That sounds terrible. My experiences have been in the Midwest with admittedly Midwest sensibilities. What a difference. Or apparently so..
Enormous differences, unfortunately. Get outside the Lost Angeles/San Francisco areas and CA is primarily rural and sensible, but TV is all about those two areas. Remember Rodney King riots? That's what we're looking at in all the big urban areas.
Suburbia is a mixed bag; some liberal, some conservative, but with the mindset of "that tree blew over, who do we call to have it cut up and hauled away"? These are people who don't do for themselves, who don't know or understand their food sources.