“Southwest NY State is definitely Appalachia, without Baptists, and with more NY-state-style socialism, and even more meth.”
I’m a Baptist and grew up in SW NYS — even lived in Painted Post for a year. There are so many Baptist that Seventh Day Baptists used to coexist with regular Baptists.
Also, have seen more Confederate flags in that neck of the woods than I’ve ever seen here in TN. Trump signs are EVERYWHERE.
It’s not Appalachia. Corning Glass there in Steuben County is high tech, and the place is crawling with PhDs.
You grew up in SW NYS - how many years ago was that? Have you been back recently?
I still live in the area.
Yes, some religious and self-reliant people remain, and they vote Trump. I didn’t say there were zero good jobs, rather, most middle class jobs now are somehow all connected to State employment.
It’s a decayed socialist society, controlled from Albany and NY City and an afterthought to elites there. All the post-modern social pathologies JD Vance outlined in his biography exist in spades in Steuben County. My State Sheriff friends in Allegany, Stueben, Chemung, etc.. tell me they make only two kinds of arrests - drugs, and domestic violence.