Interesting Article about Rural Rage in America

[Josquius]

Chaos benefits those with the means to capitalise on it. Brute force, agression, ambition, wealth, power. Everyone else gets fucked.

Any crisis benefits some more than others. Look at this forum; how many people here have been directly affected by the 2008 economic crisis? I don't mean that their assets lost in value, I mean their daily life being severely affected.

Hey.

[Tamas]

Chaos benefits those with the means to capitalise on it. Brute force, agression, ambition, wealth, power. Everyone else gets fucked.

Any crisis benefits some more than others. Look at this forum; how many people here have been directly affected by the 2008 economic crisis? I don't mean that their assets lost in value, I mean their daily life being severely affected.

Hey.

Oh cry me a river.

[grumbler]

The article missed, I think, the point.  There has always been the city-country divide since cities first rose.  Cities are always a half-century or more ahead of the countryside (in good ways as well as bad ways).  There have always been Trumpian elements in the politics of the countryside (and the poor parts of the city) but there have not been enough magical thinkers in the US to seriously challenge logic and reason as the basis for politics since Andrew Jackson.

So, the question isn't "why are the disenfranchised/left behind so disenchanted with the system?" as it is "why are so many people who have it so good so disenchanted with the system?" I don't think a long series of anecdotal and strawman arguments like Wong gives us (seriously, he paid no attention whatsoever to all the news stories about the devastation of rural Mississippi and Louisiana and blames city dwellers for his willful ignorance?) get us any closer to the answer.  Wong doesn't even know the question.

[Syt]

"why are so many people who have it so good so disenchanted with the system?"

That's also a good question. E.g. a significant amount voters for right-wing AfD in Germany, for example, are by all means middle class - secure job, own house, two or more cars, family, multiple vacations a year, living in suburbia, but of very conservative attitudes and keen on maintaining their own position in society. In many ways what in Germany could be called "Spießbürger."

[CountDeMoney]

Chaos benefits those with the means to capitalise on it. Brute force, agression, ambition, wealth, power. Everyone else gets fucked.

Any crisis benefits some more than others. Look at this forum; how many people here have been directly affected by the 2008 economic crisis? I don't mean that their assets lost in value, I mean their daily life being severely affected.

Warning: Contents May Settle During Shipping

[The Minsky Moment]

So, the question isn't "why are the disenfranchised/left behind so disenchanted with the system?" as it is "why are so many people who have it so good so disenchanted with the system?" I don't think a long series of anecdotal and strawman arguments like Wong gives us (seriously, he paid no attention whatsoever to all the news stories about the devastation of rural Mississippi and Louisiana and blames city dwellers for his willful ignorance?) get us any closer to the answer.  Wong doesn't even know the question.

The corollary being - why are rural voters responding so strongly to an anti-immigrant message when for the most part they are being badly impacted by immigration?  Or for that matter anti-trade when agriculture and energy (over-represented in rural areas) benefit from trade, and even manufacturing has held up better than in urban areas? 

[Valmy]

I take it you mean barely impacted?

[garbon]

Holy cockslaps, that makes it look like Obama's blue party is some kind of fringe political faction that struggles to get 20 percent of the vote. The blue parts, however, are more densely populated -- they're the cities. In the upper left, you see the blue Seattle/Tacoma area, lower down is San Francisco and then L.A. The blue around the dick-shaped Lake Michigan is made of cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago. In the northeast is, of course, New York and Boston, leading down into Philadelphia, which leads into a blue band which connects a bunch of southern cities like Charlotte and Atlanta.

Pretty decent chunks of blue (say like in New England) are not urban or even really suburban.

[Valmy]

Holy cockslaps, that makes it look like Obama's blue party is some kind of fringe political faction that struggles to get 20 percent of the vote. The blue parts, however, are more densely populated -- they're the cities. In the upper left, you see the blue Seattle/Tacoma area, lower down is San Francisco and then L.A. The blue around the dick-shaped Lake Michigan is made of cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago. In the northeast is, of course, New York and Boston, leading down into Philadelphia, which leads into a blue band which connects a bunch of southern cities like Charlotte and Atlanta.

Pretty decent chunks of blue (say like in New England) are not urban or even really suburban.

Yeah and some cities are red. The Mississippi and Rio Grande valleys are not exactly urban either. It is not an exact science.

[garbon]

Holy cockslaps, that makes it look like Obama's blue party is some kind of fringe political faction that struggles to get 20 percent of the vote. The blue parts, however, are more densely populated -- they're the cities. In the upper left, you see the blue Seattle/Tacoma area, lower down is San Francisco and then L.A. The blue around the dick-shaped Lake Michigan is made of cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago. In the northeast is, of course, New York and Boston, leading down into Philadelphia, which leads into a blue band which connects a bunch of southern cities like Charlotte and Atlanta.

Pretty decent chunks of blue (say like in New England) are not urban or even really suburban.

Yeah and some cities are red. The Mississippi and Rio Grande valleys are not exactly urban either. It is not an exact science.

Well when a pretty image fails across large swathes of 6 states (no matter how small they might be), one should wonder if one picked the right image.

[katmai]

The article missed, I think, the point.  There has always been the city-country divide since cities first rose. 

Not all of us are old enough to remember that far Grumbles!

[grumbler]

The article missed, I think, the point.  There has always been the city-country divide since cities first rose. 

Not all of us are old enough to remember that far Grumbles!

Then you should read my book.  Or play Civ VI.

[dps]

In the US your small town goes to shit and that's it. No hope anywhere for miles around. In the UK meanwhile there's probably a decent city just 20 miles away. 

I rather question whether there's a decent city anywhere in the UK outside London.

Beyond that, though, it's not really that there's no hope in rural areas in the US.  In rural and even suburban areas of the US, almost everybody has a car, no matter how poor.  Pretty much the only people who don't are elderly people who have given up driving because they aren't really physically capable of do so anymore.  So a new start is just a tank full of gasoline away.

Urban poverty is much worse.  Only in the big cities do you get significant numbers of working age people without cars, so they have no way out.  And even if they did have cars, where are they gonna go?  There's already in the city.

[mongers]

In the US your small town goes to shit and that's it. No hope anywhere for miles around. In the UK meanwhile there's probably a decent city just 20 miles away. 

I rather question whether there's a decent city anywhere in the UK outside London.

Beyond that, though, it's not really that there's no hope in rural areas in the US.  In rural and even suburban areas of the US, almost everybody has a car, no matter how poor.  Pretty much the only people who don't are elderly people who have given up driving because they aren't really physically capable of do so anymore.  So a new start is just a tank full of gasoline away.

Urban poverty is much worse.  Only in the big cities do you get significant numbers of working age people without cars, so they have no way out.  And even if they did have cars, where are they gonna go?  There's already in the city.

[Duque de Bragança]

In the US your small town goes to shit and that's it. No hope anywhere for miles around. In the UK meanwhile there's probably a decent city just 20 miles away. 

I rather question whether there's a decent city anywhere in the UK outside London.

Beyond that, though, it's not really that there's no hope in rural areas in the US.  In rural and even suburban areas of the US, almost everybody has a car, no matter how poor.  Pretty much the only people who don't are elderly people who have given up driving because they aren't really physically capable of do so anymore.  So a new start is just a tank full of gasoline away.

Urban poverty is much worse.  Only in the big cities do you get significant numbers of working age people without cars, so they have no way out.  And even if they did have cars, where are they gonna go?  There's already in the city.

Bournemouth for mongers, at the very least.