As a sometimes novelist, it's important to understand that characters in the novel don't necessarily reflect the author. Sometimes, a character holds some opinion or belief contrary to the author's, just for story reasons.
But the author's beliefs most definitely color the story, and one's discussion of people like you and me is...troubling.
Our story here starts with America's 1st Freedom and a piece written by editor-in-chief Frank Miniter. It's a look at a discussion between book journalist Andy Hunter and novelist George Packer, who is also a columnist for The Atlantic.
Packer describes the city folk as educated and sophisticated; whereas the country folk are rubes who can farm or change the oil on a truck.
In a real-life discussion of the differences between rural and urban America, the interview became very revealing:
Andy Hunter: Like when we first drove to upstate New York after Trump was elected in 2016 and my daughters realized, oh my god, there’s tons of Trump supporters here at the state fair and I was like, don’t worry, most of them are good people.
George Packer: They’re good people, they’re friendly, they’re very capable, they know how to fix an engine.
Andy Hunter: There’s NRA gear and tons of MAGA hats and my daughters are just like, what is going on here?
George Packer: Yeah, “these are the enemy.”
By “these are the enemy” he is referring to people from today’s rural America who cherish their right to keep and bear arms—the enemy, in his worldview, stand in contrast to the “educated” elites from the cities. But then, in this and other statements, Packer reveals his ignorance and bias and fear.
Andy Hunter soon asks about this divide: “To what extent was the yeomen and burghers an allegory for rural and urban America?”
“I mean, we have all kinds of ways to see our social divisions,” says George Packer. “Race is one, religion, and the two political parties. But I believe, more and more, that the fundamental division is between the educated and the not so educated.”
In this delineation, Packer casts himself as a member of educated elite who see NRA members as “the enemy,” as the uneducated, unsophisticated class who walk the rural lands with their knuckles almost dragging on the ground.
That's not a great worldview by Packer. Hunter isn't exactly excused from this, because it's pretty clear he thinks along the same lines, but Packer most definitely looks at folks like you and me and thinks he's better. After all, he's urban and educated. You, despite maybe having a master's degree or Ph.D., are just some poor, uneducated rube. If you were properly educated, there's no way you'd support a group like the NRA or someone similar.
In Hunter's defense, he does say most Trump supporters are good people, which is more than most on the left are willing to acknowledge, even as Packer declares them all "the enemy," so I won't beat up on him too much, even if he isn't fully excused, either.
We often talk about the urban-rural divide, and this is part of why it exists.
People in the rural areas might say a lot of things about city-folk, but mostly they don't really care all that much about them. They don't think they're bad people, just a little ignorant of how things work outside of the bubble of an urban environment. Most won't look at city folk as "the enemy," but Packer doesn't return the favor.
Plus, let's be real. It's not "educated and the not so educated" so much as the indoctrinated and the not so indoctrinated.
After all, we're often educated more than sufficiently to fill every role in America in some number or another. I know pro-gun doctors, lawyers, college professors, high school teachers, accountants, neuroscientists, and a host of other fields that require a high degree of education. We are everywhere.
It's only the indoctrinated that could look at that and think, "They like guns, so they must be uneducated."
Seems pretty uneducated to me.
Either way, just remember what they think of you when they demand you show them respect.
