This is a very rosy view of rural America, to which I am a frequent visitor. Just a few dysfunctions off the top of my head:

- Reactionary politics were born in rural America, urban America is just catching up these days.

- The value system of rural America is dismissive of nerdy/intellectual pursuits, and so it drives out talent that was already enticed by the opportunities present in cities.

- More broadly there is a kind of pride in being very separate/distinct from the other parts of America, but it seems pretty shallow to me -- the emphasis seems mostly to be on the material trappings of "ruralness" (being a farmer, having a big truck, wearing camo patterns), and not on the values themselves.

- And perhaps rolled up in politics, but I feel the need to call it out because I sense it on display in your comment: An eagerness to play the victim to the rest of America. "It's just those city folks that cause all our problems."

Come live out here for a while, talk with people, understand them.

I've lived all over, including LA, east coast, south, Chicago, near the border of Mexico (I worked with illegals there even in sweat shops).

Rural America is garden of peace and contentment compared to the urban areas.

Your views are admitedly from a visitor... and there is no way you can compare them equally that way.

Ignore Foxnews & CNN and get to know rural America before condemning it.

First, I am glad you found a place that suits you. I grew up in a suburb adjacent to a major city up until high school, then I moved to the rural midwest. As a minority, I found it near impossible to fit in. All of my beliefs, from ethnicity-based to city-based, were misaligned to the general consensus of the rural mindset.

Sure, there was open space and generally it was green or pale yellow from the corns, but it was a terrible place for a young mind. I didn't like football or wrestling and I didn't love confederate flags on pick up trucks. The general take was that I was an outsider not to be friends with. Eventually, I made friends but I can still hear the "he is okay, he is like a white [insert minority]" from adults and people at school.

This was in the late 90's and early 2000's before Fox and CNN doubled-down on extreme views. People in rural America hated immigrants just as much then as they do know.

Having different "likes" doesn't mean a place isn't peaceful or calm. My OC was that the larger cities are where the insanity has been happening for almost ever.

People can be unhappy anywhere, but also people can learn to get along anywhere too... unless there is a riot side your house, or a shooting next door. These are outside your personal influence.

I lived in Rural America as a clear immigrant of color (my parents not fluent in English) and it sucked ass.

I've lived in a large city and it was miserable to until I learned the ways of those people.

No it isn't. People in rural America assume that if you're in rural America then you already believe the exact same things that they do, based largely on skin color. Try living there and going against that grain and see how "peaceful and contented" they are.

My experience has been that that's true of the city too, just from the other side.

Some of them are indeed kind of victims. There are dirt poor people living there who are called white trash. Sounds like a victim to me.

Sure, I'd agree with that. It's one thing to have grievances, it's another thing to be infected by a victim mindset where your grievances are always top of mind, keeping you from taking an accurate inventory of yourself, keeping you from doing what you can to improve your situation in life (and by extension your community's position in the world).

>There are minorities out here and we all get along just fine.

I wonder if we talked to minorities in rural communities if they would agree with your assessment.

I think they would, but mostly just because of selection effects. There aren't so many minorities in rural areas, and the ones that end up there probably had better-than-usual reasons to end up in rural parts.

I've lived in rural areas and they would say that when you get called "the good colored folk" by the white people in the area that there's a reason for that "good" description and it's not because they believe in racial equality.

it's difficult to imagine parts of the world being different than the part of the world you live in and/or the depiction of the world portrayed by the media.

That is a great idea.

I have found that people that don't like being questioned/challenged have something to hide like a con-man or someone selling fake luxury goods.

Spoiler alert: I have done this and they disagree with you.

Look, everything is contextual -- your rural area may be superior in some respects to the ones I've been to. But you also shouldn't assume that your experience is universal.

Edited to add: if you haven't been to a big city in a while, you should take a trip. They're not generally the hellholes you've been led to believe by right-wing news media.

I've had to drive around riots coming home living in a big city. With life/limb threatened by both police and rioters.

Never once came close in rural America, ever.

In my experience rural Americans tend to live in abject terror of just how fine they would feel were they treated as they treat minorities and it is compounded by a deep down understanding they are already the minority, it just has not arrived there yet.

I wish I could alleviate their fear. Given the opportunity, people are people, good & bad do not stratify in any meaningful way along the arbitrary lines that get drawn.

I am and I would.

I used to live in rural America. I don't any more. There are reasons for that.

Cities usually kill people by ignoring them until they die. Exceptions are so rare that they become the stuff of history books.

The big upside of cities is that nobody cares enough about you to actually hate you. If you're running away from something, that can be pretty inviting.

It can be nice in big cities too, maybe a little harder, but still pretty easy - all you have to do is remove social media and the clickbait/outrage web and life becomes pretty normal.

I'm not sure it does. I see weird people in the subway most days, I see all the time people that look like they spend all their day being outside - doing nothing, there are people making noise at 2 am on a week night, there are people going at crazy speeds on the street, at night or during the day. I feel like lots of people have some kind of weight on their shoulder, and/or one or multiple things bothering them a lot. Sometimes the atmoshpere feels a bit tense and everyone seems a little crazy.

I think it's a bit reductive to put all that on social media and the web. People are packed together in cities, sometimes you smell piss while going to and getting back from your job, sometimes people make noise when you want to sleep, it's hard to see nature, it's hard to be alone, it's hard to escape the noise and the light, public transportation can feel suffocating, the air isn't clean, it's very hard to have space to grow some food or practice some hobbies.

Most of it is "normal" in that many people live like this. However, I feel like all that I mentionned has a negative impact on my mental health, and on the mental health of the people around me. One that could translate to people being more aggressive, more tense in general.

> I feel like lots of people have some kind of weight on their shoulder, and/or one or multiple things bothering them a lot.

With very few exceptions, there’s nothing healthy or normal about living in chaotic, densely populated urban areas with high crime and endless noise, air and light pollution. In addition, there’s nothing natural about needing to work a bullshit job just to survive.

People ought to really start asking what is being afforded exactly when it comes to making city life “affordable”.

> With very few exceptions, there’s nothing healthy or normal about living in chaotic, densely populated urban areas with high crime and endless noise, air and light pollution. In addition, there’s nothing natural about needing to work a bullshit job just to survive.

That's how I feel too. The only difference is that where I live the crime rate here is not that high. But the rest is the same.

> I see weird people in the subway most days, I see all the time people that look like they spend all their day being outside - doing nothing, there are people making noise at 2 am on a week night, there are people going at crazy speeds on the street, at night or during the day.

Is it New York?

I agree that cities can be great at times. But as a whole comparatively they are not as stable or peaceful.

From everything I have read cities are generally safer than rural areas.

As someone outside a city, I can assure you it's out here too.