Just wanted to chime in, I grew up in rural America and can absolutely attest to the fact that there are some incredibly intelligent people living under the radar in charge of vital parts of the economy and food supply.

What I will say though, is be careful drawing the parallel to the Instagram-checking city folk. The average 20-35 y.o. living in rural America is not running a high volume farm, nor are they responsible for any seriously influential role in one. I estimate that 80%of the people I grew up with are now working retail jobs, housewives or became foot soldiers in the military. Many were vocal trump supporters, and I have no doubt that more were behind the scenes. My hometown voted majority Trump in 2016.

The average person living in rural America is certainly less “cultured” (in most commonly accepted metrics), is exposed to a smaller variety of ideas, races, religions, languages, and has a higher chance than most to get their worldview from the 30 minutes of Fox they might watch before bed. I truly don’t mean this in a disparaging way, I just think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of what life is like far away from cities. I agree that there are many very intelligent in the non-traditional sense people in rural/suburban America, but claiming that the majority of people in these areas are under the radar geniuses is misleading