Are You As Dumb As They Think You Are?
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Too often, Big Media treats us as if they think we are stupid and uneducated, and that we really “need” its “help” in knowing what to believe, what to think, how to live, etc. Big Media loves to reinforce its stereotypes, including of those in the south and in the smaller cities and towns all over this country–that we are stupid, backwards, and uninformed.
“Southern” doesn’t mean “stupid.” Neither does “small town,” regardless of whether that small town is in Alabama, Arizona, or Alaska. We in the South aren’t all dumb, they just play us that way on TV and in the movies. The “accents” are often poorly done and inaccurate. We must wonder if the movie set job of “dialect coach” goes to the director’s buddy or one of the actors’ friends. The ridiculous portrayals of southerners by too much of Hollywood is off the mark, and, in too many cases, being done by people who are not from the south or haven’t spent much time there.
We watched a movie a few years back which was set in New Orleans. Most of the silly accents in that movie were exaggerated southern, not New Orleans. The actors sounded more like Gomer Pyle than Harry Connick, Jr., for sure. Go to New Orleans sometime, and if you can find ten people that talk the way it was portrayed in that movie, let us know where—because we’ve never heard much of that there, and we think we probably know the area better than most of the Hollywood crowd.
Still, the stereotypes persist. We think Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, is as sharp as they come, yet we know he would be ridiculed by Big Media and the Left if he stepped far onto the national stage, just for his accent and where he is from. That may be just as well for the citizens of Mississippi, anyway, since his effective leadership is needed there, especially after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
We think Governor Mike Huckabee, also an astute leader, didn’t get much help from Big Media due to his being from Arkansas, and sounding “southern.” It’s ok to sound that way if you are a Democrat, such as the other guy from Hope, Arkansas, Bill Clinton, but not if you are a conservative.
The stereotype and prejudice of Big Media against small towns and cities is being illustrated, once again, with the selection of Sarah Palin by John McCain as his running mate. The Obama campaign wasted no time ridiculing the selection, pointing out that she had been mayor of a town of 9,000 people–as if there was something wrong with that–and without mentioning that Gov. Palin had been the chief executive of the largest state in the nation about as long as Obama has been a U. S. Senator. That attack came from the same camp whose leader talked about people in small towns being “bitter” and “clinging” to their guns and religion.
Big Media and the Left have made their ridicule and bias toward Gov. Palin obvious. Were she a Democrat, and particularly if she were governor of a state Big Media would consider “more important,” then you can be sure that those attacks would have never been made. If she was a liberal Democrat, then the media would be running numerous TV bits and articles crowning her “an American success story,” but since she’s a Republican, and from a small city, in their eyes, she doesn’t qualify for that designation.
If living in smaller towns and cities is such a bad thing, then why do so many in large cities do all they can to “get away” to the places where the rest of us live? Or to own a “second home” in smaller places, which don’t have the sprawl, crime, and problems of the those urban areas? If we’re so stupid, then why do they want to live where the rest of us do?
Big Media, Hollywood and the political Left are kissing cousins. Their stereotypes of people in the south and in smaller cities and towns throughout our country do persist, and are powerful, though inaccurate. But, be sure of this:
They don’t rule the world. They just think they do. You can prove them wrong.
On Election Day, go vote for a real leader, America’s hero, John McCain, and his capable running mate, Sarah Palin. Help them prevail over Big Media’s new “celebrity star,” Barack Obama, and his old-guard running mate, Joe Biden.
So, to Big Media and its assumption that the rest of us “need” its help, on who to vote for, what to think, how to live: thanks, but no thanks. We’re only as dumb as they think we are if we accept, without question, what they are shoveling to us.
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