Just Walk a Few Blocks with Them...

...before off-handedly judging them. The average people of the Midwest are NOT the incipient Fascists the Sheltered and Smug Elite might suppose. I come from these people. I can see their viewpoint, even though I don't always agree with it. Before snidely judging them, the Sheltered and Smug Elite really should spend some time LISTENING to them. Stop TELLING them what they SHOULD think and believe, and spend your time listening to their stories. Stop correcting their non-PC use of words, and listen to the pain that lies under that use of pejorative terms - you might find that they have reason (as have many Black people do) to be cautious and suspicious of Strangers in the Neighborhood, as well as the Official People in Charge - including the police, courts, and other government entities. These are people whose victimization - by criminals, by the institutions that ignore their complaints, by the casual insults of "their betters" - is not unlike other minorities. And, yet, because of an accident of birth, they are classified as Privileged. Some privilege.