answer to afrogonalog ........ I THINK THE ANSWER to your question lies right here on the agnostic progressive posts page. the rednecks, both north and south, are a fiercely proud and independent people. they are right up there with the latins in their ability to give an honest days work for an honest days pay. there is much to love about them. and as a direct consequence of their bone deep values, they find what crazy ole ayn rand used to call "social metaphysics" utterly repulsive. their old racial antipathy to blacks of course goes back to slavery, the civil war and reconstruction. that and their fundamentalist Christianity. and their simple minded reaction to the sexual house of mirrors seen daily on NPR and PBS are certainly part of the tangled roots answer to why they hate all things "progressive". most tragically of all, "tree hugging" gets thrown into the same pot.. they see this reconstituted new deal coalition. the only visible alternative to trump, as an assemblage of freaks and moochers. there is the largest part of the answer ..........this antipathy they have for free loaders. the agnostics right here speaking for, BLM, and the rights of criminals and every kind of selected minority giveaway imaginable.... this moves them negatively. central american open door immigration and a foreign harvest of social benefits .... this moves them negatively. the medias obsession with the trivial issues of deviant sexuality.... this really moves them negatively.

american/ world-human history is one long unending tragedy. that bounders like trump and his movement should exploit the vacuum these NPR, PBS, AGNOSTIC PROGRESSIVE "social metaphysicians" coalition create in the minds of these beautiful but ignorant and profoundly lost rednecks is going to be the last chapter of our final tragedy. our doomsday started just a cosmic moment ago, with the industrial revolution. the rednecks roll will be at the very end game, to stymie any political/scientific solution to global warming's literal threat to the biosphere, however unlikely that solution obviously is. as todays (8/10/21) historic doomsday scientific climate report ( all ready given page 2 billing by the progressive coup dominated news media ) makes clear, the end is literally nigh. soon we won't have to worry about the rednecks, and the planet -dooming narcisistic sandelista festival that caused it, and that was not of their making.

What is the answer to this problem? The way you describe it I wonder why they aren't fighting for better education and better wages and better social welfare. Seems so strange that they follow people who are keeping them down.

Perhaps Herman Hesse's Siddhartha will help you [fulltextarchive.com]

im a de classee ex new yorker, lived in the rural foothills of north carolina since 1974. all my significant social connections remain the old yankee ones, acceptance here has not been mine. but from my perspective you tar these people with stereotypes that are only sometimes true, or more accurately, true examples of these stereotypes can be easily found. you omit mention of some of their shining virtues, which while by no means universal, can also be easily, within careful limits, commonly found among them. such as an almost unfailing courtesy, decency, transactional honesty, trustworthiness, and perhaps most noteworthy a willingness to sometimes extensively help even a stranger. .........now, with an admittedly more limited experience, i gladly expend this carefully limited judgement - credit to the rural southern blacks i've met. they also, when taken out of the all consuming relentless phony morality play the modern media world forces down our throats, have much the same array of country virtues as their white rural cousins. one can hardly believe that they and their putative BLM "leadership" are from the same planet. we all must make judgements, but BE CAREFUL HOW YOU JUDGE. lets just judge the individuals.

Those from your heritage are finding a sympathetic ear these days. Over half of Republicans believe higher education is harmful to our society, but none of those they elect are not educated with at least a Bachelors degree and more than likely more than that. Someone is fostering their ignorance and it isn't the uneducated.

I was born just North of Atlanta. Lived in Georgia all of my life with exception of a year in NC. I can attest to the culture and way of thinking. I became enlightened 5 years ago after 30 years of Christianity. Sometimes it’s hard to deal with lifelong friends and family because their ways are ignorant

I remember working in the south during a presidential election. As I partially dozed during my lunch break, I happened to overhear a co-worker say 'Mah suthun prahd won't let me vote for no democrat.' I believe we should all have a vote, but having an IQ higher than roadkill should be required.

Many of them have no one or anything to blame but themselves.

I was raised in rural Alabama on squirrels, deer, rabbits, goats, yard chickens, ducks, and geese.
My father was a licensed Southern Baptist Minister that would brag in his testimonies about how he abused his children and encouraged all the parents to do the same. He was a long time member of the KKK but hung up his robe when the Clan blew up a church and killed four innocent black girls in 1961, yet he still despised the civil rights movement and was delighted in 1968 when MLK was assassinated, jubilant that that uppity N@@@r got his comeupance. He died in 2001 of colon cancer, and deseved to suffer far more than he did.
I assumed it was just him, but as an adult it slowly dawned on me that he was normal for the area except his 23 years in the Army had all but erased his southern drawl which he actively and unsuccessfully attempted to make more pronounced, this was so he could be a failure at every single thing he ever attempted to accomplish.
In 1984 I realized I had made a mistake returning to the state after my service in the Navy, but I was stuck until 1990 when I immigrated to the United States from Alabama.
I've never looked back, except of course to attend my fathers funeral, we buried him in the middle of a bunch of graves all from the same family, their sir name was "Ghey" and pronounced gay, that way his homophobic ass could spend eternity surrounded by Ghey's.

Thanks for the insight. I've found this to be especially true in my situation in the last 5 years. The division of America has taught me who my real friends are and I do not have very many. Between politics and religion lots of division goes on now.

Thank you for sharing that insight. As an ignorant outsider myself, I had often wondered what it was that shaped such people's outlooks.