Wow, ya'll, I meet gobs of people who are utterly ignorant about the world and politics, and most of them are happy to be that way. Let's face it -- we all deep down really wish there was some source, some person, some cure the could solve problems for us and do our thinking. It fortunately doesn't exist, but ,any people want this so badly they pick {insert pundit/politician/TV station/newspaper/columnist here} and assume that that's the TRUTH.

You know these folks, too. They're almost always in the majority party (if it's the majority, it must be right) and they never discuss politics, because they already know the answers.

As for rural people, they aren't stupid or deliberately ignorant. They just don't get exposed to many of the things that urban people do, so they are less likely to change their mind, I think. That doesn't mean they aren't capable of it, it just means that it's not a priority in their lives if it's even occured to them. After you get beat over the head with diversity for a while in a big city, you can't help but realize that the world's horizons are SO much larger than you thought.