No it isn’t “lies” and it has been going on for decades. Rural and small town America have been losing population and declining in population percentage for centuries in fact. Not just in America but all over the world.
It is the cities which are the engines of economic growth and prosperity and that will always be the case. Civilization as a word and concept comes from the word “city”. The percentage of rural population only increases when civilizations collapse. Think the “Dark Age” in Greece or the period after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Prices of city real estate have been the biggest factors in squeezing people out of the city into suburbs (but not small towns distant from a major city). They are dying on the wine all across Neb, Iowa, Minn, and other western states most specifically.
Small populations are finding it more and more difficult to pay for the high fixed costs of running a town and add federal mandated sewer, and water repairs and things are even tougher.
It is taking fewer and fewer farmers to feed the people (all well documented) so they are driven into urban areas in an attempt to make a living. Plus, farming is becoming more and more capital intensive which further reduces the number of farmers who can raise the capital requirements for modern farming.
These events and processes are well beyond the hopes, dreams, wishes or fears of anyone, Leftist or not.
Not in Mississippi it isn’t. Urban blight causes urban flight... Louisiana is much the same... as is Alabama.
LLS