JD Vance’s lies about immigrants is the logical epilogue to ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ | Opinion
What the American public is seeing over the past couple days, in real time, is the epilogue to JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Here’s what I mean by that: all of this made-up stuff about Haitian immigrants eating cats is the logical conclusion to Vance’s 2016 memoir; it’s what happens when the brain is poisoned so much on the “white working class” that it completely sacrifices the working class as a whole.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash this weekend, Vance said, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people then that’s what I’m going to do.”
So Vance made it up, which really makes you wonder how much of that memoir of his was real; sorry to Glenn Close and Amy Adams, someone could’ve saved you both a lifetime of pain.
If you’ve missed all of this hullabaloo from the past week, the short version of it is that someone made a baseless claim on Twitter (currently X) that Haitian immigrants (who are here legally) in Springfield, Ohio were eating people’s cats. That claim was amplified by popular right-wing Twitter accounts, and conservative media personalities, before Vance started talking about it himself.
Then former President, current candidate, Donald Trump took to the debate stage with Vice President Kamala Harris where he provided us with the following soundbite: “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
It does not matter to people like Trump, Vance or their ilk that neo-Nazis are taking credit for this, that local officials keep saying this isn’t happening, that Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine is begging for these rubes to stop talking about it, that schools have been inundated with bomb threats or that Haitian families in Springfield feel physically unsafe.
The fact that none of this is true is the entire point of the endeavor.
Vance says he’s just passing on the claims and concerns of his constituents. Good thing there’s absolutely no historical precedent of white working class people turning against immigrants or people of color if they think it could possibly be to their benefit, except for the fact there is.
Barring that, this is also a case of people just running with whatever deranged stuff they see on Facebook or Nextdoor without a second thought.
He’s certainly listening to a certain demographic of his constituents: the white working class, which Vance has always been so keenly interested in and claims to fight on behalf of.
When it comes to Vance, there is seemingly two versions of the white working class. There’s the version he popularized in “Hillbilly Elegy” and the version he now sings praises of as Trump’s running mate.
In “Hillbilly Elegy,” the white working class was in crisis because of their own personal irresponsibility, drug usage and general laziness (i.e. cultural). Nowadays he’s railing against the “elite,” of which he is a member, and how they’re the ones to blame for the ills of the white working class (i.e. systemic).
I think 2016 Vance would’ve looked at what was happening in Springfield–a town that has economically benefited by the migration of Haitians–and blamed the white working class people of that town for losing out on jobs because they were too lazy to work. You can leaf through his book and find plenty of such examples.
Now that Vance has greater political points to score, he has to defend the white working class because the fault in their lives is no longer their own, as he once posited, but rather the “elite” who have created these circumstances.
First of all, and it must be stressed, JD Vance does not, has not, will not ever care about the working class in any way that materially matters. I could say the same of Trump, Kamala Harris as well, and other politicians who are content to let the working class be processed through the meat grinder of capitalism.
All Vance is doing is signaling to the white working class of America, “You see all these immigrants coming for your jobs? We’ve got to do something about it,” and then that something turns into bomb threats and Nazis walking the streets, and he’s just giddy about it.
Where is Vance’s concern for the non-white working class? What of the working conditions Haitian immigrants in Springfield, and elsewhere in the country, are facing? Is the pay good for them in these local factories, are the conditions safe, are they being treated fairly? I think we can all surmise the answer to those questions as migrant workers face a litany of hardships.
Do labor issues like that not rise to the level of importance for Vance? Of course, the obvious answer is that Vance was never concerned with the non-white working class to begin with.
This progression of events is the only way a project like “Hillbilly Elegy” could’ve ended – a work of white grievance, and perhaps this was the long con all along.
Vance has positioned himself in a fairly complex way when it comes to his identity. He loathes the white working class of Appalachia, despite coming from them, for failing where he has succeeded. His story is one where he is the exception to the cultural norm, so because of this he knows what is best for this group of people.
He sets himself up as this kind of white working class victim – the ills in his life (like going to Yale) having been created by the culture he rails against so much. He’s carved out a space where others presume he can speak for these people, which was bolstered by many in the media dubbing him as a white working class whisperer.
Now in present day, he is using this position not to advance the interests of the working class, not even the so-called white working class, but to send a message that if you wish to achieve the sort of white exceptionalism he has, then you must insulate yourself within a culture of the white working class and lash out at those whom the “elite” are positioning against you.
Here’s a question: if you are a white working class person, do you think this is going to help your station in life? Do you think cheering on racist lies about immigrants is going to better you? Those immigrants are your fellow workers, they are there with you toiling alongside you in mind, body and spirit. JD Vance is not your friend, he is taking his check from his Silicon Valley pals and laughing his way to the bank, and then sitting on a fine, silken couch.
This story was originally published September 16, 2024 at 11:21 AM.
