The writer discusses the politics of place amid a larger cultural phenomenon: vilifying places we’ve never actually seen.
I spent the weekend celebrating the marriage of a childhood friend, away from my home in Western North Carolina, among the hot rolling hills of Surry County near the Virginia border.
Weddings like that quickly become a who’s who of familiar faces. They remember who you were before you became who you are.
Those who had known me longest remembered me as a goofy but aimless kid. I lacked ambition, never knowing where I wanted to be or where I wanted to go. One friend joked, “If it cost to have a goofy smile, Dalton would go broke.”
It’s hard to reconcile the youth of my friends with who they are now, and it’s still strange to many that I’ve jumped into politics – much less that I’m running to be a mayor of a small mountain town.
Many made fun of me for being a Democrat. Others poked fun at Boone for being known as an “hippy” town. It was all in fun, and the ribbing helped me remember that we can get along but sometimes only if we have the grace to take a step back. Still, whenever Boone is criticized in any context, I am quick to defend it.
There’s a more serious side to this kind of “othering.” So much of our cultural dialogue is centered around creating a negative idea of a place in our heads, filled with people we think we dislike or disagree with. It’s easy to hate or discredit a place you don’t know based on shallow assumptions.
Boone and Asheville are the places North Carolina conservatives recoil at. San Francisco and Los Angeles too, and for that matter, the entire Left Coast. Recently, I had family friends visit from L.A., and when they were quizzed by a small town North Carolinian, “Where are you from?” they would respond quickly, “Oh, god, I’m sorry!” But after a bit of prodding and pushback, they would admit that their negative thoughts were just filled in by media clips, not actual experience.
We see it on social media the most. Conservatives point to cherry-picked pictures of rough-and-tough cities that bring chills to the folks in rural areas. And then the lefties in cities find a trailer park and vilify their opposition. Ultimately, these places are home to people of all political types.
What they usually have in common are people that are proud of their home and don’t want to leave. They ignore the media noise and the haters, because they see their home for what it really is.
I just think it’s awfully lame to hate a place we’ve never been.
You’d be surprised at how great a place is — that is, if you just went out there and saw it and its people for yourself.
A version of this column first ran on Dalton George’s Substack. Dalton, from Boone, N.C., is a member of Town Council and is running for mayor. This column is syndicated by Beacon Media and is available to republish for free on all platforms under Beacon Media’s guidelines.
