>In very-red areas that I have relatives, they're happy to do a food drive, make donations, help pay for weddings or funerals, or show up to help repair houses
Unless you are gay, trans, not the right kind of christian, have mental issues, are progressive in any way, are willing at all to contradict their absurd views of reality, want cheaper electricity through green energy, want any form of public transit, their family member has beef with you, you dared to question the authority of the local PD, you dare to question that drag queens are a threat, you think maybe gun control could have prevented the local school shooting or that the PD in that town could have done better and should be fired.
The belief that actually rural people are really nice and altruistic is just laughable. Having grown up with them, they will only help you if you are the "right kind" of person, IE, if you are useful or beneficial to them. My white, catholic, french mom in a city of 9000 was completely ostracized, despite knowing every single family, and being a very generous and nice person, because she didn't have the right last name.
Insular rural communities are all about local tyrannies, and local cliques, and if for ANY reason, no matter how tenuous or bullshit or even made up, you WILL be excluded if the local popular club doesn't like you. It's basically high school, which makes sense when you remember most rural communities are entirely made up of people who didn't do anything past high school and basically have not grown beyond that as people.
>It's not instinctively repugnant to help, or to give, it's instinctively repugnant to give outside their community.
These are the same concepts. Being unwilling to help outside your community IS being unwilling to help.
Went looking for literature, this doesn't quite address in-group charity versus general causes, but FWIW:
> All else held constant, rural respondents were almost 5.2 percentage points less likely to be a
charitable donor, and donated less, on average, than urban donors, after controlling for human
and social capital variables, such as education level, income level, health status, religious
affiliation, family composition, and others. Rural respondents were significantly less likely to be
donors to secular charities, and gave less on average to secular causes overall. These differences
do not exist when comparing the religious giving of rural and urban respondents.
> However, rural donors donated a statistically significantly higher percentage of their income to
charity than did urban donors. Also, rural donors are more likely to donate to religious causes
than secular causes. Frequent religious attendance is associated with a higher probability of
giving for rural residents, as is itemization of deductions on income tax returns.
This is a well-trod stereotype, probably for good reason, and it may also be your personal experience, so I'm not going to refute it generally. But this is not the case for the folks I was referring to.
Unless you are gay, trans, not the right kind of christian, have mental issues, are progressive in any way, are willing at all to contradict their absurd views of reality, want cheaper electricity through green energy, want any form of public transit, their family member has beef with you, you dared to question the authority of the local PD, you dare to question that drag queens are a threat, you think maybe gun control could have prevented the local school shooting or that the PD in that town could have done better and should be fired.
The belief that actually rural people are really nice and altruistic is just laughable. Having grown up with them, they will only help you if you are the "right kind" of person, IE, if you are useful or beneficial to them. My white, catholic, french mom in a city of 9000 was completely ostracized, despite knowing every single family, and being a very generous and nice person, because she didn't have the right last name.
Insular rural communities are all about local tyrannies, and local cliques, and if for ANY reason, no matter how tenuous or bullshit or even made up, you WILL be excluded if the local popular club doesn't like you. It's basically high school, which makes sense when you remember most rural communities are entirely made up of people who didn't do anything past high school and basically have not grown beyond that as people.
>It's not instinctively repugnant to help, or to give, it's instinctively repugnant to give outside their community.
These are the same concepts. Being unwilling to help outside your community IS being unwilling to help.