I’ve lived in a red state my entire life. I’ve watched it go from a thoughtful, mostly Republican but with a lot of Democrat influence, a successful happy state, to the state of all red states – angry, poorer, myopic, ignorant etc. It’s sad to watch, so as it began to happen I was really interested in what was occurring. This is my take on it:
A whole lot of the state is rural, and a lot of the state has very small business. It seemed like they ALL listen to AM radio. It started with conservatives like Paul Harvey. When I was in college, in the summer I would work labor jobs with guys that had more skills than I.
At lunch, it was considered impolite to speak when Paul Harvey was on. It was that way on every job I had of the like. They hung onto AM radio because cable came to the country and small towns much later than the larger areas. TV was three channels if you were lucky, so everybody still listened to AM radio. Then came the beginning of the end. Rush Limbaugh was a good example.
The people I knew, the farmers on their tractors, the people working skilled labor jobs, the people with small businesses etc. continued to listen. It was like Hitler’s giving away radios to pick up his propaganda; only without even having to supply the radios! Day in and day out, they listened to propaganda, ALL THE TIME. They still do. But, now they pick it up on the internet when they’re not out working or if there’s wifi.
It did to them what Hitler’s propaganda did to Germany. I don’t know what happened after that, I tried to tune it out. It was so far ingrained by then it didn’t matter. It was like hitting a baseball at a window and standing there watching and waiting to see what’s going to happen.
This said, I don’t mean to imply this applies to everyone in a red state. In fact, it might apply to a small majority, it just depends on where you’re at. I in no way mean to state everyone in a red state is stupid or brainwashed or anything like that. Anytime you paint everyone with the same brush, you’ve just joined the bigots.
Well for the first time ever I just shut off the comments. I don’t know what happened but all the sudden I started getting all kinds of shrill personal attacks. If you read this you can see I was just remarking on my experienced and my thoughts on it.
As a leftist who has lived in two different red states I can’t agree that they’re stupid. In fact, some red states do things better than others. For one, red states are red because of gerrymandering so a large percentage of the population has no representation.
In our outdated electoral system if 50.1% of a party gets a vote then they get all the electoral votes. Switching to a parliamentary system would be a lot more representative of the views of the people, but a two party system doesn’t want to have to share power and form coalitions.
Second, it’s a recent creation that red states have appeared to be a lot more stupid. States, especially Texas, have been taken over by fascist elements so they’ve started pushing the most insane ideas that we haven’t seen since 1930s Germany. There could be a number of reasons for this.
One may be the beforementioned gerrymandering where the politicians get to pick their voters and enable the most extreme politicians to fulfill fascist desires with the safe knowledge that they won’t lose their jobs. The other could be the demise of independent journalism as corporations buy up and consolidate news outlets and push a narrative that benefits the wealthy and corporations.
Third is the lack of civics education. Fourth is social media promoting conspiracy theories, dishonesty and generally making the population less informed. And finally, many people haven’t left their state, or their country, to know that there are better systems out there.
I wouldn’t say red states are stupid, after all, Alaska has a Permanent Fund Dividend which invests oil wealth and pays it’s citizens a check every year rather than taking that money and just giving tax cuts to the rich. Oklahoma provides a universal pre-K program. Some red states have incorporated abortion rights into their Constitution (Kansas, Kentucky, etc). Some red states have legalized marijuana (Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska).
A lot of that was through voter initiatives because, what makes red states appear stupid, is Republican politicians serving their own interests and not the people.
It wasn’t that long ago that many of these red states were blue, but states like Kansas felt sold out by Bill Clinton who supported the Republican NAFTA plan. Perhaps if the Democrats returned to being more of a center left party rather than a centrist party they could win back voters. But like Republicans, there are a lot of Democrats who want their safe positions and don’t want leftists like Bernie Sanders or AOC rocking the boat.
In other words, a lot of blame to go around.
Largely insular populations.
I primarily grew up in California, right in the San Joaquin Valley. Much of my adult life has been spent in the Deep South and along the Gulf Coast. Let me tell ya, the Valley is not surfboards, purple hair, and palm trees, but down South, you’d be lucky to get that far into an explanation about anywhere in California before you get cut off with the “Left coast libtard” comments.
Anyway, here are a few observations I’ve made over the years:
- A LOT of people in red states don’t travel. A LOT of those who do travel don’t go far. A LOT of those who do stick to other ruby red areas.
- There are a lot of disingenuous arguments made about other places. They’ll call “blue cities” dangerous, despite statistics showing their little rural hometown to be far more dangerous on a per capita basis. When I lived in New Orleans, I saw a girl from the Mississippi Gulf Coast constantly posting about how dangerous New Orleans was and when she moved back to the coast, she’d constantly talk about feeling safer. Why? I dunno. Her town had a murder and violent crime rate like 3x that of New Orleans, it just wasn’t a big enough town to be statistically significant in the grand scheme of things.
- There is a staunch “If you don’t like it, leave” mentality, as if it’s some world-collapsing bluff. The prevailing opinion in many deep red areas is that is just doesn’t get any better and the world outside is spooky and an assured quick and violent demise. It’s eyeroll inducing.
- Education is an afterthought. What good is philosophy? You can’t use it to hammer in a nail! If you can’t immediately monetize something, it’s worthless and a waste of time.
- Religion and superstition reign absolutely supreme.
- Racism is RAMPANT. Anyone who wants to challenge me on this, go fuck yourself. Yes, racism occurs everywhere, but Red states, particularly in the South, take the cake. You can try and hide it all you want, it’s a facade cheaper than the shit stucco on every crappy strip mall built in Florida. I’m white. I’m upper middle class. I blend in. I got to hear all of the publicly hushed conversations behind the safety of the closed clubhouse doors about how folks “really feel”.
- Self-interest only extends to the front door. Look, Louisiana is a perfect example of this. Without New Orleans, the state would be utterly broke and a world-class hell hole. Hell, most of the entire Gulf Coast would be screwed without New Orleans. But Louisiana’s state legislature would rather see New Orleans crumble than accept that they actually need the “blue city” to succeed. New Orleans would do far better as an independent city-state than the rest of Louisiana without it. Yet, instead of allowing it to flourish, they’ll consistently put the screws to New Orleans despite it harming the rest of the state. Better to “own the libs”, I guess?
- Pridefulnes and sentimentality rule the day. “Granddaddy told me” means more than any expert opinion. “Granddaddy built this house, so it’s worth more than they’re saying!”. “Só you’re calling my dad a liar!?”. That stuff permeates in Red America. Sorry your grandpa was an idiot? Sorry the bank isn’t going to give me a $400k mortgage for a $150k house just because he “built it with his bare hands”? Yeah, your dad lied and it’s easy to prove, so why are you getting mad at me?
- Vigilante mentality takes precedent over the facts. There was a cop killed a few years back. They got it on camera. There’s no reason to debate whether or not the suspect did it- he did. 100%. But when they apprehended him, they brought out every law enforcement agency, news camera, local politician, and civilian they could find for 100 miles for the “perp walk” so they could all look tough. It was practically a parade. Some people cautioned against this, as it could derail the case due to tainting the jury pool. They were, naturally, derided as “libtard cop haters”. They were also correct. The case quickly went to shit. Way to go, guys. But, hey, they got to look tough for a 6pm newscast before they ruined it.
- A total lack of self awareness. It’s beyond a proven fact at this point that Red States are the consummate “welfare queens”. How anyone living in a Red State gets off bitching about welfare or aid or assistance is beyond me. Subsidized to no end, but because they’re not receiving a personally addressed aid box, it must not be true.
So what you typically wind up with is a population that largely never leaves the immediate vicinity, has no frame of reference of elsewhere for comparison, is largely undereducated, superstitious, racist, and interested only in short term instant gratification, that puts more stock in misguided pride and sentimentality while caring more about looking tough than actually being tough, all while relying on others to actually do the heavy lifting.
If that sounds like some old backwater plantation owner, it’s because that’s the mentality that grew out of bullshit like the the “Lost Cause of the Noble South” and “the South Will Rise Again”, phrases that may as well be the lost pages of the Gospel itself.
Why, you ask, are they so astonishingly stupid? Because they’ve largely refused to progress with the times and were never really forced to. The biggest mistake the US has made over the years has been allowing Red States to go about their whimsically merry way of trifling horseshit than allowing them to be the failures they so desperately want to be, because Blue States paid attention in biology class and understand that allowing parasites to rot away will hurt the whole. Red States probably missed that lecture in place of revisiting Deuteronomy 22.
