know what Clint

the superior Howard thinks.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Is he smiling in that picture?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

Fuck Around: "Sure I'll take money from this revanchist freak to inflate his reputation before a Senate campaign"

Find Out: "Oh no! He's leveraged his position to drag the country back to the Dark Ages!"

[–] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 months ago

Iny surprised and disappointed by Richie Cunningham

[–] oakey66@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago

That’s because liberals are gullible enough to believe that Republican media and politicians are well meaning folks doing the right thing for the right reasons. And liberal policies and policy makers have basically turned off working folks in rural areas.

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