 J.D. Vance. J.D. Vance did not come from nothing, at least not if you read his book. The story of his book is how his family, who had themselves some rather lucrative opportunities in their lives, sacrificed them deliberately by virtue of their failure to embrace agency. In fact, they rejected agency in favor of wallowing in a self-defeating persecution complex that led them towards misery. They chose misery. That's the story of his book. And the remedy that he prescribed in his book that made him famous is conservatism.