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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe rural xenophobic, government hating racists have a sad
Poll of rural Americans shows deep cultural divide with urban centers
WASHINGTON The political divide between rural and urban America is more cultural than it is economic, rooted in rural residents deep misgivings about the nations rapidly changing demographics, their sense that Christianity is under siege and their perception that the federal government caters most to the needs of people in big cities, according to a wide-ranging poll that examines cultural attitudes across the United States.
http://wapo.st/2saSEyR
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)(A perk given for axing an economics test) A weekend in the Poconos for Junior Adheivers from Virginia up to Maine and New Hampshire.
Alls they did was band together and vote against NY, because they resented us. That was the sum total in their thought about the votes. It was quite a surprise because face to face they were fine with us. But they wanted to feel powerful.
SHRED
(28,136 posts)All that "kindness" is a mask to cover their extreme hatred.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)One of the best things about NYC is how the relentless stream of newcomers hoping for better lives keeps it vibrant and ever interesting. The people who can't or could never fit in with the homogeneous, oppressive cultures they grew up in and want some real freedom. Who understand freedom can be so much more than a gun and a truck. Those are the folks that make us even greater. Fuck the haters.
SHRED
(28,136 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Some Bronx people thought that made me too uppity and couldn't see the point of leaving their comfort zone. Or felt it was a betrayal to want more.
white_wolf
(6,238 posts)And I've never been happier. You hear all this stuff about how New Yorkers are rude or mean but the majority of people I've met have been really nice and welcoming.
I really don't get the hate some people have for those of us who prefer living in cities.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Great museums and other perks. Also check out the endless free music and other performances all over in city parks and Lincoln Center. There's so much fun to be had.
:cheers:
leftstreet
(36,081 posts)SHRED
(28,136 posts)Coventina
(26,874 posts)SHRED
(28,136 posts)WP has been good.
They deserve our support.
LonePirate
(13,386 posts)If rural areas were booming and people there were thriving economically, they would care a lot less about cultural differences and issues. The culture divide becomes a scapegoat when people go searching for reasons or excuses for their own economic challenges.
hunter
(38,264 posts)... the LGBT kids, the artistic kids, the future engineers and scientists... all the kids who realize there is more to life than getting drunk and fucking on the weekends.
These rural areas also reject immigrants, especially immigrants who are not white or don't worship the same mean-spirited god they do.
Worst of all, these rural areas are mind numbingly boring, which largely accounts for the drug use, alcoholism, and teenagers and young twenty-somethings engaging in high risk behaviors, killing and maiming themselves or otherwise ruining whatever opportunities they might have had for a better life.
It's a downward spiral.
And then you've got the city slicker Republicans using Fox News, hate radio, churches, and other means to fan these rural voter's fears, cynically playing upon their ignorance to gain and hold onto political power for themselves.
I think it's a mistake to romanticize depressed small town white U.S.A., or to respect their ways. It's their own "family values" that are killing their communities. It's a maladaptive culture having much in common with the corrosive gang culture of my own community, people unable to see beyond the boundaries of their own little hell.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Women and immigrants are challenging them to compete, and they don't like the lower wages they allowed to happen by not supporting wage increases. Now it's their problem ALSO.
Sorry, but they don't appreciate what they had and jacked it up themselves. They did it with wages and now they are doing it with healthcare.
LonePirate
(13,386 posts)Then there's the phenomenon of white men not wanting to do the jobs that white women and minorities are willing to do.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Is that they're not adequately compensated- and this happened because their sexism and racism let it happen.
Boo fucking hoo. Where's that bootstrapping entrepreneurial spirit we've heard so much about? We have been flooding colleges and moving to where the jobs are to still be underpaid. They put their lot in with business owners who automated and offshore their jobs out of existence, instead of having solidarity with anyone NOT THEM.
They need to understand that they've been bamboozled.