Sociological Research Question ... Non-Alembic Content

[cozmik_cowboy]

It's the same here in Jersey. I'm always happy to see more representation of how society actually is, than the way it used to be. Hopefully it's not just a money scheme but if so at least it's better than seeing what I used.

I think you mean "the way it used to be displayed".  All this has always been there; the change is that it is becoming more open.

Peter

[StefanieJones]

I guess. I was referring to how it was shown on tv. Mainly. Bad linguist..

[bigredbass]

Mass media and the internet have collapsed localities.

I was on tour in the 90's and we piled off the bus at a little spot in the road in Iowa, real 'Field of Dreams' territory.  We'd just passed a massive John Deere factory a few hours earlier and being in the midsummer, we'd been driving past field after field of 'almost ready' corn, grown taller than me.

So we spot a diner, and decide NOW is the time, so we pull in and park.  I'm immediately passed on the sidewalk by a skateboarding kid, with purple hair and pink Converses.

THIS is when I realized 'out in the country' really didn't exist any more.  Green Acres has been cleared for an Amazon warehouse.

[cozmik_cowboy]

I guess. I was referring to how it was shown on tv. Mainly. Bad linguist..

Shown on TV, absolutely!  If you haven't seen it, may I recommend the wonderful Toby Maguire flick Pleasantville?  '90s teen brother & sister transported into "idealized" (read "whitewashed" - in every sense) '50s sitcom, truth revealed.


Peter

[lbpesq]

I find the replies on this thread to be quite heartening.   I anticipated that these commercials were regionally targeted and am delighted to discover that I was mistaken.   It seems to me that, regardless of the intent of the capitalist companies running these commercials, they are being run, and that is a good thing.  IMHO, a lot of the divisiveness we experience stems from unfamiliarity with other people, cultures, ideas, etc.   I suspect that humans have a genetic disposition to be wary of what we don’t know or haven’t previously experienced.   Frequently seeing people who are different living in a different manner can only prove to be a positive in bringing us all together.

Bill, tgo

[cozmik_cowboy]

IMHO, a lot of the divisiveness we experience stems from unfamiliarity with other people, cultures, ideas, etc. 
Bill, tgo

This. 
I grew up in a rural town of about 800 (well, really, is there any other kind of town of about 800 than rural?).  I think the demographics might have a little bit over 100% Caucasian, ya know what I mean?
I hung out with kids from the "big city" (±25,000), which was much more diverse.  My redneck big brother did not.
He went off to an out-of-state auto-mechanics school, and came home with the news there was a black guy in his circle of friends there.


Me: "Really?  You, hanging with a black guy?"
Which drew the standard bigot's reply in those circumstances:  "Well, he's OK - he's Not Like Most Of Them."
"Yeah? And how many of "Them" do you know besides him?"
(Pause) "Shut up, ya f***in' hippie"


He spent the last 15-20 years of his working life doing 6-weeks-on, 6-weeks-off running an oil field in Turkey; his attitudes, while still not what one remotely call "woke", have eased greatly.


Familiarity does, indeed, help immensely.


Peter (who is likewise heartened by the responses)