5 ms·

I had the pleasure of driving through and visiting Oklahoma a decade or so ago. Some people don't like the rural states, but it felt so serene out there. We sto

I had the pleasure of driving through and visiting Oklahoma a decade or so ago. Some people don't like the rural states, but it felt so serene out there. We stopped at a shaved ice place off of some random exit and just sat there on the hood staring out at the plains. There's not much out there but it felt so peaceful. It felt like home.

munificent 6y ago
Rural areas are almost uniformly beautiful and serene. It's the beliefs of the people in them that can be hostile.
- lghh 6y ago
  Ah yes, unlike cities which house only the most pure of thought.
  - munificent 6y ago
    This is an "affirming the consequent" logical fallacy. My sentence says nothing about the virtue or vice of cities. I'm responding to "Some people don't like the rural states". Almost no one dislikes rural states for their natural beauty. They dislike them for the people. Whether that dislike is morally wrong, or whether they should also dislike urban areas is irrelevant to my claim. All I was observing is that the people are why some other people don't like rural areas.
    - Kerrick 6y ago
      And _your_ fallacy was https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/composition-division https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/composition-division Yes, I know. Mine is https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/tu-quoque https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/tu-quoque
    - ByteJockey 6y ago
      I think making a blanket statement might be incorrect. I've heard a lot of people who dislike rural areas for their lack of people. That is to say, lack of amenities, entertainment, cultural events, etc that can only be had in a dense area with surplus people. I'm not sure which reason is the majority, or if there even is a majority.
throwawaysea 6y ago
This has been my experience as well. I live in a city now, but I love the times I have spent traveling through or to rural areas. They have a bad reputation that is based on false notions of urban superiority and stereotypes that feel as baseless and unhinged as claims of other types of superiority (e.g. racial). The reality is when you visit these rural places, talk to the people there, take part in their culture, take in the land...there is a lot these areas and those lifestyles have to offer. I was also surprised to find the people so charming, warm, and welcoming - and it dispelled my fears of expecting discrimination, which in retrospect I've only experienced in bigger American cities. It does feel comforting, raw, grounded, and yes like home.
- kendallpark 6y ago
  > I come from Minneapolis, and before that I lived in Seattle and Boston — three of the bluest, most left-leaning cities in the United States. I was an urban woman and couldn’t imagine living anywhere other than a city. My husband concurred. Then our 28-year-old son died in late 2016. > Suddenly the traffic and noise and confusion became too much. John and I took off on a year’s driving tour of gentler parts — both of us working from the road, a computer security consultant and a writer. We grew nearly silent in grief. > We considered Asheville, N.C., and Santa Fe, N.M. But on a chilly, silver January day, we drove into the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas. Though neither of us could put our finger on exactly why, this felt like our place. People back home were flummoxed: I heard them say a lot about white, rural Christians who reject outsiders and “cling to their guns.” > But what city folk don’t know is how beautiful it is here, and by that I mean way more than you imagine. We’re surrounded by low mountains, bony shale bluffs, forest, shining lakes and mysterious twisting roads. The wide-open sky brings every bird formation and low-hanging planet into relief. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2018/09/14/i-was-yankee-liberal-it-took-moving-arkansas-me-understand-my-biases/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2018/09/14/i-was-yan...
  - x87678r 6y ago
    Damn I never wanted to go to Arkansas before, now I do!
asdff 6y ago
I had a different feeling. It wasn't empty in the sense that the desert is, which is very pleasant and beautiful, but scarred with industrialized agriculture, and silos stretching out into the infinite surrounding. The fact that there was absolutely nothing at all as far as the eye can see, no mountain or woods, just field upon industrial field with no farm house or town in sight, felt extremely isolating and uncomfortable. A feeling of having no bearings, no difference in any direction; no idea where to run. The small towns felt disturbing. Tulsa felt disturbing. The lack of minorities out in public was painfully glaring. It was all so very patriotic and dystopian. The unsettling overbearing flatness on the featureless terrain dominated my perspective of the area. Not for me, and I couldn't leave soon enough.
- phaedrus 6y ago
  There's a big difference between Eastern Oklahoma and Western Oklahoma. GP's description sounds like Eastern Oklahoma which is more similar in landscape and vegetation to places in Arkansas and Missouri like the Ozarks. Your description sounds like Western Oklahoma. I lived there from age 12 to 20 and yes it's exactly as you describe, getting worse the farther West you go in the state. Dystopian agriculture. Although Tulsa is east of OKC, I would put the dividing line between the East/West change in landscape around the Tulsa area.
  - throwaway20148 6y ago
    While the agriculture may feel dystopic, there really wasn’t ever much west of the cross timbers to begin with. The dividing line you describe is the area between the 98th and 100th meridian.
- crispyporkbites 6y ago
  > The lack of minorities out in public was painfully glaring. What does this mean?
  - justnotworthit 6y ago
    Poster was amazed and disturbed by everyone being white.

munificent 6y ago

Rural areas are almost uniformly beautiful and serene. It's the beliefs of the people in them that can be hostile.

lghh 6y ago
Ah yes, unlike cities which house only the most pure of thought.
- munificent 6y ago
  This is an "affirming the consequent" logical fallacy. My sentence says nothing about the virtue or vice of cities. I'm responding to "Some people don't like the rural states". Almost no one dislikes rural states for their natural beauty. They dislike them for the people. Whether that dislike is morally wrong, or whether they should also dislike urban areas is irrelevant to my claim. All I was observing is that the people are why some other people don't like rural areas.
  - Kerrick 6y ago
    And _your_ fallacy was https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/composition-division https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/composition-division Yes, I know. Mine is https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/tu-quoque https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/tu-quoque
  - ByteJockey 6y ago
    I think making a blanket statement might be incorrect. I've heard a lot of people who dislike rural areas for their lack of people. That is to say, lack of amenities, entertainment, cultural events, etc that can only be had in a dense area with surplus people. I'm not sure which reason is the majority, or if there even is a majority.

throwawaysea 6y ago

This has been my experience as well. I live in a city now, but I love the times I have spent traveling through or to rural areas. They have a bad reputation that is based on false notions of urban superiority and stereotypes that feel as baseless and unhinged as claims of other types of superiority (e.g. racial). The reality is when you visit these rural places, talk to the people there, take part in their culture, take in the land...there is a lot these areas and those lifestyles have to offer. I was also surprised to find the people so charming, warm, and welcoming - and it dispelled my fears of expecting discrimination, which in retrospect I've only experienced in bigger American cities. It does feel comforting, raw, grounded, and yes like home.

kendallpark 6y ago
> I come from Minneapolis, and before that I lived in Seattle and Boston — three of the bluest, most left-leaning cities in the United States. I was an urban woman and couldn’t imagine living anywhere other than a city. My husband concurred. Then our 28-year-old son died in late 2016. > Suddenly the traffic and noise and confusion became too much. John and I took off on a year’s driving tour of gentler parts — both of us working from the road, a computer security consultant and a writer. We grew nearly silent in grief. > We considered Asheville, N.C., and Santa Fe, N.M. But on a chilly, silver January day, we drove into the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas. Though neither of us could put our finger on exactly why, this felt like our place. People back home were flummoxed: I heard them say a lot about white, rural Christians who reject outsiders and “cling to their guns.” > But what city folk don’t know is how beautiful it is here, and by that I mean way more than you imagine. We’re surrounded by low mountains, bony shale bluffs, forest, shining lakes and mysterious twisting roads. The wide-open sky brings every bird formation and low-hanging planet into relief. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2018/09/14/i-was-yankee-liberal-it-took-moving-arkansas-me-understand-my-biases/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2018/09/14/i-was-yan...
- x87678r 6y ago
  Damn I never wanted to go to Arkansas before, now I do!

asdff 6y ago

I had a different feeling. It wasn't empty in the sense that the desert is, which is very pleasant and beautiful, but scarred with industrialized agriculture, and silos stretching out into the infinite surrounding. The fact that there was absolutely nothing at all as far as the eye can see, no mountain or woods, just field upon industrial field with no farm house or town in sight, felt extremely isolating and uncomfortable. A feeling of having no bearings, no difference in any direction; no idea where to run. The small towns felt disturbing. Tulsa felt disturbing. The lack of minorities out in public was painfully glaring. It was all so very patriotic and dystopian. The unsettling overbearing flatness on the featureless terrain dominated my perspective of the area. Not for me, and I couldn't leave soon enough.

phaedrus 6y ago
There's a big difference between Eastern Oklahoma and Western Oklahoma. GP's description sounds like Eastern Oklahoma which is more similar in landscape and vegetation to places in Arkansas and Missouri like the Ozarks. Your description sounds like Western Oklahoma. I lived there from age 12 to 20 and yes it's exactly as you describe, getting worse the farther West you go in the state. Dystopian agriculture. Although Tulsa is east of OKC, I would put the dividing line between the East/West change in landscape around the Tulsa area.
- throwaway20148 6y ago
  While the agriculture may feel dystopic, there really wasn’t ever much west of the cross timbers to begin with. The dividing line you describe is the area between the 98th and 100th meridian.
crispyporkbites 6y ago
> The lack of minorities out in public was painfully glaring. What does this mean?
- justnotworthit 6y ago
  Poster was amazed and disturbed by everyone being white.