The Problems Of Rural Christian White Americans

[T.G.G. Moogly]

This isn’t rocket surgery.

I'm going to steal that.

 

[Underseer]

An insider explains how rural Christian white America has a dark and terrifying underbelly

"As the election of Donald Trump is being sorted out, a common theme keeps cropping up from all sides: “Democrats failed to understand white, working-class, fly-over America.”

Trump supporters are saying this. Progressive pundits are saying this. Talking heads across all forms of the media are saying this. Even some Democratic leaders are saying this. It doesn’t matter how many people say it, it is complete BS. It is an intellectual/linguistic sleight of hand meant to draw attention away from the real problem. The real problem isn’t East Coast elites who don’t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is that rural Americans don’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don’t want to admit it is in large part because of the choices they’ve made and the horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe."

I wish those web sites would properly attribute things like that. I first read that shortly after the election, and I don't recall where.

- - - Updated - - -

Those soccer moms are just KKK supporting cunts. Waaaaaaaah. They stole the election. waaaaaaah. And the Russians ! Waaaaaah

LMFA !!! On the floor !!

Ordinarily, I'd put you down as as a troll. But you are so sincere.

LAMFAO !!!

Your posts don’t seem to be related to the thread.

So ? The OP is not related to reality !!

LMFAO !! Best thread ever !! Comedy gold.

Anyway, I'll leave you to it. Crack on !!


Oh my sides !!

I was able to determine that you think it's funny that the Russians are interfering with elections all around the world, and that you think white supremacists are funny. Do tell us more.

 

[Rhea]

Bull fucking shit.

Racism and bigotry are no more prevalent in rural areas than in those nice big cities you seem so enamored with.

Tone alert: contemplative, conversational, inquiring...


Are you sure?
The best antidotes to bigotry, one hears often and is backed up data I believe, are travel, exposure to different people and diverse communities.
One thing about rural life: we lack all of that.

I thought this was fairly well accepted. The the reason why bigotry (and homophobia and conservatism) are so prevalent in rural areas is because we lack the interaction with those outside of our tribe.

 

[Opoponax]

I remember reading about disaffected white American quite awhile ago. It's collective plight is a very real thing. Those people deserve help just like anyone else does.

But here's where they lose me: they vote against their own interests. Yeah, that's not some great revelation; we all know that. But what kind of sympathy are we supposed to have for that, particularly when that stupidity has a very real effect on all of us?

You say you're dirt poor and there's no opportunities and that you can't afford to see a doctor? My response to that is okay, let's do something about that. But then when you vote for people who so fucking obviously are working to achieve the opposite of what you want, what do you expect?

Don't pour 10 gallons of gasoline on your floor, light a match to it, and then complain that your house is on fire. And certainly don't do it in the hopes that it'll catch your neighbors house on fire too and then turn around and demand that people respect that decision.

You actually can vote for people who, if they exist in large enough numbers, will actually provide you the help you want. So fucking vote that way. Don't vote for an orange blowhard and call it good because you're fucking over your perceived enemies.

Deep red states have been deep red for a long time now. How is that anyone's fault but theirs?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Bull fucking shit.

Racism and bigotry are no more prevalent in rural areas than in those nice big cities you seem so enamored with.

Tone alert: contemplative, conversational, inquiring...


Are you sure?
The best antidotes to bigotry, one hears often and is backed up data I believe, are travel, exposure to different people and diverse communities.
One thing about rural life: we lack all of that.

I thought this was fairly well accepted. The the reason why bigotry (and homophobia and conservatism) are so prevalent in rural areas is because we lack the interaction with those outside of our tribe.

The rural areas in Pennsylvania are no different than the rural areas I lived in in Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Indiana. It's an intelligence problem, cultural inbreeding. Economically the attitude is that the jobs should come to them. They like their bibles and hate having to drive into those big cities. I think they're afraid they will get lost, mugged, etc.

They hate public education because it's all drug infested with teachers that are overpaid and communists. Meth is a problem that came from liberals. Marijuana is bad but alcohol is good.

And did I mention they hate niggers and liberals. Big government and bailouts are okay if you wear an R. If you wear a D they just take the money and keep voting R because of the niggers. And it's all for Jesus.

Here's my Godwin Award offering: If I had to choose between Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler I'm choosing Donald Trump. If rural white Jesus America has to choose between Adolph Hitler and Hillary Clinton it's choosing Adolph Hitler.

 

[Rhea]

I remember reading about disaffected white American quite awhile ago. It's collective plight is a very real thing. Those people deserve help just like anyone else does.

But here's where they lose me: they vote against their own interests. Yeah, that's not some great revelation; we all know that. But what kind of sympathy are we supposed to have for that, particularly when that stupidity has a very real effect on all of us?

You say you're dirt poor and there's no opportunities and that you can't afford to see a doctor? My response to that is okay, let's do something about that. But then when you vote for people who so fucking obviously are working to achieve the opposite of what you want, what do you expect?

Don't pour 10 gallons of gasoline on your floor, light a match to it, and then complain that your house is on fire. And certainly don't do it in the hopes that it'll catch your neighbors house on fire too and then turn around and demand that people respect that decision.

You actually can vote for people who, if they exist in large enough numbers, will actually provide you the help you want. So fucking vote that way. Don't vote for an orange blowhard and call it good because you're fucking over your perceived enemies.

Deep red states have been deep red for a long time now. How is that anyone's fault but theirs?

This speaks to the prime directive. What matters MOST? That’s what people vote for. This is the result of their prime directive.

 

[TSwizzle]

If rural white Jesus America has to choose between Adolph Hitler and Hillary Clinton it's choosing Adolph Hitler.

LMFAO !! That's a belter !!! Oh my sides !!

And we are only in to Trump's first year. !!!

On the floor LMFAO !!

I don't think my sides could take two terms of Trump !!

LOL !!

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I remember reading about disaffected white American quite awhile ago. It's collective plight is a very real thing. Those people deserve help just like anyone else does.

But here's where they lose me: they vote against their own interests. Yeah, that's not some great revelation; we all know that. But what kind of sympathy are we supposed to have for that, particularly when that stupidity has a very real effect on all of us?

You say you're dirt poor and there's no opportunities and that you can't afford to see a doctor? My response to that is okay, let's do something about that. But then when you vote for people who so fucking obviously are working to achieve the opposite of what you want, what do you expect?

Don't pour 10 gallons of gasoline on your floor, light a match to it, and then complain that your house is on fire. And certainly don't do it in the hopes that it'll catch your neighbors house on fire too and then turn around and demand that people respect that decision.

You actually can vote for people who, if they exist in large enough numbers, will actually provide you the help you want. So fucking vote that way. Don't vote for an orange blowhard and call it good because you're fucking over your perceived enemies.

Deep red states have been deep red for a long time now. How is that anyone's fault but theirs?

That's another characteristic I've noticed, they love having enemies. It's the Jews, niggers and catholics down south. The more northern you get it's big government and liberals. There's a paranoia operating. They'll tolerate you if you're a working guy, even invite you in to have Jesus with them. But you're still the enemy.

 

[Opoponax]

This speaks to the prime directive. What matters MOST? That’s what people vote for. This is the result of their prime directive.

But what things matter most to most people? Call me crazy, but I think it's pretty simple; opportunity, the ability for you and your kids to see a doctor when you're sick/injured, and some kind of financial security so that if something bad happens, you won't be living in your car/on the street.

And what I have yet to fathom is how those who have those concerns to a significant degree would vote for someone like Trump or almost any Republican. Obama tried to give all of us healthcare and the GOP fought it tooth and nail, even to the point where many (I think 19) GOP governors turned down financial help from the fed for healthcare.

How does that not just fucking outrage those people?

"You mean to tell me that my I had to suffer from X injury because you turned down money that was offered to the citizens of this state!?!?"

Or when some were offered retraining for a new career, they just didn't show up.

What's more important than your life and the lives of your kids? I know from where the notion comes from that big business is going to ultimately make your life better (jobs), but after decades of seeing the opposite play out, shouldn't it occur to some of these people that it's bullshit? You don't need to spend big money on an education to understand to learn about your own life experience.

Being poor fucking sucks. It's an affront to one's most basic sense of dignity and every day feels like an ongoing tragedy that you're powerless to do anything about. So at least do the one thing you can do something about: vote your own interests.

And they don't like being called rubes, or having it said they live in flyover country? Tough shit! Then don't make such obviously bad voting decisions. Show some basic instinctual sense of self-preservation. Don't spite yourself to fuck over other people that you've never met, known, or been in contact with.

NOTE: I didn't mean you as in you personally in any part of the above rant.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Trump supporters are saying this. Progressive pundits are saying this. Talking heads across all forms of the media are saying this. Even some Democratic leaders are saying this. It doesn’t matter how many people say it, it is complete BS. It is an intellectual/linguistic sleight of hand meant to draw attention away from the real problem. The real problem isn’t East Coast elites who don’t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is that rural Americans don’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don’t want to admit it is in large part because of the choices they’ve made and the horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe."

I think it was more about America being sick of establishment insiders, so they lost to an outside radical, giving a big middle finger to the middle class. That coupled with the TV reality drama and hilarity that was Trump. A lot more people got off on Trump as a fuck you to the establishment and corrupt political system that we give credit for. And few if any of them expected him to actually win. I don't think even he expected to win.

It was also about Obama failing to deliver on his promises and people who had voted for him staying home or voting against his successor. The fact that so many voted for Obama and then for Trump really undermines the whole "its just about racism" rhetoric we often hear about Trump being elected.

Another big part of it was the constant pushing of identity politics. We kept hearing about the "black vote", the "latino vote", etc. Well... keep pushing identity politics and you are going to galvanize more and more white people to see themselves as first and foremost that and to push back against being told how horrible white males are. Push for identity politics, and you push the white male to vote for white male interests and pick Trump as a cheerleader when before he may have been more concerned with other things.

And the big question is will Democrats learn from what happened or will they continue to push forward with "super delegates", massive corporate contributions to campaigns, a candidate with speeches for profit to wall street, etc. And the other question is will Trump mess up on a grand enough scale for people to want the corrupt insider system (instead of the corrupt single individual and his ego') back.

I have a tendency to agree with you, but on the other hand the very middle of the road, corporatist Democrats have really dropped the ball as a political party.

Don't buy Jolly's line! He's a pretty savy Trumpster! As I've explained to him over and over the super delegates voted lock step with the majority vote last democratic election. I'll decode for you what Jolly wants the Democrats to do: don't allow majority vote to decide future democratic primaries; unilaterally cease collecting campaign contributions from companies so that republicans can get more; and don't market to professional liberal urbanites. I guaranty you that if we follow his advice that Trump will destroy the next democrat.

 

[Angry Floof]

The problem with right wing authoritarian America is that they are lied to about the cause of the troubles they seek relief from. People they are not equipped to question or allowed to criticize tell them that the answer to their problems lies in hatred for out-groups and a pot of gold at the other end of the rainbow, and they believe it.

I think the best solution to this ideological disease that affects the ignorant and indoctrinated is to MEET THEIR NEEDS. Give them healthcare, an education, and better safety nets for housing and income.

It's amazing what people can do when their needs are met. It's amazing how peaceful whole societies can be when everyone's needs are met. It's amazing how quickly people can drop their prejudices when actual relief is in realistic sight.

Democratic socialism is the only available system of government that can provide this in the US. Oh, and look at this! We already are a democratic socialist country! Imagine if the conservolibertarians could find the wherewithal to drop the fear and fear mongering and extend their world view to include all citizens and not just people of their own demographics.

 

[Toni]

Bull fucking shit.

Racism and bigotry are no more prevalent in rural areas than in those nice big cities you seem so enamored with.

Tone alert: contemplative, conversational, inquiring...


Are you sure?
The best antidotes to bigotry, one hears often and is backed up data I believe, are travel, exposure to different people and diverse communities.
One thing about rural life: we lack all of that.

I thought this was fairly well accepted. The the reason why bigotry (and homophobia and conservatism) are so prevalent in rural areas is because we lack the interaction with those outside of our tribe.

Most stereotypes are fairly well accepted. That's the problem.

Question: Who do you suppose performs most of the manual labor related to agriculture?
Where do you think they live?
Where do you think they were born?

 

[TV and credit cards]

I too have spent much time in rural America. More than just live in it, I love to travel through it. More than seeing a confederate flag and projecting it onto the entire community. More than seeing Trump signs and doing the same. The most common thing I do see that I most definitely can project onto the entire community is a long since shuttered place of employment.

Not sure I understand how traveling through gives more insight than living within?

I mean, yeah I love to travel the back roads, too, but talking to people gives a different picture than just looking at their houses.

One interesting thing that I think about is how many minority people picked up and moved to find work and are now denigrted for living in cities. Well, they followed the work. (And large numbers are moving bck to their grandparents area. Not all, but there is a large enough wave to detect.). But these rural white folks are like, “who’s gonna bring jobs to my doorstep?”

Anyway, I don’t project one confederate flag onto the whole town. I know where the others are, too. And the bumper stickers, and the trump campaign signs that are _still_ up and lovingly tended to remain visible. More than that, I hear the conversations in the cafe, the town hall and the facebook (local people, not unknown trolls).

This isn’t rocket surgery. One can listen to them and gather their main objections. Let’s not sugar coat them. When they tell you who they are, believe them.

Yes, I've stopped in to eat, go to a flea market or garage sale, and to do business in these small towns. I do not have to travel very far to be in small town Ohio. I try to take my business in that direction. I've listened to conversations in barbershops and diners. Sure, I hear derogatory remarks. I wonder if they are amplified by my expectations. Similarly, I wonder if derogatory remarks I hear in the city are more easily dismissed because of the density of population. Further, I'd venture to guess city people are more cautious of what they say in public. My "travel through" comment was more to point out how often I see what looked to be the major employer of a small town, long since shuttered.

One thing's for sure and this comment is not directed at you but a more general statement, for a bunch of pissed off uneducated inbreeders, their public face sure is a lot more friendly than what I deal with in the city and burbs. They are much more likely to be courteous in traffic, hold a storefront door, or say good morning to this stranger.

My opinion is they, like so many others, do not want to leave their homes or can't afford to even if they wanted, so they hope against all hope for that one large employer to come in with decent paying jobs. And maybe end up with a Walmart.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

What a gigantic pile of horseshit. Rural white america hates niggers, furriners and mooslims, evolution and higher education. So they like Trump. They like the Klan. That's it. Stop sanctifying their bigotry. And they do it all for Jesus too.

It appears to me that you know very little about those who disagree with you. Country people have no issues with country people of different races but similar mindsets. If a black guy and a white guy work at the same factory, and then after work go to the same bar to drink the same beer while watching the same game, they don't see each other as black and white. But those weird city people...

How Half Of America Lost Its F**king Mind

I'm going to explain the Donald Trump phenomenon in three movies. And then some text.

There's this universal shorthand that epic adventure movies use to tell the good guys from the bad. The good guys are simple folk from the countryside ...

Lionsgate Films

... while the bad guys are decadent assholes who live in the city and wear stupid clothes:

Lionsgate Films

In Star Wars, Luke is a farm boy ...

LucasFilm

... while the bad guys live in a shiny space station:

LucasFilm

In Braveheart, the main character (Dennis Braveheart) is a simple farmer ...

Paramount Pictures

... and the dastardly Prince Shithead lives in a luxurious castle and wears fancy, foppish clothes:

Paramount Pictures

The theme expresses itself in several ways -- primitive vs. advanced, tough vs. delicate, masculine vs. feminine, poor vs. rich, pure vs. decadent, traditional vs. weird. All of it is code for rural vs. urban. That tense divide between the two doesn't exist because of these movies, obviously. These movies used it as shorthand because the divide already existed.

We country folk are programmed to hate the prissy elites. That brings us to Trump.

6. It's Not About Red And Blue States -- It's About The Country Vs. The City

Mark Makela/Getty Images

I was born and raised in Trump country. My family are Trump people. If I hadn't moved away and gotten this ridiculous job, I'd be voting for him. I know I would.

See, political types talk about "red states" and "blue states" (where red = Republican/conservative and blue = Democrat/progressive), but forget about states. If you want to understand the Trump phenomenon, dig up the much more detailed county map. Here's how the nation voted county by county in the 2012 election -- again, red is Republican:

Mark Newman / University of Michigan
The country is lava.

Holy cockslaps, that makes it look like Obama's blue party is some kind of fringe political faction that struggles to get 20 percent of the vote. The blue parts, however, are more densely populated -- they're the cities. In the upper left, you see the blue Seattle/Tacoma area, lower down is San Francisco and then L.A. The blue around the dick-shaped Lake Michigan is made of cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago. In the northeast is, of course, New York and Boston, leading down into Philadelphia, which leads into a blue band which connects a bunch of southern cities like Charlotte and Atlanta.

Blue islands in an ocean of red. The cities are less than 4 percent of the land mass, but 62 percent of the population and easily 99 percent of the popular culture. Our movies, shows, songs, and news all radiate out from those blue islands.

And if you live in the red, that fucking sucks.

See, I'm from a "blue" state -- Illinois -- but the state isn't blue. Freaking Chicago is blue. I'm from a tiny town in one of the blood-red areas:

Inqvisitor / Wiki Commons
Where Oprahs fear to tread.

As a kid, visiting Chicago was like, well, Katniss visiting the capital. Or like Zoey visiting the city of the future in this ridiculous book. "Their ways are strange."

And the whole goddamned world revolves around them.

Every TV show is about LA or New York, maybe with some Chicago or Baltimore thrown in. When they did make a show about us, we were jokes -- either wide-eyed, naive fluffballs (Parks And Recreation, and before that, Newhart) or filthy murderous mutants (True Detective, and before that, Deliverance). You could feel the arrogance from hundreds of miles away.

Warner Brothers Pictures

You're not allowed to visit a dentist if you live more than 10 miles from the highway, apparently.

"Nothing that happens outside the city matters!" they say at their cocktail parties, blissfully unaware of where their food is grown. Hey, remember when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans? Kind of weird that a big hurricane hundreds of miles across managed to snipe one specific city and avoid everything else. To watch the news (or the multiple movies and TV shows about it), you'd barely hear about how the storm utterly steamrolled rural Mississippi, killing 238 people and doing an astounding $125 billion in damage.

Mark Wolfe / FEMA
No sports team = no fucks given.

But who cares about those people, right? What's newsworthy about a bunch of toothless hillbillies crying over a flattened trailer? New Orleans is culturally important. It matters.

To those ignored, suffering people, Donald Trump is a brick chucked through the window of the elites. "Are you assholes listening now?"

5. City People Are From A Different Goddamned Planet

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

"But isn't this really about race? Aren't Trump supporters just a bunch of racists? Don't they hate cities because that's where the brown people live?"

Look, we're going to get actual Nazis in the comment section of this article. Not "calling them Nazis for argument points" Nazis, but actual "Swastikas in their avatars, rooted against Indiana Jones" Nazis. Those people exist.

But what I can say, from personal experience, is that the racism of my youth was always one step removed. I never saw a family member, friend, or classmate be mean to the actual black people we had in town. We worked with them, played video games with them, waved to them when they passed. What I did hear was several million comments about how if you ever ventured into the city, winding up in the "wrong neighborhood" meant you'd get dragged from your car, raped, and burned alive. Looking back, I think the idea was that the local minorities were fine ... as long as they acted exactly like us.

Supaflyrobby / Wiki Commons
Our mental image of every single Chicago street corner, regardless of location or time of day.

If you'd asked me at the time, I'd have said the fear and hatred wasn't of people with brown skin, but of that specific tribe they have in Chicago -- you know, the guys with the weird slang, music and clothes, the dope fiends who murder everyone they see. It was all part of the bizarro nature of the cities, as perceived from afar -- a combination of hyper-aggressive savages and frivolous white elites. Their ways are strange. And it wasn't like pop culture was trying to talk me out of it:

Ruthless Records
... And Into Some Nightmares"

It's not just perception, either -- the stats back up the fact that these are parallel universes. People living in the countryside are twice as likely to own a gun and will probably get married younger. People in the urban "blue" areas talk faster and walk faster. They are more likely to be drug abusers but less likely to be alcoholics. The blues are less likely to own land and, most importantly, they're less likely to be Evangelical Christians.

Mario Tama/Getty Images
A day without hellfire and brimstone is like a day without sunshine.

In the small towns, this often gets expressed as "They don't share our values!" and my progressive friends love to scoff at that. "What, like illiteracy and homophobia?!?!"

Nope. Everything.

4. Trends Always Start In The Cities -- And Not All Of Them Are Good

Brian Blanco/Getty Images

The cities are always living in the future. I remember when our little town got our first Chinese restaurant and, 20 years later, its first fancy coffee shop. All of this stuff had turned up in movies (set in L.A., of course) decades earlier. I remember watching '80s movies and mocking the "Valley Girl" stereotypes -- young girls from, like, California who would, like, say, "like" in between every third word. Twenty years later, you can hear me doing the same in every Cracked podcast. The cancer started in L.A. and spread to the rest of America.

Well, the perception back then was that those city folks were all turning atheist, abandoning church for their bisexual sex parties. That, we were told, was literally a sign of the Apocalypse. Not just due to the spiritual consequences (which were dire), but the devastation that would come to the culture. I couldn't imagine any rebuttal. In that place, at that time, the church was everything. Don't take my word for it -- listen to the experts:

Gallup

Church was where you made friends, met girls, networked for jobs, got social support. The poor could get food and clothes there, couples could get advice on their marriages, addicts could try to get clean. But now we're seeing a startling decline in Christianity among the general population, the godless disease having spread alongside Valley Girl talk. So according to Fox News, what's the result of those decadent, atheist, amoral snobs in the cities having turned their noses up at God?

Chaos.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images, Scott Olson/Getty Images, Darren McCollester/Getty Images

The fabric has broken down, they say, just as predicted. And what rural Americans see on the news today is a sneak peek at their tomorrow.

The savages are coming.

Blacks riot, Muslims set bombs, gays spread AIDS, Mexican cartels behead children, atheists tear down Christmas trees. Meanwhile, those liberal Lena Dunhams in their $5,000-a-month apartments sip wine and say, "But those white Christians are the real problem!" Terror victims scream in the street next to their own severed limbs, and the response from the elites is to cry about how men should be allowed to use women's restrooms and how it's cruel to keep chickens in cages.

Sara D. Davis/Getty Images
Both sides agree with that slogan, but with completely different intentions.

Madness. Their heads are so far up their asses that they can't tell up from down. Basic, obvious truths that have gone unquestioned for thousands of years now get laughed at and shouted down -- the fact that hard work is better than dependence on government, that children do better with both parents in the picture, that peace is better than rioting, that a strict moral code is better than blithe hedonism, that humans tend to value things they've earned more than what they get for free, that not getting exploded by a bomb is better than getting exploded by a bomb.

Or as they say out in the country, "Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining."

The foundation upon which America was undeniably built -- family, faith, and hard work -- had been deemed unfashionable and small-minded. Those snooty elites up in their ivory tower laughed as they kicked away that foundation, and then wrote 10,000-word thinkpieces blaming the builders for the ensuing collapse.

 

[Angry Floof]

If a black guy and a white guy work at the same factory, and then after work go to the same bar to drink the same beer while watching the same game, they don't see each other as black and white.

Until they go home and suck on their Big Sip of Fox Newstainment telling them just who they should blame for all they fear.

Your fantasy image of the common man or whatever would be great except for the fact that they are suggestible and ignorant and easily addled by fear mongering into the right wing authoritarian follower mentality we actually see in reality.

Sometimes it's black people (minus "the good ones," of course) and sometimes Muslims, liberals, whatever the right wing ideological trough is feeding them.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

If a black guy and a white guy work at the same factory, and then after work go to the same bar to drink the same beer while watching the same game, they don't see each other as black and white.

Until they go home and suck on their Big Sip of Fox Newstainment telling them just who they should blame for all they fear.

They will then both be told about the weirdos in the city, just like the linked article discussed.

 

[Rhea]

This speaks to the prime directive. What matters MOST? That’s what people vote for. This is the result of their prime directive.

But what things matter most to most people? Call me crazy, but I think it's pretty simple; opportunity, the ability for you and your kids to see a doctor when you're sick/injured, and some kind of financial security so that if something bad happens, you won't be living in your car/on the street.

And what I have yet to fathom is how those who have those concerns to a significant degree would vote for someone like Trump or almost any Republican. Obama tried to give all of us healthcare and the GOP fought it tooth and nail, even to the point where many (I think 19) GOP governors turned down financial help from the fed for healthcare.

How does that not just fucking outrage those people?

I am telling you, it’s because health care, education and jobs is LESS IMPORTANT THAN STATUS to them. The proof is in the vote. They will vote for anyone who seeks to tell that that the white that they are born with gives them status over others. They care MORE about having status over blacks than having jobs over blacks.

This is what Trump and the GOP give them. These people get NOTHING from the GOP on jobs, education and health. But they do get status. They get told, “you are better than every nigger, spic, raghead and kike that you see.”

THAT is the prime directive. THAT is what gets their vote. THAT is what they care about more than Any. Other. Thing.

And it shows in their votes. Once you understand this, you can understand how they vote for Trump, and Moore, and Arpaio. Predictably, repeatedly, enthusiasticsally.

They do not want health care as equals with people who are black. Health care is worthless if it’s what blacks have.

That is what they are voting for. Take this model and apply it to their voting pattern. Use it to predict their next vote. It works.

 

[Rhea]

Bull fucking shit.

Racism and bigotry are no more prevalent in rural areas than in those nice big cities you seem so enamored with.

Tone alert: contemplative, conversational, inquiring...


Are you sure?
The best antidotes to bigotry, one hears often and is backed up data I believe, are travel, exposure to different people and diverse communities.
One thing about rural life: we lack all of that.

I thought this was fairly well accepted. The the reason why bigotry (and homophobia and conservatism) are so prevalent in rural areas is because we lack the interaction with those outside of our tribe.

Most stereotypes are fairly well accepted. That's the problem.

Question: Who do you suppose performs most of the manual labor related to agriculture?
Where do you think they live?
Where do you think they were born?

In the rural agricultural area where I live, the work is done by either poor white people or by transient immigrants (possibly many illegal) who are kept apart in work camp housing that does not allow interaction with the local white people.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

This speaks to the prime directive. What matters MOST? That’s what people vote for. This is the result of their prime directive.

But what things matter most to most people? Call me crazy, but I think it's pretty simple; opportunity, the ability for you and your kids to see a doctor when you're sick/injured, and some kind of financial security so that if something bad happens, you won't be living in your car/on the street.

And what I have yet to fathom is how those who have those concerns to a significant degree would vote for someone like Trump or almost any Republican. Obama tried to give all of us healthcare and the GOP fought it tooth and nail, even to the point where many (I think 19) GOP governors turned down financial help from the fed for healthcare.

How does that not just fucking outrage those people?

I am telling you, it’s because health care, education and jobs is LESS IMPORTANT THAN STATUS to them. The proof is in the vote. They will vote for anyone who seeks to tell that that the white that they are born with gives them status over others. They care MORE about having status over blacks than having jobs over blacks.

This is what Trump and the GOP give them. These people get NOTHING from the GOP on jobs, education and health. But they do get status. They get told, “you are better than every nigger, spic, raghead and kike that you see.”

THAT is the prime directive. THAT is what gets their vote. THAT is what they care about more than Any. Other. Thing.

And it shows in their votes. Once you understand this, you can understand how they vote for Trump, and Moore, and Arpaio. Predictably, repeatedly, enthusiasticsally.

They do not want health care as equals with people who are black. Health care is worthless if it’s what blacks have.

That is what they are voting for. Take this model and apply it to their voting pattern. Use it to predict their next vote. It works.

But they're capable of acting rationally. When food runs out they'll look for a "New Deal." That's why these conservative fiscal hawks (in name only) keep funding all the liberal policies that have enabled the redneck ignoramus vote. When they and their families are hungry they somehow can discern the difference between rain and someone pissing down their back.

But you are right. Trump restored their status. No longer are they forgotten, down-trodden white christian martyrs. He's gonna make them all great again and again and again. Acres and acres of diamonds. Every man a king. Shame on those evil liberals for making you all second class citizens.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Your fantasy image of the common man or whatever would be great except for the fact that they are suggestible and ignorant and easily addled by fear mongering into the right wing authoritarian follower mentality we actually see in reality.

You make a good point. You think everyone who disagrees with you is suggestible and ignorant and easily addled.

Sorry, not "you make a good point" but "you are a good point."