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I've seen a LOT of truly offensive and bigoted statements against rural dwelling people by urban eliteist types on here lately. Words such as "uneducated", "redneck", "backwards" ,and such, abound. Is living a rural life tatamount to being an ignorant buffoon? I think not. Whats with these people? I'll say, in no uncertain terms, that being from and living in a rural area does not mean that one is uneducated, backwards, or a "redneck". I was raised on a ranch, learned to look at life from the back of a horse before I could walk right. Nevertheless, my folks insisted that we be properly educated, read well, have manners and pull our weight. both my sister and I were reading on a college level by the time we hit junior high school. My 12 year old son reads just as well. He is currently reading James Clavells' "Shogun" as a way to satisfy his curiosity about Japanese culture. He also is a little rough and tumble cowboy. He rides like a whirlwind, is into rodeo BIG time and there ain't no place he can't go with a .22 rifle and a fishin' pole. (sic) lol. So, can someone please enlighten me as to where this perception of country folk as stunted intellectually is coming from? From what I've seen the folks moving out here from the cities to " get away from it all" are more backward than we are when it comes to cultural acceptance and tolerance. Rather perplexing it is and it vexes me.
Hi NV. I'm educated, I like what I've seen of Obama, and have a 90 acre property as well as being an urban dweller. If I could live in the country full-time I would, but there's a little question of making an income and finishing uni. studies. I've seen 'rednecks' everywhere, not only in the country. Generally I find country dwellers to be less full of BS than my urban neighbors, and what you see is what you get. I suppose that translates to the cyber-world too.
There's always gonna be city people insulting the country folk, and vice versa..I have met some rural folk with huge shoulder-chips too. Don't worry about what you percieve as insults, just enjoy what you have, and feel sorry for people who don't share it. Just my 0.02 worth.
Those names apply more to world views than to address. They simply have a high correlation. You wouldn't call someone a redneck for merely living in a small town, but you might for their thinking that we shouldn't have a black president (for example).
I believe the biggest disconnect experienced when dealing with urban liberals is their lack of willingness to accept responsibility for themselves. Us "rural" people fend for ourselves, work hard, and live by our own efforts. We help our neighbors, we don't look for scapegoats, and if we mess up we take responsibility. Urban liberals are completely unable to do this. Every problem in their life is someone else's fault, every difficulty they experience should be fixed for them by the government, and they also believe they have the right to be lazy, unproductive, and generally worthless. When they mix with responsible rural people, they either feel shame for their disgraceful way of life or are profoundly confused as to why we choose not to hand over our freedoms and self-reliance in exchange for a government check and maybe some government cheese.
It's simple really - urban liberals cannot handle their own lives. Sad, but true. Luckily, Obama and his ilk in Congress will take away plenty of our freedoms in order to make sure these people can shirk even more personal responsibility.
There is, however, a point of diminishing returns. When the liberals try to take away too many freedoms, the rest of us will rise up and organize an NRA sponsored 60,000,000 man march to DC. We'll dish out lessons in taking responsibility for your own actions.
This reminds me of a program about the Andy Griffith Show. Andy said his show was made up of people who came from small towns in the south and in the country and the show was written by people who came from similiar places. With the success of the show came the copy cats like Pettycoat Junction and Beverly Hillbillies which he said were made more to make fun of people from the south and were written by people from Hollywood or New York City.
Us "rural" people fend for ourselves, work hard, and live by our own efforts.
Good, then you will no longer require farm subsidies, or research from the Dept of Agriculture. Glad to hear it.
As for the rest of your sweepingly ignorant generalizations, you should try coming to the big city you might actually learn something an expand your narrow world view.
The trashing from either side comes from the stereotype reinforcing images that they see. And, likely the desire to attack the other side during a debate.
When liberals see images on TV of McCain supporters yelling "kill him" or "he's a God damn Arab terrorist," it reinforces the image that rural folks are bigot rednecks. Even though, many rural folks would disagree with those statements.
When conservatives see liberals protesting, it reinforces the image that urban folks are whiners. Even though many urban folks are tired of the protesting too.
When each side sees the other side doing things they agree it, the images don't stick in their minds.
Good, then you will no longer require farm subsidies, or research from the Dept of Agriculture. Glad to hear it.
As for the rest of your sweepingly ignorant generalizations, you should try coming to the big city you might actually learn something an expand your narrow world view.
Scientific studies have shown some of what he's suggested, namely, a collectivist versus individualist attitude in urban dwellers, self-reliance attitudes in rural areas versus reliance in urban areas. A dislike for governmental interference in lives in rural areas, etc.
"Frontier is an attitude. The last frontier; frontier spirit; independence; low tolerance of systems, especially governmental systems; Indian nations and tribal lands; a "boys will be boys" attitude; and wide opens spaces. Many things we often associate with "frontier" are all often true in the frontier states."
FMHSRN - Letter 2 (http://www.wiche.edu/Mentalhealth/Frontier/letter2.html - broken link)
Just one example of some info. I got quickly with a search.
Good, then you will no longer require farm subsidies, or research from the Dept of Agriculture. Glad to hear it.
As for the rest of your sweepingly ignorant generalizations, you should try coming to the big city you might actually learn something an expand your narrow world view.
OK this is the type of stuff I'm talking about. "come to the city and expand your world view"??? I could invite this poster out to my lovely high desert and perhaps HIS world view could expand some. A "cultural exchange" if you will lol
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