The Mystery of Urban Rage - by maxrandb

[maxrandb]

Comes yet another in the endless parade of articles, focus groups, books, studies, slideshows, etc., ad nauseum, to examine the "rage" of "rural" America. It sure is a mystery, ain't it?

The latest missive examining this phenomena, well, at least the latest from yesterday afternoon, (I haven't checked yet today for a new one) comes from Paul Krugman.

https://archive.ph/0jDas

I don't know Mr. Krugman. Seems like a decent guy. My beef is not with him, it's with the ceaseless examination of rural America's "butthurt", to the exclusion of everything else.

I get it. For at least a century, or more, rural America has been able to define themselves as "the Heartland of America". Just as the only workers in America that deserve our attention are coal miners. They're the backbone, right? The drivers of all that is holy about labor.

Let me be clear right up front. When these screeds write about "rural" America, they mean "white America". You can find their definition of "rural" America in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Los Angeles, so it's not really about location. Some of the most "rural" people I ever met were in Columbus, OH.

Conversely, when they don't write about urban America, they really mean minorities.

I guess I would just like to know what rural America is so ENRAGED about?

Rural America has gotten everything they fucking dreamed of. A racist POS leading the Retrumplican Party. Gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court they helped stack with right-wing Christofascists, with some Supreme Court approved gerrymandering to ensure they can pack their state "gubmints" with super-majorities.

Doing their best to ensure they never have to meet, or tolerate any LGBTQ Americans, or anyone that doesn't worship their version of Jeeeezus.

What the fuck do they have to "rage" about? Did a pregnant woman drive through their shit town for an emergency abortion and avoid the roadblock? Did they encounter a migrant washing dishes at the American Legion Hall? Someone steal their Kid Rock CD? Rush still dead?

I mean, seriously, WTF do they have to rage about?

I guess there are no angry people in the cities and urban areas.

Why would urban America be angry?

I mean, the presidents that urban America have voted for 7 of the last 10 elections got more votes, but 2/3RDs of the Supreme Court are right-wing hacks.

States are so skewed to rural areas that urban dwellers end up being represented by hayseeds from the Dumbfuckistan county 40 miles away. Ask urban voters in MTGs district how "unraged" they are.

Rural America fucks over our schools, decide what books can be read, send absolute fuckwads to our legislatures, and have even turned a trip to Disney into a fucked up nazi shitshow because they hate the gays.

The moron they worship has called our cities "shitholes like Somalia".

If the media EVER wrote a book, or article about what matters to "Urban America", it would be the first story or book of its kind"

So, this is my meager attempt to get someone....anyone to give a shit about urban America.

Can't wait for the Beaver County, PA Focus Group to discuss this "important" article.

[Ocelot II]

1. Righteous rant!

[yardwork]

2. The book review at your link is by Paul Krugman.

I don't see Thomas Friedman mentioned anywhere in your link, but I enjoyed reading the brief column by Krugman, who usually has something interesting to say.

It's a review of a new book. The final paragraphs say:

The result — which at some level I still find hard to understand — is that many white rural voters support politicians who tell them lies they want to hear. It helps explain why the MAGA narrative casts relatively safe cities like New York as crime-ridden hellscapes while rural America is the victim not of technology but of illegal immigrants, wokeness and the deep state.

At this point you’re probably expecting a solution to this ugly political situation. Schaller and Waldman do offer some suggestions. But the truth is that while white rural rage is arguably the single greatest threat facing American democracy, I have no good ideas about how to fight it.

[maxrandb]

4. Fixed it. Thanks!

[yardwork]

5. He agrees with everything you said.

[mgardener]

14. They sure

Listen to the lies Elise Stefanik spews.

[yardwork]

15. Who listens to Elise Stefanik?

[Sky Jewels]

3. Thank you!

I'm beyond sick of the constant kowtowing to Dumbfuckistan. These people have destroyed all that was once good about the U.S.

(And, yes, I do know that "not all people who live in the country" are Dumbfuckistanis.)

[Lonestarblue]

6. Much of the rage is by or for young white men who are too lazy to study in school or to get professional training.

They expect everything to come to them and get angry when they can’t find high-paying jobs, can’t afford to move out of parents’ homes, can’t find a girl to marry (and can’t afford it), and refuse to understand that spending all your time with right-wing militia buddies or on the internet catching up on conspiracy theories might not be the path to success. I grew up in a small town and understood from the time I was in Junior High that if I wanted a successful career, I needed to go to college and then move to a city where there were jobs. Rural America blames liberals for the jobs not coming to them so they don’t have to move when they have done nothing to attract jobs and indeed vote for Republicans who focus on corporate profits rather than job creation.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. Power-monger playbook: Amplify the rage, insert message, aim, gain more power.

[Probatim]

7. Righteous rant that ends with a good laugh...

Beaver County is one of many counties that lie within the boundaries of Pennsyltucky.

The only thing you could have said that would have made me laugh harder is that you can't wait for the focus group with the Fayette-cong.

Before anyone gets mad - that's what they call themselves.

[SergeStorms]

11. I went to College at Alfred....

right along the border of "Pennsyltucky". That's what we called it more than 50 years ago, and I'm sure we didn't invent the name.

There's more truth to the mashup of Pennsylvania and Kentucky than most people will ever know, right?

[Wild blueberry]

8. Having lived most of my life in cities, and now live rural, two observations

1) There is FAR more that urban people and rural people have in common, especially economically, and if we were to unite, we would massively outweigh the corporate power that now controls our country. Corporate media, among others, has done an excellent job of dividing us and keeping us from coalescing.

2) White supremacy and patriarchy are dying ideas, and those who still benefit from them, especially economically, are feeling the Las Gasp.

[yardwork]

16. Well sure, that's why so much energy is put into dividing us.

[maxrandb]

21. Man, you nailed it

If anyone took the time to have a "Focus Group" with the voters in Pittsburgh, you'd find that they have the same struggles, dreams, aspirations, hopes for their children, that voters in Beaver County have.

There are some exceptions. There are MAGAts in both rural and urban America that have sold their souls. Those folks are unreachable. Almost ANYONE that would even consider voting for Donnie Dipshit at this point is beyond help.

There is only one outcome that will save our American democracy. MAGAts need to get their asses beat so bad at the ballot box, that they never again consider coming out from under their rock.

That's it. There is no compromise possible. There is no quarter to be given. They must be soundly, thoroughly and completely defeated.

[ECL213]

9. They can't grow that strange fruit anymore.

They won't be happy until it's a cash crop again.

[The Mouth]

13. Boom

[SouthernDem4ever]

12. A succinct description of the situation.

[senseandsensibility]

17. Progressives, objectively speaking, have much more to be angry about

I won't list all the reasons, but the latest SC decision is one reason. Yet I have not heard one talking head refer to how WE feel about it or how we might react No predictions for a backlash against R's. It's a hush hush topic even among liberals I guess.

[maxrandb]

18. What the media will do about this SC issue

is what they do about EVERY issue.

They will send Chuck Todd, or Jim Acosta, or Katy Tur, or Andrea Mitchell to Beaver County, PA. or East Palestine, OH. to hold a "Focus Group" to talk about what "Heartland/Salt of the Earth" 'Murika thinks.

[Skittles]

19. excellent rant

I completely agree.....and I am sick of being told I need to understand MAGAts....I understand them all too well which is why I fucking DESPISE them.

[Silent3]

20. Maybe it's because "rural rage" turns so many people into such fucking assholes

That makes it so hard to understand and fascinating to write about.