I've travelled to several places in rural Illinois, Georgia, and Virginia. And my wife grew up in a small town in Northwestern Iowa. I've found people in rural America to be very warm and friendly.
That said, Steve King is the House representative for the town where my wife grew up. Rural people are disproportionately behind the sorts of laws that make it necessary to have conversations about transgender bathroom rights (something that people would otherwise have no reason or desire to talk about).
My hunch is that many would be more receptive if the messaging was more educational about the hardships trans people experienced (and that led them and their doctors to believe an incredibly invasive, expensive, and irreversible surgery was their best chance at happiness). Could be wrong.
(That and there just isn't a need for bathroom legislation going either direction - total waste of time - neither side ought be making a big deal about that sort of ineffectual legislation which is nothing but pandering one way or the other)
Yes, we are. But the cities remain very far behind and there's an enormous amount of work to do.
Seriously: what are you on about here? Almost everything you're saying is just plain wrong. Urban incomes are lower than rural ones in this country. Urban crime rates are higher. Urban hunger rates are higher. Urban drug addiction rates are higher. Urban suicide rates (c.f. this very discussion) are higher. Pick your social ill. The cities have it worse. The cities have always had it worse, since literally the invention of the city.
You've invented this idea that "cities" are inhabited only by college-educated liberals who hate you. Well... they aren't. And the people that actually do live there kinda need your help (and, ahem, empathy) too.
I know many people in cities that have 0 empathy for rural America and issues such as the heroin epidemic facing America. I know many people that go out and passionately fight for black lives matter. It's actually kind of a trendy thing nowadays. Where is rural lives matter? Where are the people fighting for the girl I knew who was raised in a house that was filled with cigarette smoke that had her parents laugh at her when she talked about applying for college. I know these issues exist in cities, but there is empathy for them. But the 40% of America that has serious issues is completely ignored right now.
It's the very definition of lack of empathy.
What does empathy look like? What makes you say rural America has it for urban America but not vice versa?
Odd, because I know several just within my own extended family. And I'd say last November 8th provides a pretty good existence proof that you're wrong about this bit too.
There's no shortage of assholes in this country. Don't you dare pretend that you get to decide who they are.
also for your second graph how does that compare to the south side of chicago and balitmore, will the poor in cities be spared the automation? what solutions have they gotten? How many people from those parts go to good colleges vs rural people?
I know many people in cities that have 0 empathy for rural America and issues such as the heroin epidemic facing America.
You literally said it yourself, "That's an entirely self-inflicted problem.". Go to rural America. Talk to them. Then come back and tell me if you think its self inflicted. Do you really think you are so amazing that you would have been impervious to the cultural impact your environment has on you and never touched those type of drugs?
I mean people talking about transgender bathroom rights instead of rural poverty (to the extent that's true--which it largely isn't) is a self-inflicted problem.
It's lack of visibility into the thriving economy America has.
Now we spend a huge amount on infrastructure, yet if you actually go to rural America you will feel a large lack of hope. There is no place for these people in where America is going. They know the infrastructure funding is temporary. Do you think these people don't know robots are coming? THEY DO!!! So they feel like their entire lives are being threatened and they want to adapt. They really do. But what solutions are being offered? Are we actively trying to level the educational playing field between cities and rural America? Are we trying to enable high tech companies to pop up in smaller states? I don't see it.
'That's an entirely self-inflicted problem. Nobody would be talking about transgender bathroom rights if people (disproportionately people in rural America) weren't being assholes about what bathroom people use.'
You clearly have never been to rural America. That is a very ignorant statement. There are many people in rural America that respect all types of people.
Put yourself in the shoes of an American that had had a farmer for a dad that was uneducated making less than 40k. You don't even know the concept of Google being a real thing. You've never met a facebook employee or google employee. Or hell, even an Exxon employee. You're local dirt sales company is one of the hottest companies in your town. Your parents don't know how to help you get into college. What are you doing to help this person?