This should be required reading moving forward...because they need to be TOLD

[LaydeeBug]

It is an intellectual/linguistic sleight of hand meant to throw attention away from the real problem. The real problem isn’t east coast elites who don’t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is rural America doesn’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 choices they’ve made and horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/rural-america-understanding-isnt-problem

[RedWedge]

1. The more postmortem articles I see, the more I think each one is correct for different groups of

people. Trying to identify The Real Problem(TM) is a fool's errand and simply creates more division.

[randome]

6. Yeah. It's definitely a multi-faceted problem with many helpful solutions but not ONE solution.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[libtodeath]

2. They need their gunz and sky daddy that tells them to hate gays and dark skinned people.

[HassleCat]

3. I hope I'm not the one who has to tell them.

Actually, Bernie Sanders has been telling them. He appears to use a Socratic technique to get Trump voters to realize they've been looking at things from the wrong perspective.

[handmade34]

4. true...

I could have written it... grew up in Christian Midwest... got myself an education and didn't continue to think just like Ma and Pa and was ostracized... little bit of hyperbole but the essay rings true

the real problem we have here is lack of critical thinking and lack of empathy (your guess on whose part)

[LaydeeBug]

5. and that *spite* has been glorified.

But this shit was hacked.

[Different Drummer]

27. "got myself an education and didn't continue to think just like Ma and Pa and was ostracized..."

The same thing happened to me.

[Angry Dragon]

7. The real problem is that throughout history there has always been a group of

people that have wanted it all and did not care who they destroyed to get it.

[LaydeeBug]

21. My Pop Pop told me you can be as rich as you want to be if you're willing to hurt enough people. nt

[TheDebbieDee]

8. OMGosh! I visit a FB forum for coal miners...

And they are insistent that Pres O shut down their mines. I keep trying to tell them about lower demand for coal, automated mining processes and the coming renewable and green energy sources. I get answered with fossil-fuel energy talking points. They refuse to believe that their jobs have gone away.

So, instead of demanding $ for retraining and moving closer to where other jobs may be found (this realization would scare anyone) they are staying in coal country and demanding to be let back into the mines. It's SAD actually!

But I have been able to figure out that coal mining is not just a job - it's a culture... A culture that is out of sync with 21st Century. Those people are getting left behind and they either won't or can't help themselves...

[LaydeeBug]

22. I am not sure you can reach them...

constant am radio programming...spite...lather...rinse...repeat.

[TheDebbieDee]

28. The only way Sec Clinton could have won the votes of these low-info

voters would have been to lie to them like DT did... And that's why Sec Clinton wrote off the entire Appalachian community - because coal miners don't want to hear what it's going to get them fully employed again.

[lunasun]

29. Telephone operators, typewriter repair , etc etc I mean plenty have had to face a fading industry

and did it without a stubborn head or hate in their heart .
Obama shut down their mines or they have shut off their minds ??

[Martin Eden]

9. Bookmarked!

K&R

[Skittles]

10. one of their OWN needs to tell them

someone needs to stand up and be a voice of TRUTH

[LaydeeBug]

14. It's slowly starting, but that is why we have to stand up to them EVERY TIME

I am not kidding that showing them their stupidity will be the only thing that works.

Binary thinking *IS* stinking thinking...and that's all they do.

[Augiedog]

11. Spot on

[Maru Kitteh]

12. Merely waking up while being white isn't enough to command respect and

make a comfortable living any more.

Some effort is now required, and they are pissed! And they don't care why except BROWN PEOPLE OBAMA SECRET MUSLIN MY GUNS DRUG TEST FOR WELFARE!

[Silver Gaia]

13. A-effin-men!

That is SO true!

[vlakitti]

15. The enforced conformity

in these rural and semirural areas is intense and really debilitating.

And they have no access to real information about other people or other parts of the world. You end up in a Scientology -like cult and you're really not even aware of it.

Been there. Done that.

[LaydeeBug]

16. I bet. And they don't think it's them. I'd call it cognitive disonance, but I am not sure

they are actually capable of thought.

[onlyadream]

17. There's so many reasons

Ill informed, listening to right wing radio, Faux news, and the general hating of the black guy in the white house. Even the majority in well-off suburbs hate Obama & Hillary, and love Trump. I see this where I live (on Long Island). These people aren't poor. They have good jobs and nice homes. I even have a "friend" who balked at Obamacare. She wouldn't buy it, then she had a brain tumor and she is now declaring bankruptcy, and guess who she's blaming?

[LaydeeBug]

18. Yep. There is a divide between what they need and what they know

They are like an active coke fiend at the end of the blow. They have no stash...they have no cash...and SOMEBODY ELSE is to blame. The Mexicans took their jobs. The Muslims are laughing at us. Lather Rinse. Repeat.

I *promise*, and I am sure you know this as well as I do, they need to be TOLD. they don't want REASON. They don't want FACTS (they have a hard time with fact/opinion, and so the first one with a good, spiteful *zinger* wins). They don't want to have to think about it. They just want to be TOLD.

Seriously.

The answer is not to divide them from Trump. It's to tie them to him.

[Nevernose]

19. They don't need to be told, they need to be educated

That entails a lot of things. Making sure "we" are not condescending on national TV (thinking about cable news, etc), getting liberal rednecks to organize & educate, using the media that they consume to spread reality instead of bullshit, etc.

Just one on one conversations are a damn fine start.

I firmly believe that many Trump voters are unreachable deplorables, but I also believe that many are just ignorant, misinformed, or easily misled.

If the students aren't learning, we can blame their home lives all we want -- that's certainly easy and tempting -- but in the end all we do is change the way we're teaching.

[LaydeeBug]

20. These people don't need to be educated. They need to be SCHOOLED

So respectfully, I wholeheartedly disagree with you. They don't value education. They value grit. You can't reach them with our standard. You can't *educate* them. You have to SCHOOL them. There's a difference, and it's high time we start fighting the fuck back instead of rolling over, licking our wounds and honing our message.

[wiggs]

23. So deep is their entrenchment in this paternalistic, authoritarian, narrow view of the world

that they would not listen to a woman, black man, and a jew about the real sources of their economic problems...not surprising. Probably was reason enough to run further away from reality. They ran so far from the truth that not even white icons like salt-of-the-earth Bruce Springsteen, kindly Biden, popular Bill Clinton, famous George Clooney and Robert Deniro could convince rural America that Fox News isn't always right.

K & R.

[LaydeeBug]

24. Nope, but shoving their face that it's owned by a FOREIGNER and one of their hated

Muslims does.

And it sucks, because Muslims are good people. Foreigners are not all hateful...but then there's Rupert Murdoch.

So we have to fight fire with fire. I wish it were different, but that's the hand we were dealt.

[Scurrilous]

25. K & R

[doc03]

26. Another rural America is too stupid to vote thread nt

[calendargirl]

32. Condescending, elitist crap ain't it?

People need to be "schooled?" I think this is precisely why the democrats lost the election. People are tired of being told what is best for them. Schooled? Really? I suggest you rethink your tactics or else we are going to lose again in 2020.

[doc03]

33. Exactly they didn't leave the party the party has left them. If anybody

needs schooled it is the people in the Democratic party that thinks of them as fly over country.

[LaydeeBug]

34. YEP. They need to be SCHOOLED. They are DITTO HEADS for a REASON

They don't want to be *reasoned* with.

They want to be *told*.

And it ain't rural people, either. It's MY people. That's how I am able to tell you about them

[BadGimp]

30. I love this segment: "They dont want to know.."

"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 choices they’ve made and horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe. "

So many folks are more than comfortable to just trust that Trump speaks for them and will take care of them. Man are these people gonna be crushed. When Trump and his clan are done with America there will be so damn many pissed off people with no where to turn.

[LaydeeBug]

31. that was the part that got me too.

They really believe both sides of his mouth.

[LaydeeBug]

35. Shameless kick for the TRUTH