J. D. Vance’s memoir, eight years later

During the election and its immediate aftermath, critics declared Vance’s personal account of his impoverished childhood in Ohio an urgent sociological text. The memoir was nearly universally praised, becoming a staple of university reading programs and critics’ best-of lists. “Hillbilly Elegy” wasn’t just good; it was “essential.”
 
Vance was “a palatable messenger for information that people were sort of starting to figure out that they needed in that time. They needed to understand the Trump base, the Trump voter,” recalled Meghan Daum, who reviewed the memoir for the New York Times.
 
Within a couple of years — before Vance declared his intent to run for office in the 2022 elections, and even before Ron Howard’s film adaptation came out in 2020 — the public mood seemed to sour on the book.
 
“At a certain point, everyone just turned on it,” Daum said. “It’s hard to say why, though. People were mad at him because he was sort of doing the ‘up by the bootstraps’ thing. And showing any kind of understanding at all of people from those communities was suddenly so taboo.”
 
The criticism was bipartisan, Smith said. “I think on the right, it was more like, ‘Oh, wait, it’s just too simple and glib to say that J.D.’s book explains Trump. The Trump supporter isn’t just living in Appalachia.’”
 
As the Republican National Convention unfolded this week, some critics noted Vance’s shift away from the beliefs he’d espoused in the book.
 
Caption from article by Sophia Nguyen.

[Manwiththecan]

JD Vance VIOLATING that couch and then living a secret life as a news reporter for the Washington Post is crazy.

[pokemasterbrains]

An interviewer needs to sit down and say "walk me through the transformation process you went to to go from 2016 you, to now. How did you decide to abandon certain beliefs, decide to pick up others, what made that happen? The driving, convincing factors"

His response, whatever it is, will be worth its weight in gold, regardless of what he says

[LandOfBreakfast]

JD Vance is a writer, a VP candidate, and a WaPo Shorts creator with an expensed bulletin board!

[deleted-something]

Wait he was the person to say America’s hitler??? And now he is his vp???

[starblissed]

Also it's not just a nebulous "some people" who were critical of his book; people who were and are actually from the Appalachias are extremely critical of his book because it is such a flattening of our extremely diverse home.

[simmerway]

It will always be wild that a man not from Appalachia wrote a book claiming to be Appalachian in which he tells people he’s not Appalachian

[cbot]

They made us read this book for high school and to this day I still can't get over the part where he said that he was embarrassed to enjoy cracker barrel in the company of politicians. Dude abandoned his soul to fit in and gain power

[GummyDinosaursify]

I'm a librarian and I was wondering why the book suddenly got super popular after no one had touched it for years. That explains it.

[RetroGamerTy]

His book is polar opposite him today. Hes the definition of a sellout

[Owlbearwolf]

The book was never good. Victim blaming at its finest. Preaching personal responsibility to a community that’s been kept poor after losing the coal wars to the bosses.

[Col_Fragg]

Middletown, Ohio is not Appalachia. It's a college town. It's basically a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. I grew up minutes away from there. No one there refers to themselves as "Hillbillies." They reserve that label for people from Kentucky.

[TheBLGL]

I am Appalachian American (I don’t live there anymore, but born and bred). I HATED that book when it came out. It was garbage then, garbage now.

[HumbleBeeUK]

"I had a diet mountain dew today"
God he is trying SO HARD to be relatable.
"Please relate to me PLEASE relate to me!!!!"

[rebeccamd]

As an Appalachian Native, he did misrepresent the facts. They were very jaded and made me feel like he never spent a moment in the Appalachia’s or knew his ancestors. I know his Vance line very well and some of his kin are appalled by his statements.

[IowanMatthew]

Synopsis: Venture capitalist and professional grifter tries to flex about being poor once (I guess) to his multi-millionaire colleagues and clients at a Heritage Foundation luncheon. Uses this sad story to justify policies that would keep people like his family poor.

[EdgyShooter]

Really goes to show what lengths people will go to for power

[ahmadpickett]

Diet Mountain isn't racist but is an abhorrent Drinking option out of anything 😂

[juslewissr]

Shady Vance becoming Trump's VP was the loudest possible way to scream, "I have no integrity!" without him even having to speak a single word.

[leonmat]

Yeh my friends from Appalachia were genuinely offended by that choice.
As I understand it, JD isn't Appalachian at all. But most of the country wouldn't understand the difference unless you're from there.

[Darroc]

JD Vance can't continue moonlighting as a journalist for WaPo, this madness must be stopped!