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Can we please go back to calling it flyover land?

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I never thought about your first observation... I'm scanning my brain for a shred of red state acknowledgement of all the advances brought to them by NYers and Angelenos, but I can't recall any. After 9/11, the red staters didn't admit NY was the capitol and heart of the country. They said things like "NYers are different from us, but we're all Americans" or "I don't know NY, but we're all in this together." Why the caveats?

I think I can add some flesh to your second point... No one challenges rubes' alleged god given deeper earthy wisdom for two reasons. First, how do you argue with a rube? He's unread and doesn't consider alternative data. Ever try to debate against a person who's relying on a hunch? There's no point in it. So most thinkers don't engage rubes. No rube will go toe to toe with Stanley cavell at Oxford any time soon, so the rube wisdom goes forever unchallenged. Second, rubes deal in absolutes and shun analytical thought. Americans don't like to think. They find the idea that a hayseed can reach the same wisdom as a research scientist from natural intuition alone incredibly attractive. Believing the myth that Farmer John is as wise from old age as any formally educated person is from university schooling creates a false even playing field on which rubes can consider themselves as advanced as anyone else on the planet. This rube pride is really nothing more than the pervasive laziness of our culture repackaged - Americans want maximum return, minimal effort. The rubes are proud, but frustrated. They want respect, but they don't want to have to earn it on terms set by what they see as the "Eastern Intellectuals". What they're missing is that the these high fallutin' coastal measures of intelligence are not coastal at all - they're universal.

Maybe I should give them a hand - they're successfully rebelling against evolution, which is what they want, right?