@Latecomer
Apple Jack is of the normal vaguely southern/country archetype common in American media and such characters are a dime a dozen without good writing
and I’ll admit, AJ was mixed I expect things on the sort term may get worse. I mean, rural areas, it was hell to grow up as LGBT,and in many places racism persists*, so naturally in a broadening of perspectives (and we already see that)you are going to have people that hate everything about that culture and media made around it. On the other end there is also an environment where a lot of people are informed by some variant poststructuralist deconstruction being the way the world interpreted as the solution to racism and other issues and it often has a wide array of things that it views need to get dismantled. A lot of that culture, justly or not, will be in included in that.
You have people who certainly embrace their home and you can find media on LGBT, black, whatever else tailored to folks with that plus a country identity but I don’t see that being emphasized and even then a lot of
rural voters of diverse backgrounds have moved in closer to the rural white vote which could in theory help but also could make it worse if everyone just doubles down. Rural whites don’t just suck, rural people do is hardly better in my opinion ||most likely with an argument that they aren’t true members of their race or whatever in some circles. ||
How to bridge that divide? Honestly a character like AJ could help if written well. Though I’m not sure how someone left leaning would navigate that in fiction right now.
*Note: my own views are in strong disagreement for the simple reduction of rural culture being the most intolerant of USA but that’d be a whole other ballpark.