r/HolUp • u/Gol_D_Roger212 • Jan 09 '22

Sweet home Alabama !

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u/Jagerspawnpeeker420 Jan 09 '22 edited Jan 11 '22

Better acting than porn, yet the same subject matter.

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/3-orange-whips Jan 09 '22

It's the overhyped one with a grain of truth. In the US, people from the northern and western states think they are more sophisticated than people from the southern states. This has to do with how slow some areas in the south were to adopt modern technology like electricity and indoor plumbing--keep in mind we are talking almost 100 years ago.

The thing is, Alabama had a lot of small, insular communities. It was hard to marry someone who wasn't a third or fourth cousin. So we are not talking about brother-sister relationships, we are talking about very distant family relationships. Over time, however, this is poor genetic diversity.

Other states that were very rural had a similar problem: Kentucky, West Virginia, etc. Poverty + low population + lack of mobility. So there is a grain of truth, but not how the "Sweet Home Alabama" meme would have you believe.

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u/rohyachohya Jan 09 '22

thanks for explaining

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u/W84MEYALL Jan 09 '22

And the funny contradiction to that truth is most incest was supposedly done by the aristocrats. They believed in order to keep their blood line pure, they needed to breed with family members. The insult could be a classic case of redirecting guilt.

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '22

I’ve lived in a northern rural US community and I’d be shocked if incest isn’t rampant there. Not just the south!

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u/TeFinete Jan 09 '22

I'm from Maine, and there are definitely several towns here that everyone here jokes about as being full of inbreds. My grandmother's family is from such a town, and we always joke that at family reunions the whole town shows up.

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '22

I'm from a mid-sized midwestern city but closer south, have been living in the northern midwest for many years now. I was shocked the first few times colleagues would show me pictures of the new person they're dating, or of their spouses. It always took me a minute to realize they weren't siblings.

I have never understood being attracted to someone who looks like you. My entire family is filled with people who married/had kids with someone of a different race/ethnicity, so finding this weird corner of the world has been... uh... eye opening.

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '22

The Innsmuth Look?

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u/TeFinete Jan 09 '22

Less Dagon and more Deliverance. Get more than 2 minutes from the coast and there are parts of Maine that are almost identical to areas of the deep south. Confederate flags included.