General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm from the south. [View all]NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)there are an enormous number of variables that scramble the eventual results. I lived in New England for my first 20 years (Rhode Island, then New Hampshire), then went on to Washington State (Seattle), then to suburban Philadelphia (the "main line" area, Villanova to Berwyn, then to West Chester, now to Raleigh). My father voted Nixon, my mom a die hard Dem - we didn't talk politics in the house. We thought a particular way and lived a particular way that probably was more an example of liberal ideas and ideals. Many of my friends had the same types of starts - and they ended up hard right wing - they were seduced by a focus on money and greed and it ended up as hubris. I didn't go that direction - the older I get, the more leftward I drift.
Everywhere I've lived I've seen a mix - left, right, open mindedness, empathy, racism, sexism, hypocrisy - you name it. I think generalizations of regions are not at all helpful - whether it is, for example, south demonizing north or west, or vice versa. It is too complex - WE are too complex.
The common denominator I've seen - people tend to be easily manipulated - the big bell curve exists - TV is a drug that really does influence what people think. Just watching the responses to political events in Raleigh is an eye opener - each of us that sit at a particular point on the political firmament has a difficult time seeing the other points of view - and how we got those points of view is, as I said at the beginning of this, incredibly complex.