Hippies and rednecks may seem like opposites at first glance, but there is one thing they share in common. Well at least in states in the wild wild west like California or Oregon, and even some on the Appalachia and Northeast, though on average there tends to be less enlightened pot-smoking socially liberal rednecks in the South and East. Pot fo sho. I do however dislike fundamentalist rednecks.....the crazy dogmatic religious brainless type.....but it seems like rednecks who smoke pot tend to be for individual liberty and now how to have fun and not such a stiff square. I guess those socially liberal rednecks can be called libertarians of course, while the old school hippies are more like libertarian socialist. Though many new generations of libertarian are neo-hippies. Of course Ravers can be seen as techno-hippies, and bikers can be seen as the rugged individualist hippy. Maybe every form of people have a hippy sub-culture emphasizing freedom and shit. Maybe socially liberal rednecks are mountain hippies, lol. Or would you consider hippies a different subculture altogether and not a subculture of a subculture. Leary seems like a techno-hippy later in his life, but he's a hard hippy to describe.
I would just describe them all as people with different motives, that's it. Commence spinnage of the world...
They're only a group because other people (incl. us, hippies) put them in that group. We should see beyond that narrow groupview indeed, because it doesn't do anybody full justice (incl. hippies ).
In my neck o the woods, we have a great number of 'rednecks' around us.. in fact, I myself am half redneck by marriage and the other half hippy by nature..... Out here we define 'redneck' differently then the general populi... here in Texas what you call redneck we call cousin.... it is not like the white surpreamest mentality of yesteryear... it more like taking care of your own, being close to the earth, living on it and from it... Protecting what you scratched out of it, to insure survival of the species.. it's about honor and respect and lending a helping hand....there are a lot of wierd ppl in the cities, but out here in the country, it's a different ball game...it aint like the movies.... we stick together.. what happens to one happens to all bc we are a community and everyone counts... we protect that, we honor that...it's the land we hold scared, the family unit and our constitutional rights... That comes from both sides.. so in reality we are no different, we all strive for the same things... labeling seperates and devides... there is no seperation.. we are all Human Beings.
i think what many equate as "redneck" nowadays is nothing more than someone who lives a country lifestyle and because the person on the outside looking in is not in tune with these people they are labeled "rednecks",much the same way many country folk label anyone with long hair "hippies". i think i am living proof that the cultures are very much the same when it comes right down to it. i was raised in the country life,taught to hunt and fish,to caretake and respect the land,to appreciate all of creation as a gift. when i came of age i rebelled and hit the road and found the hippie vagabonds of the rainbow family.i spent 7 years living that lifestyle and grew to see there values were not all that different from the way i was raised.. ive came back to where i was raised and purchased a small farm where we now live off the land incorporating equaly the values i was raised with as well as the values of my second family the wariors of the rainbow. now many years later i dont think our community sees us as hippies even though we are both dreadlocked and dirty..lol the people of our community now see that labels dont always fit and many times a persons actions speak far louder than the way they look.. in short labels only serve to divide and i no longer see any use for them in my life. im neither a hippie nor a redneck,im the perfect blend of both cultures..
I live amongst what people call Rednecks , and they seem like very simple , down to earth , kind hearted folk. They would open there doors and feed you what they had if you was hungry , and they are always ready to sit a spell and talk. I am very comfortable with them and enjoy there wonderful sense of humor. They dont have much in the way of material things , but they are happy. I think Television gives people a warped perception of them. Or , maybe I feel this way because my family consists of many Oklahoma Rednecks.
i used to live in a really really small town up in the wood... i lived there for 2 years... idk alot of my friends that consider themselve redneck... really respected me... soo yeah..
