Why are rural, red state Republicans so concerned about terrorism?

[LonePirate]

I honestly don't understand why so many red state Republicans are so concerned about terrorism, especially being the victim of terrorism. Terrorists - be they domestic or foreign - have shown zero interest in rural America. Terrorists (mostly the ones interested in violence and destruction, although it's also true for the ones elected to public office as Republicans) have ZERO interest in rural, red state America. They are only interested in heavily populated areas which are overwhelming Democratic now.

I know I should never start down the path of expecting any sort of rational thought from Republicans. Still, you'd think their survival instincts would actually control their brains at some point. Perhaps I'm giving them too much credit.

[lunatica]

1. Cuz they're Murikans!

Muslins hate Murikans!

[JI7]

2. US conservatives are very much about ignorance and fear

[volstork]

3. To them, terrorist equals brown.

THAT's what they are scared of-- that anyone who is brown might come for them or for what's theirs.

[dalton99a]

21. Yep. White terrorists are not considered "real" terrorists.

[Skittles]

4. they fear whatever their dittomasters tell them to fear

[gratuitous]

17. This is it

Don't let anyone tell you advertising doesn't work; large segments of our society have had it drilled into their brains that there's a terrorist lurking around every corner, and every isolated incident is blown up (no pun intended) into an exemplar for fear and panic. The effect of this fear is very profitable for some powerful people in our country, so the fear machine is stoked constantly.

I think it's also why there was such a visceral reaction against the Women's March on Saturday. Millions of people around the country and all over the globe assembled peaceably, in the spirit of shared humanity, and said no to fear, isolation, and hatred. Because of the efforts of the aforementioned powerful people, it's up to us to be constantly stoking our machine of community and neighborliness.

[Dustlawyer]

40. The propaganda they consume like starving animals

keeps them angry and afraid. It makes them easier to manipulate and control, sending them enmasse to the voting booths. TPTB use it to deflect blame fromantic their control of our politicians and their fleecing of America!

Until we gain control and force an end to campaign donations etc and busting up the banking and media oligarch it's we will be subject to ever deteriorating circumstances!

[marybourg]

28. Agree. nt

[jmg257]

5. Guess they don't like anybody getting killed, even big city folk?

[ck4829]

9. Yeah, sure.

[susanna]

13. I don't think they would bat an eye.

They have made it quite clear how they feel about us 'city folk.'

[jmg257]

15. Good point - maybe they don't care so much any more. 9-11 was a loong time ago.

[susanna]

48. Your point being? n/t

[uponit7771]

39. No, they don't like their sense of security to be interrupted

[jmg257]

44. Hmmmm...ok - not sure that's a bad thing.

[uponit7771]

45. Oh, they have a very narrow sense of security where as most progressives have a wider sense of ...

... security IE not being scared of other type of humans for instance.

Not being scared of facts or looking at other angles or perspectives

Only 6% of US scientist consider themselves republicans

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/09/majority-of-americans-say-scientists-dont-have-an-ideological-slant/

because science requires one to come out of a comfort zone of view...

JMHO...

[smirkymonkey]

6. I have no idea, but it irritates me beyond belief.

I lived and worked in Manhattan during 9/11. I lived and worked in Boston (still do) during the terror attack there. When I hear about these rural red-state republicans freaking out about terrorists I just want to punch them. Get a grip, snowflakes! The only think you are in danger of is your own stupidity!

[doc03]

7. Why are red state Republicans so concerned about violence in Chicago?

Fox tells them to be afraid be very afraid. I hear them all the time saying they wouldn't go to any big city or travel in
Europe especially, it's too dangerous. Damn republicans are scared of their own shadow.

[jmg257]

12. Well - that's easy - bad people shooting each other is potential for gun control. nt

Last edited Sat Jan 28, 2017, 11:29 AM - Edit history (1)

[doc03]

14. They they wouldn't have any trouble taking guns away from the (right people).

[NickB79]

29. My RW uncle sleeps with a loaded .44 under his bed cause of gangs

He's a hog farmer in bumfuck nowhere at least a 2 hr drive from downtown Minneapolis.

Any minute, a carload of black guys is gonna come hauling ass to his farm to rape his wife and murder him for his fortune, you see.

[doc03]

35. I have clowns like that living all around me here in Ohio. Hey

you never know when a bus load of black drug dealers from Cleveland (130 miles away) are going to
break into your house and kill you. A lifelong friend of mine will not go to the nearest city,
would you believe Wheeling WV, for fear of getting shot. Him and his wife are literally glued
to Fox News about 20 hours a day 7 days a week. She watches Fox from 10 am to 3 or 4am,
he watches Fox about 8am to 8pm. I avoid talking politics as best I can.

[DashOneBravo]

51. Oh

I've met those clowns before too

[anarch]

8. because they are brainwashed by right wing propaganda, likely reinforced by their churches

[vlyons]

10. Because they have been fear-mongered, and

they are ignorant racists, who fear any challenge to their stupid, ignorant Southern Baptist brain washings.

And they fear that those dark, swarthy fellows might steal their women.

[Generator]

11. Propaganda

The documentary I think it's called-what happened to my Dad or something. If you watch cable TV it rots your brain. This even happened to me as a new mother-I thought Saddam was going to kill me and my babies for a small while. I believed Colin Powell. I also would watch about kids being abducted and was sure that would happen. My husband would get so mad, I would be weeping-well I didn't leave the house for weeks. It was an altered state being isolated with babies and home all the time. That's the same with being out of work or disabled or old-the Fox news primes subjects. Fox news graphics make is seem like the sky is falling all the time.

Watching round the clock 9/11 coverage was not good either. (that was a bad time for me) The world isn't just it's tragedies. But that's all that's on the TV.

[susanna]

18. There is so much to this.

I work from home and have ample access to TV if I wanted it, even for noise in the background. However, I noticed the same thing you did - it's all violence and tragedy. It was really getting to me. I stopped watching it. It is mostly a dust-catcher that I fire up for movies or series that I enjoy. Occasionally a political or sporting thing or two. But then it's turned off, and might not be turned on again for weeks.

I made that decision seven years ago, in fact. My life is fuller and I don't fear every fellow human I encounter. Amazing how that works.

[wcast]

16. It is their belief in white exceptionalism which their fear of "others" reinforces.

They are better than nonwhite peoples who are murderers, rapists, and terrorists. They follow the one true religion instead of false gods and idols.

I see this unreasonable fear in my rural area of PA. Fear of immigrants and the subsequent treatment of them is justified because of terrorism. I will say, many truly are terrified, which is reinforced by Fox News and their elected politicians.

To me this picture says it all. I'm sorry I couldn't attach it.


http://m.imgur.com/gallery/elnLWs9

[Rex]

19. Fuck if I know! Why would dumbass RW Texans believe ISIS is 'pouring' over the border?

GOPukes are stupid people, they don't just fake the dumb...they live it day in and day out.

[BlueStater]

20. They're dumb.

I know that's a simplistic answer, but I genuinely don't think it's any more complex than that. They're simply not very intelligent and are easily persuaded by whatever their party tells them. If it tells them to have a senseless fear of Muslims, then they'll do as they're told.

[mopinko]

22. follow the money.

rachel maddow's book "drift" has a lot of examples of big money spent to harden teeenie tiny targets.

[moondust]

23. Easily duped.

I think many rural Americans have very little experience--neither good nor bad--with anybody who doesn't look and talk like them. It is therefore easy for cynical manipulators who do look and talk like them (i.e. white Republican politicians) to demonize and villify whole groups of unfamiliar "others" for their own political and economic gain. You get a bunch of these cynical manipulators who look and talk like them all pushing the same scary meme and the dupes will believe it.

[old guy]

26. Very well stated.

I live in such an area and am amazed at the complete lack of critical thinking. Sigh.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

24. One word: Fear

Rural folks are quite often fear-driven, authoritarian followers.

[Initech]

25. Terrorists aren't going to attack Plains, Georgia, or Waco, Texas, or Wasilla, Alaska.

They will go after big targets. They'll go after Los Angeles, or New York, or San Francisco, or Chicago, or any number of targets. Republicans will buy anything being sold to them. And they are very easily duped. The sad thing is they think it's a game to them. I've seen people who are like "Yeah I've got a whole safe full of weapons and ammo, and a killer pit bull, and a killer Rottweiler. Plus I've got tons of surveillance equipment and my house is surrounded by barbed wire. Try to break into my house, I dare you, motherfuckers!". I'm not going anywhere near that house! And it's all people who live in the middle of nowhere that do this.

[Trust Buster]

27. It is based in their insecurity, religion and ignorance.

[Baitball Blogger]

30. They are afraid of everything that appears strange to them.

I wish someone would do public records requests to find out how many times the police and sheriff's departments were called out on neighbors that were targeted by people in the community who overreached their power and authority. Not sure what they hoped to accomplish, except, maybe try to show those neighbors that they could use the authorities to harass them.

[JHB]

31. Gimme a P! Gimme an O! Gimme an R! Gimme a K! What does it spell?

Handouts!

[TrekLuver]

32. I say this to these very scared fearful people all the time. I said are you the target? Has your

city or town been attacked. Why is it that I live right outside of NYC...was in NYC on 9/11 I went to work the very next day in NYC yet I'm not scared...why are you so damn scared ??? Don't you understand that you are letting them win? They really don't get it. They equate all Muslims with terrorists and that is that.

Time after time they will refer to the "horror" in Minnesota or Europe from all these refugees and of course you know the "news" sights they must cite. You have a better chance of getting struck by lighting right after you won the lotto rather than be involved in a terrorist attack...but there is no reasoning with the hard core right fucks.

[ileus]

33. You're right...they should care if big city liberals get killed.

WTF kind of logic is that?

Would you care if rural America become a frequent target for terrorist?

[July]

34. I lived in NJ not too far from Manhattan on 9/11/01.

My kids were sent home from school that day, and their buses took them past a lookout point from which they could see the burning towers. They were out of school for several days, and we parents told the schools that we were going to ignore their no cell phones policy from then on.

Our tiny town lost seven people in the attacks, and the memorial to them was placed in a park on our street (and included some gnarled metal from the towers, which to me was a bit much).

We went on with our lives, as shaken up as we were, and dealt with our kids' nightmares. We admired the countless people in Manhattan who helped each other and also went on with their lives.

It was only when I talked to relatives in Western New York who hadn't experienced anything but the shock we all felt -- the real shock, I stipulate, that was natural in response to the horrific attacks -- that I learned that fears generated by the attacks justified an entirely bogus war.

[highplainsdem]

36. Brainwashing by Fox News, Breitbart, etc.

[Dem2]

43. Rec

Yep

[dembotoz]

37. I Netflix blitzed on NCIS...Hot and cold running terrorist plots add a bit of NRA stoking the coals

I mean damn
Just damn. Folks watch TV and see bad guys at every turn... Add a few quarts of Muslim Obama after their gun...
WTF do u expect
If you remember the war movies from ww two..Pure propaganda to support the war effort..
Still got the propaganda and folks believe it

[NRaleighLiberal]

38. Projection.

[charlyvi]

41. They need a common enemy to objectify and hate

It keeps them bound together. Otherwise, they might start questioning the Republican Party.

[Dem2]

42. Faux "news"

If real media said that they're more likely to get killed in a lightning strike...

[marlakay]

46. Fox news has been scaring them

For many years now.

[shadowmayor]

47. Fear of threats

Grew up with these people and love to chew the fat with them when I go back. Nicest people, give you the shirt off their back etc. But, and this is a huge point - they are down-the-line fox news watching, never democrat voting, gun owning, rugged individuals proud of the work they've done with their own two hands. And, they are absolutely convinced that the god damned gubmint is gonna come for their guns, that gangs of blacks and browns are spilling out of the cities to rape and pillage, that terrorists will wreak havoc across the land, that gay rights and women's rights have gone waaaaay too far and christianity is under threat, especially by Muslims. They love Alex Jones, Michael Savage, and Rush Limbaugh.

These people will only vote republican, and given a chance to slam a Hillary or a Barrack will come out and vote against them every single election. Global warming is not caused by mankind, democrats make the gubmint bigger, the deficit bigger and shrink the military. Regulations, especially environmental regulations kill jobs and Ronald Reagan was the greatest president ever. In other words, they see themselves as being under constant assault, especially from the dems, and math and reason play no part in how their decisions about our country are formed.

I teased my old friends with a simple question: "Do you honestly believe that the first black president is coming for whitey's guns?" They absolutely did believe it. And then I'd tell 'em that if I owned a gun store, I'd tell everybody exactly that - it's great for gun sales. It's like being afraid of ebola when you live in a small town in Wyoming - makes no sense at all.

[Vinnie From Indy]

49. Fox News

Right Wing media. The answer is really quite simple!

[dalton99a]

50. Cuz ISIS is going to drive 70 miles out of the way to attack 5 people in Bumfuck.

[hollowdweller]

52. Never understood it, I think talk radio

I live in a rural area.

I like to hunt and own guns but then people ask me why I don't carry one and I tell them "Crime is at record lows. Everywhere I go I feel safe"

Most though have never been or spent much time in any large city and they see them like maybe NYC was back in the 70's early 80's where there was more crime and stuff.

Then many never have any exposure to minorities or middle eastern folks so they don't realize that most are just regular folks like they are.

However to put the shoe on the other foot a lot of us liberals push for gun control even though the crime rate is low anymore and we tend to cast gun owners as some sort or rabid lunatics because they don't have any exposure to them.

We're a little like that with religion too.