Becki Basley

“But yeah, like everyone else in our family, they could go from zero to murderous in a fucking heartbeat.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“So, to Papaw and Mamaw, not all rich people were bad, but all bad people were rich.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“Not all of the white working class struggles. I knew even as a child that there were two separate sets of mores and social pressures. My grandparents embodied one type: old-fashioned, quietly faithful, self-reliant, hardworking. My mother and, increasingly, the entire neighborhood embodied another: consumerist, isolated, angry, distrustful. There”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“social mobility isn’t just about money and economics, it’s about a lifestyle change. The wealthy and the powerful aren’t just wealthy and powerful; they follow a different set of norms and mores. When you go from working-class to professional-class, almost everything about your old life becomes unfashionable at best or unhealthy at worst.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis