# Ignorant rural Americans rule **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 3, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870 "2004-11-03T23:42:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/21 "2004-11-04T08:16:55Z")
> [@antechinus](#): > > And the Australians voted in his **deputy**. As an Australian, I must protest strongly against this statement. I believe the term you were looking for is ‘bootlicker’. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/22 "2004-11-04T08:24:04Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#): > > Ugh. :smack: > > It took a hell of lot more than rural folk to vote Bush back in… > > [CITE.](http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/cps2k.htm) > > If you think 20.8% rural Americans rule, then I can’t help quell your ignorance any further. Please stick to what you know. > > Generalizations generally suck…AGAIN. Factor electoral votes into the mix too. For example, Wyoming gets about three times more votes in the electoral college than it would get if things were directly proportional to population. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/23 "2004-11-04T08:26:59Z")
> [@mouthbreather](#): > > Besides, who doesn’t like Pringles? I don’t. I was seriously disappointed the first time I tried Pringles. I’d been hearing rave reports for years. I pit Pringles! ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/24 "2004-11-04T08:29:32Z")
> [@antechinus](#): > > It is the fucking ignorant rural American folk who fell for the fear mongering of George Bush that has made the rest of the world hang their head in shame. > > And the Australians voted in his deputy. > > Bring on the war on ignorance. I think your first battle should be in your own house. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/25 "2004-11-04T08:45:51Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > I think your first battle should be in your own house. Yeah **antechinus**. What’s OUR excuse? It wasn’t the ignorant rural Aussies who were solely to blame for Howards re-election (and with a majority in BOTH FUCKING HOUSES I might add). Stop finger pointing. We’ve got our own bloody problems. That they are now exacerbated by a Bush win in the US is yet another complete thread in itself. Bugger it. I’m agreeing with **Lib.** See what havoc the US plays in the rest of the world? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/26 "2004-11-04T08:51:38Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > Yay for democracy! Go democracy, where the soundbite always wins! > > Makes me agree with Plato. :rolleyes: I don’t see how you can disagree with Plato on this. His position is basically that the people who would be the best at ruling, should rule. Unless you were being more specifc in agreeing with him about censorship and education and such. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/27 "2004-11-04T08:59:15Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I don’t see how you can disagree with Plato on this. His position is basically that the people who would be the best at ruling, should rule. Unless you were being more specifc in agreeing with him about censorship and education and such. I think the reference is to Plato’s biological naturalism, or the natural inequality of man, and a division of labour between rulers and ruled based upon the natural inequality of masters and slaves, and of _wise and ignorant_. A bit different from the American Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/28 "2004-11-04T09:11:55Z")
> [@Spavined Gelding](#): > > For what it’s worth, Senator Kerry carried rural Fayette County, Iowa, by 58 votes. Us ignorant shit kickers did our part. Not to mention the following counties in Wisconsin: Adams, Ashland, Bayfield, Buffalo, Crawford, Dane, Douglas, Dunn, Eau Claire, Grant, Green, Iowa, Iron, Jackson, Menominee, Pepin, Pierce, Portage, Price, Rock, Sauk, Trempeleau, and Vernon. (Milwaukee and Kenosha counties are not on the list because they’re not exactly rural. I contemplated excluding Dane, but there’s a lot of farmland in it, despite Madison.) Ja der hey. Lemme go get my cheesehead. D’yer like the Jesus fish I glued on it? Pretty darn shiny, innit? I like shiny thin’s. **OP** , what the hell made you think that less than 25% of the _total_ population, not voting-age, carried Bush on back to the White House? I think the Upper Midwest would like a word with you. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/29 "2004-11-04T09:41:20Z")
> [@mouthbreather](#): > > If anyone else wants to take vague jabs at anything related to the election: > > By all means, please start a new thread. There’s certainly no current discussion where your opinion would fit, _ **and plus** _, I just can’t get enough of them! > > They’re like Pringles! Doesn’t this post belong [here?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=283678&highlight=repetitious+redundancies)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/30 "2004-11-04T09:51:28Z")
> [@RadioWave](#): > > How much are you supposed to tip cows? Is 15% too much? That’s better’n orking them, which is whut all them city folks do! I live in a rural area myself, and I certainly am not uneducated, ignorant or stupid. (Don’t search any of my previous posts . . . please!) Where I live, you know it’s a formal date when you wear clean bluejeans and take the sidecar.\* I\* sure as hell didn’t vote for Bush. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/31 "2004-11-04T11:50:47Z")
I think you may have fixed the blame in the wrong place, **antechinus**. Cletus the slack jawed yokel was the victim of a con artist. He didn’t organize all of this shit. > [@](#): > > [Saving America > Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives > By Shadia B. Drury](http://evatt.org.au/publications/papers/112.html) > > The ancients denied that there is any natural right to liberty. Human beings are born neither free nor equal. The natural human condition is not one of freedom, but of subordination. And in Strauss’s estimation, they were right in thinking that there is only one natural right - the right of the superior to rule over the inferior - the master over the slave, the husband over the wife, and the wise few over the vulgar many. As to the pursuit of happiness - what could the vulgar do with happiness except drink, gamble, and fornicate? > > \ > > So, what is to be done? How can America be saved from her dangerous fascination with liberty? Irving Kristol came up with the solution that has become the cornerstone of neoconservative policies: use democracy to defeat liberty. Turn the people against their own liberty. Convince them that liberty is licentiousness - that liberty undermines piety, leads to crime, drugs, rampant homosexuality, children out of wedlock, and family breakdown. And worse of all, liberalism is soft on communism or terrorism - whatever happens to be the enemy of the moment. And if you can convince the people that liberty undermines their security, then, you will not have to take away their liberty; they will gladly renounce it. > > In an essay entitled “Populism Not to Worry,” Irving Kristol argued that Americans should embrace populism, or the rule of the majority, despite the reservations of the Founding Fathers. The latter feared the tyranny of the majority, and institutionalised safeguards to protect the liberty of individuals and minorities. But Kristol and the neoconservatives want to dismantle these very safeguards against majority rule. Kristol tells us not to worry. Why not? Apparently because the neoconservatives believe that America has been ruled by an unwise liberal elite for over two hundred years, and they are willing to gamble that the people will be wiser, which is to say, more likely to endorse conservative policies. Inspired by the same ideology, the Alliance party in Canada is willing to take the same gamble. But, luckily for Canada, it is sagging badly in the polls. > > With the neoconservatives in power in the US, it will be difficult to conceal the real nature of neoconservative policies. The “stealth campaigns” are not likely to be as effective. The policies are by now very clear: no gay rights, no liberated women, no uppity blacks, lots of prayer in the schools, a strong commitment to the death penalty, and the re-criminalisation of abortion. The latter is particularly important. Of course it will keep the women at home and out of the way so that world can be ruled by men in the proper manly fashion; but that’s not all. More importantly, it will keep women busy having babies - lots of babies. In this way, women will become useful once again; they will return to their vocation as factories for soldiers - and we need lots of soldiers, for we will have plenty of wars to fight, if the neoconservatives have their way. And it seems they have. ---
**Author:** ![Vindi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ee59a6/32.png) [@Vindi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vindi)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/32 "2004-11-04T12:35:26Z")
> [@antechinus](#): > > It is the fucking ignorant rural American folk who fell for the fear mongering of George Bush that has made the rest of the world hang their head in shame. > > And the Australians voted in his deputy. > > Bring on the war on ignorance. Oh what a load of manure. Get the shovel Hazel Ruth, we need to fertilize the garden! ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/33 "2004-11-04T14:03:04Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > Yay for democracy! Go democracy, where the soundbite always wins! > > Makes me agree with Plato. :rolleyes: Soundbites like “Flip Flopper” ? ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/34 "2004-11-04T16:35:05Z")
> [@Rashak Mani](#): > > Soundbites like “Flip Flopper” ? In all honesty, democracy lends itself to stuff like that. Democracy assumes that people are rational, and knowledgeable, open-minded, and decent. I’m not too sure about all 4. It’s called the tyranny of the majority, and the majority are sheep. Case in point: “War in Iraq = War on Terrorism.” How to solve “election by soundbite”? I have no idea. Hitting everyone with a clue stick would be nice. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/35 "2004-11-04T16:47:38Z")
All I can say is thank Og that sophisticated educated Kerry supporters don’t stoop to divisive generalizations and blind hatred like the rural unwashed knuckle-dragging Bush supporters. Nope. Y’see, Kerry supporters are too _mature_ to fall for the kind of nonsense that idiots who support Bush fall for every time. Bush people demonize their opponents, they lack empathy, they lack basic human understanding of their fellow man. Not Kerry supporters. A Kerry supporter would never claim that people who support Bush do so because they are genuinely evil people. And that’s why we Kerry supporters are so much better than you all. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/36 "2004-11-04T16:53:00Z")
> [@RadioWave](#): > > How much are you supposed to tip cows? Is 15% too much? Depends: If you have to tie 'em up with a halter and stuff, 10% is plenty. On the other hand, if they back up to the stump on command and stand there through the entire process, 25% is appropriate. If they also act like they’re enjoying it, the sky’s the limit! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/37 "2004-11-04T16:57:58Z")
So starting a thread with an out-and-out inflammatory statement, and then running away and not defending your stance, is what we do now? I guess that’s what we do now. :dubious: I’d ask where in Australia you can buy a set of balls as big as you’d need to say something so stupid, but he’s not coming back to answer, anyway. Guess it shows you that “rural Americans” aren’t the only folks that are capable of blind ignorace. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/38 "2004-11-04T22:41:39Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I’m a rural American – I live 1/4 mile from a country crossroads in an exurban area with a total population about 110. > > I’m not ignorant. > > And I emphatically don’t rule – or the election would have gone quite differently than it did. > > Maybe we should change the name of the message board to StereotypesRUs? You are a statistical outlier. The is definately a strong correlation between voting choice and rural-iness. No stereotype required. > [@Chastain86](#): > > So starting a thread with an out-and-out inflammatory statement, and then running away and not defending your stance, is what we do now? Its morning now. I didnt post last night since I had an appointment. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/39 "2004-11-05T00:09:17Z")
> [@antechinus](#): > > Its morning now. I didnt post last night since I had an appointment. You’re still a moron. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870/40 "2004-11-05T00:30:19Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > You’re still a moron. Why? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorant-rural-americans-rule/272870.md?page=3)