3 ms·

There's a word for this: provincial. Trying to understand certain phenomena in these times (like the election and continuing support of certain presidents) can

There's a word for this: provincial. Trying to understand certain phenomena in these times (like the election and continuing support of certain presidents) can be utterly mystifying to academics, intellectuals and other mental explorers. But it helps to realize that half the country lives outside of major cities and their biggest concerns are mostly things like whether gas prices will go up, and real estate taxes, and if they'll have a job next year. The environment or corporate malfeasance or discrimination are so far below their radar that they can be considered second-order effects. They know their way of life and they want it to stay that way forever and they're certain that they sure don't want some far off know-it-all to tell them what to do.

beering 7y ago
... replied to wrong thread?
throwawayjava 7y ago
Pew did a comprehensive study of urban, suburban, and rural communities (link below). Their empirically-backed findings are pretty divergent from these common stereotypes. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/what-unites-and-divides-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities/ https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/what-unites-and-d... There's even an entire portion of the report that basically boils down to "everyone thinks others do not understand their community's problems but is pretty confident they understand other community's problems". https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/how-people-in-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities-see-each-other-and-say-others-see-them/ https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/how-people-in-urb...
- zackmorris 7y ago
  Interesting, I wonder if this has been changing due to the arrival of the telephone, internet, etc. Like maybe other factors contribute to local vs global thinking more than geography. I'm honestly at kind of a loss as to why politics is so polarized right now. I've tried just about everything I can think of, but can't create a self-consistent system of logic that explains the reasoning behind why people vote the opposite way that I do. It must be something subjective like religion or some context that I'm not privvy to. I'm kind of joking and kind of not when I say that I wish we had an AI trained to be either liberal or conservative so that we could study it and see where it diverged. It's like we're way out on separate branches of a large search tree, so lack the context to understand where the other side is coming from. It really messes with me, because I should be able to understand a system of logic even if I don't agree with it. But I can't even get that far. What gives?!
  - jbboehr 7y ago
    > can't create a self-consistent system of logic that explains the reasoning behind why people vote the opposite way that I do. Have you read any SlateStarCodex? He may have some relevant thoughts, see for example top posts [0] especially #3 and #4. Also maybe worth researching: cultural evolution and memetics. [0]: https://slatestarcodex.com/about/ https://slatestarcodex.com/about/

beering 7y ago

... replied to wrong thread?

throwawayjava 7y ago

Pew did a comprehensive study of urban, suburban, and rural communities (link below). Their empirically-backed findings are pretty divergent from these common stereotypes. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/what-unites-and-divides-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities/ https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/what-unites-and-d... There's even an entire portion of the report that basically boils down to "everyone thinks others do not understand their community's problems but is pretty confident they understand other community's problems". https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/how-people-in-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities-see-each-other-and-say-others-see-them/ https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/how-people-in-urb...

zackmorris 7y ago
Interesting, I wonder if this has been changing due to the arrival of the telephone, internet, etc. Like maybe other factors contribute to local vs global thinking more than geography. I'm honestly at kind of a loss as to why politics is so polarized right now. I've tried just about everything I can think of, but can't create a self-consistent system of logic that explains the reasoning behind why people vote the opposite way that I do. It must be something subjective like religion or some context that I'm not privvy to. I'm kind of joking and kind of not when I say that I wish we had an AI trained to be either liberal or conservative so that we could study it and see where it diverged. It's like we're way out on separate branches of a large search tree, so lack the context to understand where the other side is coming from. It really messes with me, because I should be able to understand a system of logic even if I don't agree with it. But I can't even get that far. What gives?!
- jbboehr 7y ago
  > can't create a self-consistent system of logic that explains the reasoning behind why people vote the opposite way that I do. Have you read any SlateStarCodex? He may have some relevant thoughts, see for example top posts [0] especially #3 and #4. Also maybe worth researching: cultural evolution and memetics. [0]: https://slatestarcodex.com/about/ https://slatestarcodex.com/about/