What comes to mind when you hear the word "Iowa"? Maybe you think of the metal band Slipknot and its major album of that title, a tribute to the group's home state.
Perhaps you picture the state itself, covered in endless rows of corn, over pancake-flat terrain.
And perhaps you see visions of large farming communities in the Midwestern United States and rural Americans with predominantly Northern European heritage.
But Iowa's city population has now overtaken the state's rural population; in 2000, 61% of Iowans lived in an urban area. Between 2000 and 2008, the number of urban residents increased by 8.5% and the rural population fell a further 4.2%. Iowa has also become increasingly less Northern European - and less white; in 1990, non-Hispanic whites were almost the exclusive demographic of Iowa, accounting for up to 96.6% of the state population. In 2016, an American community survey reported a decline of nearly 10%. By that time, non-Hispanic whites accounted for just 78.1% of all births in the state. Considering the fact that, until 2018, Iowa was still a state with sanctuary city policies, attracting a currently-unknown number of illegal immigrants, the non-Hispanic white population, it is any guess as to how much further the white population has slipped.
In connection with these developments, Iowa has acquired a new reputation; in 2018, the state made the news when an illegal immigrant was charged with murdering a 20 year-old Iowan named Mollie Tibbetts while she was jogging in her home state. Because of this case, Iowa is again in the news, as it has been revealed that Iowan taxpayers have shelled out $12,485 to pay for the illegal immigrant's translator.
Breitbart:
Because Tibbetts was murdered in tiny Brooklyn, Iowa, I immediately thought of the other Brooklyn, in New York, which has a reputation; last year, 53,557 crimes were reported in that Brooklyn, where the chance of being a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 184. To my astonishment, the per capita murder rate in at least two of Iowa's cities - Des Moines and Iowa City - was higher. One of those cities, De Moines, also has a higher violent crime rate (1 in 149). Clearly, Iowa is no longer what you thought it was. Fitting the profile of a changing Iowa and bearing witness to it, Shawn Crahan - of Slipknot - lost his uncle to a "gang-initiation"shooting in the early 1990s.
On occasion, Slipknot's members have talked about growing up in Iowa. Topics have included life in a small town where nobody really has anything going, which is one of the reasons the state is depleted of its brain capital due to a massive brain drain. Slipknot's singer, Corey Taylor, has also talked about feeling disconnected from the message and community of the Christian church - once the cornerstone of rural, Midwestern society. The viewer probably walks away thinking "oh he rejects small-town conformity and did not fit in" - but the situation goes much deeper than that. You start to realize this when you learn that Taylor was sexually abused as a child. Peeling back the layers, we start to see a band charred by what is really a civilizational crisis in America, which includes the destruction of family, collapse of the community, disaffected youth and declining socio-economic opportunity. Amidst fractured ideals and beliefs, we see an identity crisis and a lot of rage that can be directed in any one direction or another, not to mention feelings of doom and helplessness. So many themes are visible in this one Slipknot video:
Is this helping to solve the problem though? Or is it dark and self-destructive?
It should be noted that Slipknot member Crahan just lost his daughter to drug addiction and overdose, which brings to mind thoughts of the opioid crisis that is hammering small-town America. In that respect, once again, it seems that this band from small-town Iowa is stuck in the middle of this civilizational nightmare we are all in. Are they going to address the problems head-on in their music is the question - or, if not, who will?
Perhaps you picture the state itself, covered in endless rows of corn, over pancake-flat terrain.
— Iowa Corn (@iowa_corn) July 26, 2019
And perhaps you see visions of large farming communities in the Midwestern United States and rural Americans with predominantly Northern European heritage.
But Iowa's city population has now overtaken the state's rural population; in 2000, 61% of Iowans lived in an urban area. Between 2000 and 2008, the number of urban residents increased by 8.5% and the rural population fell a further 4.2%. Iowa has also become increasingly less Northern European - and less white; in 1990, non-Hispanic whites were almost the exclusive demographic of Iowa, accounting for up to 96.6% of the state population. In 2016, an American community survey reported a decline of nearly 10%. By that time, non-Hispanic whites accounted for just 78.1% of all births in the state. Considering the fact that, until 2018, Iowa was still a state with sanctuary city policies, attracting a currently-unknown number of illegal immigrants, the non-Hispanic white population, it is any guess as to how much further the white population has slipped.
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| https://www.dopplr.com/sanctuary-city-list/ |
In connection with these developments, Iowa has acquired a new reputation; in 2018, the state made the news when an illegal immigrant was charged with murdering a 20 year-old Iowan named Mollie Tibbetts while she was jogging in her home state. Because of this case, Iowa is again in the news, as it has been revealed that Iowan taxpayers have shelled out $12,485 to pay for the illegal immigrant's translator.
Breitbart:
from "Molly Tibbetts Trial: Taxpayers Billed $12.5k for Illegal Alien's Translator, John Binder, Breitbart
Iowa taxpayers have been billed more than $12,000 thus far to provide a full-time court translator to illegal alien Cristhian Bahena Rivera, accused of murdering 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts in Brooklyn, Iowa last year.
In August 2018, Bahena Rivera, a 25-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, was charged with Tibbetts’ murder after police said he admitted to confronting and chasing down the young woman. After a nationwide search, Tibbetts’ body was found in a cornfield in Poweshiek County, Iowa.
The illegal alien lived in a region of Iowa that was surrounded by sanctuary cities, as Breitbart News noted, and worked on a dairy farm using a stolen ID and Social Security card after allegedly crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as a child. Court records obtained by local media reveal that a translator for Bahena Rivera — from Missouri — has cost taxpayers in Iowa about $12,485 thus far.
Because Tibbetts was murdered in tiny Brooklyn, Iowa, I immediately thought of the other Brooklyn, in New York, which has a reputation; last year, 53,557 crimes were reported in that Brooklyn, where the chance of being a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 184. To my astonishment, the per capita murder rate in at least two of Iowa's cities - Des Moines and Iowa City - was higher. One of those cities, De Moines, also has a higher violent crime rate (1 in 149). Clearly, Iowa is no longer what you thought it was. Fitting the profile of a changing Iowa and bearing witness to it, Shawn Crahan - of Slipknot - lost his uncle to a "gang-initiation"shooting in the early 1990s.
On occasion, Slipknot's members have talked about growing up in Iowa. Topics have included life in a small town where nobody really has anything going, which is one of the reasons the state is depleted of its brain capital due to a massive brain drain. Slipknot's singer, Corey Taylor, has also talked about feeling disconnected from the message and community of the Christian church - once the cornerstone of rural, Midwestern society. The viewer probably walks away thinking "oh he rejects small-town conformity and did not fit in" - but the situation goes much deeper than that. You start to realize this when you learn that Taylor was sexually abused as a child. Peeling back the layers, we start to see a band charred by what is really a civilizational crisis in America, which includes the destruction of family, collapse of the community, disaffected youth and declining socio-economic opportunity. Amidst fractured ideals and beliefs, we see an identity crisis and a lot of rage that can be directed in any one direction or another, not to mention feelings of doom and helplessness. So many themes are visible in this one Slipknot video:
Is this helping to solve the problem though? Or is it dark and self-destructive?
It should be noted that Slipknot member Crahan just lost his daughter to drug addiction and overdose, which brings to mind thoughts of the opioid crisis that is hammering small-town America. In that respect, once again, it seems that this band from small-town Iowa is stuck in the middle of this civilizational nightmare we are all in. Are they going to address the problems head-on in their music is the question - or, if not, who will?
