Cultural Carpet Bagging
The other side
This post is NOT about SHOULD BE. It is about IS.

Grew up in WV.
Not an easy thing.

Know huge numbers of people who visit WV regularly or have even emigrated to WV.
I find that They are people who have fallen in love with a myth, not a reality.

When somebody tells me how much they love WV, the WV they love is "WV-land," not WV. WV-land is the version WV you'd find at Disney World. Expurgated, sanitized, shrink wrapped.

Although I am an expat from WV, with no desire to return, I still find such cultural carpet bagging somewhat annoying.

Nothing unusual here.

Anecdote:
Jay Rockefeller, the "other senator" from WV, moved there in 1964 as a VISTA worker. He served his time and decided to stay. He got into politics, moved up the ladder.

For many years, whenever my mother referred to Jay the word "carpet bagger" always appeared in the same sentence.
I still remember the first time she ever referred to him without the usual epithet.
I called her on it and she grudgingly admitted that he'd finally made the cut.

Point:
Most of the discussion in this thread has been relatively abstract.
Granted, theoretically, there is nothing wrong with adopting a culture and/or its music and/or its food/drink/whatever.

Yet, I still find WV wannabes annoying, no matter how pure their love and sincerity.
When I try to put a finger on this annoyance, it turns out to be partly about dues-paying and partly about naievete. Basically two sides of the same coin.

Jay, after decades of being in the red with my mother, had finally gotten his dues paying balance in the black.
After decades of living and politic-ing in WV, Jay was now fully aware of, could not help but be aware of, what life in WV was like, as opposed to life WV-land.

So, for the adopters the discussion remains and will remain theoretical.
For the adoptees its something more personal.

Am I advocating the elmination or demonization of cultural carpet bagging?
No. It's gonna happen. It is not a bad thing in inself.

What I am suggesting is that if you practice cultural carpet bagging you keep in mind that imitation, no matter how pure the motivation, is NOT always simply a form of flattery.