What have we EVER said to disparage such people ?!??!?!?!?
All I’ve ever done is post hopeful posts about expanding cities so more rurals out in the dirt patches of this nation can move to civilization and have a better life.
While this is true, it is a two way street.
The contempt for liberal elitists on the coasts has been on display for years and years. As has the contempt for minorities, gays and immigrants. That article even discusses how people in the rural areas feel superior to blacks and urban whites, but do not feel that their (self appointed) superiority is reflected in social standing.
So yes, the two groups do not respect each other. Sad but true.
the fact that these people voted for a sociopathic billionaire with a proven track record of lying and scamming people to protect them from the elites isn’t going to win them any respect from liberals. I mean, how are we as liberals supposed to respond? It feels like these people anointed themselves as superior, but they actually aren’t. And there is an undercurrent of bigotry in their views. So they fall for the first con man who offers them easy answers. Its hard to respect people who do that. That’d be like if I said I was taking a stand against domestic violence by marrying Chris Brown. Am I supposed to be buried under an avalanche of respect for my decision making abilities?
I think I have a reasonable understanding of their mentality, but that doesn’t mean I’m obligated to treat it as if it is a factually accurate, well thought out philosophy.
I see no sign that it’s the rural aspect that leads to a lack of respect. If you care about minorities and education, people seem to be fine with you. It’s those who don’t who get treated badly.
Though I admit “flyover country” is a shitty thing to say.
Gee. Someone should write a parable or, perhaps, a fable about this situation.
They might call it “The City Mouse and the Country Mouse.”
And while there are certainly urban citizens who look down on rural citizens, I defy anyone to listen to a Country Music station for any length of time without encountering a number of songs scorning people who are not “country.” (Urban people may not respect rural people, but they don’t sing about it.)
So, you want to import ALL your food from the Third World?
Even as sarcasm, that fails.
A bit of realism to deflate romantic notions about the rural “Real 'Murika”:
As topics go “big city folk look down on us” is right up there with “woman done me wrong” and “damn, I love my truck”.
I’m pretty sure the term “flyover states” was made up by a rural person to put in the mouth of an imagined city person, rather than being used by actual “coastal elites”. In fact, a quick google finds this.
IMHO they both do somewhat look down at each other, but more in the terms that one doesn’t understand the other’s way of life and feel they live in a world that revolves around themselves. This does not have to do with the elections directly, but such a sentiment has been exploited but the elections.
It’s called ‘ethnocentrism’ and it’s pretty much a universal constant where just about any group of human beings’ attitudes are concerned.
I’ve lived in rural NC, Texas, West Virginia, and South Pittsburgh. I’ve spent some time in Birmingham, Jackson, upstate Louisiana. I now live in the biggest city in America.
The whole country is a segregated and racist nightmare. My city now has the most segregated school system in the whole country, where Mississippi has cities that are 97% Black and living in failed Central American dictatorship levels of poverty.
But, why the city folk look down on rural America has something to do with this:
Some of the disdain is earned. Some is hypocrisy. There’s no easy answers.
This is a difference I see, rural folks actively engage in disdain of urban folks as part of their identity signifiers. Whereas urban folks don’t spend a lot of thought on disdaining rural folks.
To me it goes back to the notion of one party saying to the other, “you think you’re better than me!” Um, no, I’m just living my life with no thought of you at all.
While I think it’s true that all sorts of different groups will disparage others that are not them and rural folks are not innocent in that regard, this statement is strange given you started a thread disparaging rural folks:
You don’t understand. That thread was about helping those backward rural folk and improving their lives. They simply don’t know what they are missing!!
The answer to the first sentence is the second one.
People living in the country really don’t want a string of McMansions popping up down the street, with rising traffic and crime and strangers walking their dogs on their land. They’re people that are fine without HOAs or a city water bill. Sometimes, a twenty minute drive to the grocery store is more than worth not having to hear your neighbors at night or smell their cooking or having to worry about finding a parking spot.
Some could see that as the ultimate form of disdain.
Except every 4 years we go thru this little exercise.
They should try not being uneducated racists. Also while they are at it maybe they can get rid of the homophobia too.
Aren’t some of them educated racists? Let’s be fair…
And describing them as “modern hunter gatherers” isn’t disdain?
“…can move to civilization and have a better life.”
This post is parody, right? If you don’t see the condescension in that phrase, then I don’t know what to tell you.