>Texas does well on nationally standardized tests.

Except for fourth graders in math last year, they do not[0].

[0] https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile/over...

Texas is in the lowest decile with regards to graduation rates. That is my point.

>I'm also fairly certain that Vance did not wander the streets of Middletown, feral and unparented. My understanding is that he was raised by his grand-parents, not that he lived with the chaos of his mother's situation.

So an addict mother, having to be raised by grand-parents, having to go to the army and then use the GI Bill to study, growing up in an declining small working class town in Ohio, are not enough?

He had to be "feral and unparented" to qualify? Because that's what people mean when they talk about the working and middle class "white American struggles"? Vicorian street urchins?

In any case, by those elements alone, he knows 100x about "white American struggles" than the average champion of the poor at the Met Gala and the New Yorker.

Alas... it's unclear who you're replying to. Are you calling me a liar or Vance a liar (or some other poster here a liar.) I think Vance is more of a Bullshitter in the Frankfurt meaning of the term. Me? I'm more of a liar. If I propagate an untruth, I usually know it's an untruth and am doing it for a specific purpose. That being said... I do try to limit the number of lies I tell. I also try not to lie to myself, but that's the most vexxing of all. Figuring out the untruths you believe because it makes your day easier or frees you from having to help someone you would rather not help is hard.

Not that I'm implying you're a Liar or Bullshitter, but we're all bozos on this bus and give a sinner a break.

But specifically, I am not lying when I say that some people have cast doubts as to the degree of poverty Vance lived in as a child. And if you're saying that the people who say Vance didn't live in abject poverty for most of his childhood are lying, then I don't know what to tell you. We all have to choose what we believe. Some people believe vaccines cause autism. The data supporting this assertion seems kinda thin when I look at it. But having tutored a number of pre-med students through stats classes, I'm not confident members of the AMA are the people who should be doing medical research (thankfully that is changing recently as we get more MD/PhD programs where they teach experimental design.) But I digress...

This seems like one of those "fact resistant" issues and I apologize for bringing it up. People on both sides of the "is J.D. Vance a poop-head" debate should understand there's plenty of mis-information out there and while some people may believe he's a cynical charlatan banking coin on the suffering of people in Appalachia, others believe he is bringing light to a largely under-reported pandemic of systemic under-investment in rural quarters of our country.

It's probably a good idea to examine your own beliefs and biases, and maybe this is a good touch-stone to begin that process. Why do you think Vance is a dork? Why do you think Vance is a valiant defender of social justice for an under-served community?