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"different than California = east coast" is an assumption that *really* irritates me because it's just pure erasure of anyone you consider beneath your notice.
Again, is anyone actually *surprised* that many people in the middle of the country view the folks who forget they exist with suspicion? Is it shocking that this attitude breeds resentment & distrust when it sounds like you're saying that their existence is completely meaningless to you?
But I suppose it just means that if you live in "flyover country," don't expect anything from people who believe that they are from the only places that "matter".
We can build our own communities & our own movements. We don't need & shouldn't expect recognition from anyone in order to do our work & look after our people.
Those ignorant attitudes lead to the "I hate red states" thing where people just erase all the people in those regions striving to make a better future. A lot of people in "red states" are working so, so hard to help their neighbors & push back against tyranny & oppression, & it is so fucking *insulting* to tell those people they don't count. Only the bigots & the greedy assholes count. Not the people taking care of each other & demanding justice. Those people don't count for some reason.
If you hate "red states," then you hate a whole lot of poor & marginalized people.
Hating "red states" means hating disenfranchised people who are living under tyranny & abuse. It means hating the people in those places who try to do something about the abuse & try to help each other when they are suffering. It means hating people who stay because they want to make something better of their home & the people who stay because they don't have any options. It's cruelty disguised as concern.
"Oh, your state government is shit & only works to harm you & those you love? Fuck you."
@artemis There's a pattern I've noticed in which multiple different entities -- a geographical area, that area's government, and that area's people -- are all spoken of as if they were the same thing.
e.g. if your government is doing something, then you as an individual under that government are doing it and supporting it -- even if you firmly opposed and voted against the people now in power and making the decision to do that thing.
The whole "you are a red-stater" thing feels a lot like that.
(Of course, I have the perspective advantage of being from a very blue area of what has been a very red state -- so I know from experience that not everyone in an area agrees with what that area's apparent zeitgeist. ...and more recently I've come to understand how disinformation and gerrymandering result in political decisions which are not actually in accordance with what most people in an area actually want.)
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