@snood,
snood wrote:
maporsche wrote:
I think he’s talking about those in WV and Appalachia. Coal towns, etc.
I am struck by the contemptuous tone. It sounds exactly to me like the insidious 'ghetto welfare mom' memes that have been used by Southern strategist rightwingers for decades.
I'll admit to being a bit brash, but the facts of the matter are plain: there is a large population of Americans in the Appalachian region who are not only apparently unable to cope with the changes of the last 30-40 years, they are unwilling to take any action to better themselves or their region at all.
And, to counter your example above, these are not people who are especially historically oppressed; they are not subject to rampant discrimination and abuse by their local and federal government. They simply grew ever-more reliant on professions that paid relatively high amounts of money with very little education needed. The fact that these professions (mostly coal mining and tobacco farming) are directly harmful to the person engaging in them, as well as our entire species, didn't matter to them at all as long as they were bringing home money.
I am angry at them, not for their predicament, but for their unwillingness to do anything about it - and for their constant attacks on the only groups trying to help them in any way. How else an I supposed to feel about the issue? They all know what the problems are and the solutions, but there is a marked unwillingness to engage in those solutions for social reasons.
Oliver mentioned earlier that we didn't have to put these people out of work, we could keep the mines open for several more decades, and that would have helped them. This is foolishness on several levels:
First, coal is incredibly damaging to the environment and as a species we need to stop burning it as soon as possible - no matter the individual human cost. It's truly toxic **** that not only destroys the land it's mined from, it releases tons of terrible emissions during transport and burning and it releases a huge amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere. Coal fly ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste. I am not in any way persuaded by the short-term plight of the coal mining communities that we should keep using this toxic substance simply as an employment plan for them.
Second, extending this out a decade or two simply pushes the problem forward without solving it. It's the same as punting the problem to our kids. What's to stop the people of the region from making the same argument a decade frok now, or two?
Third and most importantly, it wasn't really Obama or any regulations that put coal miners out of business. It's Fracking. Coal is not competitive as a fuel source compared to cheap natural gas and the rise of fracking has badly hurt the coal industry. So if you're going to blame anyone for this problem, it's the free market.
I don't believe these people are inherently bad or stupid, but they certainly don't seem to have any inclination to fix the problem or vote for anyone who has a plan to move forward. How should one feel about this? Happy? When I hear people from that region constantly trash those who have done things to help them, and praise a con-man and charlatan like Trump; what feelings should one have about that and those people?
This is a serious question. Are we not allowed to disdain those who engage in behavior and actions we profoundly agree with? Should we constantly kow-tow to people and excuse them in an attempt to, I don't know, buy their votes or something? Are people not in fact responsible for doing whatever it takes to better their situation? Should I be happy or content with their situation, and happy to continue paying welfare and disability to millions who have chosen that rather than take action to do better their lives?
Cycloptichorn