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Comments
Courtesy of ponicalica:
http://i.imgur.com/zJciM.png
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/us/politics/after-democrats-gain-across-the-country-conservative-voters-wonder-where-they-fit.html
Now I get the whole "they're so arch-conservative that they only look selectively at media sources that reflect their views" and stuff.
But why did they become so conservative in the first place?
That's the most interesting question in my mind.
What is it about people--even poor people--who live in rural parts of the U.S. that makes them so conservative (going by the current U.S. definition of "conservative")?
I guess people's fear towards the tides of change is so easy to appeal to, or something.
Also: Romney says he lost because Obama gives "gifts" to people. Other Republicans say that's just BS.
^ Best possible opener
They see themselves as millionaires to be rather than poor people as they've been sold the lie that the American Dream is possible for all of them.
Because traditionalism trumps reason in this case.
Mostly it's that they're hyper-religious and think the Cold War is still going.
The current U.S. definition of conservatism is just various ways, subtle or blatant, of saying "people who are different are evil and deserve to be punished".
It's much easier to believe that if you don't live in a more densely concentrated area, which makes it almost impossible to avoid getting to know (and therefore empathize with) people of different financial status, religion, orientation, ethnicity, etc.
And if you're someone who can't handle that, you're more likely to move out of the city to a more homogenous region (hence suburbs).
Is there any truth in the idea that people in small towns are more likely to be a closer-knit community and help each other in times of need more readily than people in urban areas, and thus there is actually or perceivedly less need for assistance from more distant government institutions (as opposed to local government institutions)?
Or does this instead just bolster the idea that they're short-sighted and slightly xenophobic regarding societal transactions?
I can tell you that small towns tend to be some of the meanest places on earth in terms of neighbors spiting each other for stupid reasons. So I'd say that's not really true.
No worse than I've seen in cramped apartments.
For the most part it's true, but it also tends to happen to the exclusion of whatever paranoia groups they're crapping themselves over. Like, my cousins' town in Nebraska bends over backwards to help out returning troops and the elderly, but heaven help you if you're Mexican.
Okay, let's say I'm Mexican and I come to your cousins' town, let's say as an incoming worker to a local company. What would happen?
Chances are you are Chinese then, and they'd be upset that chinese workers are taking their jobs.
Depends on how quickly you get connected and how well you speak English. If you do, you're golden -- a lot of the populace can trace their own families back to immigrants, and someone who looks darker but fits in doesn't really bat any eyes. If you don't pick up the language with a local-sounding or further-north accent right away, or stay in an insular cultural enclave, they'll likely jump to the conclusion that you must be an illegal at best, or gangster at worst. Celebrating Cinco de Mayo is...not recommended.
So basically, I would look funny, for varying degrees of looking funny. And not funny in a good way. And there are too few such unusual "funny" people around, so I will continue to look funny to people until I get a breakout moment wherein I can convince them that I'm one of them.
As opposed to a place where everyone already assumes that everyone is gonna be a little funny in their own way, I guess?
One of the oddest things I just realized was just how "normal" this sort of behavior is--considering someone "funny" if they don't fit one's expectations of what people around oneself are like. This is how people naturally subdivide themselves naturally into groups based on similar lifestyles, cultures, and interests, and how they decide who to exclude from the group.
I also think I just figured out what diversity education is about. It's basically about desensitizing people's "funny" detectors.
Pretty much. It's a huge problem, and local politicians regularly covering up their own antics by telling their constituents that the Mexicans are trying to take over the country doesn't help. Throw in that they just recently had a massive wave of both legal Latino immigration and illicit Mexican drug runners, and they tend to see it as confirmation.
Mexican drug runners were active as far north as Nebraska?
Yeah, they basically just come in from LA, Arizona, and Texas, then push north as far as they can along freeway corridors. Recently there's been an unusually large push up the midwest, and it's right along I-28 through Omaha.
For a brief overview:
http://www.dps.mo.gov/homelandsecurity/safeschools/documents/Midwest High Intensity Drug Area.pdf
The difference is that activity filtering west into the rest of the state from there (to any unusual degree anyway) is relatively recent. A decade ago seeing that sort of thing as far west as the bluffs would've been highly unusual, but now there's a set of gangs that have been moving in and things have been getting ugly fast.