Thanks for the language and history research, Zen, always a fascinating topic for me, since words and thoughts (ideas) are so intertwined. Meanings also migrate to new contexts. "Red" came into full bloom with the Communists' partisanship of the laboring classes. Those leaning in that direction, only a little bit red, became "pinkos".

Nowadays I do think the sunburned necks have the strongest claim.

Colors can be powerfully symbolic. The new movement, World Beyond War, uses blue scarves in their activism.

Not sure how this topic drift answers Mamaemma's original question about wnd.com, though perhaps political activism embraces both.

Well, it looks like we've both got some points:
From Wikipedia: "Coal miners
The term "redneck" in the early 20th century was occasionally used in reference to American coal miner union members who wore red bandannas for solidarity.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners' unions used the red bandana, in order to build multiracial unions of white, black, and immigrant miners in the strike-ridden coalfields of northern and central Appalachia between 1912 and 1936. The origin of redneck to mean "a union man" or "a striker" remains uncertain, but according to linguist David W. Maurer, the former definition of the word probably dates at least to the 1910s, if not earlier. The use of redneck to designate "a union member" was especially popular during the 1920s and 1930s in the coal-producing regions of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.[16

Outside the United States
Historical Scottish Covenanter usage
In Scotland in the 1640s, the Covenanters rejected rule by bishops, often signing manifestos using their own blood. Some wore red cloth around their neck to signify their position, and were called rednecks by the Scottish ruling class to denote that they were the rebels in what came to be known as The Bishop's War that preceded the rise of Cromwell.[21][22] Eventually, the term began to mean simply "Presbyterian", especially in communities along the Scottish border. Because of the large number of Scottish immigrants in the pre-revolutionary American South, some historians have suggested that this may be the origin of the term in the United States.[23]

Dictionaries document the earliest American citation of the term's use for Presbyterians in 1830, as "a name bestowed upon the Presbyterians of Fayetteville [North Carolina]".[10][22]"

It appears that the term originated in Scotland in The Bishop's War and came to the states, primarily the Carolinas, with the Presbyterian Scottish that settled throughout the Appalachians, through a couple of other identifications, and then to the Miners in the early 1900's.

I'm in a mixed marriage. So our kids will be both. We actually speak non-redneck in the home, except for sometimes when they're in trouble and mom slips into redneck. So our kids will probably be non-redneck, sisified, or whatever we're calling it, unless they rebel.

"Unsophisticated? What does that mean to you? Not a liberal, not a progressive, not a socialist?"
Politicians tie these things (sophisticated/unsophisticated, egghead/philistine, urban/rural) to ideologies like the ones you mentioned to get attention and get elected. It gets attention when walking by a TV during a busy day. Some small fraction actually gets duped and thinks it's real and that these philistines or eggheads are actually evil or associated with socialism, fascism, etc.

"what about the first lady of the united states?"
I just read the excerpt. I agree with all of it until the last two paragraphs.

In the beginning she says people will judge you unfairly sometimes and sometimes that makes life really hard. That's true.

I don't get why her answer is to band together and vote. My advice would just don't get caught up with those people. It's the same principle as if your kid were hanging around many kids doing stuff you don't agree with. The solution is not to fix all those people who are misbehaving- just don't get involved with them. It should be the same with adults, but we often have employers, employees, vendors, clients, board members, or friends who are doing something wrong, we keep trying to change them instead of working with people we work well with.

My guess is the band-together-and-vote message comes from the fact that that's the industry she's in. Whatever ails you, the first solution that comes to mind is "vote". It would be nice if her thought was voting won't solve this problem because it's outside the purview of gov't. I *do not* sense what she's saying is related to petty ideological bickering.

Keep tabs on it as part of a general overview of that side of our culture.

Yes, a strong pro-Christian bias but opportunistic in running scandalous news stories, a tabloid wannabe for shock value, to attract readers and as a cover for the religious agenda. Take with a grain of salt.

Actually, it refers to manual laborers who worked outdoors, farmers and construction workers whose necks got sun-burned. Mildly offensive term for a lower class white person from the southeastern states of the USA. The butt of many jokes, usually beginning with "You know you're a redneck if you... "

Disgusting.

cite: whitehouse.gov ( https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off... ) full speech (exerpt for specific comments):

"Because here’s the thing -- the road ahead is not going to be easy. It never is, especially for folks like you and me. Because while we’ve come so far, the truth is that those age-old problems are stubborn and they haven’t fully gone away. So there will be times, just like for those Airmen, when you feel like folks look right past you, or they see just a fraction of who you really are.

The world won’t always see you in those caps and gowns. They won’t know how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed to make it to this day -- the countless hours you spent studying to get this diploma, the multiple jobs you worked to pay for school, the times you had to drive home and take care of your grandma, the evenings you gave up to volunteer at a food bank or organize a campus fundraiser. They don't know that part of you.

Instead they will make assumptions about who they think you are based on their limited notion of the world. And my husband and I know how frustrating that experience can be. We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives -- the folks who crossed the street in fear of their safety; the clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores; the people at formal events who assumed we were the “help” -- and those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country.

And I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day -- those nagging worries that you’re going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason; the fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds; the agony of sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal; the realization that no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen -- for some folks, it will never be enough. (Applause.)

And all of that is going to be a heavy burden to carry. It can feel isolating. It can make you feel like your life somehow doesn’t matter -- that you’re like the invisible man that Tuskegee grad Ralph Ellison wrote about all those years ago. And as we’ve seen over the past few years, those feelings are real. They’re rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible. And those feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country. (Applause.)

But, graduates, today, I want to be very clear that those feelings are not an excuse to just throw up our hands and give up. (Applause.) Not an excuse. They are not an excuse to lose hope. To succumb to feelings of despair and anger only means that in the end, we lose.

But here’s the thing -- our history provides us with a better story, a better blueprint for how we can win. It teaches us that when we pull ourselves out of those lowest emotional depths, and we channel our frustrations into studying and organizing and banding together -- then we can build ourselves and our communities up. We can take on those deep-rooted problems, and together -- together -- we can overcome anything that stands in our way.

And the first thing we have to do is vote. (Applause.) Hey, no, not just once in a while. Not just when my husband or somebody you like is on the ballot. But in every election at every level, all of the time. (Applause.) Because here is the truth -- if you want to have a say in your community, if you truly want the power to control your own destiny, then you’ve got to be involved. You got to be at the table. You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it; that's the way we move forward. That’s how we make progress for ourselves and for our country. "

That is a man that knows what he is talking about, or is it just that I agree with everything he says? In any case he should apply for (or run against) Al Sharpton's job. At least he might turn some of them around. Maybe he's really a cop in disguise. I'm sure he's been labeled a racist already. I just hope he can get a big audience. He's just like Dr. Ben Carson only comes across with a little more authority.

Thanks. Do you have a link to the controversial comments themselves?

I check all of those news sources, and even those with the three letter acronyms. Of course I have a special definition for the "News" - Todays Lies and Propaganda.
Show me a News outlet and I will show you the CEO and Board of Directors of a Corporation that has its own purpose.

My second fondest wish is to own and operate a saucer, like in Independence Day. Give TPTB a choice: liberty or death.

WND definitely has a rep as a conspiracy theorist site. Trouble is, most of the blasted conspiracy theories are coming to pass. Some days I feel like the Overton window shifts every week. Next SOTUS and the Pope will be sanctifying marriage to other species. This is not the world I grew up in. I liked the old one a lot better. Russians with nukes in Cuba was relaxing compared to ISIS. Kruschev was a codger but reasonable by comparison.

Wetback is a direct translation of the Mexicans' own term for those people, "mojados."

Were the rednecks the pro-union side, then? Because that sure contradicts the modern use of the word.

For what it's worth, I've read Pinkerton's book about the Mollie Maguires, and I think Pinkerton was right. The MM were terrorists with bombs.

I suggest the label SJWs ("Social Justice warriors") for those people.

Yes, he is. But his primary focus is the news. Including news you won't see on other outlets.

Like the raft of cases involving teachers making inappropriate advances on their minor-child pupils. And sometimes the cases involve female adults and male minors.

Would you say fundamentalist, Temlakos?

wnd.com is the former World Net Daily. Alex Jones has nothing to do with it. A Lebanese Christian immigrant named Joseph Farah owns, edits, and publishes it. Farah used to write for the Sacramento Bee before striking out on his own.