The Problems Of Rural Christian White Americans

[Harry Bosch]

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.

Bull fucking shit.

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

It's just a hell of a lot easier to see the stick in someone else's eye. Especially when you have your very own brand of stick stuck way deep in your own eyes. And up your ass.

I mean, how on earth do you explain Donald Trump's bigotry and casual racism?

Or this: http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-nyc-billionaire-suggests-black-ny-senator-is-worse-than-kkk-2017-8

If this were true, I'd be very disappointed. I've always believed that people are mostly biased when they don't know other groups of people. Urban areas are far more diverse than rural areas in the north and mid-west.

 

[Opoponax]

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.

I guess that's as good an explanation as any. I'll save my personal stories on these issues except to say that goddammit, I've been there before. I've had to not get treatment because I couldn't afford a doctor; I've had to make that agonizing decision between spending money or getting my own kids certain medical treatment (I spent money I didn't have).

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING in the world could have mattered more to me than that. Words fail me. That in this country, in this time, that people have to make far more serious decisions than I had to about the life and health of their kids is fucking crazy. This isn't about having a new car, or a nicer place to live, or some other material thing; it's about life itself.

How fucking small does one have to be to not want these things just to spite others?

I understand rich people voting for Trump. No need to look any farther than the tax scam the GOP just passed. At least that's a rational self-interest. But everyone else?

Again, words fail me.

"I shouldn't have to pay for that!" has become the new go-to hate phrase in America. Yet these same idiots would rather pay Anthem a small fortune every year and then go bankrupt should they end up with a catastrophic illness or injury. It's not like they lack the ability to see how Europe or Japan does it. It's not like they can't find out that the U.S. spends twice as much on healthcare.

Idiots. The whole goddamn lot of 'em.

 

[Opoponax]

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."

I would argue that someone who can be so easily tricked into acting so grossly against their own most important self-interests is indeed worthy of ridicule.

How about these choices for someone who's financially struggling:

1) Healthcare for me and my kids; or

2) Massive tax cut for the wealthiest in the nation

One of those choices indicates an easily addled dipshit.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Do you even read bro? Look at the article I posted. Yes, it's from Cracked. I still think it is accurate.

 

[Rhea]

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.

For contrast, I have made my home here. I live in and among them/us every single day. I go to the town parades, the diners, the book clubs, the grange nights, the fire hall barbeques, the t-ball games, the elementary school field days, the high school football games. I do business here every single time I do business. I love living here and I enjoy the company of many of these people (some I do not enjoy). They teach my children. They fix my car. They occupy the office next to mine.

But let’s not fool ourselves about what they mean when they keep their trump signs up for a year, hang their confederate flag and their Don’t Tread on Me flag and stick “3 percenter” on their trucks. It’s not about health care or jobs.

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.

We’ve been through the layoffs and the downturns in a one-company town.

But let’s not fool ourselves about what they want when they vote for walls instead of health carre and education.

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.

You’re white, right?

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.

You’re thinking the mass migration of people of color from the deep south to the northern cities for jobs included huge swaths of people who “could afford to move”?


And I’m saying those who vote for a large job, wanting the large corporation is folly. They would be better served by voting for the party who will give them the affordable health care that allows small businesses to thrive again. The small businesses whose money stays in teh community and makes more jobs, not the mega corp whose insurance contract means the employees will all have to use mail order and bankrupt their local pharmacist, and whose business model exploits 5 year tax breaks and then they abandon their building and move to a new town offering a tax break.

If local jobs is what they want, the GOP is not their friend. They never have been.

 

[humbleman]

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?

Have you ever visited rural areas and live over there for a few weeks and talk to them, and see how they feel, etc?

Because I did it, and from what I remember and from what I read from you, your messages are full of ignorance.

IF someone wants to discredit their "intelligence", well ... then you are the idiot.

No matter who is in power, a government prohibits such and such semi-automatic weapon, they won't complaint as city people do, they listen and smile. After a few weeks they will have the prohibited weapon in their hands anyway.

Fixing a car, the most experienced mechanics will look like amateurs watching them finding the way of fixing their trucks, and are successful. City mechanics will require special tools, the shop service repair manual....

Observing them you can prove that the theory of evolution is crap.

Contrary to city people who usually never know what they want, rural white people know what they want, even when they are drunk they know better what they want in comparison to you.

They voted for Mr. Trump, they knew very well for whom they voted and even "why".

Here, in the city, college students can't even recognize Franklin from Jefferson when you show their pictures. And these college students voted for Hillary Clinton. Probably they confused her with someone else... lol.

Respect others, you are only inciting evil thoughts attacking the supporters of Mr. Trump.

Democracy was built this way, a race where candidates will be elected.

You lost, your candidate lost, just accept it and enjoy your coffee.

 

[Rhea]

Contrary to city people who usually never know what they want, rural white people know what they want, even when they are drunk they know better what they want in comparison to you.

Wut.
No.

 

[Angry Floof]

Contrary to city people who usually never know what they want, rural white people know what they want, even when they are drunk they know better what they want in comparison to you.

Like anyone can even know that.

 

[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?

Have you ever visited rural areas and live over there for a few weeks and talk to them, and see how they feel, etc?

Because I did it, and from what I remember and from what I read from you, your messages are full of ignorance.

IF someone wants to discredit their "intelligence", well ... then you are the idiot.

No matter who is in power, a government prohibits such and such semi-automatic weapon, they won't complaint as city people do, they listen and smile. After a few weeks they will have the prohibited weapon in their hands anyway.

Fixing a car, the most experienced mechanics will look like amateurs watching them finding the way of fixing their trucks, and are successful. City mechanics will require special tools, the shop service repair manual....

Observing them you can prove that the theory of evolution is crap.

Contrary to city people who usually never know what they want, rural white people know what they want, even when they are drunk they know better what they want in comparison to you.

They voted for Mr. Trump, they knew very well for whom they voted and even "why".

Here, in the city, college students can't even recognize Franklin from Jefferson when you show their pictures. And these college students voted for Hillary Clinton. Probably they confused her with someone else... lol.

Respect others, you are only inciting evil thoughts attacking the supporters of Mr. Trump.

Democracy was built this way, a race where candidates will be elected.

You lost, your candidate lost, just accept it and enjoy your coffee.

"Mr. Trump."

Grow the fuck up and unbury your head from that buffoon's ass. Nothing else you said is worth responding to.

 

[Toni]

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.

Bull fucking shit.

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

It's just a hell of a lot easier to see the stick in someone else's eye. Especially when you have your very own brand of stick stuck way deep in your own eyes. And up your ass.

I mean, how on earth do you explain Donald Trump's bigotry and casual racism?

Or this: http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-nyc-billionaire-suggests-black-ny-senator-is-worse-than-kkk-2017-8

If this were true, I'd be very disappointed. I've always believed that people are mostly biased when they don't know other groups of people. Urban areas are far more diverse than rural areas in the north and mid-west.

Where do you think that Donald Trump grew up? Seriously?

I don't personally know any NYC billionaires but I have no reason to doubt the article. What do you think is the driving force behind 'school choice?' Have you tried googling racism at Harvard, for example? Or other Ivies?

Mostly people are biased when they don't know other groups of people. That happens everywhere, not just in rural areas. Rural America does not look like it did a generation ago. There are many more people of color in small towns and rural areas, many more immigrants.

In my experience, people are people are people. They may have been raised rich; they may have grown up poor. Most likely somewhere in the middle. Maybe in the country, maybe in suburban areas, maybe in cities. But they are still people. People do tend to be suspicious and fear and dislike people they don't know, especially if they look different or speak a different language or have one of those funny religions.

Not all Trump voters were in rural areas.

Rural areas were hit pretty hard by the economic downturn of 2007-8 and have been much slower to recover. Much of what anchored rural areas is disappearing as things like Walmart take over, drive out local businesses and jobs dry up for people. Economic insecurity magnifies all other insecurities. It's easy to pin a problem on (not you) and the more (not you ) doesn't obviously resemble you, the easier it is to pin it on (not you).

Look at this thread: plenty of people are quite willing to pin racism and Trump on rural voters who are obviously ignorant bigots or else they would have been smart enough to move to the big cities where they would have learned not to be racist, despite the fact that racism is alive and well in big cities.

 

[Toni]

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.

Why are the transient farm workers kept apart so that they do not interact with local (white) people?

Who decided that?

 

[ronburgundy]

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.

Bull fucking shit.

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

It's just a hell of a lot easier to see the stick in someone else's eye. Especially when you have your very own brand of stick stuck way deep in your own eyes. And up your ass.

I mean, how on earth do you explain Donald Trump's bigotry and casual racism?

Or this: http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-nyc-billionaire-suggests-black-ny-senator-is-worse-than-kkk-2017-8

Trump's own racism proves that white racists do exist in the cities (a fact no one has ever questioned). But the fact that Trump's racism found far more support from rural areas areas proves that white racists are far more prevalent and in fact dominate in rural areas. The fact that rural voters ignored that Trump is a rich, urban, NorthEast "elitist" whom they would typically despise only shows just how much they loved his message of hateful racism, sexism, and xenophobia.

 

[Elixir]

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.

Bull fucking shit.

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

It's just a hell of a lot easier to see the stick in someone else's eye. Especially when you have your very own brand of stick stuck way deep in your own eyes. And up your ass.

I mean, how on earth do you explain Donald Trump's bigotry and casual racism?

Or this: http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-nyc-billionaire-suggests-black-ny-senator-is-worse-than-kkk-2017-8

Trump's own racism proves that white racists do exist in the cities (a fact no one has ever questioned). But the fact that Trump's racism found far more support from rural areas areas proves that white racists are far more prevalent and in fact dominate in rural areas. The fact that rural voters ignored that Trump is a rich, urban, NorthEast "elitist" whom they would typically despise only shows just how much they loved his message of hateful racism, sexism, and xenophobia.

Even if a significant majority of all hard core racists live in cities, they aren't going to be the dominant demographic in those areas. Rural areas are so gerrymandered that even if hard core racists are not in the majority, they will dominate politically.

 

[ronburgundy]

Hilarious, on the floor !! I'm almost tempted to make a contribution.

A contribution to the discussion? Why start now? You've almost made it to 3,000 posts without doing so. Maybe you'll win a prize.

Rural counties are the only counties where the GOP reliably gets a majority of the vote, even in southern and midwestern "Red" states. The urban-rural divide became even stronger in 2016 than prior elections. Among people who voted, counties with less than 2500 people were only areas where Trump generally got an even higher % of the vote than Romney or McCain. The lower the population and further from a metro area, the higher the % of votes Trump got, with the highest being 70% Trump voters in counties with less than 2500 people surrounded by other rural areas.
Urban areas, even in Deeply red states mostly voted Dem, as did their surrounding burbs. Trump also increased the education divide among white voters, with less educated whites going for Trump even more than they usually do for GOP candidates.

Whether the Dems should try to appeal to these voters is another matter. They'd be far better off courting the 45% of Americans who didn't vote at all.

.

 

[Alcoholic Actuary]

I'm a little bit tired of these maps that show vast areas of mountain ranges and deserts colored red as though Trump won that surface area. PEOPLE are responsible for creating the society they want to live in, and most of the rules to be established for that society are going to be voted on based on where the PEOPLE are.

And the people voted for Clinton. Trump won because of the electoral college and gerrymandering. The real problem with rural christian white americans is that they hold a disproportionately large amount of political power relative to their actual population.

aa

 

[funinspace]

I'm a little bit tired of these maps that show vast areas of mountain ranges and deserts colored red as though Trump won that surface area.

Hey, all of us here voted for FFvC. Wutz your problem can't you count Yuge crowd sizes

 

[couch_sloth]

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.

Why are the transient farm workers kept apart so that they do not interact with local (white) people?

Who decided that?

. Nobody keeps the migrant farm workers away from White people, but there is a language barrier, as well as a cultural and economic differences.
In my area (Central California) I can think of 2 types of farmerworker housing. 1: Housing provided by the farmers themselves to attract experienced fieldworkers. And 2: Small farmworker communities created by the federal government, during the Great Depression. (For example: Linnell Camp and Weadpatch). Many of these little communities still exist.
Of course no one is forced into living in these communities

 

[Ford]

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.

If I remember correctly, this sort of thing was brought up in a book called "What's The Matter With Kansas?" Rural residents were won over by the GOP because they prioritized having "good Christian values" in their elected representatives rather than economic policies that helped them. Now they've got a shitty economic situation because the "good Christian" politicians voted in massive tax cuts which lined the pockets of the wealthy and left the rural folks fucked.

 

[Toni]

Hilarious, on the floor !! I'm almost tempted to make a contribution.

A contribution to the discussion? Why start now? You've almost made it to 3,000 posts without doing so. Maybe you'll win a prize.

Rural counties are the only counties where the GOP reliably gets a majority of the vote, even in southern and midwestern "Red" states. The urban-rural divide became even stronger in 2016 than prior elections. Among people who voted, counties with less than 2500 people were only areas where Trump generally got an even higher % of the vote than Romney or McCain. The lower the population and further from a metro area, the higher the % of votes Trump got, with the highest being 70% Trump voters in counties with less than 2500 people surrounded by other rural areas.
Urban areas, even in Deeply red states mostly voted Dem, as did their surrounding burbs. Trump also increased the education divide among white voters, with less educated whites going for Trump even more than they usually do for GOP candidates.

Whether the Dems should try to appeal to these voters is another matter. They'd be far better off courting the 45% of Americans who didn't vote at all.

.

I don’t disagree that the Dems should reach out to the masses of voters who do not vote.

Keep in mind that Trump won in districts that Obama had won before. Twice.

Russian interference and fake news played a bigger role than we like to acknowledge. Personally, I think that Hillary lost the election with the deplorables remark. And deserved to lose. Unfortunately her loss brought us Trump, an atrocity of a being that may well do what the Civil War could not: destroy this country. With the help of power hungry Republicans who put party and personal ambition over country and constitution.

For the most part, people vote their pocketbooks. Outlying areas and the rust belt lagged behind in the economic recovery. Some will not recover for...generations. Consolidation (corporate, political) will see to that. That is a painful reality. Much more painful than you realize, this of you who so casually cry out at the bigotry of small town and rural America while carefully avoiding gazing —or even glancing upon their own reflections in the mirror. Or reflecting on their own hearts and minds.

What is bigotry, what is racism, but refusing to recognize the common humanity in those who differ from ourselves?

 

[coloradoatheist]

Hilarious, on the floor !! I'm almost tempted to make a contribution.

A contribution to the discussion? Why start now? You've almost made it to 3,000 posts without doing so. Maybe you'll win a prize.

Rural counties are the only counties where the GOP reliably gets a majority of the vote, even in southern and midwestern "Red" states. The urban-rural divide became even stronger in 2016 than prior elections. Among people who voted, counties with less than 2500 people were only areas where Trump generally got an even higher % of the vote than Romney or McCain. The lower the population and further from a metro area, the higher the % of votes Trump got, with the highest being 70% Trump voters in counties with less than 2500 people surrounded by other rural areas.
Urban areas, even in Deeply red states mostly voted Dem, as did their surrounding burbs. Trump also increased the education divide among white voters, with less educated whites going for Trump even more than they usually do for GOP candidates.

Whether the Dems should try to appeal to these voters is another matter. They'd be far better off courting the 45% of Americans who didn't vote at all.

.

I don’t disagree that the Dems should reach out to the masses of voters who do not vote.

Keep in mind that Trump won in districts that Obama had won before. Twice.

Russian interference and fake news played a bigger role than we like to acknowledge. Personally, I think that Hillary lost the election with the deplorables remark. And deserved to lose. Unfortunately her loss brought us Trump, an atrocity of a being that may well do what the Civil War could not: destroy this country. With the help of power hungry Republicans who put party and personal ambition over country and constitution.

For the most part, people vote their pocketbooks. Outlying areas and the rust belt lagged behind in the economic recovery. Some will not recover for...generations. Consolidation (corporate, political) will see to that. That is a painful reality. Much more painful than you realize, this of you who so casually cry out at the bigotry of small town and rural America while carefully avoiding gazing —or even glancing upon their own reflections in the mirror. Or reflecting on their own hearts and minds.

What is bigotry, what is racism, but refusing to recognize the common humanity in those who differ from ourselves?

A couple of issues. I think the dems lost because they had Hillary. If it had been someone else then they would probably have won.

I am very curious what would be the best example of a country besides the US that has the biggest multi-culturiasm and how divided are they in their beliefs?