In the popular imagination of many Americans, particularly those on the left side of the political spectrum, the typical MAGA supporter is a rural resident who hates Black and Brown people, loathes liberals, loves gods and guns, believes in myriad conspiracy theories, has little faith in democracy, and is willing to use violence to achieve their goals, as thousands did on Jan. 6.
According to a new book, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, these aren’t hurtful, elitist stereotypes by Acela Corridor denizens and bubble-dwelling liberals… they’re facts.
The authors, Tom Schaller, a professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Paul Waldman, a former columnist at The Washington Post, persuasively argue that most of the negative stereotypes liberals hold about rural Americans are actually true.
I’m always amazed that a bunch of redneck, Southern, city haters decided that a rich, Manhattan developer was one of them
Don’t be. They’re rubes. Dumber than dogshit. Just pawns in a game.
Pawns, yes. Dumb, stupid as in an inherent trait, no. Just used and discarded by corporate America over the last 70 years or so.
It used to be, in the earlier part of the last century, that you could get as good an education in a small town as in a big city, and a lot of rural folk prided themselves on NOT being dumb hicks. WWI brought them out of the countryside by the scores and raised the expectations for all. These people went off to the wars, went to college on the GI Bill, and even came back to run their farms. This was the norm sixty years ago. This was the life my parents and grandparents lived, on both sides. They were never good at accepting differences in others, but education was HIGHLY valued, and sloth was the greatest failure of character anyone could imagine.
But now, look at corporate America, and especially BigAg, for stripping small towns of everything that made for good living and a pleasant life in rural communities. Walmart came and drove all the small stores out of business. Ace Hardware and others came and drove all the small hardware shops out. McDonalds and Waffle House came and drove all the little diners out of business. Fifty years ago, ALL the individual trades were well represented and thriving in rural areas, because everyone, rich or poor, still needed plumbers and blacksmiths and print shops and seamstresses, and it was difficult to find a town without its own proud newspaper.
All these small enterprises and career options and jobs at every skill level were replaced with what?
Sweet fuck all beyond fear, anger, drugs and debt.
Rural America is a wasteland filled with scared, angry, bitter people because WE, as a country, made it that way.
But they’re no different than the rest of us: give them a shot, decent jobs, decent education, futures to work for and they’re just like everyone else. That, and shut off the goddamn propaganda channels that have taken their righteous and well-earned anger and appropriated even THAT, turning it into emotional nooses for yet another set of rich men to control.
Hard to give them a decent education when they defund the school systems because ‘muh taxes’ and denigrate their teachers and everything else public Ed ('ceptin the “pride of the town”, the HS football team, because that one QB is gonna git scouted ‘cuz he’ s got a helluva arm)
Sorry, one more thought. No one ever voted for “let’s impoverish rural america” just like no one ever voted for “let’s make sure teachers can barely afford to live on their salary, while also expecting them to be the primary source of education for literally everyone in the country.” Teachers (and many other groups) have a lot of righteous anger too. I don’t see them doing what maga is doing, and I wouldn’t expect them to get a pass if they did.
While I am more than OK laying much of this at the feet of corporate greed, I’m less so inclined to lay much of it at the feet of average non-rural folks just trying to get to work and feed their families every day. As you say - they’ve got the same requirement to do so as the magas.
I wrote what I wrote because there are a number of people here concern trolling, literally demonizing magas. That’s a right-wing division tactic and does not reflect the reality of the situation.
We as a country did this – but not knowingly. Did anyone outside of government really understand what Citizens United would do, or that the Supreme Court of that time would choose that course? There was a LOT of government dishonesty that led up to that, just like Lee Atwater is personally responsible for much of the hatred and division we are now reaping in society. We may not have voted for the end result, but as a country, we did choose our course, and I’m just as responsible as anyone else of voting age in those days.
But that doesn’t make right-wing voters stupid, or inherently less-than, anyone. Look at that chucklehead who responded to my post with this bullshit:
That’s right-wing hate dressed up in a “liberal” cause.
In the end, magas are propagandized, and the pressure in their communities to remain so is immense. Yet they are individually just as responsible for their own choices as you are, or I am.
That’s a fair point of view that I can’t argue with!
That’s pretty much what I was trying to set forth with my first comment, but I’ll do my best to make it clearer from the outset next time. I thought your comments were fairly well balanced too; it’s damn difficult to communicate nuance these days, so mad props to anyone who even tries. Thank you for telling me, it’s very kind of you to acknowledge. I’m kind of shocked (but in a good way, lol).
Social welfare programs, student loan forgiveness, higher education/tuition reform, minimum wage increases, UBI, single payer healthcare and on and on and on benefit EVERYONE, not just people who vote D or live in blue states. (Barring potential interference from R governors)
That doesn’t mean there may not be some valid criticism about some of those programs, or that we might not have to experiment over time to get them right.
But it’s VERY hard to have sympathy for folks who constantly vote against the party who proposes those (imperfect) solutions and participate in the vilification of those programs and that party, especially when they INSTEAD vote for the party who plainly has the interest of only one demographic in mind, and is actively trying to fuck over everyone not in that demographic.
We can’t even try those things which may help them (and others), because they will never let us.
Edit: Final para of the article offers a similar summary:
They are the cause of their own downfall and reject any ideas that might help them. They deserve no pity. They’ve earned their place in the intellectual hierarchy. The smart ones all leave for cities with no plans to return.
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I’m not sure what your point is. Being a farmer doesn’t make one worthy of worship. It also has no bearing on what I said. Most rural people are not farmers.
At least you know you’re among the most stupid, so you’ve got that going for you.
My point, Clent, is that you have no idea how the world works, or where your food comes from, or even any idea that many rural people (including farmers) are college educated. You have no idea what business sustains rural areas, or what it takes for rural people to get their basic human needs met. You wouldn’t last half a day on a real farm, or anywhere other than your mom’s basement.
Your concern trolling fails to account for the humanity of others, and your all-or-nothing language demonstrates the maturity level of an angry preteen. This is all about you needing an outgroup to look down on and feel better than in comparison to yourself, and has nothing to do with the very real lives of the people you condemn as “stupid.” How old are you, twelve?
Look at this, lol:
When you call others stupid, Clent, you’re looking in the mirror, because I’ve known many of lesser IQ that had more humanity in their little toes than you’ve ever had in your life. Go back to your video games, angry boy, and let the grownups talk.
You have no idea what I do and do not know.
By your own reasoning as you’ve outlined it, you are the one looking in the mirror here.
You are presuming a whole lot about me here based on very little, which is hilarious and yet sad.
I stand by what I said. Your attempt to disparage me is about you. If you had any interest in proving me wrong, you would be able to do so with facts instead of lashing out at me like a wounded animal.
Yeah, I do know what you do and don’t know. You’re apparently blissfully unaware that every word you type is a statement about yourself, as well as a statement regarding what you want others to think of you.
That’s the crazy thing about us liberals, we really dig the character behind the words. When you dehumanize the other – MAGAs, in your above statements – at the same time you claim to be liberal, all you do is expose yourself as a troll.
Here’s some reading material for you, son:
The Significance of Dehumanization: Nazi Ideology and Its Psychological Consequences
How fascism works, and how to stop it: Dehumanizing people is the first and last step in a fascist society
Reducing Explicit Blatant Dehumanization by Correcting Exaggerated Meta-Perceptions
Educate yourself before you make a complete ass of yourself again.
The farmers I know, the ones that were able to actually keep their farms, generally aren’t voting for the dumbass who caused crops to rot in their fields.
You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.
Are you referencing when Trump said he liked dumb voters? He knew he could get them to vote against their interests, their family interests and anything that would improve their lives. But yeah. “Screw that group of people I think I am better than”
Accurately pointing out what they are. In no way implies they have a monopoly. Despite democrats being measurably better by nearly every metric. They are still largely problematic and often do little to actually serve their constituents.
It’s like they’ve never seen a Pace Picante Sauce commercial before.
Man that unlocked a memory from my youth…
To be fair he went out among them and convinced them of that.
Maggie Haberman the journalist says that one of the things about Trump that is undeniably genius is his way of charming the people he wants to support him. That’s how he won, by connecting with these people. It is his one singular talent.
They simply deny everything you present to them. Facts do not matter. They are literally living in their own imagination and refuse to accept reality. It is time to reopen the mental institutions and throw them back in, along with the ACLU clowns who let them out to begin with.
My gods y’all say some legitimately evil shit sometimes.
Defending against violent fascists is evil?
I know what side you’re on now.
You sound exactly like the rest of the violent fascists you deride as though they are any different from yourself, you tell us. As a reminder, what you said was:
Tell me how that doesn’t sound like a “violent fascist” to you.
Or better yet, don’t. I looked at your post history. Less than a month old, and the vast majority of your comments completely ignore the crimes of the right – you know, the fascists you claim to hate – while pointing out front and center even the tiniest faults of anyone trying to make things right these days.
So tell it to someone else. Your posts sound exactly like the people trying to rile shit up from the right, and to the exact same end.
I cant help but notice that your path of pacifism and “incremental change” has led to the rapid and accelerating rise of fascism…so until you can come up with a solution that has actually worked historically as well as mine has, you have no business trying to ivory tower your "superiority complex.
By the way, wtf does “less than a month old” mean? How is that relevant? Exactly what gate are you keeping, and by whose authority? How old are you? Were you born in the 90s or after? Do you have any concept of a world before cable news was able to spew nonstop propaganda and the airwaves weren’t saturated with constant radical fascist garbage? I can assure you that there is no possible way that I could be their equal in any way whatsoever. You would probably have nothing to compare to to know that.
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Removed, no threatening death camps.
no one said death camps, but ok. is lemmy another haven of limp-wristed do-nothings? there’s a reason i left reddit.
ooooh, tough guy here.
ooo, weak guy here.
Reagan shutdown the mental institutions.
Whatever hatred you have for the ACLU is based on your ignorance.
Deleted - you weren’t making the point I thought you were. Still though - yikes.