Abstract

Abstract:

In the rural town of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, there is one movie theater, and it played American Sniper for two years. Locals hated Mexican immigrants and prayed for Trump on Sundays; their town manager was a virgin who thought Hillary Clinton wanted to steal his guns. With anecdotes like these, the German journalist Claas Relotius painted the scene of a regressive and even frightening place in a 2017 article for Der Spiegel. At a "Western evening," the townsfolk dressed up in cowboy gear and danced to country music. After all, what else is there to do in a small, scary town deep inside a lonely forest?

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