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UC Berkeley instructor calls rural Americans 'bad people who have made bad life decisions’
The Blaze ^ | November 8, 2019 | Phil Shiver

Posted on 11/09/2019 4:12:48 AM PST by gattaca

Said they deserve 'uncomfortable' lives

A UC Berkeley graduate student and instructor took to Twitter on Wednesday to vent about his repulsion for rural Americans and why they deserve to live "uncomfortable" lives.

Jackson Kernion, a graduate student who has taught at least 11 philosophy courses at the university, posted that he "unironically embrace[s] the bashing of rural Americans."

"They, as a group, are bad people who have made bad life decisions," he said in the since-deleted tweet. "Some, I assume, are good people. But this nostalgia for some imagined pastoral way of life is stupid and we should shame people who aren't pro-city."

According to Campus Reform, the Twitter thread started with Kernion advocating against affordable health care solutions for rural Americans, saying that "Rural Healthcare Should be expensive! And that expense should be borne by those who choose rural America!"

"Same goes for rural broadband. And gas taxes," he argued. "It should be uncomfortable to live in rural America. It should be uncomfortable to not move."

Evidently Kernion believes that rural living Americans are purposely rejecting the more "efficient" city-dwelling life, and thus should bear the consequences of more expense.

Though Kernion may have been intending to make economic arguments for his beliefs, his tweets had quickly devolved into ad hominem attacks on rural Americans.

After facing some backlash, Kernion did seem to apologize for his tone, which he says came across as "way crasser and meaner" than he believes himself to be.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: academicbias; berkeley; jacksonkernion; kernion; ruralamerica
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To: Mark was here

Look at your telephone bills. You are still paying an Excise tax to provide telephone service to rural parts of the country.


141 posted on 11/09/2019 9:40:39 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: Mr. Mojo

I once needed to have my lower lip stitched up. Horse had flipped his head & clobbered me in the front lower jaw.

After finishing ride & putting horse away, I went to the local ER. They were not really busy. Sat in room for over 25 minutes while I could hear staff chatting at nurse’s station.

Finally walked out & politely told them “If you guys are too busy, I can go to my VET & get stitches just as easy”.

They got the message.


142 posted on 11/09/2019 9:45:19 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: Mr. Mojo

I once needed to have my lower lip stitched up. Horse had flipped his head & clobbered me in the front lower jaw.

After finishing ride & putting horse away, I went to the local ER. They were not really busy. Sat in room for over 25 minutes while I could hear staff chatting at nurse’s station.

Finally walked out & politely told them “If you guys are too busy, I can go to my VET & get stitches just as easy”.

They got the message.


143 posted on 11/09/2019 9:55:20 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: xenia
I have a family member who lives there, and I have been there. [...] Going into the villages is like stepping back in time. So this was my observation. I could be wrong.

So, you are admitting that your statement was not based upon historical fact, or any other "hard" evidence, but is rather "anecdotal."

In fact, you have it all wrong. With the exception of such unusual circumstances as during wartime, when conscripts from the countryside may have been stationed in urban areas, or in the case of drab, polluted industrial conglomerations in Siberia, in fact, Soviet bureaucrats did everything in their power to keep the people out of the cities.

Moscow, in particular, was impossible to move to without special govt. permission.

Believe me, moving from some second-tier city where 50% of the dwellings didn't have hot water or inside toilets, to Moscow - where 70% of the apartments had hot water and inside toilets - was an unrealized dream for most Russians.

Are you from Russia?

Would rather not expand upon that here, but you can be sure that I know of where I speak (and besides, what I've said above can be fact-checked in reliable historical documents).

The cities that I saw are packed with people who live in apartments.

Yes - against the wishes of the bureacrats - and because living in the countryside is worse. The people are "packed" because the Soviet central-planners were crap at their jobs, and because "guns instead of butter."

Regards,

144 posted on 11/09/2019 10:19:57 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: alexander_busek; xenia

Actually you are both correct. The time period in question was of collectivization. Farms, peasants, were brought under government control. Many due to the abject poverty of the situation moved to the cities.

Poverty and privation drove people from the countryside, while Soviet official industrialization campaigns encouraged (and sometimes forced) their movement to cities.http://kommunalka.colgate.edu/cfm/essays.cfm?ClipID=376&TourID=900


145 posted on 11/09/2019 10:34:26 AM PST by EBH (DNC=Party NON GRATA)
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To: EBH; xenia
Good call, EBH.

In my reply, I was speaking more about the period of from 1950 to the 1990s. During other periods, other circumstances may have prevailed. And when saying "cities," I wasn't referring to just bigger towns and such - but was thinking of metropolitan conurbations like Leningrad and Moscow.

Regards,

146 posted on 11/09/2019 10:38:35 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: gattaca
Jackson Kernion and his kind need to back the movement to divide the country into two groups - one progressive - one conservative.. . Jackson Kernion and other UC Berkeley staff can have it all. Think about it Jackson...

Progressives can have a 'country' where they have NO BORDERS - where every third world hellhole can empty into THEIR country.

Where every person can have a minimum wage of $40 an hour.

Where every woman can abort her child up to the moment of birth and an hour AFTER birth (in case the child is a boy or ugly).

A country with a hundred genders AND anyone disagreeing with that idea is jailed.

Where it's a crime to disagree with 'settled science'... and 'settled science' is determined by a vote of 'elites'...

Where ALL guns are confiscated and the second amendment is abolished.

AND

Where ALL citizens have free medical care from cradle to grave - for citizens and anyone who can get to 'USProgressive'.

Progressives can have it all... We're ready to deal... Split the country... Work with us - you progressives get half - and we get half... Why fight? Time for a divorce.

147 posted on 11/09/2019 10:41:27 AM PST by GOPJ (In battle between socialist millionaires & eco-billionaires the only winner will be Trump-Greenfield)
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To: gattaca
Jackson Kernion and his kind need to back the movement to divide the country into two groups - one progressive - one conservative.. . Jackson Kernion and other UC Berkeley staff can have it all. Think about it Jackson...

Progressives can have a 'country' where they have NO BORDERS - where every third world hellhole can empty into THEIR country.

Where every person can have a minimum wage of $40 an hour.

Where every woman can abort her child up to the moment of birth and an hour AFTER birth (in case the child is a boy or ugly).

A country with a hundred genders AND anyone disagreeing with that idea is jailed.

Where it's a crime to disagree with 'settled science'... and 'settled science' is determined by a vote of 'elites'...

Where ALL guns are confiscated and the second amendment is abolished.

AND

Where ALL citizens have free medical care from cradle to grave - for citizens and anyone who can get to 'USProgressive'.

Progressives can have it all... We're ready to deal... Split the country... Work with us - you progressives get half - and we get half... Why fight? Time for a divorce.

148 posted on 11/09/2019 10:42:39 AM PST by GOPJ (In battle between socialist millionaires & eco-billionaires the only winner will be Trump-Greenfield)
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To: xenia

And Pol pot took over Cambodia, he empied out the cities and made everyone rural. These commies need to have a pow wow.


149 posted on 11/09/2019 11:15:51 AM PST by Pocketdoor
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To: gattaca

Truly a stupid and naive remark...


150 posted on 11/09/2019 11:17:13 AM PST by Crucial
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To: setter

The wife is probably the one who works at a REAL job and pays for his school hobby.


151 posted on 11/09/2019 11:23:54 AM PST by Black Agnes
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To: gattaca


152 posted on 11/09/2019 11:23:56 AM PST by yoe
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To: All


153 posted on 11/09/2019 12:15:43 PM PST by simpson96
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To: VTenigma

Learning to do
Doing to learn
Earning to live
Living to serve.

....FFA motto


154 posted on 11/09/2019 1:55:11 PM PST by Sivad (Demo M/O = infiltrate, overtake, politicize, weaponize)
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To: gattaca

I hope this limp-wristed loser doesn’t eat any food. “Bad” people produce and distribute it. What a freakin’ oaf!


155 posted on 11/09/2019 2:38:32 PM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp???)
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To: ridesthemiles

Yep, there is a tax on phone bills for Obama phones. Even worse is the tax, hidden as it may be, on those who purchase health insurance, to pay for the uninsured.

Speaking of hidden taxes, the tax on your savings account, due to the Feds setting interest rates artificially low, is absurd.


156 posted on 11/09/2019 4:06:28 PM PST by Mark was here (Fake news = "Hands up ... Dont shoot")
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To: gattaca

Oh goody. Does anyone have some disinfectant?

jacksonkernion@gmail.com

I’m a Philosophy PhD student at UC Berkeley, working in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of science. I’m visiting NYU for 2018-2019...”


157 posted on 11/09/2019 5:59:18 PM PST by Postman (The flies seek our domestic enemies.....but ain't no flies on DJT....MAGA)
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To: exDemMom

I, too, have an advanced degree. Not everyone with an advanced education is that dumb. My comment is that it takes an advanced education to come up with an idea that wildly absurd.

I differ regarding philosophy. Philosophy is absolutely an academic subject. Just not as it is taught at many universities today.


158 posted on 11/09/2019 9:20:41 PM PST by The Pack Knight
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To: exDemMom

I, too, have an advanced degree. Not everyone with an advanced education is that dumb. My comment is that it takes an advanced education to come up with an idea that wildly absurd.

I differ regarding philosophy. Philosophy is absolutely an academic subject. Just not as it is taught at many universities today.


159 posted on 11/09/2019 9:20:49 PM PST by The Pack Knight
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To: XRdsRev

Exactly.

Wonder this moron would react if all his goods and services were cut off?


160 posted on 11/12/2019 1:57:00 PM PST by Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi ( Gen. 12:3: a warning to all anti-semites.)
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