I've lived in rural area since I was 5. Sort of. Like I didn't grow up in the boonies, or on a farm. I live in a suburb in town, but my schools are all in the rural areas. To be fair, the redneck stereotype is off, but there are rednecks. Like the ones that I've met have insane views, but they don't push them. They don't like gays, women in power, abortion, foreigners, atheists, etc, but they wont actually do anything against them. Like they say they don't hate on atheists openly because "that would be forcing views on someone". One girl who even thought that having an abortion from rape was evil, still thought that abortions should still be perfectly legal. They also don't hate on the black kids at our school surprisingly (The amount of non-whites at our school is like <5%). They wear confederate flags all the time and have used the words "coon" and "n****r", but they don't really mean it. They are very nice and you can have a decent conversation with them usually, but most fail their classes, so I don't know what to think of their intelligence. (In case you are wondering how "redneck" we are talking, I live in TN, and these people hunt, wear camo everywhere, usually overweight, wear the confederate flag, have a big ass pick-up truck, and sometimes farm. Yes I know not every hunter, farmer, and truck driver is a redneck).
Of course I'm talking about the people at my school, both the parents and the students I grew up with. It seems like their parents are the crazy ones. Like one girl's dad I know thinks that all Chinese people are spies for the government. A lot of parents would kick their kids out if they were gay or dated a black person.
I know that most people in the south aren't dumb, but don't deny that there are rednecks around, so some of the stereotypes are true.