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This quote is NOT from a coastal elite, it's straight from a Middle America former farm boy.
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I think the article is spot on. I was raised in rural America and currently live in rural America and agree with everything the article states.
In rural America, fundamentalist Christianity influences everything people do or believe and a lot of people don't even realize it. Their skepticism to facts they don't necessarily want to hear goes back to the fact they are required to be skeptical of anything that questions a literal interpretation of the Bible. Their tendency to believe fake news when its something emotional and that they want to hear goes back to what they've heard from the pulpit. Fundamentalist preaching is full of factual errors but heavily appeals to the emotions and inner rage of the congregation. This entire religious ideology also translates to their politics.
ooohhhhh so some blue blood leftist god hating liberal spent a few nights in a tent some place in flyover country we are to believe this is an expert on middle America?
let me tell you what that guy is. a God hating leftist trying to justify his bigotry. period.
Status:
"Moldy Tater Gangrene, even before Moscow Marge."
(set 3 days ago)
Location: Dallas, TX
5,790 posts, read 3,600,682 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wanderlust76
How did Bill Clinton do this then? He got lots of rural votes. Hard to take this serious.
That map reflects an earlier time - just before the internet shifted into high gear, in fact. Back then a browser was somebody examining shelves in a bookstore, library, or supermarket aisle.
Last edited by Phil75230; 06-05-2017 at 06:00 PM..
Status:
"Moldy Tater Gangrene, even before Moscow Marge."
(set 3 days ago)
Location: Dallas, TX
5,790 posts, read 3,600,682 times
Reputation: 5697
Quote:
Originally Posted by beb0p
Quote:
In deep-red America, the white Christian god is king, figuratively and literally. Religious fundamentalism has shaped most of their belief systems. Systems built on a fundamentalist framework are not conducive to introspection, questioning, learning, or change. When you have a belief system built on fundamentalism, it isn’t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power. The problem isn’t that coastal elites don’t understand rural Americans. The problem is that rural America doesn’t understand itself and will never listen to anyone outside its bubble. It doesn’t matter how “understanding” you are, how well you listen, what language you use…if you are viewed as an outsider, your views will be automatically discounted. I’ve had hundreds of discussions with rural white Americans and whenever I present them any information that contradicts their entrenched beliefs, no matter how sound, how unquestionable, how obvious, they will not even entertain the possibility that it might be true. Their refusal is a result of the nature of their fundamentalist belief system and the fact that I’m the enemy because I’m an educated liberal.
Even without religion, there's still a lot of conformity fueled by harsh disrespect for anything that's "different", "weird", "unmanly", "goes against common sense", etc. I say this as someone who grew up in a Deep South town that, believe it or not, didn't have a super-religious student body. In fact, I never met one, single born-again type born in or close to my birth year until I went to college. Faith in tradition and convention, even without reference to religion at all, also qualifies as a quasi-religion. There's also a strong macho streak in the culture as a whole, especially when insisting that people conform to that culture's idealized gender archetypes (regardless of orientation or gender identity); plus there's a quasi-religious fervency about conflating "abnormal" (even in petty ways) with "disrespect-worthy". That's why I got the hell out of small towns. I go back there twice a year to visit, but will never live there (or 99% of rural counties) again if I can help it
I lived and raised a family for 35 years in what is now solid red heartland flyover country. I worked in government in this smallish state capital and watched it and the state degenerate over a few decades from a balanced and somewhat progressive (at times) place to a backward and somewhat hateful place. This is a predominately Roman Catholic area although there is a strong fundamental current flowing in the state with the Assembly of God and other similar denominations (Full disclosure, I'm conservative Lutheran). The Pro Choice debate was pretty vocal around here more than the rabid bible thumpers. Much of small town America is homogeneous in race and religion and many people have kinship bonds in the community. That means that these folks have to look elsewhere for the "enemy" and there is always an enemy -- always a threat of some sort from beyond. It's always "big city folks" who are some sort of threat -- an easy target. Bible thumpers are experts at finding unrighteous people or ideas that are labeled as enemy ideas, practices, or concepts. Of course, if you were Pro Choice you are a baby killer. Everything is black and white with no gray areas. There is no reason to think for yourself, in fact that is dangerous. That's why educated young people are leaving in droves. The struggle for the hearts and minds of heartland America isn't so much one of Republican vs Democrat as it is of this perceived threat from progressive modernism. Something has failed out there in the hinterlands. They no longer want what's best for their own benefit or for the country because they have no understanding of why they are in a hole and it is easier and more comfortable to keep digging.
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