The link Andrew Zolli gave to "Trust, Information and Gossip in Social Networks (pdf)" is wrong. A google search turns up several copies, one here.

i guess people really are more like their neighbors than they ever cared to think :) you are what you read! /me watches television

Sorry Rod! I will fix that toot sweet!

The David Brooks piece is a professional troll. An effete, overeducated New England intellectual explains the backwards, ignorant Heartland by venturing into rural Pennsylvania. It's like Heart of Darkness written by the worst kind of leftie wanker.

Mullethead, why is the Brooks article a troll? I agree, he's doing more explaining of the Red county than the Blue one, but that's because he's writing mostly for Blue readers. I didn't think he described the Heartlanders as backwards or ignorant at all. He did cite statistics showing they had less formal education.

Usually, a troll takes some sort of inflammatory or offensive position to incite argument. What was inflammatory or offensive about Brooks' article?

He ends with "although there are some real differences between Red and Blue America, there is no fundamental conflict. There may be cracks, but there is no chasm. Rather, there is a common love for this nation—one nation in the end." How awful, how condescending, how inflammatory is that?