“Silly rural Americans” are the last socially acceptable target for liberal mockery, a guy named Matt Bai tweeted today.
I’m not sure that’s true. I have liberal friends and family who openly stereotype Walmart shoppers, as just one example.
To state the obvious, those rural Americans and Walmart shoppers are all people. Humans, we all have much in common.
Still, Mr. Bai makes a good point, that taunting Trump supporters with a Beverly Hillbillies theme song parody (as @TrumpToons did so lamely) hardly persuades anyone to change their tune, or their views, or their votes for that matter.
Changing minds isn’t actually the objective of such stereotyping. It makes the would-be parodist feel good, I suppose, and gets a few laughs and likes, but it reflects badly on the perpetrator and on the “liberals” that Bai accuses. Conservatives routinely stereotype liberals, of course.
This is not to say that the people photographed with the president* aren’t themselves fair targets of criticism or parody. They are.
There’s nothing “silly” about Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin or Donald Trump. I don’t know much about Kid Rock and nothing about the other women in the photo.
Just lay off the generalizations about large groups of people. Not helpful.
The Smith Compound 