quote="German Lynx" post="18.343682.13808027"]Living in a small, conservative town I can promise you this isn't an isolated incident. At my district alone there's been at least 2 other suicides in the past few years due to the tight-knit community's ability to alienate someone to such a degree that they see no other option but taking their own life. These places are pockets of hell on earth that take two steps back in human development for civilized society's one step forward. Man do I hate right-wing small towns and the cult-cloaked-as-christian religious freaks that inhabit them. Thank God they're *somewhat* few and far between.[/quote]
wow, could you make a more sweeping generalization. I grew up in a tiny conservative right-wing town and nobody has killed themselves because of bullying there. There are several LGBT people in that community and they aren't bullied any worse than the rest of us. Same with non-whites, there were several but they were actually quite popular for the most part. Hell, I don't think any of them were bullied anywhere near as bad as me, and I'm a WASP.
Furthermore, bullying happens everywhere, not just small towns. It's a product of human nature, not location.[/quote]
I don't disagree that bullying is everywhere, but you can't honestly believe that being singled out in a small community is the same as in a metropolis or suburb, where you have some protection through anonymity and the ability to become a face in the crowd.
You're giving me the experience of ONE person (you) in ONE town. Maybe you got lucky, but let me ask, do you still live there? And define small town, give me a population size. I'm speaking to places with a total population well under a thousand, with a 99% white christian demographic. I've traveled to a number of these places all over the country, and while there are differing levels of prejudice for different minority, the overall air of hatred for outside ideas remained. Is every. single. Last. little town. like that? Probably not, but there's a reason the closed minded backwater hick is a cliche. And my point still stands that when you take a group of people minute enough to self sustain an outdated belief and quash any attempts of modernization, you get something very nearly equivalent to a progress-slowing anchor that society has to drag along due to the simple fact that said small group refuses to separate itself wholly from the future-bound society that plays host to it.
Again, are these people everywhere? Of course, look at some of the gang communities in large cities. Same principal.
To assume that there isn't something fundamentally WRONG with a society that refuses to update their beliefs and outlooks on the world with the changing times, whilst imbuing the next generation with the prejudice mindset that is now the shame of a nation, is utterly foolish.
