How did America let this man become an icon of the working class?

[fortworthgal]

Hmmm...
Seems to me that few...if any here...have attended a Nascar event. Larry's are definately in the crowd.

Oh, I've been to a NASCAR event. Several years ago I attended opening weekend at a major track. I remember this distinctly because I spent months afterward fielding phone calls from police investigators, attorneys, and insurance people due to the post-race brawl I witnessed in the parking lot involving a Larry, his wife, and multiple officers of the law.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Oh, I've been to a NASCAR event. Several years ago I attended opening weekend at a major track. I remember this distinctly because I spent months afterward fielding phone calls from police investigators, attorneys, and insurance people due to the post-race brawl I witnessed in the parking lot involving a Larry, his wife, and multiple officers of the law.

lollollollol...!!

 

[C-dot]

You take a break and everything happens!

C, they're NOVA SCOTIANS! No self-respecting Newfie would live like that!

You're right, of course. My brain is cotton candy. Though, East Coasters are commonly portrayed the same way (Only Newfs are made fun of a bit more )

This isn't about a system but individual choices towards media and entertainment.

Agreed. It's always easier to blame "the System" or "the Man." I'm not saying its never to blame, but to a certain extent people ought to make their own choices.

Tom, attending college doesn't make one smart. Not attending college doesn't make one stupid.

Truer words were never spoken. When I graduated from high school and announced that I would be attending college (a college of applied arts and technology) instead of university (which I believe Americans refer to as college), I heard this from all sides: "Why aren't you going to university? Don't sell yourself short, you're too smart for college!" To be frank, I saw a lot of idiots get into prestigious universities that year, and almost as many really intelligent kids go to college, or right to work, which makes what I was told completely wrong. I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent, and I'm doing just fine with my meagre diploma. I've met PhDs who wouldn't know their elbows from a hole in the ground. In my experience, education has little or no correlation to intelligence.

 

[rue]

I'll admit it....I'm a male Southerner and I don't follow NASCAR. I'll probably have to move to New York or somewhere after posting this, but I've only been to one race and that was when I was about twelve. I remember it being loud and hot and I remember going home covered in black tire soot. Not to derail the thread....but why would a "Larry" disapprove of someone being a fan of Jimmy Johnson or Jeff Gordon?

AF

I think you're pretty safe here in admitting that

To be honest...I don't and have never followed NASCAR...but from what I have picked up..Gordon and Johnson...just aren't considered 'Country Boys'...but more 'Pretty Boys'. Gordon had the rep as a 'Cry Baby'...and happens to be part owner of Johnson's car as well. I think that they both come from California. that's about as 'uncountry' as NYC.

Bingo, the original drivers were "good ol' boys".

NASCAR began with moonshiners back in the 30's and 40's they would race each other to see how well they could outrun the law.

Exactly

I used to be a die-hard NASCAR fan, but they took Winston out, banned the Confederate flag, the whole 'team' thing is stupid, and in general, they've just sold out. It's as fixed as the WWE.

I have to admit that I don't follow it as much as I did, but mostly because they started using Toyota.

Oh, I've been to a NASCAR event. Several years ago I attended opening weekend at a major track. I remember this distinctly because I spent months afterward fielding phone calls from police investigators, attorneys, and insurance people due to the post-race brawl I witnessed in the parking lot involving a Larry, his wife, and multiple officers of the law.

Yep, happens almost every time lol

 

[rue]

Nobody I knew growing up had any idea what NASCAR was, if it even existed then. But every person I knew, male or female, young or old, followed baseball -- even elderly grandmothers could tell you what Jose Santiago's earned run average was, or why George Scott was bumped down to sixth in the batting order. Maybe the difference between the working class then and the working class now is the difference between baseball and car racing?

You may be on to something there Lizzie. NASCAR has gotten huge and people tend emulate what they see [huh]

 

[fortworthgal]

Yep, happens almost every time lol

Does the Larry in question usually knock the first cop down with the front end of his car?

 

[Pompidou]

Tom, attending college doesn't make one smart. Not attending college doesn't make one stupid. The main advantage of going to college is that it exposes one to many different ways of thinking in a relatively short period of time. It allows one to understand, at an early age, that there are many valid opinions about almost every issue and seldom does one person know all there is to know about any given subject. It’s not so much that it teaches “stuff” as that it opens a person’s mind.

But all of that can be understood without going to college, too. I've read many of your posts here on FL. It seems pretty clear to me that you've gotten on your own all that an average person learns in a typical liberal arts education.

AF

It doesn't make you smart, but it does prove you're above a certain threshold to people who care about that sort of thing. Put another way, not every genius is a member of Mensa, but every member of Mensa is a genius. You can be smart and degreeless, but you generally can't be dumb and have a degree.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Tom, attending college doesn't make one smart. Not attending college doesn't make one stupid. The main advantage of going to college is that it exposes one to many different ways of thinking in a relatively short period of time. It allows one to understand, at an early age, that there are many valid opinions about almost every issue and seldom does one person know all there is to know about any given subject. It’s not so much that it teaches “stuff” as that it opens a person’s mind.

Unfortunately, I would go as far to say there's something about college nowadays that makes people stupid. As evidenced by the pronouncements made by many of our so-called academic, intellectual and cultural elites.

 

[Lady Day]

....but you generally can't be dumb and have a degree.

Well that's completely not true.

A lot of programs in institutions of higher learning are not set up to educate, but more to assembly line a person through, especially schools for profit. Effort is not something that can be learned, its an ingrained trait in a person. In these programs you meet checkpoints, then advance. Learning is secondary. Then at the end, presto, you have a degree.


LD

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Unfortunately, I would go as far to say there's something about college nowadays that makes people stupid.

True. Think Liberty University.

 

[jamespowers]

Unfortunately, I would go as far to say there's something about college nowadays that makes people stupid. As evidenced by the pronouncements made by many of our so-called academic, intellectual and cultural elites.

:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap Then when they screw up in private industry the colleges welcome them back with open arms. There is nothing like a failure to the elites. They love them. :eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

True. Think Oral Roberts University.

Or UC Berkeley.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Or UC Berkeley.

I take that back: ORU isn't that bad. Think Liberty University.

 

[Rats Riley]

*Real* working class icons:

How quickly people forget.

Very VERY well put!!

Man! Just the thought of working like these folks did.... Iconic!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

*Real* working class icons:

How quickly people forget.

The bottom photo is a reminder that *those nice little ladies at their sewing machines* were the rock-solid backbone (but not the leadership, which was male) behind The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, "... once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s."


Their '70s song:

Look for the union label
When you are buying a coat, dress, or blouse.
Remember somewhere our union's sewing,
Our wages going to feed the kids and run the house.
We work hard, but who's complaining?
Thanks to the ILG, we're paying our way.
So always look for the union label,
It says we're able to make it in the USA!

 

[jamespowers]

Well that's completely not true.

A lot of programs in institutions of higher learning are not set up to educate, but more to assembly line a person through, especially schools for profit. Effort is not something that can be learned, its an ingrained trait in a person. In these programs you meet checkpoints, then advance. Learning is secondary. Then at the end, presto, you have a degree.


LD

That was pretty much my college experience. The ego of the professor was the main point. If you took copious notes and listened to everything they said then the test was easy as all get out----no extra reading, no extra research. However, I did read it anyway just to get a clearer understanding for myself. In many cases, it was clear that something was being omitted. I ruined one economics professor's lecture one day by summing up everything he was going to say in about two sentences.

 

[jamespowers]

I take that back: ORU isn't that bad. Think Liberty University.

Same thing.

 

[Rats Riley]

He is NO icon of the working class. He's just a comedy bit and anybody who thinks of him as such is taking a character too seriously, I think.

He's no hick at all. Ever watched a true interview with him, he talks like the man on the six-o-clock news.



Almost everyone I know looks like Larry the Cable Guy, it seems.



I grew up in and still live in farm country. There's a lot of Larrys out there. I think he's good for a laugh, but little else. These 'rednecks' I see nowadays just make me sad. Every 16 year old kid has a lifted 1995 Chevy Silverado with some ridiculous tires on it and a home made lift kit from 2x4's. They're all flying Confederate flags, with no idea as to what the heritage behind it is. Then you see them, pierced ears, Hollister shirts, and rap music playing out of the truck, but they have a camouflage hat on, so it's okay. My sister and I call them 'wanna-be' hicks.

I don't consider myself a redneck, or a hick, or a hillbilly. I'm just a country boy, I guess I'd say. I wish people didn't buy into stereotypes. They see a guy who works in a factory, drives a truck, and listens to country music as some uneducated ignoramus. You don't need a college degree to be smart, you just have to be willing to learn.

Can you tell this is a sore subject for me? lol

Exactly! I couldn't say it better!

Especially the hardcore gangster rap being played by a country boy! I kid you not! I see it all the time! The kid could have bales of hay in the truck bed, but damned if 50cent isn't laying it down!

 

[Rats Riley]

The bottom photo is a reminder that *those nice little ladies at their sewing machines* were the rock-solid backbone behind The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, "... once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s."

Could you imagine working on a 3rd or 4th floor during the summer with nothing but an open window and MAYBE a large fan or two to help circulate the air?

 

[Rats Riley]

Oh, I've been to a NASCAR event. Several years ago I attended opening weekend at a major track. I remember this distinctly because I spent months afterward fielding phone calls from police investigators, attorneys, and insurance people due to the post-race brawl I witnessed in the parking lot involving a Larry, his wife, and multiple officers of the law.

We tend to have that issue on Sundays here in Wisconsin during football season. It's commonly referred to as 2 for 1 domestics on Sunday! Especially if the Packers or the Badgers lose.