Look I'm from such a small Pennsylvania town. Rural Appalachian. Coal mines and specialty steel production most notably.

Both of you are right, and the problems feed back into each other to some extent.

After my family migrated west more than a decade ago, every single time we go back to PA to visit family, attend a funeral and so forth — it just keeps looking more and more run down. Honestly the place is a shit-hole nowadays. I'm sad to see my old county went for Trump by 70%. You couldn't pay me enough to move my family back.

The young, educated, smart, and compassionate folks leave and GTFO asap — both for jobs, and for more diversity and tolerance. The sad part is I remember watching a slew of documentaries in the early 2000s forewarning of what would happen to these small-towns...

• Because of shipping manufacturing off elsewhere.
• Because of big box corporate eating up local shops, eroding community and draining out the money.
• Because administrations were unwilling to break the hard news that things like coal mines wouldn't last forever and we'd have to help retrain and get them to new modern job sectors.

No doubt these communities feel the pressures they're complaining about; they've just been exploited by right-wing media about who is responsible: the southern migrant more desperate than them, the trans, the homosexuals, the liberals, etc...

@FlyingSquid is also right that there is FAR more bigotry among these communities as well; and that ties back to not being well-traveled, our education system collapsing, and the right-wing fearmongering machine.

Edit: Shit, Inside Out 3 should be about being inside the head of a MAGA supporter.

That poor child... And those poor ems workers who had to dig out her little body...

I tagged along with my wife for a pool day at her friend's house with our kids. I was swimming along near the wall of the pool when my foot was violently pulled into the vaccuum line. Really spooked me. It's code for those suction lines to have a spring-loaded cover. This one didn't. I luckily freed my foot and went to check the valves on the pump. All suction was routed to the vacuum line, none to skimmer.

Some expensive pumps have an anti-entrapment system but most do not.

I warned her to get that shit fixed ASAP...

For commercial pools of this scale, there's just no chance to resist.

I own a pool now and I take all that shit very seriously. You don't mess around with water.

The thing is, you can sometimes get through to these Trump supporters if you can deprogram them from their echo-chamber... That requires very long conversations, an expose of facts, dismantling of their fallacies, and keeping them away from right-wing propaganda and peer pressure for an extended period of time.

... Which just so happens to be what jurors go through.

There would be non-stop coverage of Jan 6 on Fox News 24/7 since the day it happened, guaranteed.

They're cracking down harder on these protesters than the January 6th insurrectionists lol.

Banks, mega corporations, (fake) rich people get bailed out — Republicans: Nothing.

Working-class doing public service get minor bailout with student loan forgiveness — Republicans: WHOA, NOW....

Lowest bidder aside, how is this clearly not the armorer's fault front and center? It was her responsibility to handle the set props. What Baldwin paid them is irrelevant to what she claimed she could provide and was obligated to provide under contract.

She is literally the one to (a) claim the firearm was safe, but (b) load it with live ammunition.

???

It's a funny thing to ask Trump supporters what would sway their mind.

The answer is usually "nothing." And that's all you need to know about a person like that.

Of the three people involved in Reddit's creation, he was the most useless and antithetical to reddit's greater vision.

Swartz was a far better person.

It's amazing how many times I've seen historians say that this is exactly how historic examples of fascism come about. First people laugh and think 'that would never happen. It's too absurd. Then as day turns steadily into night you look around and realize it's there and it's too late.

I have zero respect for anyone who continues to support the Republican Party, let alone Donald Trump. I can't help but see the same gullible, immoral, selfish fools that supported the likes of Hitler in the early 30s.

So sister and niece both know he's a terrible person. If only his gullible followers could see...

It's okay. The other voice inside his head is a good guy with a gun.