It was a common thing when I lived there. I told people I had moved to New York and I kept getting spiels about how a North Carolina chick like me could never survive the big city… when given more context they calmed down.
I lived in Oneonta for a bit before Niskayuna. It had been temporary. I was only there to have my GRS done (am trans) went back home when the procedure was finally done
I was so glad to make the switch. I had so many people larping Southerners there, talking about how they’re “Just like the dude from Duck Dynasty” and how great my home state was because “Everyone down there is rich becauae liberals don’t make them pay taxes!”
It was certainly eye opening. I suddenly knew how a Native American feels when John Jackson over at the frathouse puts on a feathered headdress and starts talking about “Hunting buffalo for many moons” in his worst impression of whatever racist old Western he’s seen.
I think what made me hit the peak of this nonsense was when I was eating at a local diner where the owners were speaking in a (blatantly forced) Southern Accent one morning, and I asked if they served grits.
They looked at me as if I had just asked for them to kill and serve me their pet dog, even had some guy (one of their regulars, it was a small town) munching a bagel audibly voice his disgust that someone would actually ask for grits.
Ya know what we call people who eat bagels in North Carolina? Tourists
And I think anyone who’s seen My Cousin Vinny knows how much we Southern folk like our grits.
When I moved to Niskayuna the situation improved. Sure it looked less like my home town, but that was for the best… I’d rather have Real New Yorkers introducing me to the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life than Fake Southerners scolding me for wanting grits.
The city is it’s own beast, but omfg do I hate the South larpers in upstate and elsewhere! They are so annoying, flying confederate flags and shit when half of em have never even been 50 miles from their home town. You’ll even see some of that shit on Long Island. City people are much more open minded in general at least, it’s just the rent and cost of living that you have to survive. The food, including Southern food when you find it, is also world class in NYC - bad restaurants can’t survive.
Nisky is a cool area, I have some friends there, tho East Nisky has some of that Southern larping as well, it’s nowhere near as bad as it gets in the Southern Tier of NY from my experience as well - the people sharing the border with PA.
I would love to actually see the city, especially the Nintendo World store, wish I could have seen it back when it was still the Pokemon Center.
Niskayuna is all right by me, if I were rich I would consider it a second home.
You definitely have my condolences for the southern larpers. I am an actual Southerner and I can tell you that if they came down here, well would be like an actual weeaboo going to feudal Japan… they would get their ass kicked.
As for the Confederate flag, it’s a difficult and sad story. I actually thought all the flags were heart warming, almost bought a Confederate flag dream catcher for a friend of mine.
I know you won’t believe me because no Northern or ever believes me. But there was a time when that flag legitimately had more to do with barbecue then a sincerely held belief that a black man was a form of obsolete farm equipment.
Then people started calling it racist, it always had that stigma, but it wasn’t something you brought up in polite conversation until Dylann Roof happened… then they started the flag bans and now I only see being flown by Trump Supporters trying to silently advertise their klan meetings.
I miss when the flag was sinply misunderstood, but the second the Tea Party Started waving it on the lawn of the first black president as an intimidation tactic… that’s when I knew we lost it, it was only a matter of time before that stigma became too heavy to bear.
On Reddit this story would get me downloaded to oblivion, but people tend to understand more on Lemmy and actually hear the other side out.
That flag used to be so beloved as just a symbol of the south that back when I worked at Walmart and they announced they’d no longer carry the flag, the first person to complain about its loss was a black coworker.
Honestly I hope one day that it can quietly be put back on the shelves and people think of The Dukes of Hazzard instead of Birth of a Nation… but I know better.
I feel your pain about the southern larpers, because I’m a real southerner, and look I understand that we lost the Civil War and that it’s good that we lost the Civil War, but still… I can’t help but feel like I’m watching a god damn Minstrel Show anytime Larry The Cable Guy opens his mouth… and I know that the court of public opinion says that I’m wrong for feeling that way.
Maybe in some Cosmic sort of way this is some strange punishment for the sins of the plantation owners…
Doesn’t make it suck any less. I mean it wasn’t the Common Man Who halted reconstruction, it was the rich people who basically ran the Bible Belt who just didn’t want their subjects to be able to walk on their own two feet.
It was a common thing when I lived there. I told people I had moved to New York and I kept getting spiels about how a North Carolina chick like me could never survive the big city… when given more context they calmed down.
I lived in Oneonta for a bit before Niskayuna. It had been temporary. I was only there to have my GRS done (am trans) went back home when the procedure was finally done
I was so glad to make the switch. I had so many people larping Southerners there, talking about how they’re “Just like the dude from Duck Dynasty” and how great my home state was because “Everyone down there is rich becauae liberals don’t make them pay taxes!”
It was certainly eye opening. I suddenly knew how a Native American feels when John Jackson over at the frathouse puts on a feathered headdress and starts talking about “Hunting buffalo for many moons” in his worst impression of whatever racist old Western he’s seen.
I think what made me hit the peak of this nonsense was when I was eating at a local diner where the owners were speaking in a (blatantly forced) Southern Accent one morning, and I asked if they served grits.
They looked at me as if I had just asked for them to kill and serve me their pet dog, even had some guy (one of their regulars, it was a small town) munching a bagel audibly voice his disgust that someone would actually ask for grits.
Ya know what we call people who eat bagels in North Carolina? Tourists
And I think anyone who’s seen My Cousin Vinny knows how much we Southern folk like our grits.
When I moved to Niskayuna the situation improved. Sure it looked less like my home town, but that was for the best… I’d rather have Real New Yorkers introducing me to the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life than Fake Southerners scolding me for wanting grits.
The city is it’s own beast, but omfg do I hate the South larpers in upstate and elsewhere! They are so annoying, flying confederate flags and shit when half of em have never even been 50 miles from their home town. You’ll even see some of that shit on Long Island. City people are much more open minded in general at least, it’s just the rent and cost of living that you have to survive. The food, including Southern food when you find it, is also world class in NYC - bad restaurants can’t survive.
Nisky is a cool area, I have some friends there, tho East Nisky has some of that Southern larping as well, it’s nowhere near as bad as it gets in the Southern Tier of NY from my experience as well - the people sharing the border with PA.
I would love to actually see the city, especially the Nintendo World store, wish I could have seen it back when it was still the Pokemon Center.
Niskayuna is all right by me, if I were rich I would consider it a second home.
You definitely have my condolences for the southern larpers. I am an actual Southerner and I can tell you that if they came down here, well would be like an actual weeaboo going to feudal Japan… they would get their ass kicked.
As for the Confederate flag, it’s a difficult and sad story. I actually thought all the flags were heart warming, almost bought a Confederate flag dream catcher for a friend of mine.
I know you won’t believe me because no Northern or ever believes me. But there was a time when that flag legitimately had more to do with barbecue then a sincerely held belief that a black man was a form of obsolete farm equipment.
Then people started calling it racist, it always had that stigma, but it wasn’t something you brought up in polite conversation until Dylann Roof happened… then they started the flag bans and now I only see being flown by Trump Supporters trying to silently advertise their klan meetings.
I miss when the flag was sinply misunderstood, but the second the Tea Party Started waving it on the lawn of the first black president as an intimidation tactic… that’s when I knew we lost it, it was only a matter of time before that stigma became too heavy to bear.
On Reddit this story would get me downloaded to oblivion, but people tend to understand more on Lemmy and actually hear the other side out.
That flag used to be so beloved as just a symbol of the south that back when I worked at Walmart and they announced they’d no longer carry the flag, the first person to complain about its loss was a black coworker.
Honestly I hope one day that it can quietly be put back on the shelves and people think of The Dukes of Hazzard instead of Birth of a Nation… but I know better.
I feel your pain about the southern larpers, because I’m a real southerner, and look I understand that we lost the Civil War and that it’s good that we lost the Civil War, but still… I can’t help but feel like I’m watching a god damn Minstrel Show anytime Larry The Cable Guy opens his mouth… and I know that the court of public opinion says that I’m wrong for feeling that way.
Maybe in some Cosmic sort of way this is some strange punishment for the sins of the plantation owners…
Doesn’t make it suck any less. I mean it wasn’t the Common Man Who halted reconstruction, it was the rich people who basically ran the Bible Belt who just didn’t want their subjects to be able to walk on their own two feet.