# How do people not understand wanting to live in the country? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2013, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908 "2013-10-10T18:43:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/61 "2013-10-11T21:07:54Z")
> [@Randy\_Seltzer](#): > > Man did not come from the woods. Man came from the savannah, a grassland ecosystem characterized by trees spaced far enough apart that the canopy does not close. Typical savannah features tall grass, such that evolution favors an upright posture. In fact, many palaeoanthropologists believe that leaving the woods was the speciation catalyst that caused humans to split off from other primates. > > I often see people romanticize forests, the open prairie, the sea, or other stereotypical representations of nature, saying “ah, this is where we humans truly belong.” But no, they’re usually wrong. I thought humans came from the ocean and that’s why we can hold our breath and swim well. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/62 "2013-10-11T21:09:07Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > This is the kind of ignorant bullshit that sets my teeth on edge. This board cheerfully embraces pederasts, Holocaust Deniers many other types of slimeballs but if one states they like rural areas, you are automatically condemned as the type of folks in “_Deliverance_”. There’s no way that a similar level of prejudice and ignorance would be tolerated about gays, Jews, black folks and so on. But country folk? Yeah, they’re all inbred sodomites. > > Fuck that. This is only true if “the board” is defined differently for the different groups. The moderation of this board does not treat pederasts, holocaust deniers, etc. better than folks who simply live out in the country. I’d imagine that they have banned quite a few more of the former than the latter (at least, for simply living out in the country.) The members of this board do not, either: there is massive widespread condemnation of the former group and only moderate, jokey, so so condemnation of the other. There is much to your assertion in the last half of your paragraph, that some characteristics seem safe to make fun of. But to try to tie the fact that anyone who entertains offensive viewpoints is not instabanned with the fact that there is a tendency to simply poke fun at country livers (_not_ instaban them) is equivocation. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/63 "2013-10-12T00:44:31Z")
> [@AnthonyElite](#): > > Cities need country folk to survive. The food must come from somewhere, but country folk don’t need the city. > > Cities also require a population basis to survive - jobs on jobs - the country doesn’t. You can be completely self sufficient, if you’d like. You don’t have to be - but you can. > > If you tried to be self sufficient in the City you’d die by day 3 of thirst. That may be true if you are happy with the standard of living found in, say, rural Sudan. But if you want to do more than live on the edge of starvation, having access to the fruits of industrialization are pretty necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/64 "2013-10-12T01:10:48Z")
I get why people would live in the city, the burbs and the country. People are different and like different things, of course. Plus, there’s pros and cons to everything. And we all weigh the factors differently (a big con to me might be a small con, or even a pro to someone else) For me, I’ve grown up in the burbs, lived in the city, and have now moved to a rural area. There are a lot of hard bits. Things that I haven’t grown up knowing, so have to learn the hard way. And I’m not sure I could do it on my own. But even though there are challenges, and things I miss (geez, some days I’d pay $100 just to be able to pick up the phone and have some guy deliver Thai takeaway for me), but on the other hand, I’ve been happier out here than ever before in my life. I’m enjoying learning new things. And I can finally breathe. There’s this constant low-level irritant or stress that I wasn’t even aware of that just disappeared when I moved out here. The constant sound and presence of other people, and their noises (distant traffic, etc) is grinding, and so peaceful when it’s gone. I dislike going into the city now - I find it to be a bit of an onslaught on the senses, and enjoy the relaxation when I return home. But I also know the city is useful, just as the country is. And one day, when I’m too old to keep up the place, I will move to the burbs. Each has their place, for different people or different life stages. Neither is superior overall, though one may be vastly superior for an individual ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/65 "2013-10-12T05:23:47Z")
I come from the country. Taking city friends out there - well - there have been some incidents. One friend got a bee down the front of her jeans and instead of unzipping them and letting it fly out I see her screaming and slapping her belly. The fucker stung her quite a few times! She was too afraid to loosen her jeans in case some random yokel rushed up from behind the trees that were on all four sides and raped her! There were about five or six of us in plain view moments away. Another friend managed to run down a grassy hillside whooping, then quickly got back in the car and waited to go home. There’s no concrete and nothing to back up against for them, they really feel uncomfortable and out of their element. We’ve got these small deer hiding in the woods, I showed them some deer shit and that was another back-to-the-car moment. Apparently deer are vicious killers. Also shocked to find it’s not quiet - deafening birds at sunrise! ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/66 "2013-10-12T05:35:19Z")
I can understand wanting to live in the city. I can understand wanting to live in the country. It’s the suburbs I don’t get. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/67 "2013-10-12T11:30:16Z")
> [@Sudden\_Kestrel](#): > > Have you actually _been_ to the country, at least anytime in the last 50 years? We have all kinds of modern conveniences like big grocery stores that are open 24 hours and hospitals and even casinos. If the grocery store goes away we can raise our own food; some of us do that already, and some of us grow the very food you buy in your city supermarket. Sure, we drive further to get places, but we’re smart enough (and ecologically aware enough) to combine errands to save fuel. We also spend considerably less time wasting irreplaceable fossil fuels while at a dead standstill than city drivers do. > > There aren’t a lot of areas in the country any more that aren’t within driving range of a decent-sized town, so we have access to the same services and even some cultural opportunities, especially if there is a college town nearby. The only businesses that close early or on Sundays are the same type that keep limited hours in cities. > > You might want to visit someone in the country sometime so you can dislike it for reasons based on reality, not old episodes of _Petticoat Junction_. Things have gotten real modern since they brought 'lectricity in. Excellent! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/68 "2013-10-12T13:07:47Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > This is the kind of ignorant bullshit that sets my teeth on edge. This board cheerfully embraces pederasts, Holocaust Deniers many other types of slimeballs but if one states they like rural areas, you are automatically condemned as the type of folks in “_Deliverance_”. There’s no way that a similar level of prejudice and ignorance would be tolerated about gays, Jews, black folks and so on. But country folk? Yeah, they’re all inbred sodomites. > > Fuck that. So, this board is _more_ tolerant of holocaust deniers than it is of rural dwellers, but _less_ tolerant of ani-semitism then it is of anti-ruralism? How does that work? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/69 "2013-10-12T14:00:59Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I know this won’t make you feel any better, but they’re like that to white (that is, European descent milk white white) people, too. My husband lived in a small rural town for 25 years - he was a firefighter and paramedic, asked every year to be the announcer for the town’s annual patriotic parade, loaned tools and cars, literally saved half the town’s life at one point or another…and he was still “that new guy from Milwaukee that \_\_\_\_\_ married.” And it’s not really a country thing either. I have spent my whole life in NYC, but both the neighborhood I grew in and the one I live in now were very small-townish. People lived around the corner from their parents , two blocks from their grandmother, if I went to the avenue I could count on bumping into one of my fifty or so relatives who lived in the neighborhood, that sort of thing. When I bought my house, we were the first people to move onto the block in five years and therefore the new people. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/70 "2013-10-12T15:31:53Z")
It’s because a lot of people have what I call “I am the world syndrome”, meaning anyone who disagrees with their opinions are wrong. They are the standard by which everything else is judged, and their opinions are what all right-thinking people should believe. Everyone who disagrees has something wrong with them. I have not lived anywhere _really_ rural, where it’s 20-30 miles or more to “town”, but I have lived in the suburbs, the city, and past the edge of the suburbs where it’s all farmland and really small towns. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. I really liked the city because there’s so much more to do, everything is densely packed and there’s always something new to check out usually within walking distance. But the traffic and noise and crime bothered me. I was never the victim of any crimes, but I knew people who were, 3-4 stores near me were robbed, there were a few shootings nearby, etc. Out in the country there’s not as much to do, but there’s no traffic, it’s quiet and peaceful, and you can sit outside on a nice day and relax. You can still get to everything, it just takes longer. It’s not crime-free, but your chances of being involved in a random shooting or whatever are pretty small. Honestly, if you gave me a choice I don’t know what I’d prefer. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/71 "2013-10-12T15:43:48Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > I can understand wanting to live in the city. I can understand wanting to live in the country. It’s the suburbs I don’t get. Amen! ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/72 "2013-10-12T19:01:10Z")
I visit the city and country and get why people would want to live there, but I certainly don’t. Suburbs all the way for me. It seems some city people seem to think we actually don’t want to live where we are, it’s just a lie that the home developers have fed us, but I don’t find that to be true at all. ---
**Author:** ![OurLordPeace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e8c25b/32.png) [@OurLordPeace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OurLordPeace)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/73 "2013-10-12T22:44:43Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > This is the kind of ignorant bullshit that sets my teeth on edge. This board cheerfully embraces pederasts, Holocaust Deniers many other types of slimeballs but if one states they like rural areas, you are automatically condemned as the type of folks in “_Deliverance_”. There’s no way that a similar level of prejudice and ignorance would be tolerated about gays, Jews, black folks and so on. But country folk? Yeah, they’re all inbred sodomites. > > Fuck that. But look how they vote! Not just in the US, either. Oh, and somebody mentioned “city drivers.” I don’t drive at all. Trains, buses, my bicycle, and my feet are superior in almost all ways. There are certain workarounds one needs to make, but it’s better for me, and indeed humanity as a whole. No fast-food and very few trips to the mall for me, either. That’s all there is to do (or all that many people seem to do, plus meth and religion) in vast swathes of the US. I’ve been in and around NYC a few times recently, and even in that very big city there are plenty of very calm places. As for DC, parts of the District are actually pseudo-rural. Come to think of it, cities don’t necessarily have to be _big_ cities, if that sort of thing bothers you. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/74 "2013-10-12T23:55:48Z")
I don’t understand why anyone doesn’t want to live exactly the way I do. And don’t try to explain it to me, because I’ll just argue with you about how where I am is perfect and where you are is defective, and your choice just indicates your defectivosity. I think that sums it up. I have lived in deep city and deep country, and I can unequivocally say there are stupid, smart, educated, and uneducated people everywhere. But in the country they are more spread out. Duh. I would rather have critters around me than people, more restful. Just my taste. People make me itchy. Now I have to walk over to my country neighbor’s house, he’s having an open studio day (very successful artist) and I have to yech go make small talk with strangers. Happens even here. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/75 "2013-10-13T02:28:41Z")
I live in the appalchian mountains of eastern Tennessee and am very happy having moved here. Most of the people are as genuine and as nice as you could get to know - with only just a few “yankee, go home” stuck-ups mixed in. It’s only a 12 minute drive to a town of 30,000 where there are enough stores to get anything done and the 5 miles away Christian-run (closed all day on Sundays) IGA has excellent produce and prices that rival and often beat Walmart. One of the things the country life has to offer is an outstanding value for land, esp if one likes to live in the woods and wants to have a lot of room around them. Also the taxes - for a 4,200 sq ft brick house (built in 1969) situated in the middle of 52 acres of forest with 90 yr old, 130ft-tall towering trees - are less than a $1000 a year. There are virtually no mosquitoes - and yet the chirping and buzzing of the katydids and kin at night are soothing to the soul - that is, if that’s your sort of thing. The intermittent hoots of Barred Owls and Screech Owls purring out into the dusk, darkness and dawn accentuate and emphasize the peaceful, quiet and calm. The panorama of misty tree-covered hills take your breath away - astonishing beauty everywhere. The air is pure and clean, no smog - the air permeates the lush growing trees, grasses and flowers. Different strokes for different folks, I say. I can’t stand the concrete and asphalt jungle of the city, and possible safety concerns when going out at night. I also own dogs and appreciate the luxury of being able to simply let them outside anytime I want without fear or compromise of their safety, am far away and back in the woods from the roadway - no having to put them on a leash to take them out - along with a scooper and plastic doo-doo bag. I like that many of the drivers of passing cars wave to strangers, and many of the women who work at the local restaurants and stores call you “honey”. Many local country folk live healthy lives well into their 80’s and for good reason. It’s a healthy place to live, no hustle and bustle of the rat-race and if you want that sort of thing, it’s only 10 to 15 minutes on a scenic and easy drive, excellent roads that have a separated median like a freeway, with particularly excellent visibility (as to less likely hit woodland critters that might wander into the roadway), extremely easy to get to where you want to go. I will never move away from here if I can help it. I want to die here… and hope that that won’t occur for a very long time to come. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![babygoat666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@babygoat666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/babygoat666)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/76 "2013-10-13T04:05:13Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > This is the kind of ignorant bullshit that sets my teeth on edge. This board cheerfully embraces pederasts, Holocaust Deniers many other types of slimeballs but if one states they like rural areas, you are automatically condemned as the type of folks in “_Deliverance_”. There’s no way that a similar level of prejudice and ignorance would be tolerated about gays, Jews, black folks and so on. But country folk? Yeah, they’re all inbred sodomites. > > Fuck that. you are full of shit. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/77 "2013-10-13T12:23:14Z")
> [@babygoat666](#): > > you are full of shit. Warning issued for personal insults. **twickster** , MPSIMS moderator ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/78 "2013-10-13T13:01:06Z")
I really wish all y’all would stop telling the city folk how great living in the country is. It’s better if they don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/79 "2013-10-13T13:12:22Z")
The zombie references confused me. I went to the first post to see if this was a zombie thread. I _want_ to love in the country, but right now it’s not convenient. I don’t mean _right now_ “right now,” 'cos I live in China. But in general, about 30 miles is the most I’m willing to commute with good freeways, and I can’t get into the country in 30 miles. Within 30 miles some of it used to be country, but now it’s all hideous subdivisions. That reminds me, I’m happily in the suburbs. I tend to think that too many people equate “hideous subdivisions” with “suburbs.” Hey, I hate those hideous subdivisions, too. Back before Detroit sucked, living “in the city” was pretty much the same as “suburbs.” House, yard, car. ---
**Author:** ![ThisOneGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@ThisOneGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisOneGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908/80 "2013-10-13T15:02:00Z")
There a different standards of city/county too. I once read a thread pitting my employer, it quickly devolved into how Provo is such a hick cow town they couldn’t understand how anybody could live there. I find myself chafing against the urban crowds here almost every day. Longing to move back to rural Utah (I always say I want to be about a mile out of Oak City), but there just aren’t the tech jobs out there. In my case, the suburb is the compromise solution. Have some space but can still commute to work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-not-understand-wanting-to-live-in-the-country/670908.md?page=5)