… no punchline. Genuine question.

36 comments

  2. Hillbilly’s live in Appalachia, rednecks live in the south and other rural parts of America.

  4. A redneck has an old car on the lawn and a couch on the porch. A hillbilly has a couch on the lawn and an old car on the porch.

  6. A redneck works outside in the sun and usually has a blue collar job. They get a tan on their neck. That’s it.

    Hillbillies have an inbred connotation and it’s expected that they haven’t traveled much or at all and are undereducated.

  8. Rednecks got their name from an event called The Battle of Blair Mountain where mine workers wore red bandanas to identify themselves and fought mine bosses and pinkerton mercenaries over work conditions. The Rednecks were fighting to end the company town system, safer working conditions, fair pay and medical assistance. The mine bosses and pinkertons won the fight though and so the rednecks got none of those things and had their name turned into a byword for an ignorant sister-fucking barbarian that lives outside of cosmopolitan civilization when it originally meant someone who stepped up for their community and fellow workers. in the 90’s the word became post modern and now rednecks are like furhter removed from the orignal meaning and the evil meaning and now it just means a rural working class person. it can be rude to call someone a redneck but it’s fine if someone self-identifies as one.

  9. Rednecks is ornery. Hillbillies is simple folk. For more information on rednecks, I would strongly recommend the writings of noted historian, Jeff Foxworthy.

  10. Hillbilly plays bluegrass on his banjo as he makes moonshine in the hollers of Appalachia

    Redneck drinks cheap beer, listens to country music, watches Nascar, & parks broken down cars on their lawn in the rural South.

  11. As a descendant of hillbillies, I find it offensive how often people use these terms interchangeably.

  13. Hillbilly live in the mountains and hills, the most famous group being from the Appalachia.

    Red neck is rural country folk farmer and the like.

  14. For me it’s about intent. Who’s saying it and what are they implying. My wife is from upper Michigan, if someone up there hears me speak and calls me either one, we’re probably going to have a problem lol. If somebody from Tennessee calls me that, probably no big deal.

    As a southerner, I feel like there’s a subtle difference in connotation that a non southerner probably won’t “get,” and they probably see both as negative. To me personally, hillbilly is not negative. Popcorn Sutton would be a good example. Not traditionally educated, but smart as a whip. Middle finger to the law, but not really in a malicious sense. Hillbillies probably live up in the mountains, get water from a well, grow most of their food. It’s a traditional lifestyle and they want to be left alone. I have a small farm, raise goats and chickens, bale hay and grow a garden, but I don’t consider myself a hillbilly.

    “Redneck,” I think, has changed over the years and is absolutely negative. To me a redneck probably drives a diesel truck and thinks it’s funny to roll coal on a Prius. He’s probably mildly racist but with no real basis. It’s just what he heard growing up and has learned to repeat. I’d be willing to bet 90% of the rednecks I hear make racial jokes don’t have any actual malice towards another race, they just think it’s funny and don’t care to learn why it’s inappropriate. It’s willful ignorance. A redneck probably spouts God, Guns, and Country rhetoric. Puts those Biden “I did this” stickers on the gas pumps, but couldn’t explain literally anything about a free market economy and what effects gas prices. Probably wears a t-shirt that says “LGBT- Liquor Guns Bacon Titties” and thinks he’s proving some point and “owning the libs.” Or he just thinks it’s funny. I own guns, hunt, love my country, etc., but I don’t consider myself a redneck. That’s not meant to be holier-than-thou virtue signaling, it’s just my interpretation of what redneck means.

    Remember, too, this just how one guy from East Tennessee see it. Somebody from Georgia probably thinks differently from someone from West Virginia, who probably thinks we’re both wrong.

  16. Rednecks live in farmland. Their necks are red from the sun from working the fields. Hillbillies are mountain people like the name implies.

  17. Rednecks are people (usually southern) who work in jobs that keep them outside all day (like farming).

    Hence they get sunburnt on the back of their necks. (Redneck)

    Hillbillies are poor people who live in Appalachia.

    Both terms often are misused.

  18. Hillbillies reside in the mountains and rednecks are everywhere else.

    Other than that, rednecks are proud of their ignorance. Hillbillies are just a simple people that are trying to get by.

  19. My distinction is I feel like Hillbilly are like really like off the grid type people.

    Redneck are your shit kicker wearing guys who dip and drive F350s.

  23. If a redneck sees you stuck in the mud they’ll pull you out with their truck and a tow strap.

    A hillbilly will pull you out with a piece of rope and the help of his 15 kids

  24. “Hillbilly” is a term almost exclusively applied to poor whites in Appalachia.

    “Redneck” is generally applied to working class men in rural areas in general.

    Both the terms get used outside of those contexts, but that’s the broad idea.

  26. Rednecks live in rural areas throughout the nation and usually have blue collar jobs or are farmers. Stereotypes are that they are conservative, like trucks, drink beer and listen to country music.

    Hillbillies are typically poor people who live in the Appalachian mountains or the Ozark mountains and share a similar culture. Things like bluegrass music and moonshine are generally associated with hillbillies.

  28. To me, there’s hicks, and that’s just anyone not from cities and suburbs (sometimes I refer to myself as that.), then there’s rednecks. I might be a hick, but I’m not a redneck. Rednecks are country boys and girls that do the stereotypical redneck stuff. Like riding four wheelers and getting drunk in cornfields. There’s also farmers. Some farmers are rednecks but not all rednecks are farmers. Finally, there’s hillbillies. They are the most country folk there are. They live out in the middle of nowhere. They do a lot of self sufficient things, like they always have gardens and will fish and hunt for most of their food. Often times live in make shift homes or homes with suspicious repairs and/or additions.

    That’s just how they get classified in my neck of the woods anyway. Your mileage may vary.

  29. Redneck used to be a positive term meaning someone who works hard, typically long days like a farmer.
    Now the connotation is more often used as someone who’s uneducated..often not the case, and derogatory and frequently used for people of the South or Midwest who lean politically right.

    Hillbilly comes from a region and used to encompass fiercely independent thinkers who were resistant to excessive government, F*** the system mentality, were loyal to family and had a more ‘clan’ like behavior.
    Now it’s used in many places as someone who is uneducated, backward thinking, violent and uncouth.

  30. You can be a hillbilly doing computer programming. You can’t be a redneck doing computer programming.

  31. A redneck is a left-leaning fighter for unions. A hillbilly is a country boy who lives in the hills.

  32. Hillbilly is pretty specific to Appalachia. Redneck is more general and can be applied to any rural folk

  33. Rednecks are racist, Hillbillies are chill. They leave you alone if you leave them alone. You definitely want to go to a hillbilly party.

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