It's fine to appreciate it from a general "teaching college kids ethics" perspective, but you didn't actually learn anything meaningful from or about Appalachia

It's fine to appreciate it from a general "teaching college kids ethics" perspective, but you didn't actually learn anything meaningful from or about Appalachia - and neither did the author. My point is that there is a whole genre of content that uses "Appalachia" and "Appalachians" as a stand in for the lower class other America. It's the one underprivileged group that white liberals can safely stereotype and exoticize without fear of repurcussions. And it's always outsiders with a pre-determined narrative who get to decide what Appalachia is like in the minds of non-appalachians, through books, movies, articles like this. My point is more for anyone who thinks spending a few months in Appalachia gives them something worth writing about. It doesn't.