But as somebody who’s from the outright poorest part of Ohio, with generations of coal workers in the family… I’m sitting here, in the West Coast sun, laughing about this. I’ve also spent significant amounts of time in the general region of this disaster
It’s awful. The situation is absolutely awful, that town & everything in a radius around it is genuinely fucked, and from what I’ve heard but not completely personally confirmed, it’s already contaminating downstream into the Ohio river.
But. I don’t know what to say. Other than… these people have been voting against their best interests. Their entire damn lives. How can you possibly have any wake-up call for a populace so deep into hatred & corporate bootlicking. There is none. That generation simply has to die out, and I very truly hope that most of their children are able to make it out to greener pastures & receive some form of education that may lead them to stop voting for the absolute sociopaths that peddle policies making large-scale environmental disasters a possibility.
I unfortunately have the personal experience of knowing not very many people get the opportunities to GTFO this area into greener pastures. I don’t know what to feel other than deep & genuine sadness - there’s absolutely nothing I can do to help the fact, & now that I’m a couple thousand miles away, I just delusionally hope that things are getting better while I’m gone.
But, again. I do not know what to say. For decades, so many of these people have voted for those that pass laws to make corporations not even slightly accountable & strike down reforms aiming to regulate these industries - regulate so that they’re forced to take up safety measures so shit like this cannot happen
Spewing outright hatred & death threats to their fellow countrymen who try to tell them there may be a path to a better life, the ability to make meaningful change.
They got what was coming to them. I don’t know how many this catastrophe will wake up to the fact they’ve been swindled all this time, that the political party they’ve sworn their lives to have already sold their souls for pennies on the dollar, so long ago.
Some of them, a few I’ve already personally seen, will have the realization. But it’s far too late. The damage is done, and they will die before they ever see a better community - politicians that care for their well being. I can only hope they have the humility to tell the younger people they know that they were dead wrong, & that the politicians they’ve been voting for as long as they’ve been able have sold out their entire livelihoods for the most meager amounts of $USD
Appalachia is such an unfortunate place - so beautiful, but abandoned by modern first world society. (okay, northern ohio is technically slightly out of Appalachia proper - GOMD)
"I’m sitting here, in the West Coast sun, laughing about this. "
Myself, I'll try not to laugh when millions of people stupid enough to live on the San Andreas fault line relocate into the ocean overnight. Out of a misplaced sense of unrequited empathy.
Rural Ohio is my home, and I will one day come back if I have the money to make meaningful change amongst its downtrodden & underprivileged, or if they’ve managed to sort things for the better themselves.
I’m currently living the life of an absolute pauper on the West Coast - I could have magnitudes of a much nicer living back home
But,
You can’t reason with unreasonable people, which is what the majority of rural Ohio is. So why would I want to continue to live amongst their unrelenting self-inflicted misery?
I can’t control the fault lines in the West, as the Indians whose remains were buried in mounds around my home property couldn’t control the invading & murderous Europeans.
But - my peers, to at least some degree, could control who they vote into representation that make decisions regarding these disastrous policies that lead to a near literal salting of our earth. And they’ve always chose the worst people, mostly for nefarious or hateful reasons (if you disagree with this statement, and you didn’t spend decades of your life growing up amongst these folk - you’re arguing something you’re ignorant of)
If I could vote, on the West Coast, to send aid for these environmental catastrophes in the MidWest from either our state funds in the form of $, or just in skilled recovery workers - I would. The majority of those I’ve found to be my peers would as well, as would many of the neighbors I don’t have much acquaintance with - their public voting records tell enough.
I can however tell you with near certainty those I grew up around would not vote to assist the West Coast when we eventually have our big quake.
If you want to speak of empathy, feel free to start there.
it would make sense for you, a midwest defector, to be willing to make concessions for your birthplace, but i don't think you speak for the coastal america. on the other hand the minstrel show midwesterns that you selected to represent the entire region wouldn't have any connection to the west coast, if not feel outright hostility. the hostility might have more to do with cultural and political divide that you yourself is expressing, than it does with the midwestern capacity for compassion. i am a total outsider to the region, but i've seen about as many church mission trips to help the needy as i've met ngo activists in cities, which necessarily makes for a much larger proportion of people.
You said 'vote' 4 times and spoke about politics and rebuke about getting overtly political when I rebut? That's classic friend.
California has 55 electoral votes in the presidential election and 52 seats in the house. That's something like 3x Ohio for each. The rail lines are overwhelmingly dictated by federal law and influence and not by relatively miniscule number of folks in rural Ohio. Your statements in that context are quite frankly absolutely baffling.
Are you serious? “They got what was coming to them” — wow…
You’re living in what sounds like it’s one of the highest cost of living regions in the world laughing at the misfortune of innocent people who don’t have the option to just pickup and move.
If you’ve lived in this area, you would know how “stuck” most people are. The cost of living and wages don’t provide most people the option to do a whole lot more than make a living. Even if they can leave, they have families/friends/communities.
This is also not too far from
where individuals have been fighting very hard for worker’s rights for a long time. The UAW against the auto factories. A generation of coal miners who migrated from KY and WV.
You claim you’re from one of the poorest areas in Ohio but are laughing from the West Coast. I signed in just to respond to you because this is one of the most sociopathic things I’ve heard. Have some sympathy.
I'm also from Appalachia. But just across the river in WV.
>from what I’ve heard but not completely personally confirmed, it’s already contaminating downstream into the Ohio river.
As someone who grew up in the town both The Devil We Know (Documentary on Netflix) and Dark Waters (loosely based on real events) are about - and the bizarre fillings to prove it - when it was happening to the people living there, this is sadly normal.
>But. I don’t know what to say. Other than… these people have been voting against their best interests. Their entire damn lives.
>How can you possibly have any wake-up call for a populace so deep into hatred & corporate bootlicking.
The other side would accuse their opponents of...exactly the same things. The boots are just Big Tech flavored. And the hatred is based on ignorance, as it usually is.
>They got what was coming to them. I don’t know how many this catastrophe will wake up to the fact they’ve been swindled all this time, that the political party they’ve sworn their lives to have already sold their souls for pennies on the dollar, so long ago.
Which political party is that? The recent strikebreaking was led by Biden, which would make the party you're talking about the Democrats:
>So on Friday morning, after three years of failed negotiations, President Biden instead signed into law a measure that imposes the contract agreement brokered by his administration back in September
>But, again. I do not know what to say. For decades, so many of these people have voted for those that pass laws to make corporations not even slightly accountable & strike down reforms aiming to regulate these industries - regulate so that they’re forced to take up safety measures so shit like this cannot happen
Again, the recent strikebreaking wasn't the party you're obviously implying.
>The damage is done, and they will die before they ever see a better community - politicians that care for their well being.
Outside of Bernie, and maybe the Pauls, I'm not sure those exist.
>They got what was coming to them. I don’t know how many this catastrophe will wake up to the fact they’ve been swindled all this time, that the political party they’ve sworn their lives to have already sold their souls for pennies on the dollar, so long ago.
And you accuse them of hatred? You should re-read what you've written when you've sobered up, methinks.
>Appalachia is such an unfortunate place - so beautiful, but abandoned by modern first world society. (okay, northern ohio is technically slightly out of Appalachia proper - GOMD)
Appalachia goes all the way up into NY state, homie. Much of Ohio along the eponymous river is just Appalachia with a big river in it. And the mountains are older than Saturn's rings(!).
>that the politicians they’ve been voting for as long as they’ve been able have sold out their entire livelihoods for the most meager amounts of $USD
So we've correctly identified the problem as politicians that don't serve their constituents interests. What do we do about it? I suggest uncapping the number of members of the House. Let's see a country where people actually know their Congrescritter. Like it was supposed to be.
>> Appalachia goes all the way up into NY state, homie.
Given the fact you’ve presumed I’m not able to make factual assertions about geographically bounded regions, I’m not going to give the effort to seriously read the rest of your reply.
Northern Ohio is not Appalachia, outside of one eastern most county.
Southern-Eastern Ohio mostly is.
Oh, yeah - if you’re right over the river, 20 years of my life is right next to you & I’ve had many a trip to the Parkersburg mall in my youth :)
Perhaps you know the route towards your river crossing I had to take that is a few strung out miles of completely crumbling mobile homes & the smell of natural gas/sulfur that stings your nostrils when rolling down your car windows.
IIRC there is even a small, many decades rusted over & tree vined carnival/amusement park type thing with a little rollercoaster that you pass on the way to the toll bridge. Can only imagine that was some day a fun place, now it stinks of gas & sulfur runoff.
Thankfully I was lucky enough to not grow up in that exact zone. Cannot imagine the cognitive deficits a childhood of breathing that in causes.
I was trying to be emotionally inclusive, not sarcastic. "Homie" was what we called people when being nice where and when I grew up. It's disappointing that this is the only point you focused on.
>Perhaps you know the route towards your river crossing I have to take that is a few strung out miles of completely crumbling mobile homes & the smell of natural gas/sulfur that stings your nostrils when rolling down your car windows.
Yes, it's called generational poverty. I escaped by going deeply into debt to pay for a degree from a good school. Many in the area have big stars on their house indicating a military enlistee. I'm not sure what point you're driving at here.
>Thankfully I was lucky enough to not grow up in that exact zone. Cannot imagine the cognitive deficits a childhood of breathing that in causes.
Keystole XL was halted to "save" the endangered species, you can't make this shit up. The animals need us to use the most dangerous and least efficient methods possible.
On April 15, 2020, District Judge Brian Morris issued a suspension for the pipeline's construction after the plaintiffs, the Northern Plains Resource Council, alleged the project was improperly reauthorised back in 2017.[94][95] In the summary judgment, the judge agreed that the Endangered Species Act was violated, thereby voiding the permit.
But as somebody who’s from the outright poorest part of Ohio, with generations of coal workers in the family… I’m sitting here, in the West Coast sun, laughing about this. I’ve also spent significant amounts of time in the general region of this disaster
It’s awful. The situation is absolutely awful, that town & everything in a radius around it is genuinely fucked, and from what I’ve heard but not completely personally confirmed, it’s already contaminating downstream into the Ohio river.
But. I don’t know what to say. Other than… these people have been voting against their best interests. Their entire damn lives. How can you possibly have any wake-up call for a populace so deep into hatred & corporate bootlicking. There is none. That generation simply has to die out, and I very truly hope that most of their children are able to make it out to greener pastures & receive some form of education that may lead them to stop voting for the absolute sociopaths that peddle policies making large-scale environmental disasters a possibility.
I unfortunately have the personal experience of knowing not very many people get the opportunities to GTFO this area into greener pastures. I don’t know what to feel other than deep & genuine sadness - there’s absolutely nothing I can do to help the fact, & now that I’m a couple thousand miles away, I just delusionally hope that things are getting better while I’m gone.
But, again. I do not know what to say. For decades, so many of these people have voted for those that pass laws to make corporations not even slightly accountable & strike down reforms aiming to regulate these industries - regulate so that they’re forced to take up safety measures so shit like this cannot happen
Spewing outright hatred & death threats to their fellow countrymen who try to tell them there may be a path to a better life, the ability to make meaningful change.
They got what was coming to them. I don’t know how many this catastrophe will wake up to the fact they’ve been swindled all this time, that the political party they’ve sworn their lives to have already sold their souls for pennies on the dollar, so long ago.
Some of them, a few I’ve already personally seen, will have the realization. But it’s far too late. The damage is done, and they will die before they ever see a better community - politicians that care for their well being. I can only hope they have the humility to tell the younger people they know that they were dead wrong, & that the politicians they’ve been voting for as long as they’ve been able have sold out their entire livelihoods for the most meager amounts of $USD
Appalachia is such an unfortunate place - so beautiful, but abandoned by modern first world society. (okay, northern ohio is technically slightly out of Appalachia proper - GOMD)
/endddrunkrant