I had to go back and reread - I never meant you or your ancestors were like the locals from the holler here. Obviously, somebody in your family left the hills at some point. Same with those here closer to town, they got out and mingled a bit.
What’s left is people who leave dogs on heavy chains with no shelter, even when it’s 14 degrees. Raise roosters and pit bulls for fighting. Pen up hunting dogs, only letting them out for hunting and otherwise neglecting them. Othrrs dogs and cats run loose, until they are killed by cars or predatirs, and they go pick up some more - who knows why.
And of course, no animal is vaccinated, treated for tics, flees, heartworm, etc. We’ve been here 6 years and they never had an animal live more than 2 years old. And it’s the same, if not worse, in the other hollers up and down the Appalachian near the TN/VA/NC border. I don’t even want to mention how they treat horses or mules.
Other areas could be different. I think the key is genetic diversity. 3 or 4 surnames being shared by many hundreds - not a good thing.
It’s not about my family per se, although goodness knows they were hardly paragons of virtue. I met my Mom’s father exactly once before he passed and my mother wouldn’t allow me within arm’s reach of him (I was 9). Not saying he was Joe Biden, but I know they had to keep him strapped to the bed in the home because they kept finding him in the women’s ward. This was back in the early 70s mind you, so he may have had dementia. Mom also warned me never marry someone from the ancestral county!
Would having a neighbor who is a doctor with an IQ of 125 who beats his wife be better? Or a lawyer with an IQ of 140 who abuses his child? A high IQ doesn’t make a nice person.
I know you’re upset with your neighbor; I would be too. But broadbrushing everyone in the area as being mental defective due to that is really unfair. I know I’ve been very upset with people who post disparaging things about government workers, and even had those comments directed towards me once they discover I am one. So I can imagine someone who is from there or even lives there could feel affronted.