The difference is that the urban areas are not trying to tell the rural areas how to live their lives, and the rural areas are telling the urban areas how to run their cities.
So is urban life.
It was, of course, those on the red side that elected and nearly reelected Donald Trump.
To meet your anecdotal experience with my own…
There are ABSOLUTELY good people on the “red side”, who will give you the shirt off of their backs… As long as you are in their in-group, or right in front of them. If you are not either of those, though… Let’s just say they never had any fucks to give.
The red side marched with nazis.
I’m sorry, but this is bullshit. Urban America is made to suffer the constant lecturing from rural America about how they’re the real America and they built everything they have with their own two hands, and that our efforts to make life better for everyone just amounts to handouts for lazy people and how we’re immoral and godless etc. And because they have disproportionate political power, we are made to suffer for their ignorant bigotry and unearned self-regard.
You are confusing their politics of ignorance and fear with their personal integrity and common sense. You may not believe it, but those are quite separable. Just as the urban left has a political realm of respect for difference and support of social welfare, and an individual reality of atomization and over-thinkiness.
These are generalizations, but it’s easy for me to think up examples among my acquaintance.
I’m perfectly aware of the faults of both the left and the right, thanks. I vote on the left side of the edge of the world, can’t hardly get more left than me without falling off. But I live in the country among country people and I frankly like them better. As long as we don’t talk politics.
I don’t think you are as perfectly aware as you claim. There are no specifics in anything you say, just a string of generalities. The fact that you can’t talk politics is telling, as long as you talk in platitudes and generalities you can get along with the bigots.
I live on the edge of rural areas, and many of my acquaintances and clients live there. I used to live there, and still visit when I visit extended family.
And sure, they are fun to talk to about a number of things. But then, I’m a white heterosexual cis-male.
At least half the time, at least someone makes a racist or otherwise ignorantly prejudiced statement. Just off hand, not even hateful, just an assertion about a specific group, or about a specific person.
So yeah, they are nice, to those who they choose to be nice to. It’s great that you are in that group of those they choose to be nice to. So am I. But urban folk tend to realize that we need to get along with everyone, not just those who are similar to them, not just those who do not challenge their prejudices.
I was driving into work the other day, and my tire blew out. I must have hit something, as it was not that old a tire. I pulled off, and a guy pulled up behind me. Asked if I had a spare, when I indicated that I did, he pulled out a hydraulic jack and torque wrench, and had my new tire on in a couple of minutes. (I had the standard tools, I could have done it, but it would have taken much longer.)
This was in the more urban (suburban) area around here, and the guy who helped me out was Hispanic.
There’s a lot more to talk about than platitudes and politics in this world. If I started in on specifics I’d be typing all night and I had to get out and do the evening barn chores before it got dark. Gets dark early right now.
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You’re not the only one who grew up in farm country.
Shrug, sure sounds like you get along there because you’re white and you consciously avoid serious conversation which proves people’s point about how intolerant the region is of people different than them.
I didn’t say I grew up in farm country and I didn’t say I was the only one, either.
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“Be white” and “don’t say anything that challenges their views” are not rules we should force everyone to live by. Not anymore.
Yes, I am white. Please allow me to define for myself what “serious conversation” is.
Do you see how your experience of rural folks being friendly and welcoming may not apply if you weren’t a straight white Christian* male?
*or at least visually indistinguishable from Christian and not bringing up the topic
I get a say on what counts as serious conversation because you’re posting on a message board I belong to and you brought up that you can’t discuss politics with these so called good people.
Politics is nothing more or less than deciding how we order our lives, it has a huge impact on people’s lives. It decides that red state Americans can get more than they contribute and it can deny certain classes of people their civil rights. The fact that you can’t discuss that with your neighbors says a lot about them and even more about your privilege.
Of course I do, I’m not an idiot (nor male). I fit right in, in many ways – I happen to be a practicing Christian, too. But you know what? I’ve been in plenty of leftie gatherings where people of color felt surprisingly unwelcome too. The left is also very white, and what is perhaps more daunting to outsiders, very highly educated and super-verbal. You may not understand this, but people who aren’t as educated as you are extremely intimidated by that. It’s a small step from feeling awkward and ignorant to feeling that you are MADE to feel awkward and ignorant by those with more schooling and a different “higher” culture. I’ve had many encounters with people who assumed I was a big snob because I know a lot of words. Of course, I am a big snob, but I’m weirder than that.
That’s why it’s better to talk about livestock, or your mom in hospice, or how to make peach pie. If you can’t see them as human, how can they see you as human?
I don’t disagree. I just have a different point to make.
How stereotypical of a ruralist not to think globally. Yes, cities need food and raw materials – but they don’t have to come from inside their own country. Great Britain started importing almost all of its food and raw materials decades ago. It sure has problems but not because their cities can’t survive without in-country rural areas.
I also find this article fascinating.
Almost all those counties are rural, of course. Talk about feeding into stereotypes!