It also serves to propagandize to the masses that the cities they live in are much better and safer than that horrid countryside. That they're not covered in filth and disease, that they're not populated with crazed killers who would sooner shoot or stab you as look at you, and that you won't disappear forever if you so much as step into the wrong place. No, it's the COUNTRY that's like that, stay away from there! And don't question why the cities have all those problems in exponentially greater numbers or why no one's doing anything about them.
That and they absolutely cannot have people going out and interacting with such folks directly, that would break their entire narrative into pieces. Because once they see that those rural folks aren't mindlessly hateful, might even be "progressive" to some extent (lord did I know a few hardcore Dems down the Bayou) and are downright kind to their neighbors in a way cities don't have, they will be unable to keep up the charade of a boogeyman.
So you write movies that paint them as so insanely violent and territorial that people fear even driving through those places, and are on edge waiting for the shoe to drop talking to anyone around there.
It also serves to propagandize to the masses that the cities they live in are much better and safer than that horrid countryside. That they're not covered in filth and disease, that they're not populated with crazed killers who would sooner shoot or stab you as look at you, and that you won't disappear forever if you so much as step into the wrong place. No, it's the COUNTRY that's like that, stay away from there! And don't question why the cities have all those problems in exponentially greater numbers or why no one's doing anything about them.
That and they absolutely cannot have people going out and interacting with such folks directly, that would break their entire narrative into pieces. Because once they see that those rural folks aren't mindlessly hateful, might even be "progressive" to some extent (lord did I know a few hardcore Dems down the Bayou) and are downright kind to their neighbors in a way cities don't have, they will be unable to keep up the charade of a boogeyman.
So you write movies that paint them as so insanely violent and territorial that people fear even driving through those places, and are on edge waiting for the shoe to drop talking to anyone around there.