(no subject)

[splinteredstar]

I am getting sick of the whole "identity politics vs rural america" narrative

Let me talk about my area. I live a quarter mile away from two different cornfields. I drive past four different cow pastures on my way to work, and I don't know how many farms. My area does not have a Starbucks - according to google the nearest is an hour away. My town does not have a /Walmart/.

Do you know what /else/ we don't have? Public transportation. Voter's advocacy groups. Planned Parenthood offices (the nearest place that does in house abortions is at least two hours away, and may be up to five hours away.) Veteran's Affairs offices. An economy based on more than coal and farming. In some places, reliable internet and phone services.

There are actual infrastructure problems in rural America. But you will note that /none/ of the things I mentioned are fixed by "well maybe if we talked less about brown people". Because trust me, there are brown people here too. There are four latinix families on my street and I frankly am /terrified/ for their sake because you know what? We don't have any immigrant advocacy groups here either.

If you wanna talk heartland politics, /that/ is the shit you need to be addressing. Not any of this "let's pretend to be conservative so that white people will vote for us" bullshit.

Comments

[ultranos]

I am honestly about 3 days from saying "fuck it" and writing a goddamn essay on Rust Belt Politics. Because I swear to god I have yet to see one thinkpiece that actually gets it right and if I have to read another idiotic generalization from Sanders, I am going to throw something and scream.

[splinteredstar]

do it. i'll appreciate it, at least. i mean. the whole "liberals are in secret bubbles on the coasts without alternative views!" is inaccurate, but mostly because the liberals in the heartlands don't have anyone fsking /listening/ to us. Which is even /more/ annoying when it's our bloody side doing it.

(it's like. yes, i agree that we need to change from coal. but you can't say that without acknowledging that is the economy here? let's get rid of it but at least /acknowledge/ you're gonna put people out of jobs and that it'll suck.)

and yes, sanders is rapidly turning into that one fic with a great summary and it's recced by BNFs and it starts out okay and then it just - goes awful and then more awful and people still like it and rec it once a week and what the hell.

I'm not sure that metaphor works, but whatever.

[ultranos]

I probably will. I'm going to have to extrapolate a lot from WI politics, which is okay because it's pretty normal for the rest of the region. Although I freely admit that I am Part Of The Problem (ie: kids who could get out, did, and never came back; we're probably some of the people best-equipped to do the lifting and talking, but so many of us are fucking burned).

If you want, I can kick it over to you so you can point out any glaring holes from my 12-years-away.

[splinteredstar]

I mean, honestly. You gotta take care of yourself, you know? Activism means sacrifice, but you also have to take care of yourself. Burn out doesn't help anyone, least of all you. No use getting so emotionally exhausted that you can't do anything. If you had to get out to stay stable, then, you had to get out.

(Sorry, I have a lot of *vague hand wave* stuff with the whole "social responsibility vs self care" balance, and where it falls for any given person.)

And yeah, sure, I'll give it a look over. Send it whenever - do you have an email address for me?