Theres a third-world America that no one notices

[Nitram]

13. "...climate extremes tend to make cultures MORE conservative?"

How does that account for Sweden, for example? I suspect generalizations like that are not very useful. Also depends on your definition of conservative. What is your definition of conservative? "Poverty ...tends to make cultures MORE conservative?" What about the French Revolution? The Russian Revolution? Liberation theology in Latin America? All three depended on support from the impoverished.

BTW, I based my original comment (out of sight, out of mind) on my personal experience with two extremely conservative middle class parents who never believed there was a recession going on during a Republican administration. They lived in a very rural county in Virginia where the level of poverty was very high. My Mom: "I don't see fewer people in the supermarket. There's no recession."