Becki Basley

“But yeah, like everyone else in our family, they could go from zero to murderous in a fucking heartbeat.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“Despite its reputation, Appalachia—especially northern Alabama and Georgia to southern Ohio—has far lower church attendance than the Midwest, parts of the Mountain West, and much of the space between Michigan and Montana. Oddly enough, we think we attend church more than we actually do. In a recent Gallup poll, Southerners and Midwesterners reported the highest rates of church attendance in the country. Yet actual church attendance is much lower in the South.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“...Mom equated money with affection...but I never cared about the money. I just wanted her to be healthy.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“social mobility isn’t just about money and economics, it’s about a lifestyle change. The wealthy and the powerful aren’t just wealthy and powerful; they follow a different set of norms and mores. When you go from working-class to professional-class, almost everything about your old life becomes unfashionable at best or unhealthy at worst.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis