I live in a very, very, very conservative part of the country and it’s nothing like the caricature you just mentioned. It is, though, safe, polite, and friendly. And people are happy to leave other people alone.
90% of the time, you are correct. I like living here because people leave me alone, mostly.
That being said, you are absolutely on your own. The hospital struggles, the schools struggle, the roads are awful, and anything remotely related to 'government' is funded just above the point of being dead. And if you do not seem to be 'from here' (read: white, straight, middle- to upper-middle class, or have the right last name) you absolutely will be excluded from most social, religious, and other institutions.
In other words, it's not all puppies and sunshine.
That other 10% is political discussion. Which is a hot garbage pile covered in blatant racism and antisemitism.
Living in rural America, where it is safe, and folks are polite and friendly and happy to leave you alone (if you're white), I have to say that doesn't mean people don't believe batsht crazy things. Because lots of them do. Or at least say they do, 'cause there is a big step between saying you believe something and actually acting like you do.
Believing batshit crazy things isn't unique to rural areas. In fact, I'd say it's more common in cities simply because there are more people there.
I know a woman who lives in Chicago who doesn't believe in dinosaurs. It's not a religious thing, it's just that dinosaurs don't fit into her mindset somehow.
I dated a woman in New York (native New Yorker) whose entire family believed that the moon landings were fake.
I know a guy in Houston who believes that drinking his own pee is helping him live longer.
Crazy is everywhere. It obeys no geographic, social, wealth, or political boundaries.
Crazy is indeed everywhere. And when it is individual crazy, it likely doesn't matter much (and might even be helpful).
However, organized, coordinated crazy is a problem, even more so when it is sufficiently organized and coordinated to become an effective player in our political system.
At one time, that weirdo didn't have anybody to talk to. So he wrote his weird ideas in a journal somewhere, and he'd maybe self-publish a book, and annoy people at the coffee shops with his ideas. Now the crazy finds friends. Somewhere out there in the internets is another weirdo who had your idea too.
There is a certain group of people that are adamant that others obey a codified set of laws that they give lip service to. It is sad that the world has become such and openly hateful place. Part of the issue is that hate is very profitable and the infotainment and social media companies continue to cash in.
As opposed to my state attempting to ban CRT from being taught in high school (a non-issue, since it isn’t)? I have lived in liberal parts of the country, for most of my life. They have a different set of problems, but I never once had my property vandalized for having the wrong sign or flag out front. People mostly left me alone.
I think that is generally true everywhere. People are against censorship, except when they're for it. They're for religious freedom, except for "those people". They're for free speech, except when you say things they don't like. I've not seen one group that values their own speech, their own beliefs, their own values, actions and communities, that doesn't undervalue the speech, beliefs, values and communities of other people.
This is the hard truth that has taken me many years to accept. When it comes to politics, moral principles are for other people to follow. Lies, hypocrisy, doublethink, violence, etc. are all fair game if they advance the interests of your own group. I don't think there's a solution for this. It just is what it is.
Another related lesson is that the extremist people (on both sides of the aisle) tend to be louder and more demanding than the moderates so it's easy to make the mistake of believing they are more numerous than they are.
