So your solution to people preferring to buy snake oil is to sell more snake oil?
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Town That Helped Power Northwest Feels Left Behind In Shift Away From Coal
- Thread starter ShadowSwordmaster
- Start date
So your solution to people preferring to buy snake oil is to sell more snake oil?
SlickShoesRUCrazy
Member
Get fucked. My mantra to all the people that voted for trump/vote against their own interests.
Idiots want coal, they pull themselves up by bootstraps and figure out how to survive with it.
Idiots want coal, they pull themselves up by bootstraps and figure out how to survive with it.
We don't turn our noses at them. They simply actively oppose working with racial minorities. And this is not new.
We don't need to do what they did in the UK w welcoming back UKIP types.
The Maverick
Member
You don't live in reality, I'm sorry to tell you. None of your proposed solutions are at all realistic. Instead of providing grounded, possible alternatives to a hopelessly out of touch way of thinking, you want to provide pie-in-the-sky dreams. Presidential candidates are not gods. They can't guarantee a job for each individual affected by the transition away from coal. Even if they could, these people specifically want their old jobs, not new ones. They vote to maintain that status quo.
People have tried to explain this to you multiple times, and you're not listening. Nothing you've suggested is possible in the current political climate of America, and the way forward won't be paved with empty calls to hope ideology. Perfect is the enemy of good. Know that.
Bunch of cold motherfuckers in here. These people have relied on coal for generations to feed their families. Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't make this any less devastating to this community. I'd panic too if I knew that my entire way of life was in jeopardy, and let's not pretend that Trump's campaign wasn't specifically​ geared towards manipulating people in this position.
Bunch of fake leftists/socialists in here that are only compassionate to things that fit their world view.
Bunch of fake leftists/socialists in here that are only compassionate to things that fit their world view.
They voted for a white supremacist so that they could keep boiling the earth and sinking my hometown under the ocean.
Why don't you lecture them on their lack of compassion?
Well that wasn't nice of you. Most in this thread are actually trying to help these people. They probably should have read the manifesto before voting for the current party no?
Probably, but we all know that people don't.
How many VHS tapes have you rented this year?
No seriously though fuck off with that noise. You know what happened when I realized that I couldn't find the work I wanted in my town? I left.
And guess what? Moving again. This time to a bigger city - Atlanta. Because that's how shit works. It's not our fault they are waiting for America to become great again instead of going where the wind blows.
Did you read this part:
They turned down a path to transition their town to supplying clean energy and ensuring the future viability of their town by voting for Trump. This is entirely self-inflicted. I feel sorry for Rogers and the people that wanted to see their town survive. I don't feel anything for the people that subjected the country to Trump because they voted FOR the death of their town.
They voted for a guy who is trying to end humanity and I'm suppose to have sympathy? Are you insane?
MsKrisp
Member
Very little sympathy, move forward with us and stop holding on to coal. They'd rather adamantly stick to coal rather than take assistance to move forward. It's a stupid, ridiculous, arrogant attitude to have.
I fully believe that communities that rely on coal should get assistance to move onto other industries rather than wither away. But these people don't want assistance. They want stubbornly hold onto a cancerous, dying industry.
I fully believe that communities that rely on coal should get assistance to move onto other industries rather than wither away. But these people don't want assistance. They want stubbornly hold onto a cancerous, dying industry.
Yeah fuck the left for not lying to these people about how it's all gonna get better once we kick out the darkies. I mean seriously, fuck us for trying to elect someone that could pass provisions to help these communities.
just because they got played doesn't mean I have to coddle them
Adapt or die. The left has been giving them solutions for their dying communities for a long time, our last candidate had a plan to invest and train these communities for the growing green jobs that are coming. They rejected that, they only want to keep their old dying jobs and voted in a snake oil salesman who promised them the world and is going to fail spectacularly. And the best part, they'll continue to vote for him and his other GOP cronies despite them failing them again and again.
At some point, we need to drop them and let them go. We've been at this for decades and they refuse to listen, they refuse to accept our help, and they continue to vote against themselves because they refuse to adapt to the changing world.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." - Leon C. Megginson
Chuckie
Member
Which is rather typical of low educated people voting for right winged conservative parties.
Yet they keep doing it.
You all keep using the collective "they" to describe the actions of this town. There are individual people in this town and I imagine many don't have a say in what goes on and I see a lot of people in this thread just saying 'Fuck 'em'. Politicians and newspapers constantly lie to people and give narrative that is enforced daily about why their country doesn't work for them and the people will enact on that information. Trump is a creation of your own countries narrative and just because you don't like him or his views doesn't mean that you should bury your head and say that the people that voted for him are backwards. Half your fucking country voted for this man! Maybe you should dig a little deeper into how the system has been treating people with no voice for decades and maybe if all the people who claim to be on the left had not had the attitude that I see in this thread of dismissal and intolerance towards the rural communities then you wouldn't be in this mess.
How far do we go here with our sympathy?
What unspeakable thing do these people need to support before all the olive branches the left kept trying to hand them disappear?
That's because they likely lack critical thinking. You would think that after years of voting for the right wing and them getting hurt by it, they would learn by now that maybe, just maybe, that these parties are actively screwing them over.
"They likely lack critical thinking" You're talking about people!
Hypocrisy everywhere.
Well, 26% of Americans voted for Trump. 46% simply didn't vote.
Maybe the answer is to appeal to that 46% instead, given they might not overwhelmingly demand preferential treatment for an outdated industry which is contributing to Earth being uninhabitable for humans purely so they can continue living what they view as a traditional way of life.
NYCmetsfan
Banned
Not sure why there's so many articles about a towns of less than 3,000 people and less about the millions who face climate changes effects.
Yes they need to he helped but the focus on these communities is bizarre as if they were the reason Trump got elected not the suburban voters...
Yes they need to he helped but the focus on these communities is bizarre as if they were the reason Trump got elected not the suburban voters...
I don't give a flying monkey. It's not, they're free to live their lives as they want, but I said it once, and I'll say it again, they don't take the time to listen, they refuse our help, they have always had this distaste for all of us.
For the love of God, a lot of them are on Obamacare and desperately need it and they voted to repeal it. Some of them voted to repeal solely because Obama was involved with it. A lot of them need food stamps and medicare, and they voted people who wanted to remove those things. How the flying hell can we reason with a lot of rural voters when they actively hurt themselves?
Why do they do this?
Because they believe that the Republicans:
a) Want to fuck over the people they want to fuck over
b) Have their backs, because they're completely different to the people they want to fuck over
They're right on one of those counts
andthebeatgoeson
Junior Member
Naw, it was the Republican ticket from 2016. Naw, just kidding, they don't care if you adapt.
There's also a deeper racial issue to it as well, one that came from Reagan's Southern Strategy bootstraps, welfare queen rhetoric. They believe that healthcare and other social services are a good thing, but they want to keep the "lazy welfare queens" (people of color) out of those programs. They believe that democrats want to give everyone that's lazy and illegal free welfare and they don't want that.
Welfare for a bunch of rich cunts who voted against their own interest. Yes.
No. That's not being said and it's dumb of you to say that.
Democrats voted for welfare to help with the problem. This is what "we" wanted.
Republicans voted to take welfare away and deregulate the coal industry. It didn't give them what they wanted but this is what they voted for. They brought this on themselves. This is why we no longer give any shits about them.The fuck we supposed to do to help or take welfare away from them. ALL of this is on them.
Maedre
Banned
No. Those 46% accepted that 26% dumb people voted for an orange idiot. The non voting 46% are as guilty as the 26% trump voters.
And yes. This is a guilt. If I would try to transfer this to Germany and I would have known that there are so many people who would have voted for the AFD (Hell even the AFD is more sane than the Reps) I would speak about guilt when the non voting idiots are the reason a party like that wins.
There is no excuse to vote for a person like trump. I get that there are conservative people who vote blind republican. But that doesnt excuse the consequences of voting blind.
There is a German saying: Unwissenheit schützt vor Strafe nicht. - Ignorance does not protect one from punishment
I'm also going to say this too. I do actually feel sympathy towards them, even though I'm very harsh. It's just, there's comes a point where they need to look inwards as to what's causing their issues and the death of their community, rather than blaming it on "lazy minorities for taking their tax payer money" and "Democrats regulating things killed our jobs", and that point has long since pass.
The issue is them and the people they vote in, the Democrats do have plans to help rural people (better access to education, retraining, investments in green jobs, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure) but they keep voting in the party that wants to privatize our infrastructure, brings us back to pre-obamacare healthcare that would make millions lose insurance, deregulate safety standards for mining that would lead to poisoning their water supply, reduce spending on education, reduce spending on medicare and food stamps (hell, even down right kill/privatize the programs), and more.
Until they look deep into themselves and realize they are the common thread of all their increasing issues, we can't help them. We simply can't because they refuse our help. I can only do my best, even to this day, to go down to rural areas here in New Mexico and talk to voters about policies that would really benefit them. But a majority of the time, I'll get ignored and/or called a liberal/communist/socialist/brainwashed moron.
The issue is them and the people they vote in, the Democrats do have plans to help rural people (better access to education, retraining, investments in green jobs, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure) but they keep voting in the party that wants to privatize our infrastructure, brings us back to pre-obamacare healthcare that would make millions lose insurance, deregulate safety standards for mining that would lead to poisoning their water supply, reduce spending on education, reduce spending on medicare and food stamps (hell, even down right kill/privatize the programs), and more.
Until they look deep into themselves and realize they are the common thread of all their increasing issues, we can't help them. We simply can't because they refuse our help. I can only do my best, even to this day, to go down to rural areas here in New Mexico and talk to voters about policies that would really benefit them. But a majority of the time, I'll get ignored and/or called a liberal/communist/socialist/brainwashed moron.
fredrancour
Member
People trying to blame democrats for getting frusttated like we're talking about excluding job retraining programs from the future party platform. No one's talking about giving up on solving this problem. We're just refusing to lose sleep over people crusading for an impossible solution that would harm most humans anyway.
It isn't even like these are disenfranchised poor people. The towns income radically exceeds the state average
It isn't even like these are disenfranchised poor people. The towns income radically exceeds the state average
The fantastic narrative in which trump voters are now victims.
Vote against welfare, get no welfare.
And this is getting kind of tiring. Unemployment is not a problem exclusive to coal miners, and coal miners do not deserve a welfare program more than any other long-term unemployed.
Vote against welfare, get no welfare.
And this is getting kind of tiring. Unemployment is not a problem exclusive to coal miners, and coal miners do not deserve a welfare program more than any other long-term unemployed.
I feel bad for that Rogers guy, who clearly understands how the winds are blowing, and the kids in that town.
Anyone there that voted Trump can go F themselves though.
On a more general note, I am really tired of people feeling like they're owed the ability to do the same job as their parents/grandparents/etc and make a real living off it. Sorry, no. My family has a long lineage in the USA and it's been a long ass time since anyone has directly followed the career of their parents' generation. Get your shit together and look to the future, not the past.
Anyone there that voted Trump can go F themselves though.
On a more general note, I am really tired of people feeling like they're owed the ability to do the same job as their parents/grandparents/etc and make a real living off it. Sorry, no. My family has a long lineage in the USA and it's been a long ass time since anyone has directly followed the career of their parents' generation. Get your shit together and look to the future, not the past.
hammysaurusrex
Member
Elections have consequences.
shadowsdarknes
Member
It's funny how Trump will actually be worse for coal towns than Obama. Trump will not acknowledge that we are moving away from coal for good reasons other than
"Obama wants you to suffer!"
So he's really absolved from having to do anything to soften the blow of the coal transition. And thus coal country suffers worse.
"Obama wants you to suffer!"
So he's really absolved from having to do anything to soften the blow of the coal transition. And thus coal country suffers worse.
Forearm Star
Member
This answered my questions about the whole thing.
Nice work.
Real hard to feel bad for these people
Have you met the average GOP voter? They lack critical thinking. Yes they're people, people are dumb and you shouldn't expect them to be any smarter than what you can learn about human behavior in a psychology 101 course.
shadowsdarknes
Member
We can debate the validity of this excuse, but to small coal towns, they have been told time and time again that Obama was putting them out of business in order to spite them and give his green energy buddies a big handout.
Insulated right wing news continued to push that narrative. Say anything enough and people begin to believe it.
While they should know better, it's not surprising that an ailing community is willing to believe those sorts of lies as a rationalization.
We have seen time and time again that they come from a culture of believing their work is valuable. Those sorts of jobs have been valuable in the past. To even cite the article, they try to take credit for being the energy source that powers the tech booms of the pacific northwest.
To see their work going to the wayside is an attack of their self worth.
Of course I agree that these people are no more special than those else on long term unemployment. However, they do make for a fantastic example of a changing economy and those being left behind.
Because the right wing media bubble they refuse to leave told them to.
When they refuse help and also try to hurt the rest of us, I sure do. And you know what? I'll still vote to help them every time it comes up.
I'm not so much talking about culpability as persuadabiltiy.