Hillbilly Elegy director Ron Howard has taken a swipe at JD Vance, suggesting that Donald Trump’s Republican running mate has “changed” since he first met him.

Earlier this year, Vance was selected to be Trump’s possible vice president in the 2024 US presidential election race – but before his political career, he was known for being the author of memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which was later adapted into a Netflix film of the same name.

Since being announced as Trump’s running mate, Vance has been criticised for comments that saw him refer to women, such as Trump’s presidential rival Kamala Harris, as “childless cat ladies”. This prompted swift backlash and accusations of sexism, with Vance claiming the remarks were made in “sarcasm”.

  • @[email protected]
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    3 months ago

    On his press tour, he had a lot of negative things to say about Trump. In conversation with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, he said:

    “I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

    In public, Vance said that Trump was, “unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

    And in unearthed private messages, he compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.

    From 2016. Seems he did drastically change his opinions on trump once in politics.

    • @breetai
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      -183 months ago

      Vance actually had really good ideas until he went Trump. A mixture of far left and middle right politics. Now you never hear his working class ideas.

      It’s hard to imagine this is the guy who said declare war on corporations

      • @UnderpantsWeevil
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        123 months ago

        Vance actually had really good ideas until he went Trump.

        He’s always been a far-right reactionary with paleoconservative views.

        He just drifted from the corporate insider Mitt Romney track to the populist outsider Ron DeSantis track as he watched Trump’s brand take over the party.

        • @breetai
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          -33 months ago

          If you consider taxing the rich. Unions and attacking companies as far right then sure. He’s always been far right. It sounds like you’ve never read about Vance and that’s why you don’t see the radical change from who he was to supporting Trump.

          • @UnderpantsWeevil
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            103 months ago

            It sounds like you’ve never read about Vance

            Uno Reverse.

            Have you even picked up a copy of the original book? He’s a staunch and unapologetic drug warrior in that book. He is openly contemptuous of unions. And his “solution” to poverty is just to go to college.

            These are classic conservative policy planks endorsed by the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.

          • @nyar
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            83 months ago

            Or you’ve been suckered in by his bullshit.

      • Snot Flickerman
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        3 months ago

        Oh wait, did he spend any time implementing them or did he spend his time turning his nonprofit Our Ohio Renewal into a fucking grift?

        Bet you can guess the answer.

        • @breetai
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          23 months ago

          I think you may be on to something. That may be a better way to describe it.

        • @aesthelete
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          13 months ago

          Fascism was originally supposed to be a mixture of “the best parts of the right and the left”.

          • @[email protected]
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            3 months ago

            My point exactly (I actually wrote a clarification that pointed out some of the ways in which the right has and currently co opts leftist ideas and language to gain power, including the father of fascism himself Mussolini, but I ended up rambling so I deleted it all and left it as is lol)

            There is no compromise between two inherently incompatible views of the world, the one that wants to grow and expand and hoard power and resources at any cost simply won’t allow for any real equity or justice (E: or competition!) to exist, it depends on inequality, exploitation, division, and oppression to function, and will consume and destroy anything that gets in its way. It’s why capitalism cannot be reformed, it must be abolished.

            Or TL;DR:

            don't be the asshole in the middle