>I live in north central Texas, and I never see anything like that.
i'm in central NC and i seen it now and then.
there was a big anti-Trump rally in town before the last election and all the local rednecks got their trucks fitted with their Trump & confederate flags and rolled coal up and down the street in front of the anti-Trump folks.
on one of the two main roads into town, there's an ancient and crumbling cinder-block garage with a huge confederate flag flying on a giant metal pole next to it. the person who owns the property (whose last name is "White" and who lives on "White's Way") had a billboard on the property for years, and it showed normal advertisements though an ad agency.
but one day. a local BLM group rented the sign space and put up a "Black Lives Matter" billboard. that sign lasted a few days. but then, Mr White cancelled his contract with the ad agency, and tore down the billboard. then he put a bunch of hand-painted racist signs on top of the garage, and put a fence around his flagpole.
occasionally, he also holds little rallies in front of the garage - all his dim-witted racist buddy line up and wave confederate flags and shout at passing cars.
it's directly across the street from a "Christian" retirement community. they don't seem to mind.
every single time i drive by, day or night, rain or shine, i roll down my window and give that flag the one finger salute. one day, that angered some jackhole in a truck in back of me, and he got on my tail and honked and ranted and raved at me until i got near the police station.
2025-10-19 20:25:09
anyway. hi, y'all.
2025-10-19 20:01:44
>why is it Southern rural culture which is the model?
is that actually true, though?
if you look at truck commercials, there's a lot more "driving around in the mountains" than there is "driving around the giant flatness of MS" or "hauling groceries in the valleys of WV". and cowboys are more west than deep south. here in NC, people in the country are growing soybeans and cotton, raising pigs and chickens, not riding around on horses roping cattle.
a mythical south (which includes TX and parts of the midwest) might be the model. but the actual south isn't the same thing.
2025-10-19 15:16:30
>And it’s very much rooted in a franchised version of a white Southern rural reality.
indeed.
and there is a similar franchised version of urban reality: every small city in the US eventually ends up with a version of things that started or were popularized in the very large cities (NYC especially, but also LA, ATL, etc). all of the hipster trends, food trends, drink trends, aesthetic trends, music, art, even ways of speaking and thinking get copied. go into any small- or medium-sized city in the US and you will find the same kinds of stores and styles, with people talking about similar things in similar ways.
it seems natural that rural culture should be similarly homgeneous.
>I live in north central Texas, and I never see anything like that.
i'm in central NC and i seen it now and then.
there was a big anti-Trump rally in town before the last election and all the local rednecks got their trucks fitted with their Trump & confederate flags and rolled coal up and down the street in front of the anti-Trump folks.
on one of the two main roads into town, there's an ancient and crumbling cinder-block garage with a huge confederate flag flying on a giant metal pole next to it. the person who owns the property (whose last name is "White" and who lives on "White's Way") had a billboard on the property for years, and it showed normal advertisements though an ad agency.
but one day. a local BLM group rented the sign space and put up a "Black Lives Matter" billboard. that sign lasted a few days. but then, Mr White cancelled his contract with the ad agency, and tore down the billboard. then he put a bunch of hand-painted racist signs on top of the garage, and put a fence around his flagpole.
occasionally, he also holds little rallies in front of the garage - all his dim-witted racist buddy line up and wave confederate flags and shout at passing cars.
it's directly across the street from a "Christian" retirement community. they don't seem to mind.
every single time i drive by, day or night, rain or shine, i roll down my window and give that flag the one finger salute. one day, that angered some jackhole in a truck in back of me, and he got on my tail and honked and ranted and raved at me until i got near the police station.
anyway. hi, y'all.
>why is it Southern rural culture which is the model?
is that actually true, though?
if you look at truck commercials, there's a lot more "driving around in the mountains" than there is "driving around the giant flatness of MS" or "hauling groceries in the valleys of WV". and cowboys are more west than deep south. here in NC, people in the country are growing soybeans and cotton, raising pigs and chickens, not riding around on horses roping cattle.
a mythical south (which includes TX and parts of the midwest) might be the model. but the actual south isn't the same thing.
>And it’s very much rooted in a franchised version of a white Southern rural reality.
indeed.
and there is a similar franchised version of urban reality: every small city in the US eventually ends up with a version of things that started or were popularized in the very large cities (NYC especially, but also LA, ATL, etc). all of the hipster trends, food trends, drink trends, aesthetic trends, music, art, even ways of speaking and thinking get copied. go into any small- or medium-sized city in the US and you will find the same kinds of stores and styles, with people talking about similar things in similar ways.
it seems natural that rural culture should be similarly homgeneous.