As I always recount, as recently as the 1990s, West Virginia, of all places, was a deep blue state.

Rural folk are not always the most… up-to-date… on cultural trends and developments. But what caused the corrosive values we see from rural areas in the US nowadays is largely the result of mass media pushed on areas that don’t have a whole lot in the way of alternate sources of information about the goings-on of the wider world. It’s become a self-feeding cycle.

… and the politicization of evangelical Christianity, dating to fucking televangelists in the 80s.