General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It's bothered me for years. Where did the ridiculous notion [View all]Hekate
(90,658 posts)First time I heard the term I got it instantly, because I live in California and my sis lives in New York state (and formerly Massachussetts) and that's my only reason to travel. I'm not related to anyone in the middle, so why would I go there?
But as soon as you say "coastal elites" the implication is that a) we are elite, and b) we think we're better than everybody else, so c) the people who live in flyover country must be real Americans because snobby elitists obviously are not.
But this prejudice predates airplanes by at least a century and doubtless a lot longer. According to this mythology, Real values come from small towns and farms, where people are close to nature and naturally good and neighborly. Not coincidentally, they all go to the same 3 Christian churches in town and are descended from the same 3 European ethnic groups who originally settled the town.
Big cities are a disturbance in the Force, full of strange people and strange beliefs. As Garrison Keillor pointed out numerous times, cities are where the misfit kids from Lake Woebegone go when they grow up, to escape the sameness and conformity: the artist, the poet, the gay kid, the intellectual, the nerd. In ither words, all the people you and I think make life interesting.