It’s just damn easy to fall into that pattern of thinking, even when you know it’s wrong. I grew up in North Carolina, spent my teenage years there during the height of the reign of Jesse Helms, so as you might imagine, I have some bad memories that linger. Most of my relatives (NOT family) are the exact stereotypes so many think of when they invoke “The South.”
I have good friends that live in NC, including a friend I’ve had for over 40 years who moved back there with his husband. I grew up near the Research Triangle Park area and know people in tiny little towns that are standing up for social progress and change. I can’t write any of them off, no matter how badly I feel hurt by my experiences there. Those people were not responsible for that and are working to see it doesn’t happen to others.
Thank you (and others here) for the reminder that the loudest voices there aren’t representative of the whole, even if they like to make like they are just that.
This.
Also urban or suburban areas vs. those who live in rural regions. The entire US was once regarded as the home of savages and dim residents of a colonial backwater. Smart people can live anywhere. Unless you are truly exceptional, there’s probably someone in every state that’s smarter than you.
There are, just not as many as there are up north. You can’t shake a stick in Michigan without hitting a craft brewery, the brick pizza ovens are slightly more scarce. Alabama, in contrast, has about 1 brewery in each larger city.
I’ve worked in government for over a decade, and any time I hear these conspiracy theorists I just can’t imagine how they think things actually work. Like, do they actually think people are that organized and consistent that all the doctors and reporters and everyone are coordinating the storyline with no leaks?
In some ways, I wish the world were being run in such an orderly manner, but it isn’t.
I’ve lived in Wisconsin now for almost 20 years, and more than a decade in Chicago before this. Bigots abound everywhere, unfortunately. I do think that their attitudes are more tolerated in some places, perhaps that’s from where comes the perception that they are representative of the population in a state? Regardless, it’s not nearly as sharply delineated as some would like to think.
I also question if bigots remaining quiet about their idiocy is that useful. It’s not so much that I want to hear from these chuckleheads, but if my neighbor down the street proudly flys a traitor flag (e.g., confederate flag, Trump sign, whatever) then I know to avoid their racist ass and not to trust them. If they keep it hidden, smile and wave at me in public, but then vote for Nazis, that’s just someone backstabbing me for extra damage.
So it’s perfectly fine for a “private entity” to deny service to a gay couple, but if they want you to wear a mask to prevent others from getting sick that’s just a bridge too far.
Got it. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all these right-wing rules.
So much conspiracy theory is based on the fantasy that someone really is in charge, even if they are imagined to be evil, it’s more reassuring than the world being constantly affected by actual humans with all different motives clashing and meshing with each other and random events.
Then it’s a real fight you can win or lose, instead of a constant struggle to just do the best you can not to hurt people or wreck stuff if you want to be a good person.
I’ve had repeated discussions on this with diehard covid deniers. If you get shot in the chest, you will not only have GSW on your cause of death. This is literally from here,https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/red_form.pdf on the CDC website.
Covid attacks all different type of tissues by shutting down energy production within the cells. Which tissues it attacks and who is affected cannot be predicted.
So, this ‘cardiac event’ was literally the muscle cells in his heart ceasing to work because of Covid infection.
I know the right is mainly scientifically illiterate, but even if they were, they wouldn’t believe this anyway.
Also, Covid sometimes causes abnormal blood clotting, which can cause all kinds of bad problems, including strokes, heart attacks, limp dicks, etc, especially if the clots break free and travel to the worst possible places to get stuck.
