As a native of Asheville, I want to state that I am tired of these hippie-crites in Asheville. Asheville is overrun by people trying to dress and act like hippies, but these people are toxic, judgmental and vile. They are hypocrites (hippie-crites) and phonies.
These people dress alike, talk alike, quote the same things and do the same things, but they think they are so unique and original. It’s comical, really. If you cannot be true “peace and love,” then shut up and stop playing dress-up. I’m tired of people begging for money and cussing me out when they don’t get what I earned and they feel entitled to. I’m sick of drugs, alcohol and crazy people being what my hometown is known for. I’m tired of people coming here, and within weeks, they are getting fake dreadlocks and calling themselves Willow, Harmony, Wildflower or River. It’s pathetic.
I took my teenage autistic son trick-or-treating in West Asheville, off Haywood Road, and was so outraged by these jerks who dress and talk like hippies, who were bullying and judging kids. We got to a home on Russell Street where the porch had many wannabe hippies on it. My son felt safe to approach them with his mask on. He doesn’t normally approach anyone except on Halloween.
These hippie-crites interrogated my son and were snotty and harsh because he couldn’t answer their questions! Thanks, guys, he will not go again. Feel superior to him now? Why are these hypocrites so self-righteous? They won’t work, they don’t bathe, nor can they go a day without drugs and alcohol, so why do they feel judgmental and superior to a disabled boy? What happened to love? Or acceptance? What happened to kindness? One love? Coexist?
No, you’re a city of liars, posers and hippie-crites! I’m sick and tired of these idiots following each other and being such sheeple. These people are self-righteous hypocrites and should stop pretending until they can walk the walk and talk the talk! We’re sick of you hippie-crites!
— Devin Walker
Candler
Exactly! The same goes for the wannabe race car drivers, hit and runs, and drunk drivers. Asheville truly is a city of fakes…with the cops looking the other way. Here’s the word, “Keep paying your taxes and believe the pseudo intellectuals who run the city.” Smh
You say you are ” tired of people begging for money and cussing me out when they don’t get what I earned and they feel entitled to” and then you take your son to a neighborhood where you do not live and take him door to door asking for free candy?
Get a grip! An autistic kid and his mom shouldn’t have to take grief no matter if they came from that neighborhood or not. They shouldn’t have to take it even if they were from out of town. It makes no difference whatever, and anyone saying differently is the purest snob.
The bullying of fake liberals is something I’m very familiar with.
When I became disabled,the scales fell from my.eyes.
Now,I refuse.to identify with anyone who shows insensitivity to folks with challenges.
At least the Rethugs are open about threatened..leftists are just as genocidal minded..
I no longer speak out because the liberals in this town are as phony as all the politicians in this warped country.
As my relatives said….”we hope you choke on enough,”
All humans have a right to live without bullying.
Only the heartless think otherwise.
May you reap the same clueless b.s..you dish out
Ummm… Halloween? Hello?
They weren’t asking for “free candy” the other 364 days of the year
The writer wants to discuss hypocrisy. They say it’s their hometown, but their address reads as Candler. They moved out, so they can’t vote in City Elections. They don’t pay City taxes. But they want a say in how the City handles itself.
I don’t know where in Candler they live, but it’s an easy 10 miles into the heart of West Asheville. Everyone knows that the Vermont Avenue Halloween is incredible. The author must have thought so as well in order to make that drive and attempt to find parking. I’m sure the author comes into Asheville to shop, and to attend fireworks on the 4th of July, and to enjoy other amenities.
So yes, dear writer, please continue to benefit from proximity to Asheville, while doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to contribute to its continued success. We’re so glad that you’re here to tell us to straighten up.
Now, if you’d written a letter saying that people were simply rude to your autistic son, you might have actually garnered some sympathy. Instead, you decided coming in all judgy was the way to go. Feel free to stay out of Asheville if you hate it so much. We won’t miss you.
Candler is part of Asheville. Evidently you are not from this area. PEACE.
No it’s not.
You sure about that? Why do the APD patrol it then? I lived on Moody Ave. near the Home Depot. Candler was the area listed on my drivers license. I was able to vote for the Asheville elections. It depends on how close you are in the Candler/Enka area. So, YES, IT IS!
The Candler zip of 28715 encompasses an area of 78 square miles. Less than 1 square mile of that is in the city limits. So yes, there is a 1.2% chance that the author of the letter lives in the City. I’ll take the odds that they don’t.
well that 1.2% of area probably contains more than 1.2% of the housing and population, but still not most of it.
They dont, the Sheriff’s Dept does…
Enka nd Candler are not the same. Moody Avenue is in the city limits but it is in Enka not Candler. The line for Buncombe County Schools and Asheville City Schools are not the same as the City and Buncombe County boundary line. Over the years Asheville has annexed areas into the City limits. They failed to annex Biltmore Lake (former Enka Lake) recently. Candler is further west and not in the city. Now to add more confusion is to look at zip code boundaries. Candler is 28715 next to 28806 . Sandy Mush is part of the Leicester Zip code but they are not the same place. but it is 28748.
So, I lived on moody and had a candl
er address. I have seen the APD at Bojangles on Smokey Park.
The real world is a harsh place lady. Suck it up. Life is not going to get easier for your autistic son. If a few “hippies” asking questions is what breaks you, then you are in for a world of hurt.
“I’m tired of people coming here, and within weeks, they are getting fake dreadlocks and calling themselves Willow, Harmony, Wildflower or River.”
NARRATOR: This does not actually happen.
I’m sorry the letter-writer’s son had a bad experience on Vermont. Lots of kids appeared to be having good experiences, regardless of “hippie” whatever. Maybe the letter-writer should try to arrange something in one of Candler’s walkable residential areas next year?
As for substance abuse, hang out at an ABC store, or any Hot Spot or other convenience store on a Friday/Saturday night – I guarantee you it’s not just the “hippies” that are swilling down alcohol. And are you saying that there are no local, native residents who are abusing oxy or meth etc. as we speak? Give us a break. It strikes me that your rant is more about political beliefs than anything else.
If your son was truly the target of insensitive behavior, I’m saddened by that. But please don’t use that to launch this kind of political attack.
While Mr. Walker conflates too many disparate issues into one, the core point about a certain element of Asheville’s mushy, “free to be you and me” (as long as you’re like me) culture, does have some salience.
Next year please do not hesitate to come to Avery’s Creek UMC. We know how to treat special needs children with compassion and we don’t have an age limit. I have a special needs ministry there and will be there.
I love hippies and I pray that this person would walk in some hippie shoes and stop some wars instead of bad-mouthing hippies. I will be visiting Asheville with a caravan of hippies and we will give marijuana and free chedder super toasted cheese sandwiches to the first 500 people in line. Donations accepted.
Why does the MtnXpress even publish letters like this???
Oh, do we have yet another person who advocates to “suppress any speech that I don’t personally like?” But, you consider yourself an open-minded person, right? Except your post evidences the opposite.
The LOL irony is how many of the comments above largely prove what the letter writer asserts. Yet they can’t even discern their own nasty, dismissive attitudes. Methinks they doth protest too much because they recognize the reality of the letter and got triggered.
Oh my, just another predictably “(un)enlightened” day in Ashetown, USA.
Hit and Run Drunktown is what it’s called, too. Powers that (try) to be don’t care.
Still trying to make that a thing, huh? It’s not a thing.
To quote The Real World from comments above “Oh, do we have yet another person who advocates to “suppress any speech that I don’t personally like?” But, you consider yourself an open-minded person, right? Except your post evidences the opposite.” Relax, try to get a grip on yourself. We all have the right to express how we are thinking…including you. Peace. ✌🏼
Disagreeing with something isn’t the same as trying to “suppress” it. You get to talk, then we get to talk. Is this a great country or what?
If I were to repeatedly say that Asheville was known as the City Of Marauding Vampire Bears, people would point me to professional help.
Amen.
I’ve come to eschew the labels that limit and liable due to threads of this kind..
I’d like to understand their points of view but cannot get my arthritic back to bend far enough to mimic their head up the derriere posture.
Humans are so insecure that they need groups to prop them up.ThAnkfully,being a true native…ie Tsalagi..We’ve seen this dance before.
Watching pale folks is sure entertainment
“Humans are so insecure that they need groups to prop them up.” — very interesting. The reason I read comments sections is to find gems like that. It gives me new angles to chew on.
I had always perceived people wanting to be in groups because of a desire to belong and be around like-minded. Hadn’t thought about it as more insecurity-driven. Probably, ultimately, it’s a mix of both.
ROFLMAO! so all the ‘cool’ people are getting called out! I’ve been observing the same thing now for years…it’s true.
And we’ve been watching you hide behind a series a fake names for years, Fred “Fisher” Caudle.
The thing is Aville is not San Francisco. Aville is angry because it’s not San Fran. Aville is struggling with its identity. We hippies didn’t just give acceptance and love talk time, we lived it. The way these “hippies” treated the child, is mom’s version. Hippies are by and large straightforward, honest, and respectful…many people perceive this as “invasive.” Usually it’s the same breed that is paranoid from watching toooo much media. I love West. I wasn’t on the scene when the above “assault” went down, but I betcha the “hippies” didn’t intend to be vicious, they were just testing their wings. Peace, of course.
OMG these comments. It’s a kid on Halloween. No one should be bullying anyone. I hope they kept their monster costumes on so we can all identify them in the coming year.
We only have this parent’s version of events to go on, Jan. At the very least, I’d suspect that if any unpleasant encounter happened, it may have been that the “hippies” in question had no idea they were talking to an autistic person. It happens.
I’m so tired of “bullying” being the answer to everything that is unpleasant. People need to toughen up a little bit…including an autistic kid. The world is not going to change to accommodate everybody’s personal problems. A parent who expects this is doing their child a disservice.
I can see how hippies and autism might not mix as hippies value literature, poetry and stuff connected with emotional intelligence and people on the spectrum are often rather technical, just the opposite. This can even be aggravated when the social service professionals generally tasked with helping the autistic are often the same way in that they have the least in common with us. That said, I would say to move to different towns and Candler is fine unless you want to go to court, in which case Canton is better. Except not only do hippies have kids on the spectrum, who are stuck in the same town as their parents until 18. Hippy towns also need technicians like hybrid mechanics and solar installers. Culture clash leads to a serious shortage of hybrid mechanics which raises the maintenance cost of hybrid cars.
Aye, MountainX you need to hire this person ASAP. Weekly rants column would be amazing.
Also, shout-out to all the doctors posting diagnoses and treatment plans for the writer’s autistic kid. The suggestion to toughen up is obviously pulled straight from the medical literature.
It’s not just in AVL that you can find hippie-crites. I live in SoFl, soon be be relocating to AVL permantly, and there are plenty here too. We call them Trusta-farians, as they are dreaded, smelly vagrants that actually have plenty in the bank (thanks to daddy). I get it. However, this behavior is not isolated to them. It comes from all types so please don’t judge too hard or label one group entirely. Maybe talk with your kid about human nature and then next year go to another neighborhood, or host a Halloween party.
…or another state.
Though I am uncomfortable with the writer’s characterization of hippies, I am in total sympathy to his concern for his autistic child and bullying. As a recently retired school administrator, I struggled with all sorts of bullying issues among children. Too, as the grandfather of four autistic children, I know the many challenges that autistic children (and adults) face. We need to be (liberal or conservative) more sensitive to those around us who don’t seem to quite fit in to the molds we would make for them “Hippies,” too, should be far more sensitive to differences among us as they are people who also don’t quite mesh with the expectations the rest of us place on the adult world. I hope that the author knows that there are many people who simply do not understand autism – hippies or not. If your child had been in my school, you and he would have found a principal determined to help him feel safe, welcome, and wanted. I wish you well and hope for your child to find a path that works for him in life. I am grateful that he has you as his advocate. That said, you problem is not ‘Hippies” it is an uneducated populace.
I love how the letter (read… missive/rant) above from Devin Walker starts off with… As a native of Asheville…. and the bitter diatribe continues from thereon. Seriously, do you think anyone with the slightest grip on reality believes this contrived Halloween tale of yours? Get a life…. and try going native rather than relentlessly hating your very native existence. Whew.
Not that I agree with much about this letter – I don’t believe we should have to walk on eggshells all the time, and I do think it is important for folks to learn to cope with realities of the world such as meanness, rudeness and callousness.
However I can’t help but wonder what the reaction would have been had the writer complained about a dude wearing a Trump hat or a clean cut guy in a 2-piece suit – or even a toothless snuff-dipper – being rude and insensitive. Just trying to imagine what some of the comments might have been…..
If someone wearing a Trump hat were caught ridiculing a disabled person in front of eyewitnesses, no one would accuse him of hypocritically betraying the principles of his leader. Unless, of course, he admitted guilt.
Sadly, you are correct – I observed that when the man himself did that very thing, his supporters didn’t criticize. But then again, neither did the other side tell the injured party to toughen up and learn to live with ridicule.
Don’t want hippies? Don’t give them money when they beg for it.
Oh please..does anyone ever.consider how the kid felt?
Nope..too busy doing your own thing.
I have up on this faux liberal town when I was bullied for speaking truth to power..
On disabled rights issues..
Grow up both sides of this debate and realize…equality starts with you considering the feelings of others when you speak
We call these people trustafarians. They’re liberal trust fund babies that play dress up with mommy and daddy’s money. They have nothing to do with hippies and are pretty much just hipsters that moved here for the “scene”.