Fine, but if you read the article he's fleeing blasphemy laws. Small town America won't arrest me for saying that Kreskin is bullshit or that I'm not religious. I never understood why there's this hysterical knee-jerk reaction to every criticism of any country with 'but its just as bad in the US.' No, its not.
I suspect a lot of them grew up in families of a strongly religious bent. Families can't be "escaped" from when you're a kid. They then impute this to the town as a whole. But on the whole, as an adult, I don't see small towns in the US insisting on religious observance from a given person. You might have to "tolerate" a cross on the city hall's lawn, but considered on a global scale that's not exactly asking for a lot. (That is, considering that some sort of big imposition is, in its own way, pretty parochial.)
There's certainly other ways of getting on the wrong side of the rumor mill, but, then, I think a lot of times the answer there is that one must often seek out a community that accepts them. Many of the small townies that go to the big city and find some community that accepts them would find those communities just as hostile to the people they left; it's not that they're "more accepting", it's that they accept you. The big city is "more accepting" because there's more subcommunities to be a part of, not because it's full of magically superhumanly tolerant people. And small towns simply lack the size to have a wide diversity of niche communities.
The criminal justice system is not the only means employed by American communities to punish deviancy.
Small town America will not arrest you for being atheist, but you may be passed over for promotion, your children may be bullied while outside of your protection, you will have a difficult time participating in local culture, and you will not enjoy the same sort of "slack" extended to the "in" crowd. It would also be unwise to buy a house with HOA covenant restrictions, as you may find that the lawn and landscaping of atheists are held to higher standards than those of households attending the same church as the HOA president.
Small and petty-minded people are everywhere on this planet. They will go as far as everyone else allows them to go. And wherever they are the majority, all others beware.
So some places, they just kill you. Other places, they make you want to kill yourself. Either way, you are surrounded by people that have no respect for individuality. In that sense, it is as bad, but obviously, being murdered arbitrarily is worse than not ever being invited to the neighborhood barbecue.
Either way, you have to either hide your true nature or move somewhere less hostile.
Why single out "Small town America"? It wasn't that long ago that here on HN, many were calling for the resignation of the Mozilla CEO because of his political position on gay marriage.
Being an atheist in some small towns is no worse for your career than being a Fundamentalist Christian in Hollywood.
I say this as an atheist: Obnoxious toe-the-line political correctness is in all corners of our society.
Indeed, as far as I can tell an atheist/agnostic (the latter would be me and my father) who's minimally respectful of the religious will have a much easier time of it here than a conservative (that would also be me and my father) in those various enlightened big cities and industries. As long as you can tolerate the occasional born again Christian who wants to save you (again, politeness goes a long way).
(Although I'd caveat those lists of incidents based on the ones I actually know something about: Harvey Milk and George Moscone weren't killed because the former was gay, but because of SF city politics and their murderer's personal problems (that the conviction was for manslaughter with a short sentence, well, the Twinkie defense is another reason SF is infamous). The 1999 Fort Campbell incident was not as generally portrayed, although my information is not citable, comes from the son of a good friend who was there, collected evidence, etc. And lately the beautification of Matthew Shepard has come under serious reexamination.)
Perhaps because so many of these cities were and still are very anti-effective self-defense, there's this partial answer to the problem which is much more applicable in "small town America": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Pistols
I only use small town America as a contrasting example because that is what I am familiar with. Also, it has less to do with the absolute size of the town than its homogeneity.
Big City America might not punish you as much for being atheist, but as you mention, it has its own prejudices. Imagine what might happen if you told your sugar-baby something racist and then she leaked it to the media!
Tolerance for the alien is definitely a learned behavior. If you have kids, please try to teach it to them.
To be fair, it is very easy to get in a position where you have no work in some small town. Which is okay if you can work remotely...
I am aware that folks getting lynched where I live is generally more reserved for racial rather than religious or intellectual minorities, so I am well aware that it can be worse, so much worse even where I live for different kinds of minority populations.
But it is quite possible that the real outcome of being publicly atheistic or gay in a rural community is that you can't practically run a business or hold a local public office, and that is not hyperbole.
Yeah, I agree it's being atheist/gay/racism that are often the biggest issues. In one of my high school classes I remember someone talking about how they'd murder anybody who came out as gay. Somewhat hyperbole, but at the same time reflective of his views.
A different classmate thought it was funny to talk about going to the big city to race-bait 'niggers' at the mall.
Another friend of mine used to live in a town where you couldn't really do business if you weren't a member of the local church.
So I guess it's not quite the same as being forced to leave the country, but at the same time it can be pretty unpleasant.
Mind you this was circa 2003. And the fact that if these people actually did anything serious they could have been prosecuted is definitely a step better than in the story. Though I don't know if there's really any recourse to the business issue. But I do think the treatment of Atheists/Nontheists is pretty analogous.
I had some dope tell me that I was burning in hell because I was a catholic idolator after some sort of evangelical revival. I told him that I'd see him there and wished him a good day.
In seriousness, people get fed fire and brimstone, and see it as an escape from the dreariness of their existence. More people in India are in more desperate conditions, so I would expect more nonsense about magic and such.
I was born, raised, and have retired to "small town America" (and a rather Pentecostal part of it). As drzaiusapelord points out, it's nothing like this.
Especially the further you get away from the Puritan Northeast, America has something of a live and let live tradition, reinforced by a very well armed population.
Certain types of people are attracted to the cities. Americans in general seem to me the most anti-city of the western world. The English in general are proud of London, as are the French of Paris. I don't think you have the same wide approval of NYC or LA in America.
