General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I grew up in rural, small-town America -- I can tell you the real reason why people love Donald Trump [View all]dawg day
(7,947 posts)of those who left-- who became "the other". In my state, there are few jobs in the small towns, and most young people move to the cities. The ones left behind interpret this as being uppity or something. In this way, they end up resenting their own children and friends who chose another path. Like you said, the conformism and need to stay the same creates the need to cut off others, and cut off information.
But you know, this seems to me more of a personal problem for them than a sociological one. We can't bring back the 50s (and we don't want to). We can't resurrect the dead industries. There are new industries where there are new jobs. Sometimes life isn't fair, and sometime it's also unfair to people who think they had it better way back when.
Voting for Trump and deeply supporting him won't help them, of course. And telling them they're being exploited by the rich of the GOP and Trump himself doesn't seem to matter.
Oh, well. Sad as it is for them, their numbers are dwindling.