My parents were and are fairly progressive people, and my dad moved there because he worked for an aerospace company that was located on Eglin Air Force Base; he and most of his coworkers had PhDs in aerospace engineering. These were not dumb or ignorant people, they were educated and intelligent.

I've spent more than my fair share of time shitting on the American south and its own special breed of ignorance, but as I said, I think it's a mistake to assume everyone is like that. There are few things more horrible than the Southern Baptist church, and of course that reigns supreme in those areas, but there's always enclaves of intelligent people who are just as frustrated about this stuff as I am.