3 ms·

I just wanted to say your walls of text are very offensive, inaccurate, and read as someone who has never lived in a rural community.

wwweston 4y ago
Can you spend some time pointing out a few of the specific inaccuracies from your perspective?
- hunterb123 4y ago
  I will try to, but it's an overwhelming amount of generalizations, characterizations, and talking points. I mainly wanted to voice my disdain and alert others to take what he said with a grain of salt. For now, I would reference you to other comments that have disputed parts of what he said: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129728 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129728
  - TulliusCicero 4y ago
    > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129451 This is your idea of a good comment? > Hi there. I guess you are having a day of bad luck or something, cause you managed to get me to reply to you. heh. > I'm basically the walking oxymoron of your example. I was raised rurally, and am more educated than many city slicks. I'm not religious, or poor. Not rich, but not destitute. And as far as my political leanings go, I figure I'm above all of you, because the center was killed by extremists, so there is nothing left but to act better than the rest of you. I feel like my eyeballs are already about to roll back out of my skull, and that's just the first two paragraphs!
- leetcrew 4y ago
  I'm guessing the part about being unfriendly to non-white people is a big part of what's offensive. may or may not be true, but people tend to react poorly to sweeping negative judgments about the place where they live. on top of that, the analysis of how roads and water work is not quite right. the overall point about the tax base death spiral is true though. it's really hard to wind down infrastructure that's been built out to support a certain population size. this happens in cities too, it's a major issue in baltimore, for example.
ohyoutravel 4y ago
Wow
- tristor 4y ago
  I feel like there's a huge semantic disconnect in this thread about the meaning of "rural". You and the grandparent seem to be using it to mean small suburbs/exurbs in economically declining regions of the US (e.g. The Rust Belt), not what it actually means which is farm towns and mostly farm land / private land disparately spread out with primarily county-level governance. I'm also a big fan of StrongTowns, and I don't think what the grandparent is describing accurately reflects rural life.
  - ghostly_s 4y ago
    Most of these small "farm towns" no longer have a majority of their population engaged in agriculture. The economic landscape of rural america has shifted profoundly in the past 50 years and a lot of these places are functionally exurbs now - populated by people who are economically dependent on nearby metro areas but choose to live/remain in small towns for lifestyle reasons. Also, I happen to be born and raised in the area the Strong Towns guy calls home, and while I don't follow his work closely I can say the abstracted rural community he builds his theses around has a very loose relationship to the actual semi-rural communities he has spent his life living and working in.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jonathankoren 4y ago
I grew up rural. I regularly visit home once or twice a year. He’s not wrong. My friends growing up were pretty much the exceptions. We moved out, got advanced degrees, and almost all of live in major metro areas. The two that don’t, live in college towns, which are they’re own thing. The main economic driver, the coal mines, all closed, and pretty much everyone with half a brain moved away. Those that are left… well, they’re stereotypes. Last time my friends an I got together back where we grew up, we talked about it. The place has changed, and not for the best. As one friend put it, “It’s gotten more churchy, and not in a good way.” It’s meth labs, gun stores, video slots, end times evangelical churches, and militias. Now you can make your own community anywhere you are, but it’s harder in rural areas. A lot harder. There’s just fewer people, less opportunities, and less appeal for the right kind of weirdos.

wwweston 4y ago

Can you spend some time pointing out a few of the specific inaccuracies from your perspective?

hunterb123 4y ago
I will try to, but it's an overwhelming amount of generalizations, characterizations, and talking points. I mainly wanted to voice my disdain and alert others to take what he said with a grain of salt. For now, I would reference you to other comments that have disputed parts of what he said: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129728 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129728
- TulliusCicero 4y ago
  > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31129451 This is your idea of a good comment? > Hi there. I guess you are having a day of bad luck or something, cause you managed to get me to reply to you. heh. > I'm basically the walking oxymoron of your example. I was raised rurally, and am more educated than many city slicks. I'm not religious, or poor. Not rich, but not destitute. And as far as my political leanings go, I figure I'm above all of you, because the center was killed by extremists, so there is nothing left but to act better than the rest of you. I feel like my eyeballs are already about to roll back out of my skull, and that's just the first two paragraphs!
leetcrew 4y ago
I'm guessing the part about being unfriendly to non-white people is a big part of what's offensive. may or may not be true, but people tend to react poorly to sweeping negative judgments about the place where they live. on top of that, the analysis of how roads and water work is not quite right. the overall point about the tax base death spiral is true though. it's really hard to wind down infrastructure that's been built out to support a certain population size. this happens in cities too, it's a major issue in baltimore, for example.

ohyoutravel 4y ago

Wow

tristor 4y ago
I feel like there's a huge semantic disconnect in this thread about the meaning of "rural". You and the grandparent seem to be using it to mean small suburbs/exurbs in economically declining regions of the US (e.g. The Rust Belt), not what it actually means which is farm towns and mostly farm land / private land disparately spread out with primarily county-level governance. I'm also a big fan of StrongTowns, and I don't think what the grandparent is describing accurately reflects rural life.
- ghostly_s 4y ago
  Most of these small "farm towns" no longer have a majority of their population engaged in agriculture. The economic landscape of rural america has shifted profoundly in the past 50 years and a lot of these places are functionally exurbs now - populated by people who are economically dependent on nearby metro areas but choose to live/remain in small towns for lifestyle reasons. Also, I happen to be born and raised in the area the Strong Towns guy calls home, and while I don't follow his work closely I can say the abstracted rural community he builds his theses around has a very loose relationship to the actual semi-rural communities he has spent his life living and working in.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

jonathankoren 4y ago

I grew up rural. I regularly visit home once or twice a year. He’s not wrong. My friends growing up were pretty much the exceptions. We moved out, got advanced degrees, and almost all of live in major metro areas. The two that don’t, live in college towns, which are they’re own thing. The main economic driver, the coal mines, all closed, and pretty much everyone with half a brain moved away. Those that are left… well, they’re stereotypes. Last time my friends an I got together back where we grew up, we talked about it. The place has changed, and not for the best. As one friend put it, “It’s gotten more churchy, and not in a good way.” It’s meth labs, gun stores, video slots, end times evangelical churches, and militias. Now you can make your own community anywhere you are, but it’s harder in rural areas. A lot harder. There’s just fewer people, less opportunities, and less appeal for the right kind of weirdos.