Why are conservatives against rural communities' getting broadband internet access?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

"Broadband is infrastructure." That's what President Joe Biden's Twitter account posted Monday night. You might not have noticed, given that it's a perfectly anodyne statement — one that happens to be true.

And yet, Biden's tweet drew ire from the likes of Ben Shapiro. "The rule is that if you can stuff anything into the infrastructure box, then it counts as useful government spending. So everything is infrastructure now!" the Daily Caller editor emeritus wrote.

Link to tweet

In framing Biden's proposal as overly broad and too expensive, Shapiro and other conservatives have been piling on to the notion that you can't call it an "infrastructure plan" if spending isn't solely on roads and bridges.

But high-speed internet is — and has been for a while now — considered a vital piece of infrastructure for our society. And in trying to dunk on Biden, conservatives like Shapiro are, in effect, trying to hurt efforts to finally close the gap between the urban elites and the rural areas they claim to champion.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-are-conservatives-against-rural-communities-getting-broadband-internet-access/ar-BB1fnVJz?ocid=DELLDHP&li=BBnbfcL

If they had ready access to information they might get smart and not vote Republican.

[East-A-Squared]

1. Because the republickers will lose votes.

[woodsprite]

2. If they have reliable internet, they may get their news someplace other than Fox or OANN. nt

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

4. Exactly!

Trying to keep rural folks ignorant and useful to their nefarious plans.





Edit: It's not going to work!

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

13. This!

Can't let 'em get their news from something other than hate media...

[Dawson Leery]

3. Dogma.

[634-5789]

5. Couple thigs: Fuck Shapiro, he's a jackass...

and the reason the Rethugs don't want thorough internet capabilities is that they are scared that people will start using it to see that there's more to life than the bullshit Fox and Newsmax has been spreading, thereby allowing people to THINK for themselves.

[CrispyQ]

6. Your last sentence reminded me of this quote:

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." ~Karl Rove

[Botany]

7. Because it will bring in knowledge and maybe new people who might like living in a rural area and...

... working from home both of which might very well change the political and social dynamics
of the rural area. Hey instead of living in Washington D.C./Richland/Balitmore metroplex region
why not live in the mountains of W.V. or Western MD?

[SWBTATTReg]

8. ben s is a moron and has been forever. Supposedly he's an expert in EVERYTHING! So what do

you call the Internet, the electronic highway of the Country otherwise, if you don't call it 'infrastructure'?

moron...arguing just the hell of it, just to be opposite Mr. Biden's proposals.

[Claire Oh Nette]

9. They'd be able to fact check Fox

Keep 'em poor and stupid, it's the GOP way.

[Midnight Writer]

10. It's because it could erode their policy of Small Group Control.

There is a reason small towns and rural areas are overwhelmingly Republican.

Small groups with little diversity are easiest to influence.

In my area, you turn on the radio and it is all conservative talk, 24/7. Turn on the local TV news, you get Sinclair. Go to the store, the doctor's office, your workplace, you run into people who are desperately trying to conform to the small group's conservative norms. Go to church, you get more conservative talk, augmented with "Amens!" from all your peers.

I don't have any black friends. I don't even know any black people. I don't have any LGBTQ friends, or at least not any that admit it. I live in a homogenous small American town, made up of generations of European settlers that don't interact with the "outside".

Isolate people, control the influencers, and most people will conform. There is a science to it.

I don't understand why Democrats don't get this. They do not compete in rural areas and small towns.

[IbogaProject]

11. bunch of cry babies

They are a bunch of cry babies, and I mean no insult to legitimate infants for whom crying is absolutely normal.

[Harker]

12. Trumpsky infamously said, "I love the poorly educated."

There's the short answer.