What is it about living in rural America that makes people different from people

[flamin lib]

living in metropolitan areas? By different I mean more susceptible to not only conservative thinking (not a bad thing in itself) but to the worst aspects of right wing thought like racism, bigotry of all sorts and fear of the 'other'.

I know this is broad brush painting but after looking at this post https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214485994 and seeing the graphic presentation of population density to Red vs Blue voting the rural/urban divide seems obvious.

My own story began in 1950s rural South Texas. One of seven white children (one girl, not me) on a family farm that, in retrospect, was at times a subsistence living. Mom only got a 5th grade education because her father thought it was enough for a girl to 'cipher n read' and Dad got his GED in his mid 40s because he wanted to set an example for his kids. Both were innately intelligent and intuitive, no doubt in the top quintile of IQ for the times. Four of the kids got two year associate degrees, two stopped at high school and I'm the only one with advanced education. Three of the kids spent a portion of their lives in Urban surroundings and all but one of the men served in the military (drafted). Only two of us have lived an urban life all of our adult lives.

Pretty homogeneous, right? So why am I the only one that became a liberal Democrat and all the rest are Trumpanzese, bigots and outright outspoken racists?

If it had not been for 'Big Guvmint' we would not have had electricity, Mom & Dad would have been a huge burden on the kids with no SS and Medicare, Dad played the system as a small farmer so well Trump would be jealous, every male child took advantage of the GI bill (the largest and most successful social experiment ever in the US) and all now enjoy SS and medicare themselves.

Why do they see themselves as rugged individuals who never took anything from anyone? What is it about rural living that makes it possible to ignore the social interdependence we all have?

I've lived it and I can't figure it out.

[Funtatlaguy]

1. They value sameness and conformity. They fear difference & diversity.

[we can do it]

23. But why?

[Amishman]

30. complete lack of common ground

There is the whole guns and God factor, which is very real, but I'll move past that to the more interesting stuff.

Strong culture of self reliance. Out here, if the back patio is buckling, you don't hire a contractor. You get your friends and family together, rent a jackhammer, schedule a mix truck (or hand mix the concrete yourself), and replace it yourself.

When I lived in DC, most people didn't do that. I know in some areas you can't do it yourself as ordinances or HOA rules require work like that to be done by a licensed contractor. Or often they're a renter and it's not their problem.

Car/truck/tractor culture out here is huge. Hard to talk vehicles with someone who lives in an urban core and relies on mass transit.

Music differences.

Language differences. While kids take a foreign language in school, a second language is a 'use it or lose it' type thing. Very few people in rural areas are functionally bilingual. Accents comes into play as well.

And the scorn goes both ways, I don't think a lot of DU realizes just how deep biases against rural folks go. Guns are viewed only as dangerous killing devices. Muscle cars and big trucks are seen as wasteful planet killers. The very religious are described as brainwashed cultists.

[bdamomma]

47. They do not

like change at all.

Lack of Education is another thing. Again, it's easier from them to control the masses when people are uneducated. We have seen that first hand.

They would rather point their fingers to another race or group, than to look up to see how that 1% is screwing them all.

[DownriverDem]

49. Not just rural

trumpers in the cities and suburbs have very similar views. I did it myself while enjoying SS and Medicare.

[EarthFirst]

2. Many of them will never leave their hometown...

They isolate themselves; either by choice or economic necessity; from the experiences and diversity behind their own spheres of influence.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

3. I can say

For me, I spent my whole life in a big city environment (Cleveland/Chicago) until 6 years ago when I moved to a rural area. The first thing I noticed was the lack of education and diversity where I live now. There is also the urge to move away from here when you are young and gifted, to go to an area where you can make money and grow. So this rural area loses the "pick of the litter" from a relatively early age.

What I also noticed is a large amount of people on medicaid and receiving SNAP benefits here, yet they bellow about "those people" who are on welfare in Chicago. This rural area is an echo chamber for racists and bigots.

[Phoenix61]

4. You nailed it with the best move away at a

young age. If they can’t go to college they join the military. Anyone with any initiative leaves. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy with those left behind seeing no real need for good schools. This prevents industry from moving in because the trainable workers aren’t there. I was living near Mobile, AL when they lost out on a ship building company because there weren’t enough high school graduates. Those were good jobs with benefits that went somewhere else because of a crappy school system. I’m curious how the work from home trend started by covid plays out. If you only have to go to work one day a week, how long of a commute is doable for significantly cheaper housing.

[Klaralven]

34. The best mostly went to college and now live in the suburbs

Most rural and small towns have limited higher education. Roughly the top third of my high school class from over 50 years ago went elsewhere to college.

No one came back. While a few live either in small towns or in cities, most now live in suburbs.

Suburbs aren't only the result of the more successful people moving out of the cities. They are also the result of the more successful people moving in from the hinterlands.

[flamin lib]

7. You have just described my home place.

Perhaps it isn't the rural life but the migration away from it that accounts for the difference in politics.

That also points out the antiquity of our government structure that favors geography over voters. Two senators per state regardless of population? And a 6 year term on top of that? Any large city has more voters than Idaho yet they get two 6 year representatives?

I'm beginning to think the Founding Fathers were't so damn smart (or democratic). Perhaps it's time for a new Constitutional Convention, one not held by White Male Property Owners who held other human beings as property.

[octoberlib]

16. The 2 Senators per state thing was a compromise.

After the Revolutionary War there were states that didn’t want to join the union because they were afraid they’d lose power and this was the solution. That was then, this is now. I agree it needs to change.

[RicROC]

57. states were similar

and after the Revolutionary War, most of the states were relatively close in population, unlike what exists today.

[wnylib]

58. I'm not so sure that changing the

Senate numbers is a good idea. The House gives people representation by the population in their states. The Senate is a counterbalance that makes all states equal regardless of pooulation size. Each chamber has its own designated duties and powers, but both chambers are required to pass laws. I think the system is ok as is, regarding its basic structure.

The main problems needing correction are better representation of people who are elected to include more diversity, and ending absurd gerrymandering. Diversity in Congress has improved since the 1950's and 1960's but not enough. Gerrymandering continues, but is being fought successfully in some areas. The Brennan Center for Justice is working on solutions to gerrymandering.

Other problems, like needing a supermajority in the Senate are a matter of rules the Senate makes.

At any rate, now is not the time to make major revisions to the constitution, beyond amendments. Not with Trumpists still having so much political power, which they will still have in government and the general public even when he is gone. He is tge symptom, not the cause of RW extremism. I shudder to think of what changes they could come up with and successfully push.

[TheRickles]

46. Good points. The five states of WY, ID, MT, ND and SD

have a combined population that's less than the city of LA, but they have a total of TEN US Senators. It's totally out of proportion - as the slogan goes, "Land doesn't vote - people do".

[spinbaby]

8. There is a certain amount of "brain drain" going on

As my husband used to say, anyone with get up and go has gotten up and went. It’s hard to make a decent living in rural America.

Also, back when my sister in-law lived in rural Tennessee, she had, as did most of her neighbors, the most basic satellite TV service, which included Fox as the only cable news channel.

[Bluepinky]

19. Good point about basic TV service with Fox being the only Cable channel.

With fewer TV options, Fox and its biased messaging dominates. I wonder if right wing talk/hate radio is also widely available in rural areas, which people would listen to when not watching TV?

One other question is religion. Are rural folks especially religious, as church is yet another avenue of indoctrination.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

25. The TV thing

That's how a lot of the nation followed the Atlanta Braves and Cubs games and became fans. The cable stations carried it.

As for religious....not directed towards you...but going to church and being religious can be two different things. My ex wife is a born again Christian. The churches she took me to were filled with hate. They preached politics, hatred towards Catholics, Lutherans, Jews, Baptists, gays, blacks (even though there were blacks in the congregation), and anything else that came into their minds at the moment. It was disgusting.

[Bluepinky]

32. I agree with you about church and religion.

That’s why I’m wondering if people in rural areas attend church at high rates, as it appears that most churches lean right wing? That’s scary about the born-again church being so filled with hate, yikes!

I grew up going to an American Baptist church that was all about love, never heard anything about hating or distrusting other people (60’s and 70’s).

When my kids were young, I started going to a small local church where I live. At first it was fine, not overtly political. But there were a few times when church members would make subtle comments of a political nature. My last day at that church was when the minister led a prayer in hopes that our President, George W Bush, would have the strength to enter into Iraq with US troops. I was appalled and never returned after that.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

33. I understand

I was raised a Catholic. I never even heard of born agains back then. My church never discussed any other religious denomination. I do remember however, the nuns in our school mentioning one day that they were going to watch Billy Graham on TV that night. My point, my church did not foment hate.

[treestar]

31. Religion provides a chance to socialize

A lot of social functions through the church. IMO mostly they are not really all that religious, in that they know very little of their own religion and that's why all they know is that gays are prohibited.

[greymattermom]

44. In rural Georgia

there is a small Southern Baptist church every few miles. It's their community. If folks don't agree, they are isolated.

[spinbaby]

91. You're right

I have memories of driving through rural Georgia and being amazed at how many churches there were. Also porn shops and mobile-home sales, but that’s another story.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

9. Yes

All good points you folks are making.

[Windy City Charlie]

10. Iowa is an example

What you've explained is why Iowa is a totally red state now. Wasn't long ago, it was a purple state. Nowadays, though, there's just enough younger people in Iowa that would most likely vote blue leaving the state for higher paying jobs (keeping minimum wage low is by design), or they've found Iowa simply isn't exciting enough for them. So, it's leaving a much older electorate that has voted red their entire lives.

[Progressive Jones]

82. Chicagoan my entire life. Here's a little factoid...

In my 61 years in Chicago, I have met hundreds of people who came from IOWA, through my work.
Also, the number one out of state license plate I see here is IOWA.

Of course, we all know where all the cool kids migrate to... CHICAGO !!!

[pstokely]

13. do they really care about schools besides sports?

even though the star athletes move away after they graduate

[Windy City Charlie]

15. Not sure it's that

I've always lived in a rural area.....the thing with rural areas is they don't embrace change. Other than maybe a Dollar General, you go into some of the towns and the way those towns were in the 1950s is pretty much how they are still in 2020. And it continually gets passed on from generation to generation. There's a lot of towns out there that you continually say they're the towns that time forgot.

[overleft]

18. One difference in our small town is the lack of local businesses.

We are dominated by the Walmarts and other corporation owned stores and busiinesses.

[overleft]

17. This is how it is where I reside.

The two main political issues are abortion and guns and the right wing media tells them socialism is evil. Even the ones whom have education levels above high school are poisoned and ingrained with this thinking. The people that are the most vulnerable to this right wing, libertarian, or whatever label applies are the uneducated folks who depend upon socialistic programs for their existence. They do not seem to realize that without social programs like SS disability claims. SNAP, etc. many would be at the mercy of relatives and others around them. These people would be like the wandering nomad families of the great depression that roamed from one place to another looking for work or for handouts where ever they could be found.

[LymphocyteLover]

42. yeah-- that's a huge part of it

[NotAPuppet]

5. You answered you own question.

You moved away, had exposure to people of all walks of life and different thoughts and opinions. You got educated. Education does not only mean getting a college degree. There are ignorant people with college degrees, and smart people without traditional schooling.

I think that living in a bubble contributes to people keeping their heads in the sand and being afraid of everything that's unknown. Republicans have been great when it comes to exploiting this fear, which is how they keep many of their rural voters in check. There is also the fear of being different, and falling in line with common beliefs is much easier for many.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. They all go to rightwing churches on Sunday. nt

[mopinko]

11. am radio.

pretty much it.
i mean, a lot of it is religion, but they have churches in big cities, too.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

40. Yes, the noise they're surrounded by is the noise they'll make themselves.

AM Hate and fux spewz are much more dangerous than we give them credit for.

If that’s the background noise in their daily live, it’s going to saturate the brain.

[mopinko]

66. i worked an election in far north wis in '12.

my god. the radio was just appalling.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

69. Our fellow amurkins are listening to some pretty treasonous and inhuman crap

What in the world can we do about that vast killing field? I wish we knew...

[mopinko]

70. i dont know either.

wis has GREAT public radio.
but it is fm.

maybe when limpballs croaks....

[BlancheSplanchnik]

71. Yeah, am rules the rural areas. We are the most heavily propagandized country

So I remember reading somewhere. It’s the root of the social polarization. It’s past time for for fighting propaganda.

[mopinko]

72. bring back the fairness doctrine.

wouldnt surprise me if that is on biden's to-do-list.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

73. That would be GREAT!!

We desperately need it.

[mopinko]

74. they are OUR airwaves.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

76. Typical conservatives, stealing and weaponizing public property.

[DetlefK]

12. The low population-density changes societal dynamics:

In a city there are more people, more social circles. As a city-inhabitant, you are simultaneously a member of multiple social circles, meaning that you have no special adherence to one social circle above all others. They are all equally a part of your life.

In rural areas, there are less people, less social circles. Church on Sunday, the regular Highschool football games... These are basically the only social circles you frequent. And that makes them all the more important to you. The group-think us-vs-them is stronger.

->
People in rural areas care about their social circles, their church, their sports-team, their politicians, with more emotion and more fanaticism. And this strong "us"-mentality makes them suceptible to an "us-vs-them" mentality.

[flying rabbit]

87. This

echo chambers with little chance for any outside input.

[The Jungle 1]

14. Tell your friends

Education is a huge government handout. The mortgage deduction is a huge government handout. The dependent deduction is a government handout.
I love explaining this to my young conservative friends when they talk about cutting SS and Medicare . They get more in government handouts then seniors. Guess what, they have no argument and get real quiet.
A lot of fun for an old fart.

[flamin lib]

81. Ya know I had a conversation with two older brothers at one of the last

family gatherings I attended. Two older brothers, one a civil engineer (surveyor) and the other an A&P (aircraft mechanic) were bitching about government interference. I pointed out to them, "You do realize that without government licensing anyone could do your job with a good cell phone, right? The same for you, any lawnmower shop with a hand drill and a pop rivet gun could fix airplanes."

Not much of a comeback.

[apcalc]

20. Fear of diversity.

[Vinca]

21. I spent ages 11 or 12 until graduation from high school in the middle of Ohio.

It was the 60's, but I don't remember anything too crackpotty other than more focus on religion than other places and our family wasn't into that. Back then, of course, there was no Fox "news," no Rush Limpballs and none of the other hate mongers monopolizing the air waves. IMO, hate radio/TV for profit is the primary driver of the craziness in rural areas. I've heard that in some places it's all that's available to listen to.

[Wicked Blue]

22. College education nt

[uriel1972]

24. I lived in a small rural town in Australia until I was eleven

then we moved to the small capital city of South Australia. I was blessed to have been brought up in an environment with a high first/second generation immigrant population.

The suburb I was moved to from there was strictly white bread. Even though I am white myself, I didn't fit in. I was too cosmopolitan.

To a certain extent I think it's inborn, an inherent openness and curiosity absent in others. The people who leave may be seen as rats deserting the ship, but if the ship is sinking the rats have a point.

[Goodheart]

26. Farm subsidies.

[handmade34]

27. "I've lived it and I can't figure it out"

you and me both...

although, one factor I keep going back to is "access to diversity" opportunity to travel, be part of/witness diverse cultures... we fear what we don't know and once we are able to see for ourselves (and not just hear it from family, friends, news) that we don't have as much to fear as we think...

that and serious concentration on imparting critical thinking skills to students

[honest.abe]

28. I grew up in rural southern Illinois on a small farm.

Although I had a nice childhood... fishing, hunting, farming, gardening, chickens, pigs, etc, etc, etc, I could not wait to get out of there. I read alot of books and I was fascinated by what was out there in the rest of the world. I joined the Peace Corps when I was 21 years old and my life completely changed. Many of my old friends and classmates from grade school and high school did not have this same drive to get out. They seemed happy and satisfied with their simple routine life there. Not that there is anything wrong with that but clearly they see the world and also politics differently.

[RazzleCat]

29. So many reasons

In the 80's I lived in several very small midwest farming communities. A few I can think of

1. News, you do not have news, you have a local AM/FM radio station that reads the police report, obits and high school sports, and the ever important farm reports (aka commodity prices).

2. Many people have never lived in any sort of urban or even suburban environment, they get their understanding from television, so sitcoms seem real, or worse police dramas seem real. You live in an urban environment so you know it's basically safe, just avoid X place. Just as a rural person will know to avoid X place/activity in their area (say don't go in the woods during hunting season with out your blaze orange on), but because of television the idea is spread that you enter the city you better be 100% on alert because your going to get robbed, killed, or in some way scammed.

3. Fear of the "other". We are all most comfortable with people who are like us. The big difference is that if you live in an urban environment your definition of people like me expands, you get over your fear of the other because you get to know "others", you live in a rural environment you don't get that opportunity.

[GusBob]

35. Honest answer

Fewer assholes and creeps
Less traffic
Less crime
Less crowds
No long lines anywhere for anything ( think drivers license)
More personal service everywhere by name
Better behavior when everyone knows everyone else
Solitude
Far far less anxiety

These things give one a sense of superiority of sorts I guess and you don’t like or trust outsiders maybe even fear them

[hunter]

94. And the people there think they bought all those nice things themselves.

Which is bullshit. Rural areas are heavily subsidized by urban areas, starting with their functional roads, their uncrowded DMV offices, on up to farm subsidies, crop insurance, flood control, etc..

Without those subsidies they'd be living in mud huts without running water, electricity, or phone service. Here in the U.S.A. we don't care if Native Americans or Black people live in conditions of extreme poverty, but god forbid certain sorts of white farmers do.

They take, take, take, and then they vote for racist assholes like Trump.

Most don't even grow the food I eat. If all the farms now growing corn for factory farm meat and dairy products (or worse, fuel ethanol...) were converted to prairie or forest wildlife reserves, if all those farm kids moved to the city, found interesting jobs, and learned to get along with people they now regard as dangerous "others," then it wouldn't adversely affect my diet at all and the world would be a better place.

OH no! There's this guy on Democratic Underground who doesn't respect us white rural people! Therefore all Democrats are EVIL! The man on the radio says so! The preacher man says so! Trump save us!

It's a fucking stupid way of life.

Anti-intellectualism in the U.S.A. will be the ruin of us all.

I don't know what it will take to bring rural Republicans into the 21st century. I suspect they know something is missing from their lives, but they haven't realized yet how badly they've been used and abused by power hungry Republican leaders who don't give a shit if they live or die or waste away in spiritual wastelands separated and divorced from the most vibrant arts and sciences of this world's human family.

[smirkymonkey]

36. Isolation and lack of education.

It seems to me that most of the Trump cult are people who have never really ventured outside of their own little bubble and therefore fear the "other", whether that person is a minority, an athiest, a liberal, a free-thinker, etc.

I grew up in a very small village, but we travelled and I studied abroad. After graduation I lived in large cities and never had an issue with diverse groups of people or different ideas. I think part of it is my personality and part of it is exposure.

There are some people who will be exposed to other groups of people and ideas and will still be fearful of them, but I suppose those are the kinds of people who tend to gravitate toward living in rural areas in the first place. They feel safer there. I am the opposite. I feel safer in a large city for some reason and small rural areas kind of give me the creeps. I'm not really sure why. I suppose a book could be written about why some people prefer one over the other.

Bottom line, I think it is all about fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of progress, fear of the other. I don't think it's a healthy way to live.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

37. I'm not entirely sure

I grew up in rural America, but I didn't end up like that. I would say it is a few different things.
1. lack of good education. no college
2. influence of religion
3. generational poverty
4. bad influences from their familes (parents didn't promote education and they promoted religion and conservative ideology instead)

I saw this among my peers, but my family wasn't exactly like them. They had moved there from other places. My parents were not religious. My dad was raised Catholic and hated religion as a result. My parents were Democrats and they cared a lot about my education. My parents were low income though. How people are raised makes a difference. Valuing education and science above religion makes a difference.

[DeminPennswoods]

38. You are cloistered in your own little community

Grew up in small milltown western Pennsylvania. It was, and still is, predominately white salted with immigrant ethnic communities from Eastern Europe (Italians, Poles, Germans, Hungarians, Serbs, Slovaks, etc) who's families came and stayed. They don't feel a need to travel or move so they have little to no contact with America or Americans outside their region.

I was the same until my career took me to Philadelphia where I got to like and enjoy living in a big, diverse city. When I moved back home to help my folks, it was culture shock. After many decades away, I realized how backwards and bigoted people were and why. I've never forgotten a comment made by a Dem county commissioner back in the early 2000's that all the smart people move away. Sadly, there's little to reverse the brain drain in counties like mine.

[bucolic_frolic]

39. It's self-reinforcing mix

Isolation - physical separation from people much of the time.

Paranoia - there's no public to witness crooks so self-reliance is key.

Technology - to defend property and paranoia.

Religion - to fill the social void and provide social structure and control.

Financial bleed - taxes might be higher, transportation surely is higher, tools and technology to support the lifestyle are higher - lawn mowers, tractors, seed, paint, etc.

So it's a rut. It has multiple parts that reinforce one another. Try to change one and you have to adjust the other parts as well. Change is expensive, so it becomes more entrenched over time.

Looked at another way, liquidity is flexibility. When your capital is tied up in a rural operation, you have less flexibility.

[hatrack]

41. I think previous posters have hit most of the points

Last edited Sat Nov 7, 2020, 09:58 AM - Edit history (1)

I grew up in a small town (about 8,000 when I moved there in kindergarten) but was extraordinarily lucky in two ways:

1. It's a small town with a university
2. It's about an hour from a big city

Not exactly Harvard, but even a small state school provided a lot of advantages. There were things like concerts and arts events and lectures by professors and authors - hell, I even got to see Duke Ellington in concert not long before he died.

Beyond that, it's a teacher's college, and the school I attended K-9 was run by the university, with lots of faculty kids in it. Being curious, reading, doing well at school, asking lots of questions were all strongly encouraged, and I had lots of interesting friends - from in town and out in the country.

Without the university, and without its location, it would have been just another numbingly fundamentalist, extraordinarily white, Scots-Irish, southern town, despite its Midwestern location - which in most ways it still is.

I was extraordinarily lucky.

[flamin lib]

77. Was that University town Commerce, TX? Sure sounds like where I got my MS. nt

[hatrack]

83. No, Missouri rather than Texas

It can get really southern here in terms of attitudes on race, religion and so on.

[flamin lib]

84. Billboard at Commerce city limits read:

THE BLACKEST LAND, THE WHITEST PEOPLE

Not sure if it's still there . . .

[hatrack]

85. Oy . . .

We were driving through NW Arkansas some years back.

On the Adopt-A-Highway litter cleanup sign: "This Highway Adopted By The Knights Of The Ku Klux Klan".

[NRaleighLiberal]

43. many great answers in this thread. my first thought are...

brainwashing by...

family and community
television
radio
the pulpit

thus creates fear - of change, of "the other"

and a desire to be told what to do and how to think.

[ClusterFreak]

45. A well thought out and lucidly presented post. Thank you for that.

[Silent3]

48. There might be an element of self-selection in this

Those who have either the intelligence to pursue the types of employment often not available in rural communities, and/or the temperament to want a more urban lifestyle, with its greater cultural diversity, move out of the rural places where they were raised. What remains in the rural communities are the people who lack those qualities.

When I speak of "intelligence" I'm not just talking about raw IQ, but the intellectualism that so many on the right despise as snooty elitism, where people value education and developing broad perspectives as a value unto itself, not merely a tool used to get a better job.

[treestar]

56. Exactly!

"Merely a tool to get a better job." These people could educate themselves in being a good citizen, but they don't even think of it. Now they are down to calling a college degree "liberal indoctrination." They don't even get its value and what it would be to them and why people more educated tend liberal. Putting down education instead.

[Lonestarblue]

50. I grew up in small-town America but chose to leave.

And it was that choice that led to life experiences that broadened my perspectives on the diversity of people, work experiences, and societal issues. I contrast my life with that of a cousin who chose not to leave. Each of us is intelligent, but I have advanced degrees versus his high school only. I’ve traveled extensively in this country and internationally versus his trips only to neighboring states to visit family. Those experiences change us.

None of these experiences make me smarter or him less intelligent, but they do provide for a broadening of perspective that many people in rural America never have. If you spend your whole life working for Walmart or the local beauty shop, just barely getting by, do you develop resentment that people who left or people you see on the news are financially better off than you and seem to have a better life?

My last point is the fear factor, not initially the fear of minorities but the fear of the unknown. When I left my hometown, it was for college and I never lived in my hometown again. College was a springboard for moving to big cities and gaining that life experience of diversity. For those who never leave, the reason may be fear of the unknown, and such people may thus be more vulnerable to being manipulated by propagandists who are able to build on those fears by denigrating minorities, LGBTQ, immigrants, and anyone who is different.

[Brother Mythos]

51. This thread reminded me of that great bumper sticker:

"Discourage Inbreeding Ban Country Music."

A meaningful alternative would be "Discourage Inbreeding Ban Farm Subsidies."

(I'm kind of sorry to intrude upon a serious discussion, but I'm in one of those moods this morning.)

[Peacetrain]

52. Pretty simple really... fear of being left out

In rural areas people actually depend on the good natures of their neighbors more than they do in urban areas.. and fear of being left out keeps people pretty close to following what ever the loudest voice in their community is..

[BeerBarrelPolka]

62. Here's the funny thing

Since moving from Chicago to the rural area 6 years ago, I see less community help than when I lived in the city. Out here (McHenry County), the folks expect your family or in other circumstances, your school chums to come to your aid. In the city, lots of people came to other folks aid. This is just my personal experience and is anecdotal.

[llmart]

53. Your story is my story.

I come from a family of seven children who grew up in a very small farm community in the 50's/60's. My personality was always one of extreme intellectual curiosity about everything. Reading gave me many windows into a whole big world of things to learn about. As soon as I graduated I left. Mostly I left because I had grown up poor and had decided that once I was an adult, I would never, ever be that poor again. My parents' lives were pretty dismal for the most part and they both died young. Poverty leads to unending stress leads to health issues.

Two of the seven of us got college degrees (both of us female) and left, the ones without degrees still live around the area but more the suburbs than rural. The two of us with college degrees have travelled extensively, lived in different states, worked in white collar professional jobs, known people from all walks of life and all ethnicities.

It really does come down to two things - one's personality and education.

[FailureToCommunicate]

54. Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine by Republicans in 1987. AM hate radio and FOX became

what was available in vast swaths of America.

https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/55bdfeb/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2048x1152+0+0/resize/840x473!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F53%2F3e%2Fcb441e07b258eb52026498349bbf%2Fla-na-tt-talk-radio-flames-republican-war-2015-001

[dempls]

55. Education and Churches

The education systems are dismal and the churches have a profound effect on the populous. Both need to be addressed to change America back to what it once was.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

59. Extreme RW propagandization, and a lifetime of intense peer pressure

to conform to the authoritarian fascist values instilled into them by RW media and their, provincial lily white RW community.

Many of the smarter kids leave the little hometown, go to college, have more life experiences, learn more about the world, become more tolerant and liberal, and only go back to their little lily white hometowns to "visit the folks".

Which leaves, in little lily white hometown, a less educated, less experienced, narrowminded, misinformed and disinformed, brainwashed population of gullible suckers, who are not capable of seeing a grifter like Trump for what he is.

Among the few exceptions are rural Indigenous Native American folk, who can smell a treaty breaking, planet killing, scumbag grifter bigot like Trump from a mile away, and who vote in great numbers for Democrats in every election.

[sop]

60. Rural provincialism is universal, it's not an exclusively American phenomenon.

[Lasher]

61. You are the only one with advanced education.

That might not be the only reason you turned out to be the only liberal but it must be part of it.

[TheDemsshouldhireme]

63. I moved from NY to deep red south central PA

in my early 20s.

Guns are just a huge issue, deer hunting is its own religion down here, generations have been doing it for ever, there's a camaraderie of going to hunting camps with co-workers, fathers, uncles, etc. The NRA does a great job of selling the Dems are going to take your guns away. One commercial that played everyday here was a woman alone, being attacked alone in her car in a parking lot and she reaches for the center console for her gun but it is empty because, again the Dems took your guns away and you wont be able to protect yourself. Common sense gun control---limit magazine size, universal background checks, is not going to sell down here unless you start with you have an absolute right to keep and bare arms.

[global1]

64. Ask Your Question To Repug Strategists....

As they have for decades exploited rural America and country folk. These Repugs have analyzed Rural America and figured it out.

[bdamomma]

65. What a wonderful thread

I enjoyed reading each post. Interesting stories and outcomes.

I have always learned to embrace diversity. Education is the key. You have to expand your mind.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

67. Yes

Where I live, the people expand their bellies and not their minds. So many stereotypes have been vanquished when I moved out here.

[drmeow]

68. An interaction of genes and environment

Research has shown that conservatives tend to be less open to experience and more reactive to fear than liberals. FMRI studies have shown that conservatives brains activate differently than liberals suggesting it either starts or becomes hard wired (generally personality traits like introversion, openness to experience, etc, have genetic as well as environmental causes).

These two characteristics make conservatives less interested in travel, urban (scary) living, and change in general. But that's always been the case yet we seemed to be making progress. What changed was right wing propaganda. Those traits also make conservatives more susceptible to things like Fox news.

Since Roosevelt's new deal there has been a cabal of wanna be aristocrats who know that their policies are unpopular. They have spent a lot of time and money learning exactly how to and then implementing strategies to exploit those conservative vulnerabilities and the extreme flaws built into the US government system. They operate the same propaganda strategies elsewhere (see BREXIT) but many other countries systems needed to be more thoroughly overhauled after WWII than the US's making in harder to succeed (things like universal health-care or anti-fascist education).

[Buckeye_Democrat]

75. What about Vermont?

I just looked at their results by county, most of them not very populated, and Biden/Harris won almost all of them.

Their overall African American population is less than 2%.

So maybe we should ask what makes their rural voters so different from much of the rest of the country and try to emulate it.

[Turin_C3PO]

90. Yes, I've noticed that.

Actually New England in general but especially Vermont seems to have blue-er rural areas than the rest of the country. I'd love to know why.

[TrogL]

78. Read The Authoritarians by Altemeyer

https://theauthoritarians.org/

[JHB]

79. A lot of good answers above, but I'm going to put RW radio, TV, and other media at the top...

...although this overlaps with religion because there are a lot of religious radio stations and tv networks too. And with guns, because there are magazines and other media that go quite a bit beyond gun safety and advertising hunting gear.

I'm putting those at the top because those deliberately work to radicalize people, to use all the other differences to divide people for political gain. To get people outraged and angry and willing to vote based on one single issue and ignoring the rest. To make everything a life and death struggle against The Forces of Evil That Seek To Sweep Away All That Is Good And Right In The World.

They don't cause the differences in viewpoint, but amplifying and intensifying those differences is their business model, and it's done to drive people to exclusively support particular political ends.

And since in many places those things are the only media available (or not demonized), people steep in their spin and drift farther toward that hardened viewpoint, becoming even quicker to find offense or slap away outreach than they would normally be.

[David__77]

80. Full of "declassed" people.

I mean those people who are left behind in an evolving economy. That includes small owners who are threatened by big business.

[DonCoquixote]

86. churches and poverty

the poverty is real, and we do need to get that deal with. The other factor is the beast that feeds on poverty, churches, and sooner or later, their power needs to be brought into check.

[moondust]

88. Homogeneity.

Rural areas are historically not nearly as diverse as metro areas. For decades if not centuries that has allowed a lot of slimy conservative politicians to use bigotry to divide and conquer.

[Codeine]

89. Don't overthink this.

Hillbillies and bumpkins are just fucking stupid. It’s not something that warrants investigation, it just is. Fuck em.

[alarimer]

92. Some people are more psychologically open to new ideas and some are not.

And in a lot of places you do what your family did and that includes political leanings.

I suspect it's really quite complicated. People are complicated.

[womanofthehills]

93. Horrible schools plus personality disordered preachers

I now live rural. Facebook posts tell me half of this town cannot spell simple words. I won’t even mention punctuation - what’s that? Churches run by weird super conservative men. Theme - I don’t need a mask because the day I was born, God picked the day of my death. Luckily, half the town moved here from other places and we have a very high rate of artists and creative people.