What are the chances these authors, from New York, have ever been to - or talked to anyone from - the midwest?
All of this is sneering speculation about an area and group of people they know nothing about.
They think that if they talk with 10 folks in two or three different towns, that’s all that matters. They bring their own prejudices to the conversations they engage in, and wonder why we think they’re snooty snoots. Confirmation bias. They go out looking for their preconceived notions about rural Americans, and when they find it, they say, “See? I was right!”