this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
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Having moved from an urban to a rural area, I can anecdotally say there is more to it than just education (though that certainly may be a factor).
Universities scare the conservative faction because they think they are hotbeds of indoctrination, but in reality, the openness people and new ideas occurs largely through socialization, not from any curriculum.
Rural areas rarely encounter that degree of interaction with that variety of backgrounds and beliefs. It is embarrassing to be ignorant of the outside world when you are socialized with so many people that seem to know more than you.
Once your mind is open to the wider world, a lot of the smaller beliefs have to be shed. I believe that is one of the reasons that one of the strongest variables associated with political persuasion is a university education.
It's socialization, not indoctrination, and not just a matter of education.
I got an uncle in his 70s.
He went to k-10th (stopped there) in a one room school house, that had an outhouse.
His "grade" was him and a girl 2-3 years younger than him, then there was a few much younger kids later.
He is alive and voting, and won't miss midterms.
I think when I talk about "rural", people might not be understanding how "rural" America was and to a lesser extent still is.
Like, I don't think people realize how modern school buses as a concept are...
It's only been about 50 years, which is most likely why we saw the 90s boom than whatever the fuck Bill Clinton was doing.
1995 was 20 years after we started really educating everyone. And we saw a bunch of innovation and good times.
2003ish was No Child, and 12 years after that we got trump. Shits worse than before because now the only ones getting decent educations, are wealthy privet school kids. Which a wealth divide should obviously be worse than the prior geographical divide, but at this point I might as well mention.