Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Nekulturny Americans

nekulturny is Russian for "uncultured."
Only Americans have been charged of this on Wiki. Please explain this prejudice instead of indulging in DisagreeByDeleting.At the least, please don't deprive us curious Americans of the opportunity to learn a few Russian words.In Russian, it would be nekulturnyj amerikanecNekulturny American is Slovak.

So, Russians consider Americans to be nekulturny.

As it happens, many Americans (aka 'them funny-talking Easterners', aka 'Liberals') agree with the Russians.

Here's an example of that attitude, snidely insinuated in this June 17, 2014 article  in WAPO.
(H/T: Gunwire.com)

Where gun stores outnumber museums and libraries - The Washington Post:

Just last week, a Pew Research Center survey found that liberals are much more attached to their museums than conservatives are: 73 percent of "consistently liberal" Americans say that being near museums and theaters is an important factor in choosing where to live. Only 23 percent of consistently conservative Americans say the same. 
 Considering that divide, I thought it might be useful to map museums and libraries against an institution that conservatives might be more fond of: gun stores. The inspiration here was Nathan Yau's recent map of where bars outnumber grocery stores. I took the IMLS' museum counts from last week and added to their count of libraries. The idea here is that museums and libraries play similar roles, as institutions of informal learning where students and adults can go to learn more about their communities and the world around them.

Completely ignoring the demographics of the crowded Colony States as compared to states which have more room between people and more of them live in rural areas, the implication is Conservatives (most of whom don't live in  DC or NYC or Boston or ... whatever megalopolis one might choose to name) really have little interest in either museums for the culture, or libraries for the knowledge.

Which boils down to this: Conservatives are Nekulturny.

Hence, the map which displays the proportion of gun stores to museums and libraries.

Which can be quite dramatically demonstrated in the original article, which you might find especially interesting.  If sometimes misleading.   For example, in my small community of 40,000 (when the University has its usual 30,000+ students attending during the school year) there are three libraries and three museums.   There are zero gun stores in this, the County Seat.  However, there is one gun store in a nearby community of about 1,000 permanent population, which has two museums and one library.

However, I do live in Oregon, and ...

But the most gun-heavy county is in Oregon.
Gun stores outnumber museums and libraries by nearly seven-to-one in Deschutes County, Ore., giving it the most lopsided ratio in favor of gun stores among counties with at least 10 of each.
 Hmmm .... Deschutes County.  Located dead center in Oregon.  Elevation 3600 feet, annual rainfall TWELVE INCHES; it's high desert country. They have four towns and a bunch of ranches. Population in 2011 less than 160,000 spread over 3000 square miles about 55 people per square mile.  There are only four incorporated towns in the entire county.     Industries?  Tourism and Timber. Culture? One museum, and at least one library.

Folks don't 'go to town' all that often.  But what they can do is step outside their door and hunt or plink at targets any time they want to, and the neighbors won't call the police in blind panic at the sound of gunfire because ... "Hey Maybelle ... sounds like Hank is practing for that SAS match over at Bend next weekend".

Keep in mind that these two quantities aren't diametrically opposed— there's no reason you can't be a fan of both guns and museums (there is in fact a National Firearms Museum run by the NRA in Fairfax, VA.). But viewed in relation to each other guns and museums give some sense of a community's values. As my colleague Emily Badger wrote the other day, we live in places that reflect our values, and many of us are sorting ourselves into communities that share our political views.
Yes, Mister Wonkette.  We Oregonian may be nekulturny, but at least we're not condescending snots.

Don't mess with Oregon.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our county has one museum, one library and two small gun stores. One movie theater. Votes 95% republican.

Mark said...

Its SASS. Yee Ha.