Rural America has its head up its ass
Tuesday 17 November 2009 - Filed under Politics
Every once in awhile these revelations hit me. Once they do they are here for good, the bell can’t be un-rung. Rural America is killing America. Rural America is the Taliban of rational thought. There is a class war going on but its not between the rich and the poor, nor is it between red state and blue state, it is between rural and urban America. The country folk vs. the city folk.
Standard sweeping generalization disclaimer: I’m talking about sentiments in general. There are vast numbers of exceptions to these generalizations. I realize that and don’t need to be reminded.
There are several highly divisive and contentious debates going on right now and they are all driven by the intolerance of rural America. These are the three G’s – god, guns and gays and, although it fits neatly into the first G for psuedo-pious rural American, abortion.
Here, then, are the 4 deadly sins of rural America:
1. They hate all non-Christians, especially atheists and muslims and they would be perfectly fine doing away with the separation of Church/State so long as Christianity is the religion.
2. They think we want to take their guns away. In the meantime those guns are used 99 times out of 100 to harm someone they love through domestic violence, suicide and accidents. Gun use for self-defense almost never happens in rural America.
3. They don’t like the gays. Except maybe Ellen DeGeneres, but she doesn’t count. This is the voting block that is stopping gay marriage in this country — rural folk who would be the least effected by it. No one can think of one tangible, secular reason for opposing gay marriage. See #1. These people can’t even interpret the Bible correctly. Most of them have never actually read the Bible. But they are pretty sure that it says God hates fags.
4. Abortion. No one can give a tangible, secular reason to criminalize abortion, either. See #1 again. For some reason they are pretty sure that God gets mad at us if we kill fertilized eggs, even though 30% – 70% of fertilized eggs never make it to birth regardless! The notion that a fertilized egg equals a person is not true nor is there a shred of evidence to suggest it is true. An acorn is not an oak tree, right? Would a law against killing oak trees apply to acorns? No, of course not. This is religion in disguise, imposing their inept Biblical view on the rest of us. Abortion should be discouraged. Unwanted pregnancies should be avoided. It does harm women emotionally when they have abortions. Abortions are not good. But they absolutely should not be criminalized. Rural folk have abortions, too, they just lie about it.
The sum of these things is the Great Sin of Rural America – intolerance. They are intolerant of all people who are not like them. The other day I had a run-in with a land owner while trying to retrieve a rocket. At one point his passenger yelled at me to “go back to the city where I belong”. This is 40 miles from Minneapolis. It is astounding to me that some redneck who lives practically in the suburbs of Minneapolis would resort to that. In his mind I was different from him (my hair is a little long these days) and he immediately tried to use that difference as a tactic to disparage me.
This Great Sin of Intolerance is prevalent everywhere in rural America. If you are the slightest bit different in the slightest way, you are ostracized for it. This is not just school yard stuff. Adults who are gay, atheist or even just lean to the left are targets to the mob mentality of small-minded, uneducated, sheltered bigots.
Am I intolerant towards people who are intolerant? Yes I am. Don’t bother trying to catch me in that trap. I am accepting of all people who are accepting of all people.
I am born and lived until I was 5 in a tiny North Dakota town. I spent my formative years in a slightly bigger North Dakota town. I have hunted and fished my whole life. I know and love many rural Americans. It is hard in a sense to have finally realized that I am an urbanite. I deplore the intolerant mindset that dominates rural America.
I’m starting to realize that ethnic and territorial conflicts like the Bosnian War, for example, are driven by the exact same mindset. There is an “us” and a “them” and if you are not with “us” you are with “them” and intolerance begets violence begets war. Same thing with the American Revolutionary war. Fuck, many rural Americans in the southern states are still fighting that war!
In spite of what you’ve just read, I love rural America. It’s where I am from. But I’m taking the gloves off. I’m sick of this intolerant bullshit coming from people who should know better and I’m calling them out.
2009-11-17 » lolife
18 November 2009 @ 2:48 pm
Can’t dispute…..maybe they have not evolved or changed because they have not had to? so when anything “different” comes close they resist.
I have relatives that have lived “on the family farm” for generations. They don’t pay attention to the news. Some don’t get a paper or listen to anything on the radio other than Glenn Beck whilst in the truck.
8 April 2010 @ 10:19 am
ABORTION SHOULD NOT BE LEGALIZED Abortion is the worst thing a woman can do against human dignity. It is a crime against life. No woman has the right to kill a new living being. Many countries ban abortion and many institutions fight against it. Abortion is immoral and it should not be legalized. Abortion is also a threat to the mother’s health. A woman can suffer an infection or internal bleeding. She could also become sterilized, the permanent inhability to bear a child. Abortion not only kills the baby but may kill the mother too. During an abortion, despite the use of local anesthesia, 97% of the women report severe pain, and if a more powerful drug is used she could suffer dangerous side effects. Many complications are common after an abortion, like inflammation of the reproductive organs. As well, there is strong evidence that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer. Women that abort increase their chances of getting breast cancer by 50%, and teenagers with no previous pregnancies that abort after the 8th week increase their probability by 800%. Unicef states that 250,000 women die every year because of legal and illegal abortions: 75,000 of them die of self-inflicted abortions; 75,000 die of convulsions; and the other 100,000 die of blood poisoning caused by an infection of the uterus. Therefore, if abortion is legalized there will be not only more fetal murders but also more mothers will die. None of the methods women use to abort are completly safe. One of the most common methods used is Suction Aspiration. The doctor uses a special tool to suck the baby into a collection bottle. Great care must be taken to prevent the uterus from being damaged, which would cause hemorrhage. A woman with hemorrhage will need a blood transfusion that could cause her AIDS. Also infection may easily occur if fetal tissue is left behind in the uterus. Another method used for babies as old as twenty four weeks, is the Dilation and Evacuation. Sharp jaws are used to grasp different parts of the unborn baby which are then torn away. The skull of the baby must be crushed to facilitate the procedure. Another technique used by a lot of pregnant women is the RU486. The RU486 are pills used to abort the undesired child. These pills have very dangerous side effects. They could cause severe bleeding, nausea, vomiting, pain, and even death. In France a woman died because of this drug while others suffered life threatning heart attacks. Also RU486 can cause severe malformations in later pregnancies. Therefore the baby is not the only one that is endangered. The baby’s mother not only has to deal with physical consequences, but also psychological problems that could last for a lifetime. Women that abort usually suffer severe traumas. Once, a woman was rapped by five men. She didn’t want to have the child, but her pain and embarrasment were so great that she couldn’t abort until the last month. She is still in psychological treatment. Psychologist Wanda Franz states, “Women feel worthless because they failed at the most natural of human activities, the role of being a mother.” Women report horrible nightmares of children calling them from a trash can full of body parts and blood. Surgical abortions aren’t as traumatic as chemical abortions. Women having chemical abortions often see the complete tiny bodies of their babies and are even able to distinguish the developing hands and eyes. So traumatic is this for some future mothers that it is recommended that women that are not prepared for this, do not take the drug. Researchers call these phychological problems the Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS). Women that suffer from PAS experience drug and alcohol abuse, personal relationship problems, repeated abortions, and even suicide. Of all the women that abort, 56% feel guilty and suffer PAS. In the United States there are over 3000 Pregnancy Crisis Centers which help women that are facing unplanned pregnancies. They make the future mothers realize that her baby deserves to have the chance of living. They tell them that if they can’t support the baby then she could give it up for adoption but not kill him. Do women have the right to steal the life of a new living being? Killing a person is illegal, so why should a fetal murder be legal? You have to ask yourself these questions and realize that when a woman aborts, she is acting like any other murderer. Researchers have discovered that life begins at the moment of conception in the mother’s uterus, therefore abortion ends a human life and should be punishable by law. As well, nine short months of pregnancy is a small cost for a life without physical and health problems, think about it.