I don't think it's a phenomenon at all unique to the folks we're thinking of here -- largely rural white folk.
It's also true of urban populations, including minorities. I've related this before, but I remember a police procedural show many years ago where the focus of the episode was LA area hispanic gangs, with precisely defined turf. The detective explained that some of these kids lived within 20 blocks of the ocean, but had never actually seen it. I'm sure it was hyperbole, but the point was that many people tend to stick with what they know.
If you grew up in the projects, and all you saw was folks living and dying in the projects, the suggestion that you go to school, apply yourself, go to college, and end up getting a good job with GE in New York....you'd look at that person like an alien. You have no frame of reference to even conceive of that possibility, much less really understand what it takes to make it reality.
Same goes for someone living in a poor agrarian area in Latin America, etc. Limited perspective and frame of reference, which either leads to or combines with limited imagination, and you have generation after generation stuck in a rut.
This phenomenon is why mentorship, and just showing kids an example of another way, can go really far. My dad grew up in a poor border town. He had ONE teacher who really believed in these kids, and that they could go to college. On weekends, on his own time, he'd take the school's bus and drive the kids to Austin, or College Station, to tour the campus, meet other kids there, and see a football game. To get them to open their eyes to "hey, I could go here." He was (alas) a big aggie. Because of him, dozens upon dozens of kids from a dinky border town went to A&M and got college degrees. I go to some of my dad's reunion events, and there are all of these reasonably successful, college-educated hispanic kids from the border -- because of ONE teacher. Perspective is that important.
The challenge in rural areas is that folks don't want their small town to die because everyone goes away. But the only way to move up in the world is to GTFO. Hard to reconcile that.
So, frustrated with the catch-22 of a shitty life, they lash out. And note, this applies to all of the demographics.