General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Wow, the Deplorables really don't like us [View all]hunter
(38,492 posts)...really bright people, LGBT people, atheists, evolutionary biologists... this is a very positive thing for us living here in solidly Democratic California, but red state "conservative" U.S.A. has a severe problem with "brain drain."
The way to solve this problem is to make it safe for the best and brightest of red state U.S.A. to speak out, and to give them options and opportunities other than leaving.
Entire nations have been able to change.
Ireland is a nation that used to be very similar to red state U.S.A, with a Catholicism that was little different than our oppressive red state Protestantism. A right-wing pedophile priest exiled from the U.S.A., just ahead of a warrant being served, had a higher social status than even a liberal Catholic kid, let alone an atheist or queer kid.
Overall, Ireland is not like that anymore. When it connected socially and economically to the more liberal social democracies of Europe its people, especially younger people, began to feel safe questioning the traditional social order.
"Conservatives" do everything they can to intimidate and silence their opposition, even when their opposition is a thirteen year old kid muttering about yet another Sunday Mass where the creepy priest lights off in another tirade against abortion or ordinary civil rights for LGBT people.
I'm only using the Catholic examples because that's most of my experience. "Conservative" Protestants and Mormons in the U.S.A. can be equally awful. I greatly respect anyone who can express their dissent while living in some red state hell, but I also understand silence, having experienced that pressure myself, knowing I was in a situation where speaking out would be dangerous.