To be fair, I think this is pretty common in most rural areas of the US, it's definitely not exclusive to western Kansas. Common enough in the Virginias and Carolinas for the last 7 years that it never occured to me that someone would find it novel in 2023! I don't even have pictures.

its a cult of stupidity

Western Kansas is... a place. And a great example of how gerrymandered Kansas is. The vast majority of the population here is around KCK, Lawrence, Topeka, and Wichita but the area you're describing has more voting power. Those people love him cause he's just as racist and hateful as them.

I've driven across Kansas many times, the truck trailers, signs, and painted structures are not unique to Kansas at all. Pretty much any stretch of rural private land along a major highway or interstate in any Republican state will have aggressive Chrisitan and conservative messaging.

If you turn to AM radio stations during the drive you will be hard pressed to find any content other than extremist christian and conservative consipiracy propaganda. The reason people put those signs up is because their entire personality and world-view is fundamentally sculpted by similar messaging.

I recommend watching the documentary Jesus Camp from 2006 to understand what the conservative christian culture looked like 17 years ago and recognize that those children are grown now, most are probably Trump supporters.

My dad and I were talking a while back about Trump, Biden, the 2020 election, all of that. He's a Trump supporter although he never went full-antivax lunatic so I'm thankful for that at least. We were talking about how he thought there might have been some irregularities in the vote and couldn't believe Trump lost.

At one point in the conversation, I asked him "you know how tons of people just seem to hate Trump? Do you think those people just stayed home on election day?" His thought was that there was no way that Biden had enough support to win. He asked "well how come I never see Biden signs on the side of the road?" to which I replied "Because Biden supporters aren't a cult".

He laughed and dropped it at that point. I don't know if he truly understood what I meant, but I think he at least got my point that people who voted for Biden don't build their entire personality around it.

I live in a rural part of a battleground state, where we are relatively close to a city so it's a mash of many different cultures, but the good old boys are still very much around and are in charge. I think people are just disillusioned and indoctrinated, being hateful and manipulated is the path of least resistance for them. It's easier to make strawman then reflect inward. People don't like mirrors ime. 😕 Trump reflects their own selfishness. It's pride in our lesser nature at a certain point.

I completely know what you mean. In North Carolina there are a frightening amount of Confederate flags on things, Trump imagery, or even just hostile anti-Biden imagery. I don't exactly hate if people have a different opinion than me, but the way some of this stuff is displayed just shows how deeply rooted in emotion this conservative love is.

It's borderline disturbing, especially the confederate flags.

I had to drive to Kirkville Mo last January for a job. I couldn't believe all the trump flags and banners I saw on the way there and back. I tried to spend as little time as possible in trump country but it ended up being over ten hours. It really just shows how easily people can be brainwashed and how gullible they are.