My Experience in SW Missouri

[rustysgurl]

While in high school in the 70s I lived in SW Missouri, about 30 miles from Springfield (Greene County). We moved there when I was 15. Moving there from our relatively progressive district in another state to what can only be described as a redneck, ultra-conservative, ultra-fundamentally-religious small town of less than 3,000 was quite a shock to the system. The level of don't-give-a-shit-about-your-fellow-man down there is beyond the pale. Unless, of course, he/she goes to your church or you grew up together. Anyone else moving in is considered a "foreigner," and it takes decades for that to wear off, if at all.

The mother of a girl I went to school with (who still lives in that area) recently came down with the Delta variant, despite receiving both doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Since she's 80 years old, I was obviously worried, but she pulled through and is feeling much better. You would think, then, that this would wise up her daughter, son-in-law and friends to the dangers. But no! Despite her mother pleading for her to get the vaccine, this woman says that she will continue to "plead the blood of Jesus" to keep her safe and says that her getting the vaccine would be tantamount to receiving "the mark of the devil." And sadly, most of her friends in that area agree.

This is what the health experts are dealing with down there. Ignorance on a level that defies logic. Bottom line -- they don't care if they get it and die. As my former schoolmate said: "I'm in a win/win situation. If I live then I'm still here. If I die, then I'll be with the Good Lord." She then asked me when I was going to visit. I told her it would take being held at gunpoint for me to enter their county anytime soon. She said I was being melodramatic and insulting. I told her that God helps those that help themselves and she was being an ignorant, thoughtless fool. I told her that, in all likelihood, she was the one who exposed her 80-year-old mother. She paused for a moment, then said if it was meant that her mother went to be with the Lord then she would think her mother was lucky.

Pretty sure the vaccination rates are not going to increase in that area. You just can't fix stupid.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I have an ex-DIL living and working in Lebanon. She keeps telling me the vaccine doesn't

work since she knows people who have tested positive after being vaccinated. I said "Okay, but how many have died?" and quoted the Springfield hospital's own stats that 99% of Covid patients were unvaccinated.

Funny, when she was married to my son, she was a social worker and expressed liberal views. Four years 'back home' and she's gone mad.

[MLAA]

2. Good for you for speaking up so clearly to her!

[gay texan]

3. I know the drill

I moved from east of Springfield to a town in NE Texas. I didnt think it could get any worse in terms of "derp" but it did.....

[griffi94]

15. It would have been even worse

Had you moved to southeast Texas.
I'm from down that way, Livingston. That kind of derp has to be seen to be believed.

[momta]

56. Not sure about that.

I grew up in Longview, a hundred miles east of Dallas. This is the district that keeps electing Louis Gohmert to Congress. I think they could give Livingston a run for their money on the derp front.

[griffi94]

70. Ha. You're probly right

I'd bet there's not a nickel's worth of difference between them.
Both are behind the "Pine Curtain"

[gratuitous]

4. That's a bold strategy, Cotton

Sadly, they're gambling with not just their own lives on this sucker bet.

[Moostache]

6. Got me...one of my favorite cameos of all-time!

Pepper needs new shorts!!!
I feel shocked!

[raging moderate]

5. I wonder if that 99% statistic is confusing to these people.

Do they get it mixed up with the statistic that the immediate death rate from COVID-19 is about !%? Do they fail to make the little mental leap of 99% of this 1% being still a large number, in a large country? Do we need to phrase this differently?

[erronis]

14. sta-tis-tic. 3 syllables. Too many. Does not compute. It's all about what bubba thinks....

[Treefrog]

71. Does this theory of yours regarding syllables apply to the many AA folks who have chosen not to vax?

Or is it just the white rednecks that are stupid and care what "bubba thinks?"

[Dan]

74. I suspect part of the reason that some AA folks don't take the vaccine

Is the lack of trust in the medical society. There is too much history of the medical field using AA folks in non-ethical ways. Then, there are of course the stupid and the religious people that believe as the ‘rednecks’ thinks.

[treestar]

85. Probably not, but it is just as dumb

Why vaccinate white people then? And why would the white people get it? Maybe they live near the rednecks? In red states, that could happen.

Still, to be paranoid that the US government would experiment on AA people is at this point too much.

[CrispyQ]

62. I would just ask them, "Would six figures in hospital debt change your life for the better?"

We're never gonna get rid of this. The un-vaxxed are variant factories & we're in deep, deep shit if a new variant is vax resistant. Damned fucking fools.

[SWMO_8541]

7. Sorry about your bad experience

We moved here (about 40 min from Springfield) about 15 years ago.
Our neighbors were friendly, and welcoming. The man who owns the farm next door helped us immensely by loaning us tools and equipment that we didn’t have at the time. When a bad windstorm came through, and an ice storm before that, we all called and made sure that people were ok, and helped if they needed it. We all watch what is going on, and report any suspicious activity.
Never once has anybody asked about our political views, or tried to convince us to vote or think in a particular way.
We mind our own business, and they mind theirs.
As for the vaccine, I don’t know what the neighbors are doing, and they haven’t asked me what I’ve done.
My opinion is that I’m not going to ruin my friendships here by engaging in bullshit arguments about politics or anything else. I’m sure that they get their fill of all that just from listening to the news.

[rustysgurl]

9. Good Luck

Sounds like you're going to need it.

And I've never considered a discussion about politics or public health to be "bullshit arguments." But, to each his own.

[SWMO_8541]

10. We've been here for 15 years

These people that you disparagingly call “rednecks” are my friends and neighbors.
They have done more to help me, and are nicer people than most that I encountered in the big city (KCK) where we moved from. You’re right, they don’t appreciate people getting in their faces and telling them that they are stupid. I don’t either.
Arguing with and alienating the people that you live around isn’t doing anything to change their way of thinking.
Maybe you were the problem that caused your trouble.
I’d rather have friends than enemies.

[griffi94]

16. Good for you.

Your experience with them has been positive. But as you just said, you moved there 15 years ago. They're neighborly enough because they don't know you that well. Grow up in a place like that and your experience will be much different.

[rustysgurl]

20. I Wasn't Speaking of YOUR Friends and Neighbors

Only from my experience. I doubt very seriously if we're talking about the same people, or even the same county. Be that as it may, you can go ahead and be friends with whoever you want to. I consider it hypocritical in the extreme to "be friends" with someone whose views are so diametrically opposed to my own (whether they loan me a shovel or not). You can live among the unvaccinated and take your chances if you want. I prefer to live in an area where the majority listen to science rather than the preacher in the bully pulpit.

I've known most of these folks for almost 50 years. They were narrow-minded in school (as were their parents) and none of the have changed. No one has gotten "in their faces" and told them they were stupid. My description of them was driven by frustration and worry at what's going on down there. The health professionals have tried to educate them, to no avail. I have talked, cajoled, pleaded and begged for those I know to get vaccinated. Arguing was the last resort. I know of at least 10 people in this area who have died of COVID-19, and not all of them were elderly. But even a close friend/neighbor dying does not phase these people. If you can't see that, then I have nothing left to say to you.

But yeah, go ahead and point your self-righteous finger at me as if I'm the problem.

[Treefrog]

73. That poster didn't call you any names at all.

But you call them "self-righteous?" Hmm.

[WhiteTara]

76. hmmm?

[renate]

36. Our neighbors moved and I'm storing some Bill O'Reilley crap that arrived for them after they left

Their political beliefs (which we never discussed while they were still next door but I think we each knew where the other stood) come from a place of profound ignorance for which I have no respect or compassion, but I understand what it’s like to have a friendly neighbor who brings in your mail and watches your house while you’re away, and how that kind of 20-year relationship isn’t thrown away lightly.

I must admit that if we’d ever expressed our politics out loud, we’d probably have to have ended the friendship, or at least not been close. It’s one thing to hope they don’t still like Trump, it would have been another thing to hear for certain that they actually did.

[Random Boomer]

50. I'm actually related to rednecks

And I've never been accepted by that side of the family because my mother was Mexican and because I am gay.

They can be the most absolutely wonderful and generous people to anyone they consider "one of us", but if you fall outside the boundaries of the Us group, they are judgmental and insulting.

So yeah, I'm not surprised they seem like "nice people" to you. I just recognize that the nice behavior is reserved for certain segments of the population and not so much for others.

[marble falls]

53. "Red neck" is a phrase turned completely around from it's original meaning ...

... it originally was used to describe union coal miners in WVA who were fighting for good wages and safe working conditions and the right to paid in cash and not tokens good only at the company store. They wore red bandanas to be able to identify themselves in battle with the Pinkertons, National Guard, company thugs who were shooting to kill miners and their wives and children and evict them from their homes.

https://slate.com/culture/2019/12/redneck-origin-definition-union-uprising-south.html

[slightlv]

67. Way back in the early 1980's,

a large group of us from all over the U.S. gathered in Springfield to meet each other in person, etc. The hotel closest to the center was filled to the brim with us. They didn't exactly seem real welcoming, but most of us blew this off as being strangers in town, etc. Anyway, the next morning a small group of us went to the hotel restaurant and were refused service. Further, our rooms were never cleaned or changed the whole time we were there. Our crime to be treated like this?

We were Pagans, gathering quietly in a conference room to talk our religion in the days before the Internet. Even tho it was Beltane (a high holy day for us), we didn't even do the "obligatory" ritual, out of respect for THEIR feelings.

To this day, being treated like that in Springfield sticks in my craw. I've never been back since. Oh... but our cash and credit cards were most appreciated to reserve rooms pre-registration!

I'm from Kansas... move to Leavenworth from KcK. I don't exactly keep a low profile, but lower than some, especially around here. I just have a hard time understanding intolerance of any kind. We don't ask for you to believe as we believe; but we do expect the same in return. (shrug)

[marble falls]

52. Silence gives consent ....

If one does not object to or stand up against something that one does not like or agree with, then one is complicit in permitting it to happen. People like to pretend they are outraged by these policies, but when they do nothing to stop them, their silence gives consent.

[Treefrog]

57. Seems to me the poster simply considers it 'BS" when referring to neighbors. I don't engage

with my neighbors on a political level either. I've mentioned before that none of my black neighbors have chosen to vax. Should I be calling them names or lecturing them? They're good neighbors and we talk quite often, but usually about the typical neighbor stuff...the city, the weather, gardening, their children and so on.

I find it scary especially in that one of the untaxed neighbors is a nurse, but no haranguing from me will change her mind, I feel certain.

People piling on a new poster simply because they have a different point of view is kind of odd since this is a DISCUSSION board.

[erronis]

17. I think your experience is more the norm. People are helpful except when pushed.

The pushing can come from too many questions about reasons for doing this or that.

Also newcomers with money coming into a rural society can be threatening, especially if they have NY or NJ accents (kidding? about that.)

I was welcomed into a very rural Mennonite society while I was a young hippy-ish kid. They couldn't have been nicer even though they probably could sense my aura of intellectual condescension (what 19yo doesn't have that?).

I would trust a rural American to help me in any circumstance far more than I would trust someone wearing a suit in a big city.

[Duppers]

29. Wow. Question: why do you feel the need to be here?

"Bullshit arguments about politics" - That sounds rude and seems to be insinuating that politics is bullshit.

Bye now.

[SWMO_8541]

30. If an argument costs you

a friendship with people that you care about, it’s bullshit.
Some people seem WAY too quick to throw away otherwise good relationships with others over things that they have no chance at changing.
I’ll leave the fighting to the politicians, meanwhile, I’ll live as peacefully as I can with the people around me.
The politicians don’t give 2 shits about me, my neighbors and friends do.
Bye now yourself.

[herding cats]

33. I was close to being in your camp until the 2nd to the last sentence

Why are you even here with that mindset? We're blatantly political.

[secondwind]

48. This is a newbie. Here one month only.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

51. A person can be political and still understand that politicians generally don't care about them

personally.

[SWMO_8541]

61. Thanks

I have been a, and voted for Democrats my entire life. I’ve never even considered voting for an R, but I personally cannot work up the kind of hatred that I read here daily for strangers, including things like- If they won’t get vaccinated, I hope that they will die, then they can’t vote anymore. The list goes on and on. Sorry, but I’m not prepared to wish anyone dead over politics- I’ll leave that for the other side!
It’s unbelievable that some people who share my political views feel this way about their fellow citizens. Sure, the other side has people that hate us, but that doesn’t mean that I have to reciprocate.
I came and joined this group to read about and interact with like minded people. I’m sorry if my less than radical attitude offended some. I will continue to read and enjoy the news and the friendly banter, but I probably won’t be participating in the discussion.
I’m going to keep on voting (and campaigning for) Democrats- all the while living peacefully with my neighbors- whatever their political stripe.
Sorry if I offended anyone. I didn’t mean to.

[Girard442]

82. Hard to be friends with someone thinks you're going to Hell...

...or makes excuses for toddlers being taken away from their families forever, or tells you that the people chanting "Jews will not replace us" are fine people.

Et cetera.

[Treefrog]

72. This. Thank you.

x1000.

[Treefrog]

59. Plenty of people interact on du in non--political ways. This poster simply stated that they didn't

want to do so with their neighbors. Because of that you have decided they don't belong here?

Smh.

[secondwind]

49. Why are you on this Page? You're here for only one month,

and it appears that DU may not be a good fit for you. Just my two cents.

[treestar]

84. So you don't believe in We the People?

You do not have to participate. You leave it to the "politicians" who get voted in either without you bothering to vote, or voting based on a lack of knowledge, cultivated by the idea you are above all that.

And if those people are nice to you, maybe they are vicious towards those they don't know - if they voted for Trump, quite likely in the area described, they are not nice when it comes to humans who do such awful things as be poor, come into the USA illegally, live in big cities, are gay, and so on.

[rustysgurl]

32. Kind of what I thought, but frankly couldn't think of the words to say n/t

[herding cats]

34. Oh! I just said similar below to them.

I'm honestly confused by them and this argument. Why be on an obviously political board if you're going to disparage political views as BS and say politicians don't give two "shits" about them?

It makes zero sense.

[Duppers]

38. Thanks. Thought I couldn't be the only one.

Being concerned, helpful, good neighbors is one thing, but we're talking about saving lives & saving democracy here!

I lived in a small conservative town until I was 17yo & knew such people. We moved decades ago & never want to live there again.

[SWMO_8541]

65. I said that political arguments with friends and neighbors

are BS.
And they are. No good ever comes from it in my experience, just bad feelings for everyone involved. I’m not going to live my life that way.
Like I said earlier, I’ll read and enjoy the forum, but not participate in discussions.
Sorry if I offended you or anyone else.

[Elessar Zappa]

55. Are you sure you're on the right website?

[Treefrog]

60. How kind.

[SWMO_8541]

64. I thought that I was

It seems that some members don’t think so.
I’ll stay quiet from here on.

[Treefrog]

69. Don't pay any mind to that kind of thing.

Thick skin is needed for this website. There's another thread now where people are crowing about Covid deaths. Another poster on that thread asked what has happened to du? I'm fairly new as a member, but I've been reading this forum for donkeys' years. There's definitely been a change.

Plenty of us are happy to see new members. One thing you can do is avail yourself of some of the wonderful du functions, such as the "ignore" feature. I haven't used it, but I hear from others that it greatly lowers blood pressure lol.

I don't argue politics with ANY of my neighbors...all of whom are great people from what I've seen. They are white, black and latino. All go to work, take their children and dogs on walks around the neighborhood, and I have a big basket of my tomatoes I give away to any who want them because I always have too many. My basket sign simply says FREE HOMEGROWN TOMATOES. I can't imagine the sign saying FREE TOMATOES (except for you nasty republicans.)

Anyway, welcome to du!

[WhiteTara]

80. most of us have been friends for 15 years or so

and we do tend to stick up for our friends and neighbors just like you.

You might think of us as your friends and neighbors on line and leave any petty political jabs out so you can have that same warm and fuzzy feeling you have with your real life relationships. Just a thought.

Having lived in SWMO and now in NWAR, I can attest to the barriers to new comers. And my county is on fire with the virus because the same idiots that won't vax in your neighborhood come to mine and mingle with the non vaxxers here.

[lanlady]

83. Please ignore the people flaming you, DU is better than that

I'm beyond shocked at the behavior of some commentators on your post. You said nothing wrong.

[treestar]

86. I think it is tough to believe they've never mentioned their political views

Maybe they have not tried to convince you. But if they are right wingers, at least one of them is sure to have said something, assuming you agree with them.

Then you are part of that silent group that is just as bad because of letting these things stand, as MLK said.

[SWMO_8541]

87. Since you replied to my post twice

I’ll go ahead and respond.
In my earlier post, I stated that I both vote and campaign for the democratic candidates here. I go and speak to the people around here, which is far more challenging to do than in a blue area. My approach is to speak to them in a respectful way, and explain how they and their family’s lives would benefit under democratic leadership. The ideas that I present are not always well received, and I’ve been called all of the usual names- but that comes with the territory.
Among those who live nearby, my political views are well known, but it’s also known that I’m a good neighbor, and respectful of those around me.
I had signs for all the D candidates in my yard, and guess what- my house wasn’t firebombed, my car wasn’t vandalized, and I wasn’t assaulted while working in the garden. I think that I’m doing something right... sorry if you disagree, but I’m not changing the way I live because some folks here don’t like it.

[treestar]

88. OK I did assume you were not into politics at all

something about the first post seemed that way, but I am not the best at reading, so I may have missed it.

[hunter]

8. I grew up in 99 44/100 Ivory Soap pure white Ronald Reagan country.

There's a fucking Ronald Reagan museum there.

[NJCher]

11. thanks for the post, rustysgurl

It's hard for people like those of us who live in heavily blue areas to understand this kind of ignorance.

My brother lives in Nebraska and tells me stories, though, so I know it can be extremely difficult.

Re your OP, though, someone should tell this lady it's not black and white: she gets to be here or she gets to be with Cheebus. She just might get long-haul Covid and have to be here, severely limited in her activities.

[moose966]

12. No cure for Stupid

Rustysgurl, you took the words out of my mouth. The is no vaccine to cure stupid, so we just pray that they may stay safe.
Moose966

[raccoon]

13. If that's how they feel, then why don't they all commit suicide?

Good for you speaking so frankly.

[No Vested Interest]

18. Sorry to say, I believe the majority of this thinking comes from their church/pastors.

In the late night I bounce around the TV channels, including the religious ones.
A program or network called "Daystar" is viciously anti-vax.
One with a dark-haired woman, whom I believe is the wife of network's featured pastor.
She has guests, some with medical degrees, they say, who expound at length and with statistics, etc. to back up their nonsense.
Naturally , their phone number for donations is continually displayed, and sometimes religious "oils" or books are offered.

I am a religious person, but this style of preaching, etc. is nothing I have ever experienced, nor do I know people involved in this type of religion, so it is quite an eye-opener to me.
It bugs me that my tv subscription is paying for this type of programming.
Live and learn....

[keithbvadu2]

26. CBR - Cash Based Religion.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

19. How did that old song in church go? Was it "washed in the blood of the scam"?

KY.............

[Botany]

21. One the great canoe or float trips is the Buffalo River..

... in Arkansas but to some of the people in that area the
Civil War is not over.

[lastlib]

25. I've floated the Buffalo--it IS awesome!

And you are spot-on about the people there--they are still confederate to the core.

That region has refined ignorance to weapons-grade, and only jesus himself in the flesh could convince them to change. The bubble they live in is pretty much 1850s with pickups and cellphones.

[Botany]

28. As an ecologist and a lover of nature the area is awesome but Good God in Butter the people ....

... are weapons grade stupid. I heard more than one time, "You are a Yankee aren't you?"
I wanted to scream "What part of slavery and the violent destruction of America are you good with?"*

I hope Joe Biden's infrastructure and broad band programs gets to them but some of them are stupid
so much that only death alone will cure 'em.


* BTW these same people are good with blacks playing in the SEC or the NFL too.

[Hortensis]

22. We moved to a very conservative area of GA from CA. Our neighbors

typically are very generous and involved with others, as I suspect those in the OP's town are.

The difference between conservative and more liberal societies tends to be, not in whether people care about others, but who and how large the groups we feel we have a duty of caring for are.

Conservatives tend to identify with smaller groups of peoples they identify with in some ways, but how much they can do for others is typically more generous. Because it literally can be. Neighbors take care of neighbors.

The more liberal, the larger and more diverse the groups tend to be, for some up to everyone on the planet. But how much each person can do for millions and even billions of others is accepted as limited. Our GA neighbors are every bit as prone to condemning liberals as uncaring and selfish hypocrites who don't even know their neighbors' names.

On this topic, I remember a woman explaining to me that here in GA that her volunteer group takes care of people in this town. That was after I commented that their very generous giving to those chosen to be helped (much money and many hours of big-hearted labor) didn't leave anything for others elsewhere who also needed help. So she explained that the people in their communities took care of them. When I mused about when they didn't, she regretted that they didn't, but accepted it as a failure of others to take care of their own.

[Duppers]

39. Was invited to a neighbor's birthday party

Over a yr ago. Surprisingly the topic of a huge lottery winnings amt came up from someone, so I said I've never played the lottery.

An obviously Republican woman piped up: "Me either. I don't want to help anyone I don't know!!!"

That selfish witch! I was stunned speechless. Wish I'd thought to say that lottery tickets profits in Virginia fund K-12 public education. And our host was a teacher! Bet she has not been invited back.

I'm sure that hypocritical witch goes to church every Sunday and with a clear conscience.

This is how they think, how they live!

[Hortensis]

45. There's more to it. Conservatives by personality tend to have

a darker view of human nature than liberals. That doesn't mean they don't like people just as much, but that they believe society needs to encourage good behavior and when it doesn't people will misbehave more. Such as refusing to work while rescue checks still come in -- because of the free handout alone. This belief in "a natural order" of those who are more deserving and undeserving is as old as humans and embedded in most religions.

RWers overall used to be far more sensible and balanced in this outlook, and conservative progressive support was common for national welfare programs with strong oversight against cheating. But manipulation by anti-tax powers has developed the worry that government programs feeding fecklessness might destroy our national character into a fervent belief that that is happening. Their traits have been used to make them irrational on the subject.

It's from that nurtured, irrational belief that we're throwing money at millions of people who use it to lie around and abuse themselves and their children that this woman's knee-jerk statement comes. It doesn't mean she wouldn't give the coat off her back to a neighbor she KNOWS.

[Duppers]

47. Yes, astute observations.

It's also that I happen to know the woman is a racist.

I grew up in Tennessee; parents & extended family were as you describe. I've no intolerance for their ignorance and have no contact with remaining extended family, with the exception of my sister who is Democratic. My brother, an avid Fux viewer, occasionally calls but I keep our conversations short whenever I do answer his calls. Yes, I'm a terrible person; folks can judge me as they wish.

[Hortensis]

66. Yes. For me these political attitudes are impossible to tolerate

because they've become very dangerous, can't be blown off. If it were only embarrassing Uncle Fred and his drinking buddies...

[littlemissmartypants]

23. Is the blood of Jesus going to pay their medical bills?

https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/average-cost-hospital-care-covid-19-ranges-51000-78000-based-age

The average cost of hospital care for COVID-19 patients without insurance or who receive out-of-network care varies greatly by age – from $51,389 for patients between 21- and 40-years-old to $78,569 for patients between 41 and 60 years old, according to updated cost analysis data from FAIR Health.

Hospitalization charges for patients under 20-years-old without insurance averaged about $68,261. For people over 60-years-old, that figure was about $77,323.

The highest averaged allowed amount paid to the provider under an insurance plan was $40,208 for people over 60 and was lowest for patients 21 to 40 at $26,152.

[Warpy]

24. You mean you just can't fix religion, not without a lot of expensive deprogramming

and that is impractical. Oh, most believers are rational and reasonable people who have gotten the word on vaccines, I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about the zealots.

Nothing will move them, they just get defensive and dig in and tell the rest of us we're going to hell for flouting god's will.

There is really nothing you can do with people like her except avoid the topic when you talk to them. Until and unless public health laws with real teeth in them are reinstituted, we're going to have people who are this way.

The disease as it is will kill only 5% of them and injure another 10-15%, not enough to convince them that maybe relying on medicine beats relying on Jebus. The danger is that it will mutate inside them into a much more dangerous form that vaccinated people will survive but the unvaccinated will not. This is a big "if" since so far, it has improved only its trasmission rate but not its virulence.

You're right in that you can't fix this. You can only go Emily Post on her and refuse to discuss politics or religion. Shouldn't be hard, she sucks at both.

[keithbvadu2]

27. 'Hallelujah! More children are dying to be with the lord!'

'Hallelujah! More children are dying to be with the lord!'

???

God's will.

Wonder if they feel the same way about school shootings?

[Skittles]

31. I hear you rustysgurl

when I was in high school I moved from England to Iowa; culture shock can be.....quite jarring

[Shellback Squid]

35. this is blind faith

[Maraya1969]

37. Tell to stop wearing her seat belt when she drives and "Pead the blood of Jesus"

I mean seriously - show some faith right?

[Thtwudbeme]

41. I lived in Ozark and Nixa

in the late eighties, early 90's. I worked for Cox-

I am lucky, I met some good people. I loved Bass Pro and that nature center/ park on the way to Springfield.

That said, when I left- I swore to the goddesses that I would never step foot in that state again. I know exactly what you are talking about and what you are describing.

[bucolic_frolic]

42. Maybe they deserve our praise

for falling on their sword for the good of humanity.

In some way of thinking, covid got Trump out of office, maybe the way to keep him out of office is to thin the ranks of his supporters. Natural selection for intelligence.

[Probatim]

43. God helps those that help themselves?!?!

How are these people helping themselves by not taking the vaccine?

They probably spend a lot of time screaming about people without critical thinking skills.

[lagomorph777]

44. Honestly, at this point I just hope they all get to meet their Lawd soon.

So the rest of us can get on with life, win some more elections, and make the world a better place again.

[catbyte]

46. ...

[Harker]

54. Which illustrates that in the "show me" state, not everyone

believes the facts, even when they're shown.

[Silent3]

58. Gee, I wonder why that same attitude about vaccines doesn't apply to guns?

Isn't it just a good, and just as meant by God to happen, if you die and go to heaven because you can't defend yourself with a gun?

[Strelnikov_]

63. Well, if you didn't like it in the 70's . . .

Ya really ain't gonna like it now.

I ran around that part of the country in the 80's quite a bit. It was tolerable, but even then I sensed the change coming on.

Today . . zowie. A toxic combination of politics, religion, meth, tattoo's, guns . . . all starting with a critical mass of not the sharpest knives in the drawer to begin with.

That said, going down next week for some trout fishin'. Still a good place for outdoor rec-re-ating if you can limit interaction with some of the locals.

[Elessar Zappa]

68. Tattoos?

What does that have to do with the rest of the stuff you mentioned. Millions of progressives have tattoos.

[DemocraticPatriot]

89. My guess is, the type of art may be quite different

from that worn by progressives...

[rustysgurl]

75. An Apology ... of sorts

I will admit my original post was partly fueled by anger, frustration and a smidge of intolerance (ok, maybe more than a smidge). I dredged up my past experiences while living in that area, tossed in some anxiety about people I know who still live there, and sprinkled in the aforementioned anger, etc. While I don't apologize for my feelings, I do apologize for some of the ways in which I expressed them.

During my time in SW Missouri, there were some folks who were (like one poster said) kind and generous. As others have said, the kindness and generosity were offered more readily to those they knew, while newcomers were looked on with suspicion and skepticism. I remember once when a lady up the road came by to invite us to attend their church. My mother was out in the garden, on her hands and knees, in t-shirt and jeans. The woman was scandalized, telling my mother that "ladies around there" wore dresses, even while working outside. She was obviously insulted when my mother thanked her for her church invitation, but that we would be attending the local Roman Catholic church (which was actually a "missionary" church with a priest saying Mass once a month). That pretty much branded us as heathens and I don't think that woman ever came to our home again.

On the other side of the coin, after my mother passed away, neighbors and people we had never met showed up at our door with casseroles, eggs (we had 17 dozen at one point) and offers to watch the house during the funeral. But like one poster shared, those kindnesses always seemed to be offered to people they "knew" or lived around, while tolerance for societal need as a whole wasn't considered.

Elections in the area were typically one-sided affairs, with many offices being "won" by Republican candidates unopposed. It's still that way today, almost 50 years later (which makes me sad). As others have said, things don't change very rapidly (if at all) down in those parts.

I can understand the poster's comment about wanting to retain friendships despite differences of opinion. However, as I said before, it seems hypocritical to me to call people friends with whom I share such opposing views. I'm not talking specific candidates, etc. But when we're discussing health and human welfare issues, there's no middle ground for me.

Bottom line, there's good and bad in every subsection of society. It's been my experience, however, that the concentration of stubbornness, intolerance, suspicion and obliviousness to the facts runs pretty deep in the Ozarks.

[Bucky]

78. Thank you

This pandemic, this crisis... It taxes the better angels of our human nature. It's hard to be liberal of spirit and generous of intent when our efforts to protect our country from this invading virus is being thwarted by gullible idiots and the moral reprobates who manipulate them.

But everyone deserves universal health care, even the people who foolishly vote against it. Everyone deserves Social Security in their troubled later years, even Ayn Rand. We're here to help people, not judge them.

{edited to add...}

But we're all only human. So it's okay to get pissed off and vent at the schmucks making harder for the rest of us. Be gentle and generous with yourself as well

[Demovictory9]

77. "an ignorant, thoughtless fool"

[homegirl]

79. The vaccination rates

may not increase. For sure the death rates will, in all age groups. I admit i am a tough old biddy but I have to say-most will be no loss!

[wsbradshaw]

81. It's what god wants

Noah built an ark, Joshua had to blow a horn, David used a sling shot, get a vaccine shot, wear a mask. I think it's what god wants.

[dalton99a]

90. "We had someone spit in a nurse's eye because she told him he had COVID and he didn't believe her"

That they are in this position despite the wide availability of vaccines turns difficult days into unbearable ones. As bad as the winter surge was, Springfield’s health-care workers shared a common purpose of serving their community, Steve Edwards, the president and CEO of CoxHealth, told me. But now they’re “putting themselves in harm’s way for people who’ve chosen not to protect themselves,” he said. While there were always ways of preventing COVID-19 infections, Missourians could have almost entirely prevented this surge through vaccination—but didn’t. “My sense of hope is dwindling,” Tracy Hill, a nurse at Mercy, told me. “I’m losing a little bit of faith in mankind. But you can’t just not go to work.”

Many health-care workers have had enough. Some who took on extra shifts during past surges can’t bring themselves to do so again. Some have moved to less stressful positions that don’t involve treating COVID-19. Others are holding the line, but only just. “You can’t pour from an empty cup, but with every shift it feels like my co-workers and I are empty,” Montgomery said. “We are still trying to fill each other up and keep going.”

The grueling slog is harder now because it feels so needless, and because many patients don’t realize their mistake until it’s too late. On Tuesday, Hill spoke with an elderly man who had just been admitted and was very sick. “He said, ‘I’m embarrassed that I’m here,’” she told me. “He wanted to talk about the vaccine, and in the back of my mind I’m thinking, You have a very high likelihood of not leaving the hospital.” Other patients remain defiant. “We had someone spit in a nurse’s eye because she told him he had COVID and he didn’t believe her,” Edwards said.

Some health-care workers are starting to resent their patients—an emotion that feels taboo. “You’re just angry,” Coulter said, “and you feel guilty for getting angry, because they’re sick and dying.” Others are indignant on behalf of loved ones who don’t already have access to the vaccines. “I’m a mom of a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old, and the daughter of family members in Zimbabwe and South Africa who can’t get vaccinated yet,” says Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, who works at a Veterans Affairs hospital in St. Louis. “I’m frustrated, angry, and sad.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/07/delta-missouri-pandemic-surge/619456/

[raging moderate]

91. Yet they still worship Trump, who DID get vaccinated.

Trump and his family got vaccinated, and they are still Righteous and Holy, but anybody else who gets vaccinated is somehow receiving the mark of the devil.

You are right. Their deliberate ignorance defies logic.