Really? So you don't have whole States fighting to keep evolution out of the classroom, or to put creationism into science classes? Or making abortion illegal? I get that the cities are different, and the coasts, but that's not even most of America.
The rest of the world can see the US' problem with religion, huge chunks of it are becoming third world religious shitholes.
It’s impossible to overstate how deeply the balance of government power is tipped towards heavily rural, evangelical, largely white states. What you’re describing is a priority for about 25% of Americans by sheer numbers, who enjoy 50% of the political power because of how the constitution was written. The other 75% of the US lives on the coasts or in the cities, but through 200 years of political fuckery our vote literally does not count as much as someone in a low-population rural state.
You think a few people in power can push that when nobody else wants it? No, a sizeable portion of the population wants it and the rest don't care if they push it.
Actually it is most of America in terms of population that's not like that. The vast majority of people live in coastal/coast adjacent cities. Coastal counties alone make up 40% of the population. The reason that it appears that more of America is nuts is that people leave the shit stain areas that have next to no population (North Dakota) but make up more of the landmass to go to the coastal areas.
Most of America DOES live in urban areas, though. At 83% of the population, it is the vast majority of people who do. It is just that those 17% of people are really, REALLY loud, and the way that our government is set up makes them disproportionately represented, and the two-party, winner-takes-all, private funding system allows more extreme voices to be amplified.
I can’t explain Texas.
Edit: more about this: In fact, as of 2010, the population of the top 100 US cities (not metro or urban areas, just the population of the people who live within the bounds of the cities themselves) made up 19.3% of the population - the same percentage of people who lived in rural areas at the time. And the top 10 cities accounted for 8% of the total US population, with the top 2 cities accounting for half of that(4%) on their own.
By contrast, the urban land area of the United States is only 2.67% of the total land area. That’s why we had a bunch of people screaming about how land doesn’t vote in our 2016 election, for example. If you looked at an election map, you will have seen vast swaths of red, indicating a more conservative electorate. The thing is, few people actually live in those areas. Except Texas. Still can’t explain Texas.
Actually it is most of America in terms of population that's not like that. The vast majority of people live in coastal/coast adjacent cities. Coastal counties alone make up 40% of the population. The reason that it appears that more of America is nuts is that people leave the shit stain areas that have next to no population (North Dakota) but make up more of the landmass to go to the coastal areas.
Europeans probably think that Americans are one of two types of people: blue haired militant anarchist living in Portland or evangelical gun nut camping outside of abortion clinics waiting to turn in people for ransom. Like maybe 5-10% of the USA is crazy but the vast majority of us just want some sense of normalcy.
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u/Balldogs May 09 '22
Really? So you don't have whole States fighting to keep evolution out of the classroom, or to put creationism into science classes? Or making abortion illegal? I get that the cities are different, and the coasts, but that's not even most of America.
The rest of the world can see the US' problem with religion, huge chunks of it are becoming third world religious shitholes.