Speaking of hate and bigotry

I'm late to this but check out this gem at Get Religion about an astounding piece of hate-journalism at The Atlantic.

I can't add much to the brilliant criticism at Get Religion but there are three things I'd like to highlight. The first is this gem of bigory:

The reason everyone seems related in small-town Iowa is because, if you go back far enough, many are, either by marriage or birth. In Iowa, names like Yoder, Snitker, Schroeder, and Slabach are as common as Garcia, Lee, Romero, Johnson, and Chen are in big cities.  

And there is something wrong with those names? Try to imagine how writers at The Atlantic would respond to a piece written about New York that said, "Boy there sure are a lot of people with Hispanic and African American names in the phone book!"

The second is the sheer delusion behind this claim by writer Stephen Bloom:

About the only possible bright spot in the rural Iowa economy is wind energy.

 Finally, note the cultural bludgeoning going on in this long passage that Get Religion also excerpts:

 Rules peculiar to rural Iowa that I've learned are hard and fast, seldom broken: Backdoors are how you always go into someone's house. Bar fights might not be weekly occurrences, but neither are they infrequent activities. Collecting is big -- whether it's postcards, lamps, figurines, tractors, or engines. NASCAR is a spectator sport that folks can't get enough of. Old-timers answer their phones not with "hello," but with last names, a throwback to party-lines. Everyone's phone number in town starts with the same three-digit prefix.

Hats are essential. Men over 50 don't leave home without a penknife in their pocket. Old Spice is the aftershave of choice. Everyone knows someone who has had an unfortunate and costly accident with a deer (always fatal for the deer, sometimes for the human). Farming is a dangerous occupation; if farmers don't die from a mishap (getting a hand in an auger, clearing a stuck combine), they live with missing digits or limbs.

Comfort food reigns supreme. Meatloaf and pork chops are king. Casseroles (canned tuna or Tatertots) and Jell-O molds (cottage cheese with canned pears or pineapple) are what to bring to wedding receptions and funerals. Everyone loves Red Waldorf cake. Deer (killed with a rifle is good, with bow-and-arrow better) and handpicked morels are delicacies families cherish.

Religion is the glue that binds everyone, whether they're Catholic, Lutheran, or Presbyterian.

Hey, I'm not from Iowa but that sure sounds like where I come from. There is nothing about these rules that is peculiar to Iowa. Millions of people all across North America live in places where similar if not identical conditions apply. Upper New York State for example. These paragraphs just show how provincial and small-minded Stephen Bloom is.

This is a target rich environment but let's go through them anyway:

1. That you can come in the back door is an honour. It means you are a friend welcome without an invitation. One of the wonderful things about a place like Iowa is how readily people grant you that status. On the other hand, on my street here in the city there are two people who have lived on the same block for more than a decade but never met until this summer.
2. In most big, blue-state cities, bar fights are daily if not hourly occurrences.
3. Answering your phone with a family name is a throwback to an era when people were more formal and not to party lines. When I was boy, I was taught to answer the phone "Aimé residence, Jules speaking".
4. What's wrong with hats?
5. Old Spice is good.
6. Anywhere you have lots of white-tailed deer (see Westchester county for example)  you are going to have a lot of car-deer collisions.
7. Farming is a dangerous occupation. Got any solutions for that smart boy?
8. What used to be called "soul food" is also comfort food. Would you feel comfortable making generalizations about African Americans based on that Mr. Bloom?
9. Red Waldorf cake sounds yummy to me.
10. Any time I meet someone who has killed a deer or turkey with a bow, I take the hat I find essential off to them because that is damned impressive feat. Try it sometime yourself if you don't believe me.
11. Hand-picked Morels are also delicacies families cherish in Southern France. I suggest you never go to Provence Mr. Bloom. You'd hate it.
12. "Religion is the glue that binds everyone, whether they're Catholic, Lutheran, or Presbyterian." That's true. Kind of impressive that it can do that don't you think?