What is it about living in rural America that makes people different from people [View all]
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.
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