Why are people from small towns supposed to be more likable?

[RB TexLa]

I've lived in a small town. The people are just as worthless as the ones in a big city. Where does this misconception come from?

[Iggo]

1. Because the teevee says so, silly.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Because they are salt of the earth, real Americans,

not like those fast-talking, foreign-looking people in big cities.

So we are told.

[cali]

3. I don't know but I find

that the people where I live are remarkably nice.

I'm on crutches and just about every time I go to the grocery store I get multiple offers of help. The most shocking (and common) offers, come from 10-14 year old boys.

A couple of months ago I was in the store and struggling and this kid of maybe 16 or 17 came up to me and helped me. After I thanked him, he said "It's nice to live where people help each other out, isn't it?" Blows my mind.

I don't know if people where I live are more likable but they sure are helpful.

[bettyellen]

18. The tough looking young guys in the Bronx helped me with Mom alot...

More than older people or women when I was trying to navigate with her in a walker.
Total strangers appeared out of nowhere to direct traffic around us or help me with her walker or wheelchair.
I think a lot of people would be totally frightened and assume the worst about these kids, especially if you weren't from the good, but they were always really great.

[Freddie]

4. Mayberry RFD

Yes, the TV said so.
I grew up in a small town that has since become an outer-ring suburb. I did not see a black person except on TV until my dad took me on the train Philly when I was 8. There are still people there--adults--who have never been to "the city" at most 1.5 hours away.
Not to generalize, but many of the people who grew up there and still live there are very sheltered and have no idea how the rest of the world lives.

[HiPointDem]

16. same is true of many city people.

[tech3149]

5. I grew up in a small town, very rural

I spent most of my working life in urban NY/NJ. I can't say I noticed any real difference between the residents of either area. There are assholes in both. I think the major difference is that in a small town it's much easier to be shamed into more civil behavior. In a more urban setting the cover of anonymity can enable less acceptable behavior.

[Zorra]

12. +1 Everybody in town knows everybody in town. nt

[Jennicut]

6. Where does that put those who grew up in the 'burbs?

I think that is most of us these days. In between rural little towns and the cities is where you find a lot of Americans.

[BOG PERSON]

20. suburbs are bad places

lacking both pleasing form and practical function . nothing good can come out of them. as jesus said, "For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."

[2pooped2pop]

7. I lived in a big, well medium city

My grandson has diabetes. The school did not want him. They made my daughter come every day to give him his insulin shot for lunch since most schools don't really have a nurse on duty. As a single mother, this made having a day time job so she could be with the kids when they were home from school impossible. They did everything they could to make life miserable for them. They did not want them at the school.

They moved to the country. The school found out that my grand sons worthless father had kicked him and broken his $7,000 insulin pump. The school got together with two or three other people and offered to buy that pump for him. Without even telling us what they had planned. Just got a call from them one day. We finally won and were able to get the insurance to cover it, so we were able to decline the offer from the school.

The high school kids also got together and did their charity drive that year, putting the $300.00 that they collected on an account at the drug store, in my grandsons name, to help pay for the things not covered by insurance.

I stopped to buy some tomatoes one day at a country house. I didn't realize that I had not brought any cash with me. The woman gave me the tomatoes. I did stop by at another time and paid her, but I would have had to leave without my precious home grown tomatoes in the city. The woman did not know I was coming back. We did not know one another.

A neighbor that I never hear from plows our road and my 600 ft driveway when it gets really really bad. He's in a wheelchair and does that for us. We have met but don't really know one another.

that's the difference that I see since moving to the country. Country folks assist one another when it's needed and leave them the hell alone when it's not.

[reformist2]

8. It's just a romantic notion of the peaceful agrarian life. (The city is loud and noisy.)

[Capt. Obvious]

9. They're whiter

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. "The people are just as worthless as the ones in a big city."

Last edited Sun Sep 2, 2012, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)

LOL. I was expecting you to say that city dwellers are just as virtuous as rural folk. I don't know why, but the notion that every one of us is an asshole is funny to me. I must be some kind of misanthrope.

[hfojvt]

11. one thing about small towns, at least in theory

is that you get to know people.

At least in theory.

In big cities you are more likely to encounter strangers. And strangers are scarier than people you know, even the "worthless" people that you know.

About the theory though. I once lived in a town of 5,000 people. I had lived there for seven years and had a business on the mainstreet for six of those years. I had the notion that "I know everybody in this town". So I decided to make a list of the people I knew by name. I only ended up with about 300 people on this list. That's a long way from 5,000. Yet I had the notion that "I know everybody".

But I, being from a small town, would not say that people are worthless. They are not perfect, and they (we) may all have our flaws, but many or most are basically decent.

[Alduin]

13. I grew up in a small town...

and the people there were very judgemental. When I got my first girlfriend, I was shunned because of my bisexuality. There was a lot of gossip and I was teased a lot.

In the city, I can walk by people on the street, holding hands with my gf, and no one looks twice. I love it.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

15. Yes.

I've lived in cities, lived in small towns. Small town people watch one another constantly, with suspicion, and they judge one another constantly. They seem obsessed with determining who is an insider and who is an outsider. There may be hospitality for insiders, but outsiders get hostility.

In the city, people allow one another space and privacy. At worst, they ignore one another. At best, they're pleasant and friendly.

Maybe I've just sampled the wrong cities and towns.

[get the red out]

14. Same here

I agree, I've wondered the same. I hated growing up in a small town, frankly it was hell, people were gossipy and often just nasty. I hated it.

[MineralMan]

17. I've lived in both small towns and big cities.

The people are the same in both places. The only difference is in the numbers.

Wherever you go, there you are. How you relate to others is more dependent on who you are than who the others are or where they live. I have the same good relations with my neighbors and others here in St. Paul, MN, as I did in Los Osos, CA. I can see no difference, really.

[gollygee]

19. I think there's a difference pace in smaller towns than big cities

so people are in less of a hurry. Not necessarily nicer when in a hurry, and big city people are just as nice when not in a hurry. But people in big cities do seem to be hurrying all the time.

[CK_John]

21. Small towns are just more inter connected. If you live where they get a lot of snow you are nice to

the snowplow drivers. if your kid needs extra attention you bring cookies to the teacher/parent conferences. Maybe not nicer but they usually know who does what.

[Quantess]

22. Because they have time to listen to your boring stories and trivial gossip

And you have time to listen to theirs.

Maybe? Just an idea.

[jp11]

23. I think it might be the general idea that in a small town

you are more accountable to others, ie to be judged, get their permission, face blowback for being an asshole etc. In the cities you are much more anonymous there is very often less community, of course it all depends on the people but in a small town it is easier to have a community when the pool of people is so much smaller.

I also would say that it is a republican idea to paint small town people as better than city folk because they happen to appeal to the kinds of people that often live in smaller towns/rural areas. So it is just them selling the idea that those are the good people who of course just happen to be where their candidates often win.

[Drahthaardogs]

24. They are worse.

In my opinion from traveling around as DoD person, generally speaking, the smaller the town, the more exclusive they are, and the worse they will treat you.