10/19/2019 Forsetti's Justice: On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

Follow forsetti

Defending the Social Contract

14 Nov

On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

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
supports 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 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 the 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 twenty-four 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

https://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem 1/10
10/19/2019 Forsetti's Justice: On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

infrastructure over the past thirty 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 for 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.  At some
point during the discussion, “That’s your education talking,” will be said, derogatorily, as a general
dismissal of everything I said.  They truly believe this is a legitimate response because to them
education is not to be trusted.  Education is the enemy of fundamentalism because fundamentalism, by
its very nature, is not built on facts. The fundamentalists I grew up around aren’t anti-education.  They
want their kids to know how to read and write.  They are anti-quality, in-depth, broad, specialized
education.  Learning is only valued up to the certain point.  Once it reaches the level where what you
learn contradicts doctrine and fundamentalist arguments, it becomes dangerous.  I watched a lot of my
fellow students who were smart, stop their education the day they graduated high school.  For most of
the young ladies, getting married and having kids was more important than continuing their learning.
 For many of the young men, getting a college education was seen as unnecessary and a waste of time.
 For the few who did go to college, what they learned was still filtered through their fundamentalist
belief system.  If something they were taught didn’t support a preconception, it would be ignored and
forgotten the second it was no longer need to pass an exam.  

Knowing this about their belief system and their view of outside information that doesn’t support it,
telling me that the problem is coastal elites not understanding them completely misses the point.  

Another problem with rural, Christian, white Americans is they are racists. I’m not talking about white
hood wearing, cross burning, lynching racists (though some are.)  I’m talking about people who deep
down in their heart of hearts truly believe they are superior because they are white.  Their white God
made them in his image and everyone else is a less-than-perfect version, flawed, cursed.  The religion
in which I was raised taught this.  Even though they’ve backtracked some of their more racist
declarations, many still believe the original claims.  Non-whites are the color they are because of their
sins, or at least the sins of their ancestors.  Blacks don’t have dark skin because of where they lived and
evolution.  They have dark skin because they are cursed and cursed people don’t deserve the things
God’s blessed whites do.  God cursed them for reasons and it isn’t proper to question them.  If God
cursed them, then treating them as equals would be going against God’s Will.  It is really easy to justify
https://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem 2/10
10/19/2019 Forsetti's Justice: On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

treating people differently, poorly, if they are cursed by God, will never be as good as you no matter
what they do because of some predetermined status given to them by an almighty God.  Once you
have this view, it is easy to lower the outside group’s standing and acceptable level of treatment.  Again,
there are varying levels of racism at play in rural, Christian, white America.  I know people who are
ardent racists.  I know a lot more whose racism is much more subtle but nonetheless racist.  It wouldn’t
take sodium pentothal to get most of these people to admit they believe they are fundamentally better
and superior to minorities.  They are white supremacists who dress up in white dress shirts, ties, and
gingham dresses.   They carry a Bible and tell you, “everyone’s a child of God” but forget to mention
that some of God’s children are more favored than others and skin tone is the criterion by which we
know who is and who isn’t at the top of God’s list of most favored children.

For us “coastal elites” who understand evolution, genetics, science…nothing we say to those in fly-over
country is going to be listened to because not only are we fighting against an anti-education belief
system, we are arguing against God.  You aren’t winning a battle of beliefs with these people if you are
on one side of the argument and God is on the other.  No degree of understanding this is going to
suddenly make them less racist, more open to reason and facts.  Telling “urban elites” they need to
understand rural Americans isn’t going to lead to a damn thing because it misses the causes of the
problem.

Because rural, Christian, white Americans will not listen to educated arguments, supported by facts that
go against their fundamentalist belief systems from “outsiders,” any change must come from within.
 Internal change in these systems does happen, but it happens infrequently and it always lags far
behind reality.  This is why they fear change so much.  They aren’t used to it.  Of course, it really doesn’t
matter whether they like it or not, it, like the evolution and climate change even though they don’t
believe it, it is going to happen whether they believe in it or not.

Another major problem with closed-off, fundamentalist belief systems is they are very susceptible to
propaganda.  All belief systems are to some extent, but fundamentalist systems even more so because
there are no checks and balances.  If bad information gets in, it doesn’t get out and because there are
no internal mechanisms to guard against it, it usually ends up very damaging to the whole.  A closed-off
belief system is like your spinal fluid-it is great as long as nothing infectious gets into it.  If bacteria gets
into your spinal fluid, it causes unbelievable damage because there are no white blood cells in it whose
job is to fend off invaders and protect the system.  This is why things like meningitis are so horrible.
 Without the protective services of white blood cells in the spinal column, meningitis spreads like wildfire
once it’s in and does significant damage in a very short period of time.  Once inside the closed-off
spinal system, bacteria is free to destroy whatever it wants and does.  The very same is true with
closed-off belief systems.  Without built-in protective functions like critical analysis, self-reflection,
openness to counter-evidence, willingness to re-evaluate any and all beliefs, etc., bad information in a
closed-off system ends up doing massive damage in short period of time.  What has happened to too
many fundamentalist belief systems is damaging information has been allowed in from people who
have been granted “expert status.”  If someone is allowed into a closed-off system and their information
is deemed acceptable, anything they say will readily be accepted and become gospel.  Rural, Christian,
white Americans have let in anti-intellectual, anti-science, bigoted, racists into their system as experts
https://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem 3/10
10/19/2019 Forsetti's Justice: On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, any of the blonde Stepford Wives on FOX, every
evangelical preacher on television because they tell them what they want to hear and because they sell
themselves as being “one of them.  The truth is none of these people give a rat’s ass about rural,
Christian, white Americans except how can they exploit them for attention and money.  None of them
 have anything in common with the people who have let them into their belief systems with the
exception they are white and they “speak the same language” of white superiority, God’s Will must be
obeyed, and how, even though they are the Chosen Ones, they are the ones being screwed by all the
people and groups they believe they are superior to.  

Gays being allowed to marry are a threat.  Blacks protesting the killing of their unarmed friends and
family are a threat.  Hispanics doing the cheap labor on their farms are somehow viewed a threat.  The
black President is a threat.  Two billion Muslims are a threat.  The Chinese are a threat.  Women wanting
to be autonomous are a threat. The college educated are a threat.  Godless scientists are a threat.
Everyone who isn’t just like them has been sold to them as a threat and they’ve bought it hook, line, and
grifting sinker.  Since there are no self-regulating mechanisms in their belief systems, these threats only
grow over time.  Since facts and reality don’t matter, nothing you say to them will alter their beliefs.
 President Obama was born in Kenya, is a secret member of the Muslim Brotherhood who hates white
Americans and is going to take away their guns.  I feel ridiculous even writing this it is so absurd but it is
gospel across large swaths of rural America.  Are rural, Christian, white Americans scared?  You’re
damn right they are.  Are their fears rational and justified?  Fuck no!  The problem isn’t understanding
their fears. The problem is how to assuage fears based on lies in closed-off fundamentalist belief
systems that don’t have the necessary tools for properly evaluating the fears.

I don’t have a good answer to this question.  When a child has an irrational fear, you can deal with it
because they trust you and are open to possibilities.  When someone doesn’t trust you and isn’t open to
anything not already accepted as true in their belief system, there really isn’t much, if anything you can
do.  This is why I think the whole, “Democrats have to understand and find common ground with rural
America,” is misguided and a complete waste of time. When a three-thousand-year-old book that was
written by uneducated, pre-scientific people, subject to translation innumerable times, edited with
political and economic pressures from Popes and kings, is given higher intellectual authority than facts
arrived at from a rigorous, self-critical, constantly re-evaluating system that can and does correct
mistakes, no amount of understanding, no amount of respect, no amount of evidence is going to change
their minds, assuage their fears.

Do you know what does change the beliefs of fundamentalists, sometimes? When something becomes
personal.  Many a fundamentalist have changed their minds about the LGBT community once their
loved ones started coming out of the closet.  Many have not.  But, those that have done so because their
personal experience came in direct conflict with what they believe.  My own father is a good example of
this.  For years I had long, sometimes heated discussions with him about gay rights.  Being the good
religious fundamentalist he is, he could not even entertain the possibility he was wrong.  The Church
said it was wrong so therefore it was wrong.  No questions ask.  No analysis needed.  This changed
when one of his step children who he adores came out of the closet.  He didn’t do a complete 180.  He
has a view that tries to accept gay rights while at the same time viewing it as a mortal sin because his
https://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem 4/10
10/19/2019 Forsetti's Justice: On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

need to have his belief system be right outweighs everything else.  This isn’t uncommon.  Deeply held
beliefs are usually only altered, replaced under catastrophic circumstances that are personal.  This
belief system alteration works both ways.  I know die hard, open-minded progressives who became
ardent fundamentalists due to a traumatic event in their lives.  A really good example of this is the
comedian Dennis Miller.  I saw Miller in concert four different times during the 1990s.  His humor was
complex, riddled with references, and leaned pretty left on almost all issues.  Then 9/11 happened.  For
whatever reasons, the trauma of 9/11 caused a seismic shift in Miller’s belief system.  Now he is a
mainstay on conservative talk radio.  His humor was replaced with anger and frustration.  9/11 changed
his belief system because it was a catastrophic event that was personal to him.

The catastrophe of the Great Depression along with the progressive remedies by FDR helped create a
generation of Democrats from previously die-hard Republicans.  People who had, up until that point,
deeply believed the government couldn’t help the economy only the free market could change their
minds when the brutal reality of the Great Depression affected them directly, personally.  I thought the
financial crisis in 2008 would have a similar, though lesser, impact on many Republicans.  It didn’t.   The
systems that were put in place after the Great Depression to deal with economic crises, the quick, smart
response by Congress and the administration helped make what could have been a catastrophic event
into merely a really bad one. People suffered, but they didn’t suffer enough to where they were open to
questioning their deeply held beliefs.  Because this questioning didn’t take place, the Great Recession
didn’t lead to any meaningful political shift away from poorly regulated markets, supply side economics,
or how to respond to a financial crisis.  This is why, even though rural, Christian, white America was hit
hard by the Great Recession, they not only didn’t blame the political party they’ve aligned themselves
with for years, they rewarded them two years later by voting them into a record number of state
legislatures and taking over the U.S. House.  Of course, it didn’t help matters there were scapegoats
available they could direct their fears, anger, and white supremacy towards.  A significant number of
rural America believes President Obama was in charge when the financial crisis started.  An even
higher number believe the mortgage crisis was the result of the government forcing banks to give loans
to unqualified minorities.  It doesn’t matter how untrue both of these are, they are gospel in rural
America.  Why reevaluate your beliefs and voting patterns when scapegoats are available?  

How do you make climate change personal to someone who believes only God can alter the weather?
 How do you make racial equality personal to someone who believes whites are naturally superior to
non-whites? How do you make gender equality personal to someone who believes women are
supposed to be subservient to men by God’s command?  How do you get someone to view minorities as
not threatening personal to people who don’t live around and never interact with them?  How do you
make personal the fact massive tax cuts and cutting back government hurts their economic situation
when they’ve voted for these for decades?  I don’t think you can without some catastrophic events.  And
maybe not even then.  The Civil War was pretty damn catastrophic yet a large swath of the South
believed and still believes they were right, had the moral high ground.  They were/are also mostly
Christian fundamentalists who believe they are superior because of the color of their skin and the
religion they profess to follow.  There is a pattern here for anyone willing to connect the dots.   “Rural,
white America needs to be better understood,” is not one of the dots.  “Rural, white America needs to be

https://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem 5/10
10/19/2019 Forsetti's Justice: On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

better understood,” is a dodge, meant to avoid the real problems because talking about the real
problems is viewed as “too upsetting,” “too mean,” “too arrogant,” “too elite,” “too snobbish.”  Pointing
out Aunt Bee’s views of Mexicans, blacks, gays…is bigoted isn’t the thing one does in polite society.  Too
bad more people don’t think the same about the views Aunt Bee has. It’s the classic, “You’re a racist for
calling me a racist,” ploy.  Or, as it is more commonly known, “I know you are but what am I?”

I do think rational arguments are needed, even if they go mostly ignored and ridiculed.  I believe in
treating people with the respect they’ve earned but the key point here is “earned.”  I’ll gladly sit down
with Aunt Bee and have a nice, polite conversation about her beliefs about “the gays,” “the blacks,”
“illegals,”…and do so without calling her a bigot or a racist.  But, this doesn’t mean she isn’t a bigot and
a racist and if I’m asked to describe her beliefs these are the only words that honestly fit.  No one with
cancer wants to be told they have cancer, but just because no one uses the word, “cancer,” it doesn’t
mean they don’t have it. Just because the media, pundits on all sides, some Democratic leaders don’t
want to call the actions of many rural, Christian, white Americans, “racist/bigoted” doesn’t make them
not so.  Avoiding the obvious only prolongs getting the necessary treatment.  America has always had a
race problem.  It was built on racism and bigotry. This didn’t miraculously go away in 1964 with the
passage of the Civil Rights Act. It didn’t go away with the election of Barack Obama.  If anything, these
events pulled back the curtain exposing the dark, racist underbelly of America that white America likes
to pretend doesn’t exist because we are the reason it exists.  From the white nationalists to the white,
suburban soccer moms who voted for Donald Trump, to the far left progressives who didn’t vote at all,
racism exists and has once again been legitimized and normalized by white America.  

The honest truths that rural, Christian, white Americans don’t want to accept and until they do nothing is
going to change, are:

-Their economic situation is largely the result of voting for supply-side economic policies that have been
the largest redistribution of wealth from the bottom/middle to the top in U.S. history.

-Immigrants haven’t taken their jobs.  If all immigrants, legal or otherwise, were removed from the U.S.,
our economy would come to a screeching halt and prices on food would soar.

-Immigrants are not responsible for companies moving their plants overseas. Almost exclusively white
business owners are the ones responsible because they care more about their share holders who are
also mostly white than they do American workers.

-No one is coming for their guns.  All that has been proposed during the entire Obama administration is
having better background checks.

-Gay people getting married is not a threat to their freedom to believe in whatever white God you want
to.  No one is going to make their church marry gays, make gays your pastor, accept gays for
membership.

https://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem 6/10
10/19/2019 Forsetti's Justice: On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

-Women having access to birth control doesn’t affect their life either, especially women who they
complain about being teenage, single mothers.

-Blacks are not “lazy moochers living off their hard earned tax dollars” anymore than many of your
fellow rural neighbors.  People in need are people in need.  People who can’t find jobs because of their
circumstances, a changing economy, outsourcing overseas, etc. belong to all races.  

-They get a tremendous amount of help from the government they complain does nothing for them.
 From the roads and utility grids they use to the farm subsidies, crop insurance, commodities
protections…they benefit greatly from government assistance.  The Farm Bill is one of the largest
financial expenditures by the U.S. government.  Without government assistance, their lives would be
considerably worse.

-They get the largest share of Food Stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.

-They complain about globalization but line up like everyone else to get the latest Apple product.  They
have no problem buying foreign-made guns, scopes, and hunting equipment.  They don’t think twice
about driving trucks whose engine was made in Canada, tires made in Japan, radio made in Korea,
computer parts made in Malaysia…

-They use illicit drugs as much as any other group.  But, when other people do it is a “moral failing” and
they should be severely punished, legally.  When they do it, it is a “health crisis” that needs sympathy
and attention.

-When jobs dry up for  whatever reasons, they refuse to relocate but lecture the poor in places like Flint
for staying in towns that are failing.

-They are quick to judge minorities for being “welfare moochers” but don’t think twice about cashing
their welfare check every month.

-They complain about coastal liberals, but the taxes from California and New York are what covers their
farm subsidies, helps maintain their highways, and keeps their hospitals in their sparsely populated
areas open for business.

-They complain about “the little man being run out of business” then turn around and shop at big box
stores.

-They make sure outsiders are not welcome, deny businesses permits to build, then complain about
businesses, plants opening up in less rural areas.

-Government has not done enough to help them in many cases but their local and state governments
are almost completely Republican and so too are their Representatives and Senators.  Instead of
holding them accountable, they vote them in over and over and over again.

https://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem 7/10
10/19/2019 Forsetti's Justice: On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem

-All the economic policies and ideas that could help rural America belong to the Democratic Party:
raising the minimum wage, strengthening unions, infrastructure spending, reusable energy growth,
slowing down the damage done by climate change, healthcare reform…all of these and more would
really help a lot of rural Americans.

What I understand is rural, Christian, white America is entrenched in fundamentalist belief systems,
don’t trust people outside their tribe, have been force fed a diet of misinformation and lies for decades,
are unwilling to understand their own situations, truly believe whites are superior to all races.  No
amount of understanding is going to change these things or what they believe.  No amount of niceties is
going to get them to be introspective.  No economic policy put forth by someone outside their tribe is
going to be listened to no matter how beneficial it would be for them.  I understand rural, Christian,
white America all too well.  I understand their fears are based on myths and lies.  I understand they feel
left behind by a world they don’t understand and don’t really care to.  I understand they are willing to
vote against their own interest if they can be convinced it will make sure minorities are harmed more.  I
understand their Christian beliefs and morals are truly only extended to fellow white Christians.  I
understand them.  I understand they are the problem with progress and will always be because their
belief systems are constructed against it.  The problem isn’t a lack of understanding by “coastal elites”
of rural, Christian, white America.  The problem is a lack of understanding why rural, Christian, white
America believes, votes, behaves the ways it does by rural, Christian, white America.

https://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem 8/10