The dark rigidity of fundamentalist rural America: a view from the inside
 

"As the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump is being sorted out, a common theme keeps cropping up from all sides: ?Democrats failed to understand white, working-class, fly-over America.?

Trump supporters are saying this. Progressive pundits are saying this. Talking heads across all forms of the media are saying this. Even some Democratic leaders are saying this. It doesn?t matter how many people say it, it is complete bullshit. It is an intellectual/linguistic sleight of hand meant to throw attention away from the real problem. The real problem isn?t east coast elites who don?t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is rural America doesn?t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don?t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don?t want to admit it is in large part because of choices they?ve made and horrible things they?ve allowed themselves to believe.

I grew up in rural, Christian, white America. You?d be hard-pressed to find an area in the country that has a higher percentage of Christians or whites. I spent most of the first 24 years of my life deeply embedded in this culture. I religiously (pun intended) attended their Christian services. I worked off and on, on their rural farms. I dated their calico skirted daughters. I camped, hunted, and fished with their sons. I listened to their political rants at the local diner and truck stop. I winced at their racist/bigoted jokes and epithets that were said more out of ignorance than animosity. I have also watched the town I grew up in go from a robust economy with well-kept homes and infrastructure turn into a struggling economy with shuttered businesses, dilapidated homes, and a broken down infrastructure over the past 30 years. The problem isn?t that I don?t understand these people. The problem is they don?t understand themselves, the reasons for their anger/frustrations, and don?t seem to care to know why.

In deep-red white America, the white Christian God is king, figuratively and literally. Religious fundamentalism is what has shaped most of their belief systems. Systems built on a fundamentalist framework are not conducive to introspection, questioning, learning, change. When you have a belief system that is built on fundamentalism, it isn?t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power. The problem isn?t ?coastal elites don?t understand rural Americans.? The problem is rural America doesn?t understand itself and will NEVER listen to anyone outside their bubble. It doesn?t matter how ?understanding? you are, how well you listen, what language you use?if you are viewed as an outsider, your views are automatically discounted. I?ve had hundreds of discussions with rural white Americans and whenever I present them any information that contradicts their entrenched beliefs, no matter how sound, how unquestionable, how obvious, they WILL NOT even entertain the possibility it might be true. Their refusal is a result of the nature of their fundamentalist belief system and the fact I?m the enemy because I?m an educated liberal. "

The dark rigidity of fundamentalist rural America: a view from the inside

A lot of ugly truths in that article :thumbsup

On a side note: I got banned from posting comments on RawStory a few weeks ago for being honest with the lefty liberals there :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

You both are wrong. The problem is extremism. The sexually plastic horn rim wearing hipster to the stoic humorless christian hick. Both are the issue. That article is so poorly written, too.

You don't have a clue.

The problem is jobs and wages.

Brutal bro :pimp

Poorer whites living in suburbs outside of core city areas that have become home to non-white minorities are a bigger factor.

America is a much more urbanized society that it was 50 years ago. The small town America of yesteryear doesn't have the voters living in those communities any longer. Combining both is why this electoral, but not simple majority, exists.

Trump will attempt to lead the US version of a minority government as is commonly seen in parliamentary government world-wide. You can see by his cabinet appointees Trump and the conservative wing of the Republican party have no interest in any coalition building, not even moderation in their agenda.

This new government will not go far trying to shove these positions down the throats of the majority that opposed them. The 2020 elections may very well prove this out.

Lots of people make good money and are still racist or whatever. You have a single track mind...

Yes. Just not enough to win an election.

Now who has a one track mind?

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

That's what the author said.

Rural America tends to pay for their porn consumption.

However Coastal Elites will spend money on drugs and hookers before they'll pay for porn.

So I support Rural America in everything they believe and are fighting for!

If you mean they didn't all choose to be lawyers or doctors, you're spot on.

If they chose to work in a plant that was the main employer and that plant went East. You're wrong.

Here's the villain, which our politicians encouraged.

They didn't create that GDP from nothing, they stole it from the West.

Your decision to sell to people in the West was the same mistake the unemployed who lost their jobs.

$30 a month won't buy many drugs and never a hooker. Not even a crackhead street hooker. A friend told me. :1orglaugh

Paysites in the future have to offer more than a pile of cut and paste porn scenes. Taking a webcam model and promoting her as that and selling her content on top. Is good route. The key is making consumers want her and only her. Shooting a girl who's on 20 paysites and every Tube. Why pay for that you can get for free? The site has to offer more than cut and paste porn scenes.

They won't make the money that was there in the past, but they will make money. The problem is producing the content that's softcore and teasing.

Without a doubt you're spot on.
But in my situation I use a different business model and the I'm not depending on revenue from paysites.

this summarizes large paragraphs of pure liberal bullshit. The city liberals think they know better than the country bumpkins whats good for them...

funny but the dumb trump voters supported the rule of law, while the so called smart college graduates selected a felon.

looks like going to college today makes a person dumber than not going at all. i mean, if all you learn at college is the "patriarchy" & "social justice" then yes, you are dumber for going to college.

:1orglaugh

People in this country have voted against their own economic self-interest for years in the name of religion and social beliefs.

Trump lost the vote by over 2 million votes and counting. The majority of voters votes for our best interest and on December 19th 538 elite Electoral College voters will chose Trump over what the majority of Americans chose.

You still don't get it.. Trump didn't win the people's vote. Trump won the electoral college. Trump lost the election by the people and is only the President Elect due to a fucked up secondary system. The only vote in the US which is not majority rules, is the POTUS election.

This is the second time a shitty Republican has won the EC and lost the people's vote. The last was Bush Jr and we all see how much he fucked up. Most of the people in this country are not willing to let that happen again..

Hillary at this point has over 2 million votes more than Trump, go back and worry about the corruption in your ex soviet block shit hole of a country. We will worry about ours..

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

This!
 

OMG yes. Talk about this with the BF every night. Both sides in bubbles. All or nothing mentality. What happened to the middle? What happened to people formulating their own opinions and admitting faults of both (or all) candidates? Fundamentalists everywhere.

The irony is that the same people that voted change are about to get fucked over real bad -- they always do. Why is that?

Really, I shouldn't care.

I would concur with that statement.

eh, you may insult Paul as much as you want but please skip the insults of places you have never been to.

kthxbai

As someone who has lived most of the time in the rural mountains of Tennessee in the past 10 years I agree 100% with that article.

Some of the people commenting on this thread have no idea what it is like to live with such people.