UC Berkeley instructor calls rural Americans 'bad people who have made bad life decisions’

A UC Berkeley graduate student and instructor took to Twitter on Wednesday to vent about his repulsion for rural Americans and why they deserve to live "uncomfortable" lives.

Jackson Kernion, a graduate student who has taught at least 11 philosophy courses at the university, posted that he "unironically embrace[s] the bashing of rural Americans."

"They, as a group, are bad people who have made bad life decisions," he said in the since-deleted tweet. "Some, I assume, are good people. But this nostalgia for some imagined pastoral way of life is stupid and we should shame people who aren't pro-city."

According to Campus Reform, the Twitter thread started with Kernion advocating against affordable health care solutions for rural Americans, saying that "Rural Healthcare Should be expensive! And that expense should be borne by those who choose rural America!"

"Same goes for rural broadband. And gas taxes," he argued. "It should be uncomfortable to live in rural America. It should be uncomfortable to not move."

Evidently Kernion believes that rural living Americans are purposely rejecting the more "efficient" city-dwelling life, and thus should bear the consequences of more expense.

Though Kernion may have been intending to make economic arguments for his beliefs, his tweets had quickly devolved into ad hominem attacks on rural Americans.

After facing some backlash, Kernion did seem to apologize for his tone, which he says came across as "way crasser and meaner" than he believes himself to be.

Pretty sure I did a bad tweet here. Gonna delete it.

I'll want to reflect on it more later, but my tone is way crasser and meaner than I like to think I am. pic.twitter.com/FGJat9uarM

— Jackson Kernion (@JacksonKernion) November 6, 2019