On JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, and arresting decline.

[For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast]

We discuss the Netflix adaptation of vice-presidential nominee JD Vance's memoir – and the memoir itself – and what it tells us about the direction of US politics, Trump, and MAGA. We ask:

• What is Ryan's own anti-hillbilly elegy, drawn from his experience in Central Illinois?
• How far does the character in the film correspond with Vance’s public persona today?
• How do we account for Vance’s political pivot – at least in rhetoric – from “lift yourself up by your bootstraps” meritocracy to pro-labour nationalism?
• What will happen to rural/small-town US American life?
• Plus: Is reading books gay? Is a "hillbilly" just Hillary + Bill? And what is a horseshoe sandwich?

Links:

• The State of Illinois is Killing My Family, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin
• An anti-Hillbilly Elegy, Ryan Zickgraf, The Third Rail (Substack)
• Hillbilly Elegy Doesn’t Reflect the Appalachia I Know, Cassie Chambers Armstrong, The Atlantic
• Why the Left Gets J.D. Vance Wrong, Zaid Jilani, Compact