Out here in the country, you’re gonna live next door to someone for 5 generations, so you gotta be careful about drawing lines in the sand. 1

Most of my neighbors are Rock Solid People, but they are isolated, uneducated, untraveled, lied to, and all levels of government absolutely mistreat them. 2

Of course, they truly believe that all forms of government should just leave them alone. They are happy to take the benefits and angry and resentful when they have to pay their share. 3

When you live on 600 or 800 acres and you have to build and maintain your own infrastructure, you kinda think like a sovereign, and you forget how much the state is supporting that. 4

When a rancher needs help, he goes to his neighbor, and his neighbor helps him. He helps even if he hates his neighbor’s guts, because he knows that he’ll need the other guy’s help sooner or later. It’s a thing of terrifying beauty. 5

They curb their tongues around me. They don’t use the n-word—much, and they don’t rant about Mexicans when I’m around. 6

The ranchers all work side by side with latin peoples, but they still slam them based on vitriol and false accusations they hear from others, even when it contradicts their own experience. 7

Like talking about the weather, we talk about COVID19, and every one of them says, “well I hear it’s no worse than the flu.” I politely disagree, and they give me the side-eye. I’m not gonna change their minds, but I let them know I think differently. It’s all I can do. 8

There is no doubt that the accelerated pace of weaponized propaganda from right wing sources like FOX have strained our relationships. 9

They’ll try a gambit like, “I heard this guy on Fox News saying…” and I’ll just nod or say something innocuous like, “well, there are other ways to look at it.” 10

If you are in my TL, chances are high that you work in an office with a modestly diverse crew, and you travel around the world for meetings. My neighbor says, “I won’t go anywhere if I have to cross a bridge.” In the SFBay Area, you have to cross a bridge to go ANYWHERE. 11

More than one of them has bragged to me that they haven’t read a book since high school. But several of them are as intelligent as anyone I’ve met in the tech world and generally they are far more caring and supportive. 12

Of course, they have mastered the art of passive aggressive politics, and passive aggressive misogyny. As long as there’s still some full beer cans, the guys sit around and shoot the shit while the womenfolk clean up. They’ve been doing it this way for centuries. 13

I had the benefit of being an affluent high tech guy moving to the country as a grown man, and they respect me for that. If I had gone to school with these guys they would have beat me up and stolen my lunch money. Where would the respect be then? 14

One of my neighbors put up a big trump sign on his fence alongside the road. It got knocked down, so he erected a giant trump sign (like 20’ across) on a phone pole. Here it is: 15

Another neighbor (A high tech refugee newcomer to the valley (not me)) complained to the authorities (!) that it was too big and too close to the road. So the guy had to take it down, but he just moved it to the top of a small hill on his land far enough away from the road. 16

The guy knows I’m a flaming libtard, but I don’t argue with him, and I brought a case of Coors to a neighborhood meeting, so he likes me. 17

It’s a different world in the country. 18

What you learn when you travel the world is that every human has the same wants and needs, but we all live in different circumstances. The isolated country folk assume that others have different wants and needs but live in identical circumstances. 19

With that basis, no wonder they think the way they do. And in their isolation, they never learn different. Of course, they don’t really want to learn different. But then, neither do all those brilliant high tech engineers. 20