the problem is, is that most liberals do not consider discrimination to be a valid perspective, and that equality and egalitarianism is the norm. I agree that these are goal to work toward, but I also recognize that the vast amount of human history has not addressed these subjects, and that there are other perspective of running a society other than those based o equality.
So a conservative looks at a liberal, and correctly sees someone who is willing to take something from them in order to give it to someone far less fortunate, and a liberal looks at a conservative, and sees someone who is not willing to do their part to push for equality, not understanding that that isn’t something that is in the conservative’s philosophy. The misunderstanding is that the conservative isn’t doing so out of being evil, just out of a different philosophy. It took me a while to understand this, and I grew up in a very conservative household, surrounded by conservatives, and in a bubble that certainly did not understand liberals (the word “liberal” was a curse word, and could not be said in my house without a certain amount of spittle.)
I hat to burst your bubble, so to speak, but I can’t let this pass. That statement, as written, is totally incorrect. It could only be correct if re-written as follows:
The reason that the media draws from urban areas is because there is far more to be drawn upon in urban areas that appeals to other urban dwellers, who make up the majority of news outlet ad revenue targets, and far more perspectives and people that other urban dwellers can relate to. One night in Manhattan generates more newsworthy events that are of interest to other urban dwellers than what a year or even a decade in a Nebraska farming community.
What is or is not newsworthy is highly dependent on one’s bubble. The daily farm report would likely bore you to tears, but it’s much more relevant to that Nebraska farming community that anything that took place in Manhattan the night prior.
So, you are saying that the going ons of 7+ million people is not going to generate more information and news than a town of a couple tens of thousands?
Which simply goes to show your bubble. Quantity of information does not imply relevance of information. That daily farm report data is more relevant to a rural community, and more likely to affect their pocketbooks and votes, than all the nightlife in Manhattan, LA and Boston combined.
I actually used to watch the farm report. I used to watch it with my dad before school every day. I don’t find it to be boring, it’s just information. Not all that relevant to me, but neither is most news. The local news, between our newspaper, social media, and the local TV news channels consists mostly of shootings and heroin OD’s. I assume that new york has the same, just more of it.
I grew up in a fairly rural area, though we moved to a more suburban area when I was in grade school, it was still a pretty sparse community of under 20,000 residents. I still live about as far from a city as you can be while still receiving the benefits of living near a large city, and not a giant one at that. I live in a “city” (an incorporated area) of under 50,000 residents.
Most of my neighbors voted for trump (or at least have trump signs). If there is any bubble I live in from a physical or geographic perspective, it is a conservative bubble in which I come to places like this to escape.
You seem to be in a bubble of thinking that anyone who disagrees with you is in a bubble.
You have no idea where I am, or where I am coming from. I am probably much more in touch with rural and conservative people than you are, as they are my neighbors, my clients, my employees, my family.
You also seem to be in a bubble of thinking that everyone who lives in rural areas is a farmer, and is therefore as interested in the farm report as they would be about news of a new movie or show.
Tell me, how much does an auto mechanic living in rural ohio care about the farm report? I know several auto mechanics who live in rural ohio that don’t even know what the farm report is. Are they in a bubble? Are they elitists who can’t connect with their fellow conservatives because they aren’t farmers?
It does seem to me that you are making far, far, more assumptions about the lives and motivations of those who live in rural areas than I am. I don’t know if that is because you are trying to make a point, or if you truly believe the stereotypes that you keep throwing out, but I can tell you that most of my neighbors would vehemently disagree with your characterizations of them.
My intent was not to nail you, but instead to explain why your assumptions about me and my perspective were in error. In other words, your attempts to nail me based on a few message board posts was poorly done.
You also make sweeping stereotype assumptions about rural people, in your assumption that rural people are all more interested in the farm report than in watching popular entertainment like big bang theory or some such, whether that’s because you think that all rural people are farmers, or because you think that all rural people are highly interested in agriculture, or for some other reason, I don’t know, I just know that your assumption is incorrect. Do you know where all these shows are made? Not in rural nebraska, or rural ohio for that matter. They are made in these big cities.
If I managed to sum up your position, it was entirely by accident, but I only can respond to the things that you type.
But we’re not talking about farming in Nebraska or clubbing in Manhattan. We’re talking about things like banning Muslims from entering the country. A person in Manhattan might think “Hey, I know a lot of Muslims. They’re not terrorists. Banning every Muslim is overreaction.” A person in a small town in Nebraska might think “Who knows what those Muslims are like? They’re different than the people around here. Who knows what they might do?”
Think of the enclaves (in both camps) as being like magnetic domains. A piece of unmagnetized iron will, if you look closely, be divided into regions of being N and others S, with no predominance. An atom of iron that enters (for some reason) such a domain will generally adopt the direction of that domain.
When my family moved from Philadelphia to a suburb, they discovered that almost all their neighbors were Republicans. It turns out, somewhat surprisingly, that people who had been Dems when living in the city turned Reps in the burbs. It seems to have been a case of who you talk to, just the prevailing attitudes. Just like that piece of iron. My parents didn’t switch, but they were distinct outliers.
States have nothing to do with it.
People live in enclaves of people who think like them. This has been a trend in the U.S. since WWII. People self-segregate.
Then Facebook came along and turbo-charged this trend by only showing people more of what they already liked.
Over the past decade the average person’s source of information has become increasingly limited, to the point that for 44% of Americans, it’s the main source of news – and many are unable to distinguish between what is real and what is kack.
You, reading here on the Dope? You’re a highly unusual individual.
But on Facebook? If you like Trump, your timeline was full of his ads, articles supporting him, and articles accusing Hillary of browbeating Bill’s rape victims.
If you didn’t like Trump you had no way of even knowing he spent $150 million on Facebook ads.
That is the bubble. Social media has created a world where reality * truly is* different depending on your attitudes.
First of all, your big red maps mostly contain empty space. This map where each county is a shade of purple indicating its red/blueness and faded by population density tells a more accurate picture.
Second, not everyone in New York is a latte sipping liberal hipster. There are plenty of rich Republican Wall Street types. And Staten Island was big-time Trump in the last election. Point is there is probably a wider diversity of thought (right, left and middle) in my building than in many entire towns in Trump States.
And finally, which is more of a bubble? Actually being in a city like New York? Or being presented an image of New York filtered through Liberal Hollywood media (or worse through Fox News’ presentation of New York as a liberal bubble)?
I believe that is true, is something we see here on the SDMB, and is a big reason Liberals fail to reach Conservatives.
This is absolutely correct and it’s really what everyone needs to absorb in order to understand the political situation in the country. Liberals don’t seem to realize that it’s true, and instead are firmly committed to believing that out in ‘red’ territory people only get right wing news. Obama said: “In this election, [white working class voters] turned out in huge numbers for Trump, and I think that part of it has to do with our inability, our failure, to reach those voters effectively. Part of it is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country, but part of it is also Democrats not working at a grassroots level, being in there, showing up, making arguments.” So that’s the liberal explanation: it’s Fox News totally, and in the places where Trump dominated, no ones hears a word from a liberal perspective.
This is straightforwardly not true. I have lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, rural Virginia, and North Dakota, and visited countless other places throughout the country, and have yet to see Fox News in a bar or restaurant. (Perhaps occasionally there was one TV showing Fox News among a dozen others showing something different.) So that part of the claim is false.
But it is even more important to realize that it’s false that there’s any region of the country where people don’t hear from liberals on a daily basis. If you actually go into a bar or restaurant in small-town Nebraska what you’ll see on TV is mostly shows produced by rich coastal liberals, written by rich coastal liberals, starring rich coastal liberals. Consider the set of comedy news programs: John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah… They are all liberal, and I would guess the writers and producers are similarly uniform. Now HBO or Comedy Central or any network could put up one or more comedy news programs with a host from the Trump-supporting side of America. But they choose not to. Likewise ESPN and Sports Media are dominated by liberals, where those expressing contrary opinions are sometimes fired.
ESPN actually is shown in restaurants and bars everywhere, including places that tilted heavily towards Trump. HBO and the like show up frequently as well. It is straightforwardly not the case that out in the hinterlands, no one sees anything other than Fox News and no one ever hears from the rich coastal liberals. They hear from the rich coastal liberals and don’t like what they’re hearing, and thus they voted for Trump.
