(2016-10-12) Pargin How Half Of America Lost Its Fking Mind

Jason Pargin: How Half Of America Lost Its F**king Mind. The theme expresses itself in several ways -- primitive vs. advanced, tough vs. delicate, masculine vs. feminine, poor vs. rich, pure vs. decadent, traditional vs. weird. All of it is code for rural vs. urban.

We country folk are programmed to hate the prissy elites. That brings us to Donald Trump.

It's Not About Red And Blue States -- It's About The Country Vs. The City (Urban Archipelago)

The cities are less than 4 percent of the land mass, but 62 percent of the population and easily 99 percent of the popular culture. Our movies, shows, songs, and news all radiate out from those blue islands.

And if you live in the red, that fucking sucks

To those ignored, suffering people, Donald Trump is a brick chucked through the window of the elites. "Are you assholes listening now?"

Looking back, I think the idea was that the local minorities were fine ... as long as they acted exactly like us.

The cities are always living in the future.

the perception back then was that those city folks were all turning atheist, abandoning church for their bisexual sex parties. That, we were told, was literally a sign of the Apocalypse. Not just due to the spiritual consequences (which were dire), but the devastation that would come to the culture. I couldn't imagine any rebuttal. In that place, at that time, the church was everything.

But now we're seeing a startling decline in Christianity among the general population

So according to Fox News, what's the result

The fabric has broken down, they say, just as predicted

The savages are coming

The foundation upon which America was undeniably built -- family, faith, and hard work -- had been deemed unfashionable and small-minded. Those snooty elites up in their ivory tower laughed as they kicked away that foundation, and then wrote 10,000-word thinkpieces blaming the builders for the ensuing collapse.

Don't message me saying all those things I listed are wrong. I know they're wrong. Or rather, I think they're wrong, because I now live in a blue county and work for a blue industry.

I know the changes were for the best. Try telling that to anybody who lives in Trump country

And if you dare complain, some liberal elite will pull out their iPad and type up a rant about your racist white privilege

at least politicians act like they care about the inner cities.

It really does feel like the worst of both worlds: all the ravages of poverty, but none of the sympathy.

The rural folk with the Trump signs in their yards say their way of life is dying, and you smirk and say what they really mean is that blacks and gays are finally getting equal rights and they hate it. But I'm telling you, they say their way of life is dying because their way of life is dying. It's not their imagination. (Clinger Party)

So yes, they vote for the guy promising to put things back the way they were, the guy who'd be a wake-up call to the blue islands. They voted for the brick through the window.

Cities can make up for the loss of manufacturing jobs with service jobs -- small towns cannot. That model doesn't work below a certain population density.

rural jobs used to be based around one big local business -- a factory, a coal mine, etc. When it dies, the town dies. (company town, Rural Development)

They're getting the shit kicked out of them

The rate of new businesses opening in rural areas has utterly collapsed.

The vast majority of possible careers involve moving to the city, and around every city is now a hundred-foot wall called "Cost of Living".