[renewiltord]

Much of the condescension you have attributed to the post appears to not be present in it. Population statistics are not individual statistics. Perhaps he is wrong about the population statistics but your existence doesn't invalidate that.

Note how "Children are more often shorter than adults" is true despite the existence of Sophie Hollins of Southampton and Peter Dinklage the actor. That isn't an insult to children and it isn't arrogance on my part to say that I am likely taller than a child at my 183 cm. It's just that, absent other information, certain population measures are true about certain populations.

Anyway, I am curious as to whether rural counties vs urban counties exhibit the differences he's talking about. I'll go look at the census and Pew surveys and see what it brings up.

[TulliusCicero]

A lot of posters here aren't interested in discussing the actual data. They're personally offended, and responding off of that.

[nitrogen]

A lot of posters here aren't interested in discussing the actual data. They're personally offended, and responding off of that.

The perfect summary of much of modern political discourse.

[hunterb123]

Go ahead and source the data and we'll discuss it.

[TulliusCicero]

That rural areas are more conservative, less educated, poorer, and more religious on average, etc. is well known. I can provide the data if this is an earnest request, but I'm guessing you're already aware of these things, so I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

If someone is arguing against a generally well understood fact -- like, saying that North Korea is richer than the US -- it's on them to support it. They're not doing that here, because the facts aren't on their side.

[hunterb123]

> aren't interested in discussing the actual data.

> I can provide the data if this is an earnest request

It is, please do so we can discuss the actual data as you've said.

[pigscantfly]

I live in a rural area and grew up working a beef ranch in the Poconos, and all of these claims (less educated, lower income, more conservative, more religious) sound obviously true to me, but I looked up the data out of curiosity.

Here is the USDA Economic Research Service on rural vs. urban educational attainment and median income; rural areas indeed are less educated and lower income[1]. This Pew Research study shows that rural areas are more conservative than urban areas across a wide range of political issues[2]. Data on religion was slightly harder to find, but this Gallup poll shows rural areas in the US are more religious than urban areas[3]. If any of these results are surprising, I'd guess that you may not have much experience of urban areas as a comparison. To be clear, I still prefer living in a rural area, but I recognize that there are pros, cons, and individual differences.

1. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/emp...

2. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/urban-s...

3. https://news.gallup.com/poll/7960/age-religiosity-rural-amer...