How is Kentucky?

General Discussion
1

Happy Christmas. Joyeux Noël.

Kentucky seems to me a very nice place.

(The information gathered below come from Wikipedia.)

First of all, because it is the place of one of my favorite singer, Joan Shelley, from Louisville.

Second, because it looks very beautiful. The nature reminds me a bit the forest in winter in the Bourgogne région, France.

Kentucky has an expansive park system, lots of natural attractions.

In general, Kentucky has relatively hot, humid, rainy summers, and moderately cold and rainy winters.

The city of Louisville has a very peculiar style, of good taste, delicate but practical still. And indeed, Kentucky is apparently known for its distinct culture (horse racing, bourbon, automobile manufacturing, bluegrass music, etc.).

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As of October 2023, the state’s unemployment rate is 4.2% (I don’t know if this is low, in French standards it is). In 2014 Kentucky was found to be the most affordable U.S. state in which to live.

Its population is increasing.

It has a 50/50 ratio of Republicans and Democrats. (I am a Centrist).

Abraham Lincoln was born there.

KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders (1890–1980), an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression.
And I love KFC.

However:
_Apparently, it still practices death penalty (but only three people have been executed in Kentucky since the U.S. Supreme Court re-instituted the practice in 1976).
_It was a slave state (it remained neutral during the Civil War). Central Kentucky, the bluegrass region, as well as western Kentucky, were the areas of the state with the most slave owners.
_Kentucky is one of the most anti-abortion states in the United States.
_Education in Kentucky is recorded at 45th in the United States, establishing it as one of the least educated states in the US, based on the percentage of residents with a bachelor’s degree.
It has eight public four-year universities. I don’t know if this rate is low or not.
_It is #46 on the list of U.S. states and territories by Human Development Index score in 2021 (0.884, U.S. average 0.921). But #28 by GDP in 2023.

The figures concerning religion in Kentucky:

As of 2010, the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)[116] reported the following groupings of Kentucky’s 4,339,367 residents:

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I don’t know if we can hear this kind of music in Kentucky:

3

Once you start heading south from Chicago, you quickly find “The South”. Bill Monroe, a bluegrass founder is from Beanblossom, IN. Kentucky borders Tennessee, and is more like them than its northern neighbors.

4

I’ve driven through Kentucky a few times. It is a beautiful state, but with a lot of poverty. You might enjoy visiting, though probably not living there because of how religious it is.

5

I don’t know if it’s ok to ask this question but, are these “in-between” states (neither really south neither really north) (e.g. Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia) still marked by their “slave state” history in terms of politics, state of mind and ideology?

6

Thank you very much.

“though probably not living there because of how religious it is.” but don’t the figures on religion affiliation point to 1/2 non-believers?

7

No figures that i know of. Where did you get that?

8

Here Kentucky - Wikipedia

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48% not affiliated with any religious group, 2,101,653 persons does not mean that they have no faith.

What does church affiliation mean?

The term church affiliation refers to formal membership in a church or religious community. Some churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church, have fairly strict rules for becoming a member of their church, as well as for formally leaving the church.

According to a 2018 Pew report, 72% of the “Nones” have belief in God, a higher power, or spiritual force.

[Irreligion in the United States - Wikipedia]

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10

…

I feel a bit ashamed of my ignorance…

Thank you :heart:

Take this opportunity to thank you for your posts in general, they are always very enriching to me.

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11

What would explain that “the people in Kentucky are very religious” but “half of them are not affiliated”?

There are no Churches?

12

A lot of churches all over the US are struggling to keep members. Atheism is part of that but there are also extremely religious people who don’t like mainstream churches because they are not extreme. They meet in small groups, or they are isolated in a family, or they get their religion through some form of media.

There are also people who will check a box on a survey and say they are Protestant but don’t participate in a church. They might go there today, Christmas, but no other days.

13

This is what is said in France about Islamists and far-right white supremacists! They don’t go to mosques or far-right associations (respectively), only get radicalized on the Internet or a very small group of person (3 or 4).

So Kentucky is a place with extremely religious people, this is true?

14

You can find them everywhere. I’m not going to contribute to generalizations

15

Apparently this is quite high for the US:

16

You will find extremely religious people in Tennessee, Missouri, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, W. Virginia, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Utah… You get the picture?

17

Thank you very much.

18

I suspect they are Non-Denominational Christians.

Not in politics, as discrimination and dueling are illegal. In state of mind, I would say yes.

Just a note about the 3 states you mentioned – Kentucky could be described as an “in-between” state in some ways, but overall it seems quite Southern (in the American sense). Tennessee is extremely Southern and Virginia is only not Southern around the Washington DC suburbs. The rest of that state is very Southern.

19

The entire country is still marked by slavery. There was slavery here longer than there has been freedom and the South didn’t exactly just change overnight, and the North didn’t exactly welcome the migration of the freed people.

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I think he’s talking about the culture in general, and there’s more to the Southern mentality than “slavery”.