Stop that apologist crap. I grew up in a rural area and I know these people quite well. People in rural areas reject science, general knowledge and social norms of the "big cities" because they are frightened and ignorant, not because of some equally valid world view.
Their response to climate science is stubborn ignorance. Their response to different cultures, races and religion is bigotry. Their response to democracy (when it doesn't suit them) is reactionary. Their response to education is closed mindedness. There's nothing to respect here.
Rural people are happy to have iPhones, as long as they don't need to understand the science behind the technology, understand the multicultural aspects of it's existence or respect the people who created it.
As Asimov said 40 years ago:
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
I feel like you've never visited any rural area. I grew up in a rural area and most of the people I know from growing up ended up in a city at some point in their life because of the lack of opportunities in the rural area, but very few people fit the stereotype you're putting forth. The place I grew up was a farm town, and my family were also farmers, everybody in my family went to college even though we weren't well-off, and that's true for most other farm families. Farming these days is actually strongly technology-focused, and people go specifically to college for agricultural studies to learn how to cost effectively and sustainably operate their farms. I'm the odd one out in my extended family because I moved far away and went into the tech industry.
I would strongly challenge your belief that rural people are uneducated and unintelligent, it's mostly the exact opposite. Many of the rural people have skills and knowledge far beyond what the average person in the city does, because they have to do more things for themselves in their day to day life. City life is mostly about specialization and formalized/structured job roles and living. Rural life is about doing whatever is necessary to succeed and moving things forward one more day. The average farmer has a strong understanding of multiple trade skills (plumbing, hydraulics, welding, mechanics), as well as at least a basic understanding of mechanical & civil engineering, at least a basic understanding of biology, and at least a basic understanding of electrical systems.
The only thing you really get right here is about the economics of the situation. Rural areas experience brain drain and are shrinking over generations, part of that is due to increase mechanization and automation in farming which reduces the need for farm labor and creates drive for the children of farmers to go into other fields. The lack of employment and economic opportunity is real, and it is something to give due consideration before deciding to move to a rural area. But it's not because people there are stupid, uneducated, or whatever stereotype that comes to mind.
And, on the note of politics, most rural people are more Libertarian than Conservative. They frankly don't care what you do as long as you leave them alone and stay off their land unless you're invited. In my life I've had FAR FAR more negative interactions with other people trying to enforce their beliefs on me in the city than I ever have growing up in a rural area, and at this point in my life I have roughly 20 years of experience in both situations. A basic, simple, and common example is how HOAs operate vs how local politics works in rural areas. I would not describe rural people as Conservative, and I don't know how you'd want to politically describe most city people (Liberal seems inaccurate), but city people are generally busybodies and expect everyone to conform, rural folks don't care what happens on someone else's property.
And that's the attitude many rural voters are revolting against, right there. Tired of being told how to live their lives by arrogant city dwellers who don't understand or have any experience with rural life at all, yet see themselves as smarter and better and qualified to tell rural people what to do and assuming their way of life is suitable for everyone.
Maybe I'm overly cynical, but I found the article and many of the comments here annoying.
Yes - rural people can be nice, helpful, friendly, wise, experienced, and unpretentious.
Rural people can also be short-sighted, rude, intolerant, gleefully embrace ignorance, and every bit as pretentious as a city-slicker.
This is because whether it's city, suburban, or rural, we're all still people. And here's the kicker: All things being equal, people are people, and some are jerks and others saints. But things AREN'T equal. I've lived in trailers, and I've owned a house - I can't tell you about your neighbors in those situations, but I can tell you about the areas.
I won't speculate the reasons here, but rural areas (more in the American South than other places I've been, but still in general) have more than their share of bitter, racist, sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, self-righteous people. This is demonstrable in a variety of statistical ways by look at different states/counties.
When reviewing the Voting Rights Act, Chief Justice Roberts asked "Is it the government's submission that the citizens in the South are more racist than the citizens in the North?". I've been there. It totally is. And the more rural, often the more racist (etc).
When you look at states where they are removing actual science from the textbooks, where are they? When you find the populations of people that want to "go with their gut" in the face of any evidence, where are they concentrated?
Of course, you can't paint with broad strokes - for me to condemn everyone in a low-population density area is just as wrong as calling them all saintly. There are many people, many towns, many areas, where what I'm talking about is less common than in many cities.
But my experience says the embrace of ignorance to be more likely there. I don't look down on someone for coming from or being in a rural area. I don't admire someone for coming to or being in a city. But the sort of "noble savage" picture that I'm seeing painted here utterly disregards the very real problems and social ills that many of these areas have.
Tell me your in/from a rural area and I don't care. Tell me you're poor, it doesn't impact my impression of your worth as a person. But don't be an asshat and surround yourself with other asshats and then complain about the reputation you're getting.
Don't listen to that blow hard. They clearly have never lived in a rural area before, or had a really bad experience in a rare situation.
Here's the truth of it for ya. Most of the technologically inclined people you are looking for in the rural areas tend to move to the cities; from the rural areas. Mostly due to the only thing that user was correct about. Opportunity.
But once they have the money to come back home, they do.
When I left my rural spot, we had people coming back to buy farms and build families. Solar panels, Starlink, etc.
Do yourself a favor and call the town offices of each place you are interested in. They can help you find out more about what they are looking to do in their respective areas, and maybe point you to some people in the same areas that might be good to talk to.
Yes, there will be religious people. But guess what? They exist in cities too. Yes there will be conservative people. But guess what? They exist in cities too.
And I can keep going on and on with that on rinse and repeat for literally anything that can be said about rural folk. Why?
> I'm not so sure why many are so eager to lament a shrinking rural population.
I'm not from the States, but I guess this is fairly universal:
Country-side living has it's benefits: The pace is usually lower, there's less pollution and things are delightfully silent. Personally I have no intention of ever moving into a densely populated area again.
Apart from that, there's a lot of local culture and customs that is slowly being lost as young people move away from rural areas and into population centres dominated by international pop-culture. There's also the problem with people in urban areas losing their touch with the outside world, living in a small bubble with no idea about how things work outside. This will, in the long run, result in a lot of knowledge being lost.
Absolutely. The cities have their own issues, but I don't know anyone in rural America that can't empathize with not having opportunity and being poor. I can't think of a single scenario where brining up people in cities that have no opportunity is unacceptable. If anything it's the opposite, and people in rural America know it can get much more violent in the cities. They respect that fact.
Now we spend a huge amount on infrastructure, yet if you actually go to rural America you will feel a large lack of hope. There is no place for these people in where America is going. They know the infrastructure funding is temporary. Do you think these people don't know robots are coming? THEY DO!!! So they feel like their entire lives are being threatened and they want to adapt. They really do. But what solutions are being offered? Are we actively trying to level the educational playing field between cities and rural America? Are we trying to enable high tech companies to pop up in smaller states? I don't see it.
'That's an entirely self-inflicted problem. Nobody would be talking about transgender bathroom rights if people (disproportionately people in rural America) weren't being assholes about what bathroom people use.'
You clearly have never been to rural America. That is a very ignorant statement. There are many people in rural America that respect all types of people.
Put yourself in the shoes of an American that had had a farmer for a dad that was uneducated making less than 40k. You don't even know the concept of Google being a real thing. You've never met a facebook employee or google employee. Or hell, even an Exxon employee. You're local dirt sales company is one of the hottest companies in your town. Your parents don't know how to help you get into college. What are you doing to help this person?
Just because you don't want to live there, doesn't make them "middle of nowhere" is my point. That's an extremely common elitist attitude that I see among tech people who look down their noses at people in rural communities.
I can understand your sentiment - but unfortunately we can't just ignore rural America.
The problem is basically that, on average, rural areas tend to be less educated and far more religious. They vote against social programs that would benefit them for religious or tribalistic reasons. They vote against Planned Parenthood because abortion is an abomination to them, they vote for "repeal and replace" because they vaguely associate anything coming out of the Obama administration with a sinister Muslim/Communist/Homosexual agenda to expand governmental powers and take their guns or whatever. (These are generalizations and stereotypes, obviously - but as an explanation for average voting patterns they are valid generalizations.)
Yeah - I've never understood the heavy-hand of government/society and urban-life people forcing ideologies onto people in rural areas - especially when urbanites have no idea what it's like to live rurally. Have fun using your electric cooktops after a storm when the power lines are all blown down and you're waiting for the electric company to repair the lines.
Just let people use what they want to use. If it's more convenient for them to use gas, let them use gas.
It just comes off as holier-than-thou and self centered - ideologically driven as opposed to practically driven.
It's also eat to pick on people who literally do things like roll coal, block hybrid charging stations, routinely practice racism, and cling to preconceived notions regardless of what they are shown in evidence. I've lived in rural areas. I've lived in cities. Neither are perfect but they make fun of each other pretty equally, I've never been run off the road by a truck in the city, had motorcycles swerve at my family riding bikes in the city (cars are about problem), and never had to explain that it's inappropriate to fly the stars and bars in a town parade in the Northeast to anyone in the city. There are plenty of nice people in rural towns, but many of them work hard to earn their reputations, just like smug city dwellers who think they are better. They are all just annoying, prejudiced humans in their own ways.
I think the reason is that they are the easiest group to manipulate, due to their lack of education.
Somehow a lot of folks in rural US believe that:
* Billionaire real estate developer from wealthy family, who grew up in Queens and lives in Manhattan (both are the opposite of rural America), understands their problems and "feels their pain".
* Manufacturing jobs are coming back.
* Coal mines are coming back.
* Having less health care is more freedom.
* There are death panels in ACA (Obamacare).
List goes on and on...
It is easy to manipulate the uneducated people. That is one of the main reasons that a lot of politicians have vested interest in keeping general population uneducated. Educated people will never elect them, their corrupt friends or their spoiled kids (who are gonna run for office soon). That is why they do not want to increase spending on education.
The education gap between rural and urban settings is a subject of much concern and unfortunately the tendency towards religious views has led to increased ignorance about sex as comprehensive sex ed is more likely to be rejected in rural areas replaced by "abstinence only" programs which result in higher rates of unplanned/teen pregnancy and even where comprehensive sex ed is offered, religious parents are much more likely to forbid their children from attending.
While it's true that people in rural areas often don't care about the same things that people in big cities care about that doesn't mean they are oblivious or opposed to new technology.
I have a friend who is a commercial poultry farmer in rural Mississippi. He can turn on his chicken house feeders from anywhere in the world with a smart phone app. Some of the coolest technology being built is farm-related. People, no matter where they live, just want technology that makes their lives better in some way.
Sorry I don’t mean to say that there aren’t educated people in rural areas, but the trend is generally your point of concentration. Many people look down on farmers despite many being extremely educated. But certain educational backgrounds are more valued in societal perceptions.
This read like a really angry rant against modern culture in general. Yes, politicians don't always make very good choices and yes people spend a lot of time on the web now. This is no reason to call the urban population "clueless."
Rural life is also unscalable. Rural citizens won't always be more knowledge in agriculture. They do not have more or less "common sense" than the urban population.
Their response to climate science is stubborn ignorance. Their response to different cultures, races and religion is bigotry. Their response to democracy (when it doesn't suit them) is reactionary. Their response to education is closed mindedness. There's nothing to respect here.
Rural people are happy to have iPhones, as long as they don't need to understand the science behind the technology, understand the multicultural aspects of it's existence or respect the people who created it.
As Asimov said 40 years ago:
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
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