Then a few days later, I woke up to read that "white rural rage" is the greatest "threat to democracy" and thought, "Well, at least we don't have to worry about nuclear Armageddon now."

Such is the sorry state of the "woke" West that the "thinking class" moronically obsesses over trivialities, while ignoring everything that is disastrous.

This somewhat regurgitated "white rural rage" thesis comes from a "journalist" and an "academic" who have written a book explaining why white, patriotic Americans who just want to live their lives free from government interference are actually responsible for everything wrong in the country.  Just when I think my white-hot contempt for closed-minded toffs couldn't burn more brightly, a couple nitwits ratchet up my "rage" to eleventy.  Dang, they got me.  Turns out that if you scapegoat rural Americans long enough, some will get angry.  Uff da.

Of course, anyone who lives in or near rural America knows that the brain-dead professor and reporter tag-team responsible for this drivel never spent any time meeting the people whom they disparage.  If they had, it would have been impossible for them to write so dishonestly (even for people paid to lie for a living).  Rural America is where authentic democracy flourishes.

People still gather in churches and town squares to discuss their communities' hardships and successes.  Law enforcement and firefighting depend on the efforts of volunteers.  Local papers tell stories of next-door neighbors and follow the adventures of townspeople far from home — many risking their lives in combat overseas.  When someone isn't seen in the grocery store or at the bank for any length of time, people notice.  Before a sheriff's deputy has time to investigate, local residents are on the case.  When snowed-in roads need clearing, family trucks turn into plows.  When farmers need extra hands to harvest crops, familiar faces arrive in droves.  At the deli, town market, or local watering hole residents debate the issues on their minds.  There are no timeouts because some topic has been declared "politically incorrect" or because some intervening listener declares the conversation riddled with "hate."  Rural America is where free speech thrives.