Living in the South, you can get a different outlook on the social issues of the day. Things that were pretty factual and definite, in say the NorthEast, or California, are suddenly much more questionable. This can range from a few topics:
When you enter the South - I mean the real South, not just a transient, cultural void like Florida - the assumptions above suddenly aren't as universal. Scientists - and the government - is suspect. The less they do or are involved in, the better. Don't tell me how to live my life, you stuffy scientists! Don't tell me what to think about evolution, or what to eat, or anything - I don't need your pesky facts and findings clogging up my brain!
This is what concerns me: if you're the type of person that easily dismisses scientific evidence and findings...then what makes it into your brain?
The answer: not much. Maybe some stuff picked up during your formative years...and beyond that, your own experiences, and some select tidbits you wish to insert. A good way to go about living your life? No.
Many Southerners I know are all about God - He's real, He's up there, He's all about being good to me, yadda yadda. Fine. Live and let live. But the same folks, after fully embracing what they were either conditioned to believe, or force-fed by strangers on a weekly basis via dressy indoctrination, adamantly refuse to believe word 1 of Climate Change. "That's arguable either way," is how one put it - and that's a nice outlook.
Why can an entire segment of the populace be confronted with a scientific consensus on an issue which they themselves are most likely entirely ignorant...and yet feel secure enough to compeltely dismiss it as a hoax, an elaborate conspiracy by scientists, or just as something that there isn't enough evidence of to convince them? Who the FUCK are you? How many years of meteorological experience and deep core ice studies have you done, dipshit?
If you have that much of a prejudice against what scientists say, then you probably should disregard their safety studies on cars - leave that seatbelt unbuckled, Joe Bob. Light up a few smokes while you're at it - no filters, thanks - and maybe eat some pork rhinds dipped in lard to boot. Because if we're going to arbitrarily dismiss one scientific communities findings after years and years of research, why the hell should you still follow any others?
These same folks (I like to say 'folks' in my head, like a Palin speech, to connect to mid-westerners) will raise a suspecting eyebrow at college. College. The place where kids fail out of, between sleeping late, experimenting with drugs, learning to love caffeine-based beverages, being horny as all hell, and occasionally visiting a classroom. Down-home country boys think that most colleges are indoctrination camps - where they get you in a room, teach you all this haughty-taughty, world-is-ending bullshit, and then give you tests on it. Like state-funded, voluntary Scientology or something.
News flash, asshole: it's College. I'm there to learn shit, while donig as little as possible, and taking in many naked ladies. Sure, there might be some bias and editorializing by some extremist professors - but if we can't filter that out by age 18, then we're just going to be as big an asshole as our dad was. Potentially as big an asshole as the type of guy that will fall hook line and sinker for a God construct, paying tithe and sitting in stoic boredom on a weekly basis, while completely dismissing Climate Change as a farce while the glaciers melt, hurricanes hit, and Florida goes into a deep freeze.
But what do I know, I'm probably indoctrinated by liberal-leaning college professors. Thank God I didn't graduate, or I might be spouting on MSNBC right now!
Read a Book,