>get sent to an out-of-town conference for work, with the main subject addressing the decline of rural America (a topic that only marginally intersects with my job) >arrive at conference with co-workers, it's in a fancy hotel in a large city >about 95% of the attendees were old, white ranchers and farmers >our group was the only one with a black and Hispanic person >we were one of only two groups from an urban area >most of the panels got hijacked by Republicans, who proceeded to just preach about how "dem Millennials!" or "dem Liberals!" were the 'problem' (even though our state is already solidly red) >open scoffing at the panelists who presented ideas for reinvestment in rural areas through renewable energy projects or infrastructural development, but cheering for the panelist who said the solution was "keeping >my supervisor actually let us leave the conference early, said we had signed in already, and there was no point in sticking around for blatant politicizing
My main gripe was that the conference was supposed to be about technical topics: for example, rural re-investment zones, property tax rollbacks, agricultural exemptions, etc. Still had fun on the trip, though, got drunk with coworkers.
That's a depressing story. Goes to show how backwards some republicans are, honestly. They don't want to solve anything, just hear themselves complain about their pet issues.
Sad. This is why no progress can be made.
Cooper Smith
Keeping what?
Kevin Cooper
I'm considering voting Trump for my own selfish reasons. I've abandoned all mental gymnastics about it.
Charles Morris
What are your reasons? How do you think his policies will help you and your life specifically?
Benjamin Price
Sorry for forgetting to write it in the OP.
We had a panelist who was supposed to speak about how rural property taxes can be kept manageable/affordable, in order to stem both poverty and rural flight. Instead, he proceeded to just go on about how "we need to God in the schools", because his reasoning was that "if they grow up godly, they'll stay and help at home, rather than abandoning their families to go to the cities or fancy universities".
Imagine ignoring the entire, nuanced topic at hand, and reducing it to such an absurd and simple level.
Keeping people guessing what you're gonna say next.
Dominic Clark
Nobody gives a fuck about spics or niggers and your worthless ideas. Please die.
Eli Rivera
Yeah he is right because god literally traps you here
FUCK GOD FUCK GOD FUCK GOD FUCK GOD!!!!!!!
Jordan Martinez
Wow. Just wow. No wonder that area is dying. What future is there in that place when they refuse to even acknowledge the problems?
Wyatt Collins
my family is wealthy enough to take advantage of his tax cuts. optimistically, i have 1-4 years to amass as much liquid net worth as possible before the recession. as long as Trump is in office people will still pump the market which buys me time.
Angel Young
>old white people bad >poc good >living in a dirty cramped City good off yourself Yankee
>he doesnt like the comfy rural life enjoy getting mugged by niggers in the city lol
Jace Scott
Fair enough. I guess you aren't as worried about healthcare-related bankruptcies. For me, that's what I worry about most.
Juan Harris
>cramped city
What? This is the U.S., not Japan. Unless you're living in NY city, I would hardly consider American cities to be 'cramped'.
>comfy rural life
Statistically, most of rural America suffers from impoverishment, and has been for decades now. You're deluding yourself if you don't believe there are serious problems.
>everyone needs to live the same way as me! stupid dumb yankee scum go shit in the streets you filthy northerner
Jacob Perez
I never said or even implied that "everybody needs to live the same way as me". Learn to read, mong: or was your rural school district just that subpar?
>dirty >too many people >high crime rate >niggers no thanks I prefer fresh air >impoverishment dude everyone I know has a job and has enough money to get by maybe it's because people in rural areas aren't lazy and know how to send their money
Juan Diaz
>most of rural America suffers from impoverishment Very true. People there are running scared or have resigned to a futureless existence. This manifests in opioid addiction among other problems.
It's romantic for city people to dream about a peaceful country life. But most of them couldn't adapt to the larger amount of maintenance a rural property has, fewer services, slower pace, and somewhat clannish behavior.
Ayden Cruz
>dude living in the sucks every one is poor and stupid >never said or even implied that "everybody needs to live the same way as me". maybe not but you sure do look down on people who don't live like you
Kayden Thomas
>they don't align politically with me >they must be dumb farmers Have you ever considered that you don't understand their wants and needs and then proceeded to preach to them about solar panels and other green shit projects that they can't afford? >old, white ranchers and farmers Also you bringing up their age/race is proof of your bigotry.
>dude everyone I know has a job and has enough money to get by maybe it's because people in rural areas aren't lazy and know how to send their money
Sorry, but your own personal experience does not count as valid evidence. Statistically, rural America is languishing. It's the reason I was sent to the stupid conference in the first place: because the rural parts of our county are just doing that badly. Sure, you have some rich ranchers, and some well-off people who moved to the rural areas to build their fancy homesteads: but for the most part, the rural populace is badly off. There are very few jobs or opportunities, infrastructure is old (if even extant), the population is aging (the average age for rural America nationwide is 65 years old), etc. etc.
You sure you're not just a suburban or exurban fellow?
I'm not surprised. The party of personal responsibility can't take responsibility for their own actions, despite screaming about how "millennials" can't do the same. I hate the democrats and their pandering to SJWs and all those fucking idiots, but let's not act like the GOP is so much better. All they do is suck corporate cock, and when those same big businesses fuck them over, it's now magically the "liberals" fault.
You can't reason with them. They just want someone to blame for their problems.
Gavin Torres
that scares me as well, but I don't believe that problem is going to be fixed in this political climate. for healthcare to get fixed in America either some greedy politician is going to be needing to make a lot of money off of such reform or the bubble bursts and the bloat gets axed.
Logan Peterson
I didn't preach to them at all, and neither did anyone in my group. We were observers at the conference; and like I said, we were one of only two groups hailing from an urban area. All the speakers were 'rural' people, and most of the conference was similarly 'rural'.
And nobody talked about solar panels. What was discussed was wind farms, actually, among other things. I know you're probably rusty from never going out, but this is what is called a 'discussion', and the purpose is for people put out ideas.
Nathaniel Young
>dude your own experiences and knowings of place you have lived your whole life is wrong let me a person who has almost no understand of the rural part of America tell you way your wrong and let me judge you
Underfunded rural education, everyone. Also, to repeat myself, we were merely observers at this conference: we didn't tell anyone to do anything, and everything that was proposed was put forward by the leaders of those same rural communities. You can stop getting so triggered, you little cunt.
Yep, it's not getting fixed, possible ever. The health care companies are just making way too much money off of it all, why would they kill the golden goose?
Luke Smith
Nothing claimed in this thread actually happened.
Ethan Lewis
your supervisor was pretty considerate wholesome story 10/10
Gavin Morris
>evidence I don't like doesn't count as evidence I could tell you fire is hot but you wouldn't believe me because you read something that says it wasn't and some advice not every rural community is Appalachia lots of rural communities are different >You can stop getting so triggered, you little cunt. sounds like you are the one who is triggered h
economic disaster. disruption to a cheaper alternative. i've heard enough so called conservatives turn back on their convictions when things affected them. they'll turn when the economy stops being so great
Levi Cooper
>wind farms Only 1 wind turbine costs around 1-2 million$(depending on capacity/firm) and add to that another 1-2 million $ to install and you were talking about a WIND FARM to farmers and ranchers instead of going to investors with capital to support such projects. >among other things You mean among solar panels.
You can have a discussion all you want, at the end of the day you have a superiority complex that is leaking through your posts. You consider yourself better then those dumb peasants.
it's hard for me to understand because it's wrong and I really doubt you have stats for ever single small town and rural community the one I live in and all the ones I have been to seem pretty ok now their are ones out there that aren't ok I don't denie that but the same could be said for urban and suburban communities
>conservatives turn back on their convictions Yep, I've seen it before too. Way too much groupthink going on. Makes me honestly want to move somewhere else before the outer-most fringe groups start to get their way more.
What happened to just normal politics and legislation that made sense? Everyone's got a goddamn axe to grind, a point to prove, and if the voters get shafted again, who gives a shit. Terrible.
Jeremiah Johnson
>because it's wrong.
Again, your anecdotes of a town or a few towns being well off does not discount the fact that the vast majority of rural communities are pretty much living in poverty. And no, I don't need stats for every single small town because there's a thing called sample sizes and how they relate to statistics. Just because you don't understand statistical analysis doesn't mean that they're invalid. Just because you don't understand different concepts and abstracts doesn't mean it's wrong.
Evan Brooks
i ignore politics and fully admit i'm selfish at my core when it comes down to it. humans are a hateful breed if magick or the mystics is real i would have already sold my soul and embraced the dark side by now
Josiah Bell
Ignoring it is probably for the best. The news is only there to keep people scared because scared people are obedient.
But, be careful, there are ways to lose your soul without any sort of magical shit at all. People get warped by their own ideas and become very unhappy.
Jordan Jenkins
Again - statistical technical poverty and practiced poverty are different things. Lower rent and homeownership costs are a significant factor in this, just like lower cost of living in general. Happiness is not only measured in money and to some people, their environment and way of life is more important than making 3 extra shekels. Renewables like large scale solar panels and wind farms are also unnecessarily expensive, take up valuable space for growing food and oftentimes directly harmful to the environment.
Jose King
While this post isn't the most exciting by any means at least is was written by a human being and not a trap posting or interacial cuck bot. Kindly let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Leo Hill
>The towns I've been to have been mostly fine based on the circles I am familiar with >statistics don't matter because I had my own personal anecdote about rural wealth Boomer or high school (only) education
Luke Cooper
>But, be careful, there are ways to lose your soul without any sort of magical shit at all i'm already a miserable husk of who i was. i don't think i'll ever be happy again
Jackson Moore
I'm sorry to hear that, mate. I feel like my happiness is pretty much history too.
I wish you the best, you sound like a decent sort of person.
Connor Cox
>you sound like a decent sort of person. >literally admitted being a selfish scumbag full of hate and resentment
James Bennett
like I said there are some rural communities aren't so ok but to sit there and say all of them are poor desolate wastlands is just wrong maybe if you actually visited the places you claim to know so much about you would understand what I am saying
Really like how you just treat the rural people you are supposed to be "helping" with utter contempt and then leave early to get wasted.
Charles Murphy
Because rural people are fucking worthless. Fuck them. They arent even people. Sit on your shitty farm and make your 10,000 a year or something but fuck off we dont care you dont get to participate in society fucking worthless rednecks
John Campbell
>Rural people are worthless I could still do pretty well without insurance, a bank account, the newest clothing trends and nightclubs.
Could you do without food?
Jose Edwards
>you dont get to participate in society fucking worthless rednecks ok hope you like starving faggot
>keep muh gawd in da skoolz Yeah that sounds about right. There isnt one if all the opioid issues are anything to go by, and thats just the tip of the iceberg. >muh yankees 154 years later and you lardasses are still butthurt, it is amazing. Not only that, but the amount of work and investing that would take to make many of those places not shit is too much for what most are willing to do, and if you are talking about the Appalachians you have the problem of the geography itself. That all died after 9/11 happened. Embrace the clown world to come user, it shows no signs of stopping.
Anthony Phillips
Rural people: we have all these problems! also rural people: LOL THE CITY SUCKS YOUR LIVES ARE HORRIBLE
do you mean the 60% that we eat or the 40% that we throw out? only 5% of the rural population is directly involved in the agriculture business. you can't lump all of yalls in with the farmers.
Joseph Jenkins
>butthurt dude you Yankee faggots get triggered by are very existence and by a little ol flag with some bars and stars on it
yeah we have problems but that doesn't mean we want your "help"
Ayden Martin
Nobody has ever been robbed in a rural area, everyone has a place to themselves and plenty of privacy, and their towns and homes are so clean and pristine. Crime is very low. It's paradise.
Henry Martin
Nobody said all of them were. The majority are. Majority = greater than 50% You fucking illiterate confederate
Charles Sanders
The problem is that most governments mostly focus on the cities and base their legislation on them. That way rural areas draw the short straw because rural business models can rely far less on the bureaucracy forced by the government.
Juan Brooks
to be honest most communities in this god forsaken country are shit
Robert Edwards
Interesting. I'm from Missouri and our state capitol is in the middle of nowhere, so the cities are detached from the politics and they are garbage places to live unless you're upper middle.
