I'm genuinely sorry if this offends my intelligent friends in the southern states...

[Atman]

...but, I've been watching Chris Matthew's show, and the two "experts" on display are both speaking with a heavy southern accent. And while they're both supposed to be on opposite sides of the issue -- same sex marriage/Fred Thompson -- they BOTH sound like idiots. I'm sorry, but neither of these two clowns seemed to make a credible case for opposing same-sex marriage OR Fred Thompson. All I heard was a couple of hicks with heavy southern drawls saying that them there homos is done bad for 'Murka.

Flame away. I'm sorry, and I may regret posting this. But I was raised in the south (Florida, which is only sorta kinda The South) and I'm at the point that I'm embarrassed to admit it. Does that accent automatically peg you as an idiot?

.

[soothsayer]

1. I don't think idiot, I think phony backstabbing slicky boy used car salesman

But not idiot! Ooops. is that wrong?

[Mojambo]

2. I think your issue is less with southern people and more with hack cable opinion shows. n/t

[supernova]

3. Tweety has honest debate?

That's news to me. :shrug: I never watch him.

[XemaSab]

4. I have a heavy California accent

Does that make ME sound like a moron? :shrug:

[Bucky]

45. No, but it probably makes you sound stoned.

Heh. Just kidding, of course.

[kineneb]

54. and I can do a fair impression of a Valley Girl

Like gag me, like I can't understand a word that they said, like, were they really speaking English, like wow! Like, are they from Mars?

(all sentences end with upward tonality, as if everything is a question)

[Arugula Latte]

5. ...

:popcorn:

[XemaSab]

24. You give Californicators popcorn?

:)

[Arugula Latte]

27. I'm like, oh my god, sure, I've got plenty.

said the former California girl ;)

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[XemaSab]

28. Plenty? PLENTY?

Where I'M from we say "hella." :P

[Glorfindel]

6. I know what you mean

The Archie Bunker "Noo Yawk" accent has the very same effect on me, bless your heart.
:evilgrin:

[rudy23]

33. Brilliant use of "bless your heart." Bravo! nt

[Glorfindel]

55. Thank you very kindly

:hi:

[madokie]

7. don't know but do you have a southern accent ;-)

be nice is all I can say as I'm shaking my head

[Buzz Clik]

8. I don't watch Matthews. But,if it's the Southern accent that makes you think they're dumb...

... that's not too insightful.

[EV_Ares]

9. No it doesn't automatically peg you as an idiot. Its certainly ok for

you to state your opinion and you shouldn't be flamed for it but I am sure you are intelligent enough to know not to judge the entire south on two idiots with a heavy southern accent.

I mean look at Tucker and he wasn't raised in the south and a total idiot. There is goofy Bill ORiley raised on Long Island.

However, the south does still remain way to the right it seems and the religious right appears to thrive there and a lot of rednecks but there are a lot of very intelligent people in the south with heavy southern accents and not friends of the religious right.

Don't get into that game of sterotyping.

[saracat]

10. No. I think a southern accent is charming .Did you know that most cultivated southern accents

are British accents slowed down.Odd isn't it that so many thing Brit accents make people sound intelligent! I support John Edwards and I don't think his accent makes him sound like an "idiot , nor do I think Carter sounds like an "idiot" This is accent "bigotry".

[redqueen]

21. Interesting... cause I do a lot of corresponding with a friend from Ireland

and we've noticed that our slang-talk is similar.

Weird... you wouldn't think so from listening to the accents!

[saracat]

23. I have a knack for accents and taught speech for awhile.I discovered this when doing research.There

are also people in the Appalachians. "hillbillies" who still speak 18th century British accents!.Our British roots are stronger than we realize and are reflected in our speech patterns. Speaking of the Irish, think how many people in Boston still speak with the trace of an Irish brogue? And Yes, the Boston accent is a bastardization of that accent as well!

[redqueen]

35. And the music from the 'hillbillies' is very Irish sounding too!

God how I'd love to move there. I just love Ireland. :)

[Lars39]

38. One of my grandmothers would come out with stuff like that.

I've often wished I had written some of her phrasings and sayings down.

[Atman]

34. That's a good point...I don't think Edwards sounds like an idiot.

Obviously, it's more about WHAT you're saying than the accent with which you're saying it. These two fuckwads on earlier, though, had much heavier accents than Edwards does. Not that it makes a difference...but dammit...they sounded like fucking buffoons to me.

Because, well, they're buffoons. I guess sound like buffoons if they spoke with a Hyannis accent, too.

Thanks, DUers. You helped ground me!

.

[alphafemale]

11. No. Jimmy Carter certainly has a Southern Accent.

Specifically a South GA accent.

I wouldn't label him an idiot. And I can't imagine him speaking any other way.

It's part of his genuineness.

[Skittles]

12. I especially can't stand a drawl when the person is speaking verrrry slowly

I can't help it, it get on my nerves

[Individualist]

13. Many years ago I made an effort to overcome my southern accent

so that people wouldn't think I was ignorant. It was later that I realized that the truly ignorant people are those who would judge a person's intelligence on the basis of an accent.

[redqueen]

15. THANK YOU! I'm only lately ashamed of my accent... cause of shit like this.

:(

[Shakespeare]

19. Well said. And I'll just follow that comment with this:

Ann Richards, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Edwards, Lawton Chiles, Robert Byrd, Jimmy Carter, Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, etc. etc. etc.

[Individualist]

49. You might also be interested in "Hillbilly: The Real Story"

on the History Channel this weekend.

""Ever since they first arrived in the southern mountains 300 years ago, the hillfolk of Appalachia have been seen as a group apart, often mocked
and misunderstood. They have been portrayed in the media as hillbillies and backwoods buffoons or as romanticized heroes of lost innocence and virtue. But none of those stereotypes hit the mark."
http://thegazz.com/gblogs/wvfilm/2007/09/18/hillbilly-the-real-story-this-sunday/

[redqueen]

56. Thanks for that post.

I'm gonna watch that. :)

[tnlefty]

29. Wow! I've never even tried to speak differently.

We had some neighbors move in a few years ago from the Boston area, and she and I communicated well, as she learned the sounds and the idiomatic expressions, and I was curious about hers. We had to translate for our husbands as they just could not understand each other.

I often wonder if it occurs to people that is no one 'southern accent'. I'm sure that I sound 'southern on steroids' to some people, but I don't sound the same as people in SC, NC; the middle regions of GA, AL, and MS sound different from the more southern regions, and so on and so on.

I regret that you felt a need to change. Years ago I remember seeing a woman on local TV who was making it her mission to stamp out southern accents within a decade. I yelled at my TV, and to this date, she hasn't accomplished her mission! :evilgrin:

[rudy23]

36. True. You guys should hear the New Orleans' accent---not the one portrayed in movies.

It's like a New York accent, but mutated.

I hope there's still such a thing as a "New Orleans accent" in 10 years.

Also, I changed "Y'all" to "You guys" in my subject heading because I'm self concious now.

[tnlefty]

41. Years ago my mother dated someone from around NOLA, and it was amazing

to me the many different sounds in his speech!

I just hope that NOLA can get some justice and will be rebuilt. The stories that I continue to read bring me to tears!

[Individualist]

42. I also regret that I felt a need to change

I was young and foolish at the time.

[spanone]

14. you ever heard people from the north east talk? people from texas, ohio?

you just caught a couple of republicans who 'happened' to be from the south and were dumber than shit.

[Atman]

37. Uh...'scuse me...I'm from the Northeast

I was born in the Boston burbs, but raised in Florida, so I wound up with a totally non-existent accent. No trace of Boston or "The South." I have that non-accent that Hollywood celebs pay diction coaches to teach them.

.

[Rex]

16. It's okay, there are many southern idiots who get on TV.

No, the accent doesn't peg anyone as an idiot - only what they say.

[CottonBear]

17. No. (I'm Southern BTW as are Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Max Cleland & John Edwards.)

Northern Florida is Southern. The rest of it is populated mostly immigrants from other parts of the USA (mainly the Northeast), the Carribbean and South America.

Some of the smartest people I know are Southern.

[pampango]

18. Ahhh, the daily South=bad, North=good post.

:shrug:

[idgiehkt]

20. Does that accent automatically peg you as an idiot?

No it only pegs you as an idiot if you think this way. :)

The only reason it is unfamiliar is because people working in media have always lost their accents on purpose because of the stigma. Now that we know a poor Arkansan can run the shit out of this country, whereas a Connecticut blue-blood can f*ck it the hell up, I think maybe the stigma is fading a little bit and people not trying so hard to get rid of their native accent.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

22. I was raised in the deep South and I have a slight Southern accent

But I can turn it off with ease and go to a neutral "national broadcaster" accent.

My wife was born and spent her early childhood in NY and then Ohio and Virginia, she basically doesn't have an identifiable regional accent.

Our daughter was born and raised in the deep South and I made sure that she learned to speak without a Southern accent if she chose to do so.

When we go to NYC to see wife's relatives they all exclaim "but you don't *sound* Southern".

Then I turn on the accent and emphasize it and start making fun of a Brooklyn accent too.

They all agree that a strong Brooklyn accent makes you sound every bit as parochial as a Southern one.

A strong regional accent doesn't necessarily mark you as dumb but rather as somewhat parochial.

[BlueJazz]

25. I know what you mean and I catch myself associating "Southern Accent" with ignorance.

I fight the feeling and Good Reason Prevails.

It's not even really a fault of the average person to associate the Southern accent with being Stupid and ignorant......I mean...on TV and Movies anytime the producers want to give the impression that someone is stupid they give Him/Her a Deep Southern Accent.

It's a "Learned Response" but we have to fight back those/these unfair feelings.. :)

[Bake]

26. NO more offensive than a Joisey accent, youse guys, etc.

And Boston! Don't get me started on THAT piece of crap accent!

An accent is just an accent. The content is what matters.

Bake

[hayu_lol]

30. Good people all over the country, depending upon their roots...

speak with some wild accents at times.

Have to admit though, I crack up when Lindsey Graham speaks. What a hoot.

[tnlefty]

48. Lindsey and Jeff Sessions bug me, too, but I think it's because

they're speaking 'for show', and it doesn't sound genuine in them anymore. I've heard them change their speech patterns while watching them on c-span. :shrug:

[Ghost in the Machine]

31. Oh... you're on the Cornbread Mafia's hit list now...

ya doggone ol' rascal you! Ya done gone an' acted all fancified n citified wif summa dat big city talk an think yer all high falutin now, huh?

:rofl:

I'm Southern born & Southern bred, and when I die, I'll be Southern dead!

[rudy23]

32. It does. Apology accepted.

How do you feel about other dialects?

[Arkansas Granny]

39. I'm not flaming you, but it's not the accent that pegs people as an

idiot. It is the ignorance that is readily apparent as soon as they open their mouth to speak. I've heard the same ignorance uttered with many different accents, not just southern.

[Jacobin]

40. No flames from this southerner

I lived 50 plus years in the deep south and cringe when I hear the likes of Jeff Sessions yammering away with his dipthongs. Many people who live in the south don't speak that way, just as most people from New York City don't have a Bronx accent.

Its even more bothersome, when politicians exagerate the accent when ranting on about some idiotic 'cultural issue.'

I will say, however, that I very very sorely miss that beautiful accent of Sam Ervin in the Whitewater hearings.

I wish we had another like him in the Senate right now. We need him desperately.

ps(don't get me started on the Valley Girls who seem to have taken over a lot of anchor desks)

[Bake]

44. It's "diphthongs," not "dipthongs."

You stand corrected by a stupid hick Southerner with four degrees. Y'all be careful out there now. Y'hear?

Bake

[Jacobin]

52. thanks

I was wondering when I googled my spelling of the word, that I got the name of some band and then some website about thongs. :blush:

that's what law school will do for ya.

[depakid]

43. I had to stop watching Washington Journal for this reason

Seemed like every time some moron called in to spew delusions, it was with a heavy drawl....

Got to the point where it was predictable- and actually quite disturbing, considering that my whole family hails from the South.

[Atman]

47. Thank you...that played into it

It seems the most moronic callers to WJ just happen to have a deep south accent. When was the last time you heard a guy with a non-Southern accent calling in to say how much they support the Prez'dint and Gawd Bless Them Troops? It just doesn't happen. If it does, it is very rarely, and only on the days I apparently happen not to be listening.

.

[tnlefty]

50. Really? When Jeremy Schahill was on Wash. Journal I heard

1 caller from either NY or PA and one from TX calling in and sounding like morons spewing basically the same things (Limbaugh talking points, perhaps)? I'm thinking that they canceled each other out. I've heard people from OH and other states north of the Mason/Dixon spewing their adoration for the Pretzeldunce and GAWD bless everything, short of those libruls.

I cringe when I hear "caller from TN", but it's not because of the accent, but because there's a 50/50 chance that the caller will present as a moron who represents us badly, or one of the good guys, i.e., reasonably intelligent whether I agree with them or not.

I hear lots of people who call into Wash. Journal who aren't from southern states who actually make me proud that it wasn't some idiot from my state or the region on that particular morning. :shrug:

[Bucky]

46. I'll remember this post when I next listen to Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan's northeastern accents.

Since I don't ever listen to them, however, I guess I won't be remembering this post all that often.

[BlooInBloo]

51. Of course it's an easy association to make, particularly when you look at the stats...

... But at the very least, one should be open to the default assumption of stupidity being overridden by evidence of intelligence in any given specific case. I can remember my dad telling me about how long it took him to get it through his head that a southern accent doesn't actually *mean* the person is stupid - took him about a year at NASA before he got used to that. lol!

[qdemn7]

53. Brings to mind the movie Saturday Night Fever

When it first came out in theaters, (and does THAT date me), and the actress, Karen Lynn Gorney, playing Stephanie, the "heroine" of the film. I thought she was beautiful, until she opened her mouth and that awful Brooklyn accent came out. Spend the rest of the movie hating her character. Just shows how different people view accents.