A friend visited his Nebraska relatives....

[Bigmack]

... this last week. He says it takes all his courage. They're all old farmers.... on Social Security, Medicare, and Farm Subsidies, and they HATE big "gummint". Here's his email...
- - - -
Talked to my sister-in-law on the farm in Loup City , Nebraska.  Good "whatever happened to Kansas" material.  So...I'm going to lay some of her thoughts from our hour-long conversation.
 
1.  Dubyah is keeping the terrorists from attacking us here in America.
      He is on a mission from God.
2.  Hispanics are taking all the good jobs at the Turkey ranch nearby.  Nevermind that the whites didn't want those jobs until they became unionized.
3.  Meir would make a good justice--She thinks like an average person.
4.  She can't find a good doctor--they're all Asian or Indian in Grand Island
      Nebraska. 
5.  These people abused by Catholic priests should "get over it"  it has been many years ago.
6.  The coaches won't let the white guys play in BB games(only the black)
7.  Gays are taking over the restaurants in Omaha--She refuses to eat there
     for fear of AIDS.
8.  New Orleans should be given back to the sea---.
9.  She was not sure John Kerry even was in Nam...No proof--
10.  Global warming is a hoax put on us by the liberal press..
 
Lest you think you are in the mainstream--She is considered the most liberal in her group of friends.. 

[mnmoderatedem]

1. Almost threw out my neck..

from shaking my head back and forth.

What do they think of shrub's tour of duty in vietnam?

[bullimiami]

2. so ignorant and so sure of themselves.

no wonder our country has gone to shit.

[gratuitous]

14. Often in error, never in doubt

A lethally stupid combination.

[Birthmark]

3. It's always sad when cousins marry for too long.

Look at the Royal Family. ;)

[castiron]

4. Frightening and yet not surprising

[frogmarch]

12. As a Nebraskan

living in the panhandle, I hear the same rot. Though I've seen fewer pro-Bush pro-War bumper stickers around here lately, the drivel sounds pretty much the same.

Sometimes I feel like a lonely little petunia in an onion patch - but I'm hopeful the ones in our government will soon be yanked out.

[valerief]

5. How do they rationalize

getting Social Security, Medicare, and Farm Subsidies and hating "big gummint?"

Don't they recognize those benefits as being part of big gummint? Without that big gummint, they'd be picking worms out of the soil for lunch.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

13. I hope they were told

of Bush's plans for Social Security. I'd be perverse enough to appear to be an ardent Bush cheerleader, telling them that they don't deserve their benefits because Bush must get rid of all government programs. I'd praise MO governor Matt Blunt for taking people off Medicaid-people who were obviously using the money to luxuries like "oxygen". Praise the fact that people were left to rot not only in NOLA but in other parishes where the people were white (since they are obviously racists, I'd stress this point). By pretending to be a Bush cheerleader with these folks, you might get them mad enough not to vote for Bush. It sure couldn't hurt, and you'd be telling them some facts.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. A few more years of republican rule and that's exactly what they'll

be doing, and they'll deserve it. I hope they like the taste of dirt worms. Fvcking hypocrites!

[raccoon]

22. Right on! nt

[FreedomAngel82]

52. Exactly

But of course they don't get that. :eyes: As long as you don't see men kissing then all is swell! :sarcasm:

[RubyDuby in GA]

6. This is why

I'm convinced that Nebraska should be blasted off the face of the earth (and they should take South Carolina with them) :P

Good grief! I'd hate to see what the other, less "liberal" people would be like.

[raccoon]

23. Take South Carolina with them? Georgia isn't all that different. nt

[RubyDuby in GA]

32. No, but at least we have decent road signs.

[raccoon]

45. And of course GA's road signs are an example to the

other 49 states. :sarcasm:

[RubyDuby in GA]

46. Compared to South Carolina's -

you bet your sweet ass!

And furthermore we didn't elect Strom Thurmond..........

[Weembo]

58. But you did elect Zell

[RubyDuby in GA]

60. I'll give you that one

But it was a while ago, before the dementia set in.

[bleedingheart]

50. well there are a lot of those people here in PA as well..

sadly stupidity doesn't discriminate...it afflicts all groups of people in all parts of the world...and apparently there are great numbers of stupid people in each of the 50 states.

[Dr.Phool]

7. They'll be a lot happier next year

When their farm subsidies get cut by 60%.

[ultraist]

26. LOL! True, their pResident did cut farm subsidies.

And, white males in the Midwest were the group of workers who saw the most significant decrease in income last year, according to the latest USCB report, due to outsourcing manufacturing jobs and farm sub cuts.

[FreedomAngel82]

53. Oh I'm sure

As long as Bush is protecting us from the mean "terrorist"'s and doesn't get a blowjob. :eyes:

[Neocondriac]

8. It's no better in Florida either!

[ieoeja]

9. Censored

Live in Chicago. Grew up in southern Indiana. Every time I return to Chicago after a week long stay on the farm, I am amazed to find how many news stories considered major stories in the Chicago press while I was gone went virtually unreported in southern Indiana.

So "not sure Kerry was even in 'Nam" no longer shocks me. Conservative control of media outlets in parts of this country is almost absolute. People living there haven't the slightest notion that their news is being heavily censored and think I'm some crazy nut when I try pointing it out.

Or that it is the Chicago news that is full of LIBERAL propaganda that has ME confused. I try countering this by pointing out that in Chicago I see 100% of the news they see down home. They are the ones seeing only 50% of the news that I get to see/read/hear.

[LibDemAlways]

21. I've got a friend who works in the

newsroom of the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, and he's not even aware that the "news" that goes out is heavily censored. It pisses him off that the "news" frequently gets interrupted to follow car chases on the freeway,but I can't get it through his thick skull that the whores he works for are in the business of protecting the chimp's ass and keeping news from the American people. So, it's not just a problem in rural communities. It's everywhere.

[FreedomAngel82]

54. If you think he would

show him the docs "The Liberal Media Myth" and "George Orwell Rolls in His Grave." You can find them at propogandamatrix.com and informationclearinghouse.info

[donheld]

10. And some DUers think this only happens in Alabama

Let this be a lesson to you. You know who you are.

[TheCowsCameHome]

11. Ask them what they are relying on to live - SSI, Medicare, Farm Subsidies

If they're so damned independent minded let them get jobs at the nearby turkey ranch and get off the dole.

And W or not, terrorists aren't likely to attack turkey ranches in the middle of nowhere.

[Hubert Flottz]

20. They might get Bird Flu at the turkey ranch!

Make sure they have plenty of DUCK tape!

[SoCalDem]

15. Thank Rush Limbaugh, et al for their "mindset"

Those are all his talking points and have been for years.. It's too late for them..It will take a cataclysmic event for them to change their minds..

[valerief]

17. A cataclysmic event like another Pearl Harbor?

How very PNAC of you!

[TheCowsCameHome]

27. What is PNAC?

[Solon]

35. Project for the New American Century...

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

This is the official website, and the current foriegn policy for our government, click on the "Statement of Principals" and look at who the signatories are, then you will understand. Also, download the PDF file "Rebuilding America's Defenses", particularly look at page number 52, talking about a "New Pearl Harbor" that is a catalyst for their plans, also note that "Rebuilding America's Defenses" was published in September of 2000.

[TheCowsCameHome]

39. Thanx

[valerief]

42. Sorry. I thought everyone was acquainted with PNAC.

[TheCowsCameHome]

29. They whip these drones into a frenzy, and they fall for it every time.

[SoCalDem]

33. Yep.. everything in "your life" that sucks

leads directly to (insert ethnic choice here) "stealing your jobs"...and the reason you have no money is because (insert democrat, ethnic choice, gender choice here)..

The party of personal responsibility is EXPERT at 'tranferrence'. NOTHING is ever because of a bad choice they made in life.. It's always attributable to "the other"..

The ONLY thing keeping them from being duccessful, rich, happy, etc is the fact that "someone" is "holding them down"..Copuld be the 'gubbmint', the illegals, the gays...you name it..

[ComerPerro]

34. He has been conditioning those idiots for years

And, yes, sorry to say it, but if they belive all that crap, with all the information that is availible nowadays, then, yes, they are idiots.

[SoCalDem]

41. "all the information available"

Not as much as you would think.. Here's a scenario..

Let's say you live in a small midwestern town with ONE newspaper, and a couple of radio stations.. Your radio station is LIKELY to be a clear channel station and a religious station.. Your TV stations are likely to be cable, but just HOW many stations these days are "liberal"?

Your newspaper is owned by a corporate entity, and with attention to local details in one section (like mine is). Most people do not take the time to read the paper, and even if they did, they get the slant provided by their particular paper..and there is likely NO competing paper of alternate views..

Perhaps at work you listen to the radio while you work, and what's on? Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, North, Boortz, etc..

Just because we spend hours scouring the web for news, does not mean that others do too..

Most people learn their news from the venues they feel comfortable with.. their friends, their local outlets, their minister, their co-workers...

Entertainment TV teaches us NOTHING, and that's what most people watch..

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

47. Yes, it's not just the Midwest, it's all over

I was visiting relatives in Pennsylvania recently, and these are exactly the talking points they would have been spewing, except my husband and I refused to spend the visit discussing them.

We changed the subject as soon as they started saying, "Can you believe we have to spend all that money rebuilding New Orleans?"

Like someone says downthread -- it is willful ignorance, and we have finally realized it is pointless to try to have discussions with these dittoheads. They have closed their minds and act like little birdies get spoon-fed from Rush.

[MN ChimpH8R]

18. You can't get that mind-fryingly stupid

without a lot of work. Willful, I say, willful ignorance. :scared: And these morans vote. :scared::scared:

[ultraist]

19. The Red Midwest Zone

Scary place...VERY white. I would not want to live in a place that lacks diversity, so severely. :scared:

That woman sounds nuts. If she is so bothered by such a small minority population, she must be VERY racist. NE is 90% white, 4% Black, and 5% Hispanic, WAY below the national averages for people of color.
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=04000US31&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010

[oregonindy]

24. so why doesnt evolution happen faster with people like this?

[Qibing Zero]

37. Simply because that 'natural selection' works opposite in today's society.

The ignorant remain ignorant (not, at first, their fault), breed at an alarming rate because they either don't know about - or refuse to use - birth control, their children are brought up in the same ignorant manner, and then grow older and blame all of society's ills on the 'welfare state', without which they would have not even survived in the first place.

We embrace everything that hinders real advancement in our society, and the answer is education, of course - not some social darwinistic bullshit trying to relate 'power of survival' in nature to 'power in the free market' in human affairs. You'd think the 'intellectual' conservatives would see that, considering the ever so brilliant sons and daughters of money on the stage today. It must be humbling to the point of denial for the existance of Paris Hilton to single-handedly blow apart your theory on human sociology.

[Qibing Zero]

25. She's probably considered 'liberal' because she doesn't advocate...

..good old-fashioned genocide of everyone who 'looks like a terrist', as her friends surely do.

Sad world we live in.

[drb]

28. I had an acquaintence at work who worried about #7, until I told him...

...to make the waiter wear a condom.

[TheCowsCameHome]

30. Wonder if their kids sport tail feathers from breeding at the turkey ranch

[MountainLaurel]

36. Nah, but Little Jimmy has a set of ovaries

From the waste of the turkeys that have been fed hormones, which ends up in the creeks and streams and in the groundwater system, all in concentrated amounts.

(Seriously, this is a real concern in the Potomac River watershed: Hormones and chicken waste from the chicken farms in the mountains are causing problems in fish from the headwaters to the Chesapeake, male fish also have female reproductive organs.)

[Aristus]

31. Is it any wonder their state-wide population in dwindling?

Young people looking for more than bean suppers, ice cream socials, and hayseeds in the crack of their asses are deserting the provinces for the coasts. There to get a better education, converse with intelligent people with open minds, and seek out the few promising job oppotunities left in the country.

[FlashHarry]

38. Is it any wonder that...

...western Nebraska looks upon Omaha like we're "left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers?" I think of us that way sometimes and I live here.

[July]

40. OKAY, head exploding . . .

Sadly reflects the mind of many VOTERS.

And, having lost a family member to AIDS, I really would like to PUNCH HER OUT for her ignorant comments about catching AIDS by eating in the same restaurant as gays. That is very ignorant and very offensive.

Yeah, no proof Kerry was in 'Nam -- just eyewitnesses and the U.S. Navy's records and medals.

It is just stunning how credulous people are.

[GreenPartyVoter]

43. Lovely.

:eyes:

If her kids are ever molested, I hope she also tells them to get over it too.

[Fla Dem]

44. Hate big government, but they take advantage of all

it has to offer, Medicare, Social Security, farm subsidies. If they didn't have those programs, then maybe they'd have to work down on the turkey farm, and there wouldn't be any jobs fr the Hispanics.

[Tesha]

48. And this, friends, is why it's time to give up on the American experiment.

See:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5029719

Tesha

[Ravenseye]

49. Racism and Ignorance are alive and well

1) Ignorant
2) Racist
3) Ignorant
4) Racist
5) Ignorant
6) Racist
7) Homophobic
8) Ignorant, Racist, Homophobic
9) Ignorant
10) Ignorant

Sigh.

[FreedomAngel82]

51. Oh my gosh

My brain hurts. No proof of Kerry there? Uh hello! Pictures, video's, the navy records. :eyes: What losers! My God!

[info being]

55. Yes of course. You're describing my WI family as well.

[SunDrop23]

56. These ten beliefs are so much more prevalent than you think...

Especially the first one. Acquaintances of mine who I generally consider to be of above average intelligence are TERRIFIED.

But yes, the rest of them are so prevalent that you'd think we live in the 1860s.

[Ms. Toad]

57. Just to add a little balance

As the oldest statewide Peace & Justice organization
in the country, Nebraskans for Peace is the
acknowledged voice on peace and social justice
issues in Nebraska politics.

www.nebraskansforpeace.org

Also Nebraskans against the Death Penalty

http://www.nadp.net

and PFLAG

http://www.pflag.org/index.php?id=223

(Just to name a few)

And ~1970, in a NE town with population 2800, I had an openly gay minister.

[Donna Zen]

59. Maine checking in:

Not much to say because I hear this too. True, we've stayed blue, but notice that we have two republican senators. Last week at a meeting sitting with the biology teacher, I noted that there were people who believe that the dinosaurs lived at that same time as humans. She replied: "What I fear is people who teach evolution as if it were fact." Now I knew that the Chemistry teacher showed an anti-Global Warming film, but this came as a surprise.

It is not Limbaugh alone who spreads the ignorance.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

61. I'm going to be harsh here, but the Dems share some of the blame

The attitudes stated in the original post are typical of the racist, fearful attitudes that surface when ignorant people are lost and confused.

The Great Plains farmers were devastated by the high interest rates of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the small towns suffered a double whammy of losing the "business people" (farmers) who patronized their stores and losing the few industries they had to Mexico or China.

The Republicans were crafty enough to exploit this fear and misery by encouraging people to project their feelings onto Others.

What did the Dems do? Little or nothing. Sorry, but it's true.

They could have proposed a system of low-interest refinancing for farmers who were strangling on high interest rates. Even if Reagan had vetoed it, the Dems could have campaigned that they wanted to give farmers a break but that the Republicans wouldn't let them. (Remember--the Dems had a majority in both houses at that time, which makes their inaction all the more shameful.)

They should have made sure that they had good PR and media presence in the Great Plains. Instead, they so much as ceded the territory to the Republicanites.

They should not have hopped onto the "free" trade bandwagon to support a policy that is universally hated by everyone except moneyed elites and out-of-touch intellectuals.

So what did the Dems expect? For 25 years, people on the Great Plains have heard nothing but rightwing propaganda in the media that is easily accessible to them. For 25 years, the Dems have blown chances to be a positive presence in that region.

The saddest part of this is that before World War II, the Great Plains were one of the most left-wing parts of the country, and most of the radicalism was built on resentment of moneyed elites who exploited farmers.

Now the mainstream voice of the Democratic Party is the Yuppie Democrats, the DLCers and others who are all for freedom in personal behavior issues and are willing to help the poor as long as it doesn't affect their stock portfolios negatively.

Meanwhile, the Republicans know exactly how to play to the latent and not-so-latent prejudices of people who don't get around much.

Why is anyone surprised that the Great Plains are Red-Republican when they used to be Red-Socialist?

[Norquist Nemesis]

62. I guess this explains the votes of their new Dem. Senators. n/t