It all started with a tweet about a couch. Within hours of Donald Trump announcing the Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate in the presidential race, a rather lurid accusation cropped up on social media.
The user of a since-deleted X account wrote last month, “can’t say for sure but he might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to fucking an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions (vance, hillbilly elegy, pp. 179-181).”
The fake page citation from Vance’s bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy lent credibility to what turned out to be a baseless claim, as detailed in a now-removed fact check from the Associated Press. Soon, the internet was awash in memes mocking Vance’s relationship with various pieces of furniture. “I did not have sectional relations,” one X user joked, paraphrasing Bill Clinton’s infamous quote about his extramarital affair. Another user added: “Who hasn’t been excited by the thrill of the chaise?”
Even Kamala Harris’s newly launched presidential campaign appeared to get in on the fun, tweeting: “JD Vance does not couch his hatred for women.”
I’m from central KY and my wife’s from Appalachia. I think the entire region would have a massive week long party titled “FUCK JD VANCE FOREVER” if this happened. He’s one of the most hated people around here. You even bring up his name and you can see people’s heart rates and fury and anger go up even before the ranting begins.
He wrote a whole book telling big city people that all of their prejudices against Appalachia and the people who live there are 100% correct.
Yeah he basically wrote a book full of a bunch of lies in which he shits all over kentucky, but also the entire appalachian region with just a whole truckload of baseless claims and completely made up “stories” of his upbringing that never happened. It’s all lies. Like @eestileib said, it just preyed on the prejudice big city people all over the country had about this region, having never actually been here at all. They think of Appalachia and think no shoes, inbred hillbillies who can’t even speak and don’t have running water. Vance wrote a NY TIMES BESTSELLER (how on earth did they approve that) that just made up a bunch of lies confirming all those prejudices. In reality Appalachia is one of the most unique, gorgeous, creative, wonderful places on earth. Of course it has its problems, but Vance would never write something about how beautiful and wonderful something is. He’d much rather write something that tears down and belittles people he knows nothing about.
As I said: he’s probably the #1 most hated human around this region.
