I never have come across any other country in the world where there is so much talk about religion as there is in the US, not even in Islamic countries that I have visited are they so fixed on religion.

Natural disasters are nonpartisan, and indiscriminate as to who they wreak death and destruction on. I don't wish them upon any country or administrative province.

My moms family comes from Covington Kentucky, we lost track of them they should be ok , my family from there were engineers

Aww! Poor little Kentucky, the state that has given the rest of us 36 years of the monster, Mitch McConnell and over 10 years of rotten Rand Paul while taking more federal money than they contribute should suck it up and pull themselves up by the bootstraps like they think the rest of the country should do based on their voting records, actions, and the words of their state wide elected officials. Where is the misconception? It’s sad that there is a lack of accountability and responsibility from a state that denied global warming which now has to reap the literal whirlwind of their choices. Now they want more help and money?? Fuck them! These are the people who thought Covid didn’t matter because it was mostly hitting blue states, the states that have been supporting their asses for decades.

I worked for a company that had US headquarters in the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati area. I had to go between there and Iowa and it was hard to decide which bunch were the bigger, nastier, right wing assholes. One Kentucky coworker upon hearing I was born and raised in the Chicago area, said my town was a hellhole of crime and evil (with no self awareness at all of Kentucky crime statistics) and I must have some of that character in my family. This was a guy who was proud to have danced with snakes and spoken in tongues! To describe my extreme schadenfreude as lack of empathy is hilarious. I’m only sorry the entire state wasn’t flattened.

It is sad when an entire state is white washed as the same. But it is where we are in this country now. People actually refusing to feel empathy for a red state or a blue state... America has learned to Hate each other again.

Our parents were largely factory workers, from the South, who had moved to Detroit in the 1950s. We weren't conscious of being "Appalachians" until sociologists began calling us that. To which, our dads would respond with "Appawhoosians? Appawhatshuns? You calling me names boy?"

Like you I was also raised secular, though here in the UK that is not so unusual. Sadly though it meant that in my early years I knew little of Christians, so that I grew up believing that people who preached such unselfish ideals must be really good people. I think that the shock when I reached higher education and really met some, and discovered the reality, is a big fuel for my anti-theism.

Yet I still live in a rural village, where a higher proportion of my neighbours are nominally Christian than is the norm for the UK. So that I can not wish them, many good people, harm. I even give them a free Christmas tree for the village square each year. (Though I do call it the Yule tree, but don't think they notice.)

My childhood in Michigan was much the same, not much for consumerism (we were too poor) and big on loving interaction, even in our smallish extended family. My BFF of 54 years was from a holler in eastern Kentucky coal country, Betsy Layne, just a wide spot in the road, really. I visited there later in life and it was very much the Appalachian stereotype.

I was born in Harlan County and you can't get much more "hillbilly" than that. I am proud of my Kentucky and Appalachian heritage.

I agree, very sad!

I saw one post on here of the guy making fun of people from Kentucky. Just checked his profile and he deleted the post.

I am a country hick from Iowa. I hate stereotypes. My parents were both Christians, only one of us kids is. None of the rest of us said anything and here I am, 60 and only learned a few years ago, that my other brother, his wife, kids, grandkids are all also Atheists.

My Mom was born in the hills of Virginia. Her first marriage was at 13. She wasn't "educated," but pretty bright and a constant reader. We never did church. As an adult, I asked her once why she didn't raise us as Southern Baptist like much of her family. Her exact response was, "I didn't want to inflict that on you."

If i believed that people from Kentucky were all hillbillies does that in some way indicate I think their tragedy was justified? Not in the least. Devastation of this type is tragic to any of us worldwide.

I haven't heard anyone saying anything negative about this tragedy. I usually think Floridians get all the heavy duty storms, so when it happens to someone else, I feel immense empathy, because I know what they're going through. So sad.

Cue music of Deliverance, Dueling Banjos, just kidding!