I just downloaded this and we watched it last night. (Netflix film from 2020, producers Ron "Opie" Howard and JD Vance)

This move utterly tore the shit up out of me emotionally - hard to watch and made me get in my feelings to an extreme. In a good way.

To me Vance's story registered as my own personal biography from the "evil mirror universe".

The parallels between my story and Vance's:

Vance grew up and left Middletown, Ohio. Which is 7 miles to my west. And is basically the same social environment as Dayton, Ohio where I grew up, about 20 miles north.

The term in Dayton for relocated Kentuckians coming north were "briars". It's a slur here, the local N-word. Vance's family likewise were briars and were probably called same.

Sic: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Briar

Vance's family were economic migrants from KY and sought industrial jobs post WWII in this region. Same here basically - mother from Appalachian Ohio stock and father from northern Ohio.

Vance left the area and went to the Marines, then law school. I got a EE degree, left the area because I didn't fit in.

EXTREME life threatening dysfunctionality in his family - mother hooked on pain killers, little family resources or support. In one episode he jeopardized his law career to travel back to deal with his mother almost winding up on the street. In my case: mother constantly fighting with father, mother suicidal (writing letters to that effect). Unlike Vance my dad was in the picture but like Vance he offered no support whatsoever. I basically moved back to Ohio and totally fucked my IT career in the early 90s because my mother was openly suicidal.

Unlike me he escaped the shittiness and decline around here successfully and now he is the VP nominee for Trump.

In the Vance family drug addition and physical abuse were the big issues. In my family emotional abuse was the issue.

I guess the plot tore the shit out of me because it validated to me that dysfunctional family with "problems" that nobody else is available to deal with can kill your life and future prospects. I was actually crying in spots and I still have "feels" to deal with.

Vance laid the concept as a memoir so it was comprehensible to others.

In my case the rest of my family that was aware of my mom's problems were middle management and professional types who were clueless and in denial. Same dynamic: it fell to me alone to deal, and I had to ruin my career, just as Vance had to drive from CT back to Ohio to make sure his mom didn't wind up in the street because nobody else could ("would".)

I consider this guy a blood brother in a way after watching this movie. I don't resent him at all for making it from the same general type of background. His story validates my own in a weird, memetic, spooky way.

There's also a theme in the movie of "remembering where you came from." I want to forget because I live here now. Maybe Vance respects and wants to help Middletown. I want my old neighborhood to get nuked...