I say, this, after weighing the words carefully in my mind, and with a profound sense of empathy for what it means, but – good. Maybe most of the people in these areas are so deeply ingrained that they can’t tell right from left, but at some point when the pain is too much, at some point when the desperation and bitterness and anger is leading to no action and no results, at some point they will realize that their mayors who are Republican and their county representatives are Republican and their state legislators are Republican and their governors are Republican and their congressional representatives are Republican and their president is Republican. At some point there would be a break, hopefully, in their Great Wall of ignorance and stupidity for some light to shine through. And while I fervently agree with most of them on how much I hate the national Democratic Party and it’s neoliberal corporate subserviency, That’s something different has to come about for us to get somewhere out of this hell scape.
this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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Mark Cuban Says a 'Red Rural Recession' Is Coming Soon. Cuts, Firings, and Grant Cancellations Are Set to Wreck Small Town Economies
(offthefrontpage.com)
cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/35232665
Most supporters of the Nazis went to the grave believing their cause was just. Whether it was on the battlefield, at the end of a firing squad, or decades later of old age.
They let go of their aspirations and public support because they were forced to, at the end of a gun.
People have been waiting for this break to happen since the 90s.
It’s not happening.
Their welfare payments haven’t been cut off before, we’ll see.
At some point there would be a break, hopefully, in their Great Wall of ignorance and stupidity for some light to shine through.
There won’t be. The media that they consume will just tell them that Democrats or Mexicans or Muslims or trans athletes are to blame for their problems, and they’ll believe it.
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A lot of them are completely brainwashed by Fox News. It's their primary form of entertainment. They will die believing the propaganda. They're a lost cause unfortunately.
That would require educating yourself and questioning the entire paradigm you have lived in your entire life. And this hypothetical awakening would only happen after being faced with the consequences of falling further into poverty. Big doubt it.
It would take a 5-10 year depression for enough of them to reach the point that it would make a meaningful difference. Seriously.
Look at how it went last time. FDR and then his vice president created a 20-year presidential legacy following Hoover's complete mismanagement of the Great Depression. After that came the 5-star general who defeated Hitler (who ran as a Republican in order to block an isolationist candidate farther on the right), then back to Democrats for another eight years—until giving black people equal rights was a bridge too far for Southern Democrats.
Basically, Trump would need to destroy this country economically, and have that ruination take hold for many years, before real charge can happen.
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“They will cheer for the naked emperor as they suffer,” one commenter wrote on Bluesky. “Because they will be told that the cities are hellscapes with out-of-control migrant crime.”
Time for today's reminder that financial hardship will not discourage loyalty to trump, rather hardships will fuel fascist agendas.
I think we're seeing too short term with that perspective. It won't discourage their loyalty in time for them to do anything about it. By the time they turn on Dear Leader, there will be little recourse to recover the country they once had. Driving out the rural populations so that conglomerates can pick up all the farm land and consolidating people fully into metro areas isn't a far cry from Hunger Games districts establishing
They were damaged by the last administration. And the Bush administration. Their states are the ones which are hellholes that get shittier and shittier with jobs leaving out and poorer and poorer. It becomes more difficult to actually leave red states because affording to get the fuck out is nearly impossible. When they vote on something that makes things better, the state government overrides them saying they didn't know what they were voting on.
YET THEY ALWAYS VOTE THIS WAY
They will not figure it out. They are lost to the cult. I don't know what fucking Piece of Eden the republicans got hold of to control them but holy fuck living in a red state is just like that comic up there, they look at the person who says they hate them and says "He tells it like it is."
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This. I've worked in rural areas with people who only went to a larger city once every three months or so. The only news they consumed was fox news and whatever shit on FB. They were absolutely 100% convinced that the cities were lawless hellscapes and any decent person would be immediately flagged and destroyed 0.3 seconds after entering the city limits. I mean, Modesto sucks, but come on. Deadass, some of them would talk about a time someone walked too close to them like they were retelling the events of Black Hawk Down. In fairness, I think it's more to do with the fact that they've been so filled with propaganda that the only part of their brain that hasn't been scooped out to make room for more propaganda is the limbic system.
Case in point: Trump was why covid was so bad.
A lot of those places are too far gone. We need to take away their economic power so that they can't hurt the rest of them as much. 1/3 of this country is just gone and we need to realize we need to leave them behind and save the people who live next to them aren't total pieces of shit
And they'll blame The Libs like always
Fox News will and they will repeat it.
A few weeks ago, they all seemed to be operating from the same exact talking points and it seemed to be "yeah, it's regrettable what is happening, but we are dealing with this terrible economy that Biden handed us...."
Which is weird, because the economy was doing just fucking fine before donvict started working to break government, threaten our allies and go into a stupid trade war with everyone.
It wasn't doing fine; these towns were already dying. Trump told them a bunch of lies about how he would fix the economy. They tried putting out the fire with gasoline.
Checking my local newspaper, turning on the TV, and logging into my favorite social media. Everywhere I go it's the same message - liberals are to blame.
What other conclusion am I supposed to draw?
Have you heard of critical thinking?
Critical thinking without useful information is just teleology. You're stuck doing Thomas Acquinus shit or Aristotilianisn when you have an abundance of analytical skill but you're working from fundamentally biased or outright manufactured sources.
The information is there. I've had no problem keeping informed. It has been a drain on my mental health, but it's very doable.
Just stay away from bullshit social media, first and foremost.
I’ve had no problem keeping informed.
Plenty of conservatives will tell you the same shit
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Good. They literally voted for this. We all warned them, the signs were all there. They chose not to listen or believe us. They brought this in themselves and I'm gonna relish, popcorn in hand, as the leopards devour their faces.
This is the America that Conservatives demanded.
"The turkeys in red hats voted for Thanksgiving"
Thoughts and prayers
I live in one of these towns, and all I can think of is "thoughts and prayers" as well. WNC voted for Trump because they liked the cruelty, and it will come back to bite them and the rest of us.
The problem is that they aren’t smart enough to put the facts together and will blame whoever faux tells them to.
Yup. Red states will suffer the worst, if it's not the grants, it will be the measles.
Will be interesting to see how Faux "News" and other outlets craft a message to their marks about how this is "Biden's economy" and poor donvict is only trying to fix things because he "was handed the worst economy ever".
I mean, you'd have to be a complete moron that wants to believe such bullshit, but then we are talking about the kinds of people that voted for donvict...
Rural recessions generally mean people will go to the cities, and that'll be fun because that means: crime's going up!
Melania should wear her "I don't care, do you" jacket on a tour of the flyover states. It's fun when the politicians send their wives to places they've pissed off...like when Vance sent his wife to Greenland.
Didn't vamce go with her though?
Yeah and they knocked on a bunch of doors begging folks to meet, and everyone was like "Sorry, no thanks".
Good they voted for it no?
So they got what they voted for. Seems like it's working.
"thanks, Obama!"
Gawd I hope so, these assholes soooooo have it coming. They're totally self-sufficient and don't need anyone or anything from anyone though, right? So they should be just fine in their Libertarian paradise?
Cool. Libs will buy those properties for cheap. Sales coming soon.
Libs are poor, too.
This is for the billionaire class, who are mostly Republican.
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Good.
Better for the environment anyway.
Rewild the rural landscape back to forests and prairies.
They'll pave it over and accelerate the destruction of arable land while also screaming about population decline.
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Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
It’s getting hard to stay optimistic these days.
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Don’t give a shit about red states. They can gargle deez nutz
Never help Trumpers. Empathy is for soyboy snowflakes after all.
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