My Trip to S-Town

John B. McLemore, an archetype figure, somewhat of a "mad scientist". He was an outcast in a city made up of what seem to me, other outcasts. The outcasts: white Americans that hold on so tight to their Southern white heritage. I have a preconceived notion that some of these people grow feelings of betrayal from the wide cultural diffusion happening all over their country.

In relation to Praiser's "filter bubble", I didn't think this demographic of people, the Southern American individuals presented in the S-Town podcasts, have been completely out of my filter bubble range. Growing up in Georgia, I thought I had been exposed to individuals like these. I have also experienced and witnessed the culture differences and tension between them and other people in society. Before this podcast, I always generalized people like the citizens of Woodstock: angry, close minded, white supremacists. Although some of them may fit this description, I came to a realization that I was doing as much racist judgment as a white supremacist would make of me, a young Mexican-American woman.

Through out the S-Town episodes, we were able to get a scope into the lives of individuals that were struggling day by day, maybe even without even realizing it. There were some people, like John B., that never made it out of Woodstock. John, however, was different because instead of ignoring the world outside of Woodstock, he educated himself on matters far beyond the average range of knowledge. The chemical world, environmental issues, political issues, etc., John B. seemed to know the details of specific interests like these. While many of the Woodstock citizen's thought John was weird, he was very much educated about the world around him. I am not insinuating that the others were not educated, but overall, S-Town has made me realize that we all are, to a certain extent, a product of our environment.