Hippies, Rednecks, and Libertarians

The real estate search site Estately calculated the most Hippie friendly states. My own state of New Hampshire came out as the third most friendly. We were right behind Vermont and Maine. Apparently northern New England is Hippietopia.

But wait, New Hampshire is also the state picked by the Libertarians as the best place for the Free State Project as it's already in line with many Libertarian ideals.

I'm not sure how those two groups feel about that. Do Hippies and Libertarians really have that much in common? Probably both sides would say no. I'm not so sure.

Then there are the Rednecks. One does not have to stray too far from New Hampshire's few major cities to find the common Northern New England Redneck -a common breed in the hills.

A buddy of mine who self identifies as a Redneck doesn't think there's much difference between Hippies and Rednecks. He just figures Hippies are Rednecks who can't hunt. I think that might be an oversimplification, but they do have plenty in common.

I have noticed that there are plenty of Hippie chicks who marry Rednecks. They want a guy who's comfortable in nature, but can run a chainsaw to fill the woodshed and put venison in the freezer. Even Hippie chicks don't like to starve and freeze to death.

Their biggest marital conflict is over windows. No, not the operating system, but those glass things in a house. The Hippie chick wants plenty of big windows to observe nature and to have good light for arts and crafts. The Redneck wants small windows for less heat loss in the winter. Often they compromise by having large windows on the southern wall. The Hippie chick sells it as a way to get free solar energy that might save the Redneck from having to cut and split so much firewood.

Personally, I think that maybe the labels don't mean what people think they mean. They are putting people in categories where they don't quite fit the stereotype. Maybe this part of the country is a place where it's fine to be anything you want to be? Maybe there are so many garden variety weirdos that Hippies, Rednecks and Libertarians really don't stick out much.

Not sure exactly where I fit in . . . except that I do.

-Sixbears