Atheist Feminist Socialist here - AIBU to want to get under the skin of the US Bible Belt?

[seesawteddy]

I am just so fascinated by the image I have in my head of gun-wielding bible-loving immigrant-hating Trump-worshippers. I know it's probably all based on stereotypes... but then again maybe not?

I really want to go! Not to start any fights but just to be a fly on the wall and meet these people who in some ways I'm sure are similar to me but ideologically worlds apart. I want to go to church, get myself invited to a pot luck, talk to somebody in a MAGA cap... is this all crazy and a bit twisted?

And if not the second part of my question is- any ideas where I should go and how I can have a more immersive experience rather than just doing the tourist trail?

So you want to spend money and time meeting right wing, bigoted fundamentalist Trump supporters? OKAY.........🙄🙄

Just make sure you tell us about the snake handling...

Snake handling?! Is that a thing there?

Depends how far you're going into the boonies and I think it might now be illegal but I'm pretty sure someone died doing it relatively recently

I was in rural Georgia for work for a while. Absolutely fascinating. Eye opening and I grew up in a religious environment (European though). I am an atheist, left leaning, science loving person.

I'm all in favour of travelling and to learn about other people but you sound like you'd be going there as a bit of a passive euro leftie missionary.

To understand their thinking you don't have to go there. Just step out of your echo chamber. I mean that in a nice way . Start reading the less extremist US sources, still Christian right maga but not the loons. Watch some Louis Theroux.

It's an unpopular view in atheist leftie circles but a lot of smart nice people are in that group, a bit like a lot of smart nice people voted for Brexit or voted for the Tories or even UKIP. Forget the idea of all those millions of people being insane bad guys. Start with the assumption that some lovely kind intelligent people have decided this path is the right path and firmly believe it, then try to understand why. It will be absolutely fascinating.

@Towel where bouts were you in Georgia?

Honestly I wouldn't go as a lefty missionary, I appreciate what you mean about there being nice people there, I think there must be too. I think that the reality and 'truth' people live and breathe out there must just be very different, and while I am prepared to judge a Trump supporter in the context of UK culture as 'not my sort of person', I am baffled to think how half an entire continent could fall into that category.That is why I'm so fascinated!

I've already stepped out of my echo chamber on Twitter... but not sure how representative the stuff I read on there is. There are a lot of bots about. I would definitely be going in the spirit of a Louis Theroux wannabe...

Also I would love to know more about how your time in Georgia was eye-opening?

Well, it sounds as though you are not really interested in having meaningful interactions with Americans, as much as you are gleefully hoping to find people who will conform to the stereotypes you already hold. Nobody likes to be mocked and patronised, not even Trump supporters.

I'm a U.S. citizen, also an atheist, a feminist, and a socialist. I can't quite imagine hatching a plan to infiltrate a group of stereotypical British Tories in their natural habitat, chortling at all their funny little ways, as though they were some sort of exotic species.

I grew up in Georgia. I still live in the Bible Belt. Georgia came close to electing Stacey Abrams as governor. There is actually much more diversity among political opinions in the Deep South than you might think.

I grew up in one of the families you have (badly) tried to describe, in a small southern town, where the most prominent white and Black families in town shared the same last name (one guess as to why) and where there were over 50 churches for a population of fewer than 10,000. I am now a feminist, a socialist, probably about three miles to the left of most ‘liberals’ I know and I fought like hell to escape. I’m an ocean away from it now but the people you describe so patronisingly are still my family and they are far more complex than you give them credit for. There are starting points to understanding how and why people and society are like they are, but you are starting from a place of superiority rather than any genuine desire to understand. You are not “better” than Southern Americans, and the British are just as insular, fearful, ignorant, and fascist-at-heart as any trump supporter. If you want to leer at the poor dumb political idiots, my dear, you can do that at home.

Your sense of superiority is oozing out of your post and I agree with DotForShort What horror might befall you if you went and found you quite liked some of these gun-wielding bible-loving immigrant-hating Trump-worshippers? Best stay at home

I'm an atheist Tory - perhaps I should do a day trip to Islington to snigger at and mock all the Corbynisters?

@Dotforshort Sorry if I offended you. I do want to interact and learn, although the fascination is there too, which is why I asked AIBU.

For what it's worth, I feel exactly the same way about stereotypical Tories, I would leap at the chance at hanging out with them if I knew any, and I chortle plenty about characters such as Rees-Mogg and their ilk (it's a case of laugh or cry tbh…)

*i meant to say “many” British are just the same as any Trump supporter, not all, obviously.

*i meant to say “many” British are just the same as any Trump supporter, not all, obviously.

I quite see why you are upset by my post @snuffalo, and I'm sorry about that. You are absolutely right I am very ignorant about the USA and definitely rely on stereotypes. It's quite hard to see outside of stereotypes though when that's all you know about a place, but that is why I'd like to go! I did wonder if IWBU though. How would you suggest I learn more at home?

Honestly not planning on mocking, although I can see how it came across that way in my post.

I second everything DotforShort, SenecaFalls, SilverySurfer and Snuffalo said.

I’m not going to spend my time giving you a reading list, you need to work on yourself and why why you see other humans as animals in a zoo just because you don’t like their religious beliefs or politics. Believe me, I think that Trump, JR-M, and their supporters are dangerous and often idiotic, but I still see them as human (well, the supporters are human, not entirely sure about the men themselves). You seem to see these people as less human then yourself. I would think about that and try to see the irony there. Maybe also try therapy and a close study of modern American and European social, political, and economic history.

Start with the assumption that some lovely kind intelligent people have decided this path is the right path and firmly believe it, then try to understand why. It will be absolutely fascinating.

And......

There are starting points to understanding how and why people and society are like they are, but you are starting from a place of superiority rather than any genuine desire to understand. You are not “better” than Southern Americans, and the British are just as insular, fearful, ignorant, and fascist-at-heart as any trump supporter

@NameChangeNugget don’t do that, if someone wants their different social media profiles linked they can do that themselves. You’re basically one step away from doxxing when you try to match up info that hasn’t been offered. You should report yourself and have that removed.

You sound quite predjudiced a dismissive. To the point that I wonder whether you would actually benefit. In order to learn from travelling you have to be willing to learn from people.

Hi @Snuffalo

Will do. Apologies and reported myself

Both of those statements ^^

I lived in the North Midwest of the states for 3 years.... it was a very pro-trump bible-belty conservative area. I had/have severa friends who voted for trump (I was living there during the election).

Like you I never used to understand why people who proclaim to be Christian treat their poor so awfully, why they don’t have an NHS or care for the environment - given that it is Gods earth. But actually I came away from the country with a new found respect for its people. They seem freedom and personal liberty as so important in a way that Brit’s will never. We are far to used to handouts and bailouts. A lot of Americans see it as your own responsibility to sort yourself out of a mess. There’s a real “can do” attitude and being self sufficient away from the government/federal “handouts” (able to grow and hunt your own food, run a generator, be prepared for natural disasters, home educate etc) is seen as desirable and admirable.

There’s a real sense of community in the church and the way people stick together unlike synical and sarcastic Brit’s who like to tear each other down in a bitter sort of way.

Don’t get me wrong there is a lot wrong with American society but I feel I understand it a lot better now and the motivations of some of its people who genuinely want to be kind and good people