So this U.C. Berkeley (of course) instructor calling himself Jackson Kernion wrote:
“I unironically embrace the bashing of rural Americans. they, as a group, are bad people who have made bad life decisions… Some, I assume, are good people. But this nostalgia for some imagined pastoral way of life is stupid, and we should shame people who aren’t pro-city.”
This is of course trivially stupid. Some people prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla. Some people prefer rural living over urban.
There are many objective benefits to living in rural areas. The Census Bureau under Obama reported that “people who live in rural areas are more likely to own their own homes,” that they are “more likely to live in single-family homes,” and that “children in rural areas had lower rates of poverty.” The Obama DoJ also published data saying that rural areas are per capita safer than cities for every type of crime including assault, robbery, rape, murder, property crime, theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. The robbery rate is 10x as high per capita in cities.
But what’s more important here is not Jackson Kernion’s claims. It is the culture that allows him to say, without facing any consequences: “I unironically embrace the bashing of rural Americans.” He is smart (though not educated) and we should assume he chose the word “bashing” carefully. The word connotes violence. Gay-bashing does not mean making mean comments about homosexuals on social media. It means violent attacks. So it is with “rural bashing.” Jackson Kernion is trying to normalize, or even encourage, violence against his perceived political enemies.
Rural living is correlated with patriotism, Trump voting, belief in God, real in-person community ties, conservative political views, attendance at church services, dislike for weird “trans” drag queen story hour homosexual normalization lifestyles, and so on. This is everything that, I expect, this poor leftist calling himself Jackson Kernion opposes. God only knows what he has been telling–I decline to use the word “teaching”–his poor students.
The question now is whether UC Berkeley will fire Jackson Kernion as an instructor. His web page says he is still affiliated with the school.
So this U.C. Berkeley (of course) instructor calling himself Jackson Kernion wrote:
This is of course trivially stupid. Some people prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla. Some people prefer rural living over urban.
There are many objective benefits to living in rural areas. The Census Bureau under Obama reported that “people who live in rural areas are more likely to own their own homes,” that they are “more likely to live in single-family homes,” and that “children in rural areas had lower rates of poverty.” The Obama DoJ also published data saying that rural areas are per capita safer than cities for every type of crime including assault, robbery, rape, murder, property crime, theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. The robbery rate is 10x as high per capita in cities.
But what’s more important here is not Jackson Kernion’s claims. It is the culture that allows him to say, without facing any consequences: “I unironically embrace the bashing of rural Americans.” He is smart (though not educated) and we should assume he chose the word “bashing” carefully. The word connotes violence. Gay-bashing does not mean making mean comments about homosexuals on social media. It means violent attacks. So it is with “rural bashing.” Jackson Kernion is trying to normalize, or even encourage, violence against his perceived political enemies.
Rural living is correlated with patriotism, Trump voting, belief in God, real in-person community ties, conservative political views, attendance at church services, dislike for weird “trans” drag queen story hour homosexual normalization lifestyles, and so on. This is everything that, I expect, this poor leftist calling himself Jackson Kernion opposes. God only knows what he has been telling–I decline to use the word “teaching”–his poor students.
The question now is whether UC Berkeley will fire Jackson Kernion as an instructor. His web page says he is still affiliated with the school.