RL Stine: "I am so glad I live in New York City and not the United States.”

UK Telegraph ^

[roses of sharon]

'I am so glad I live in New York City and not the United States,” the author RL Stine wrote last week on Twitter. That New Yorkers view the rest of America with contempt is no secret, but the elections last week were a vivid reminder of their alienation from the rest of the country. “It feels like 2004 all over again,” one friend told me.

The mood on the street was sombre on Tuesday night, with most choosing to watch the results from home, rather than seeing events unfold from a bar, as they did two years ago. One friend implored online: “Let sanity prevail!” Another staunch East Coast Republican called the Tea Party “anger without an agenda”. The week before, a magazine writer referred to the Tea Partiers as “Second Amendment zealots and s---kickers”, and went on to call the prospect of Sarah Palin as president “a kind of spook story told around a campfire”.

Election or not, New Yorkers still regard the places between the two coasts as the “fly-over states”: the unglamorous bits full of fat people who go to church. (I’ve been to Ohio, and the generalisation isn’t far off.)

In fact, for such a cosmopolitan city, it’s astonishing how parochial people are. “If you want to find Middle America,” says one friend of mine, “just drive an hour outside of any city.” The Panhandle states, he says, are thought of as “the Redneck Riviera”; Wyoming and Montana are Unabomber country.

Four years ago, Eliot Spitzer, the then attorney general, was campaigning for governor and got into trouble for comparing upstate New York to Appalachia. He was accused of “city-centric elitism”. But he’s far from the only one who starts humming the theme from Deliverance as soon as he gets beyond the city limits.

[Strk321]

“lol I was wondering why his name was so familiar. Author of some crappy books that I remembered from elementary school.”

I know what you mean. Ah, but for those 2nd grade days of seeing kids’ desks jammed full of Goosebumps books. Usually about ten per desk. There were also a lot of Animorphs and Babysitters’ Club books around.

[Pontiac]

At a cocktail party in SoHo last week, a woman arrived with her four-month-old baby strapped to her back in a papoose.…“If I had known we could bring babies to the party,” shrieked one guest, “I would have brought my dog.” “There is a baby in the room!” cried another, as though he’d spotted a cockroach. “A b-a-b-y.”

This really brings home the Abortion Culture to me.

These people are saying “Why wasn’t that baby aborted?!” or “How could you have a baby; you idiot?!”

The other part of it is they do not even want to see a baby. Like the author pointed out

“Except in select ’hoods like Park Slope and perhaps the Upper West Side, children are viewed as mysterious beings, rarely sighted and only occasionally understood, like pixies or magical small butlers.”

I imagine the people at this party a some of the wealthier people who if they haven’t aborted their children they pay someone else to raise them and only deal with them on a one on one basis only rarely.

Here in flyover country if a woman shows up to a party with a baby in tow she is greeted with OOO’s and AAAhh’s and the baby is passed around and fawned over.

Typically if children are not wanted at a party here in flyover country it is spelled out in the invitation and it is only rarely done because there would be some inappropriate material for children on scene.

What can I say these people are just plain rude.

[MacMattico]

Well, I live WAY upstate, 6 hours to drive to NY, which I do a couple times a year. There are a few things I like to do in NY like take in a Yankee game. Of course I play the theme song from Deliverance over and over again on my way to the big city, just like the guy said. But if truth be told almost every moron, loser and reject I've come across usually ends up telling me how they are moving to NYC to make it big. It's a big city I'm sure there are good people somewhere within it's confines. But I get a little sick of people putting upstaters down to make themselves feel superior. For years we in upstate have subsidized their horrible school system and watched them reap the benefits of the resources of upstate.

[Pontiac]

one thing I don’t quite understand is why do most Christians, who are from Middle America, send their kids to secular public schools instead of creating their own religious schools like the Jews and the Catholics?

Lot’s of them do. Most are fairly small and you might not notice them.

Unfortunately a great many Catholic Schools have closed because many Catholics are no longer willing to sacrifice the money necessary to send their children to a Catholic School.

In large part I blame the increased tax burden on the people of this country but I also blame the more materialist culture of America compared to that of 50 or 60 years ago.

I also blame New York for this rise of materialism. NY and California in many ways lead the culture of the US. Where those two states lead (through the popular media) the rest of the country follows.

But perhaps there is hope. Maybe the Tea Party is in a small way a bit of a rebellion against the Cultural Revolution that started in the sixties in NY and California and has devastated this country’s morals and culture.

[tgusa]

‘s OK, The feeling is mutual. NY is ok for a short visit but I thank God I don’t have to live there. Wait for the war to start when 0 tells us we taxpayers absolutely must bail out NY and CA.

[MacMattico]

Imagine the gasp if you reminded these people even they were once..... Children!

[arthurus]

Perhaps total birth control would be appropriate in New York City.

[This Just In]

“...send their kids to secular public schools instead of creating their own religious schools like the Jews and the Catholics?”

Huh? Harvard, Yale, Princeton, amongs others were established Christian institutions before Commies infiltrated the ranks.

And speaking of religious schools, let’s start with The Master’s College, Patrick Henry College, Dallas Theological Seminary, Bob Jones University, Moody College, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Westminster, Covenant College, LeTourneau, Biola, Azusa Pacific, Liberty University, and this is just a conservative listing.

[This Just In]

Read post #29.

[gogogodzilla]

Indeed, one thing I don’t quite understand is why do most Christians, who are from Middle America, send their kids to secular public schools instead of creating their own religious schools like the Jews and the Catholics?

Why? For the longest time, Protestant culture was/is the mainstream that was taught in public schools in the first place.

You only need alternate schooling if the mainstream variety doesn't teach what you want it to.

Nowadays, though, it's looking to be more and more necessary for Protestants as well.

[mirkwood]

[Squantos]

What changes would you like to see....honest question if you have time

Stay safe...

[ari-freedom]

I don’t think this culture comes from NY. It comes from California, from Hollywood. The other problem comes from universities that are spread out across the country.

Many NY’ers are quite poor. They vote (D) because they want the govt goodies. Many are immigrants and speak many languages. I chuckle when I see complaints from people about government forms in both English and Spanish. Only Spanish? I wish! Here in NYC we have to deal with not just Spanish but also Chinese, Korean, Russian, Arabic and Haitian!

[Yaelle]

He wrote those crappy books? Sheesh, 95% of FReepers write better.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

"I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man."

Thomas Jefferson

[ThanhPhero]

In my community there are no “adults only” parties. If you are invited to a party the family is expected also.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Which style ARE you in tune with? Got a better idea that works?

[Waco]

” “ “ “

[HiTech RedNeck]

What, New York City has seceded and joined Canada? Oh, I just woke up from the wonderful dream that it had.