On Reddit there's a thread with this discussion starter in the r/AskALiberal forum.
What do you think is the future of small town/rural America?
I live in rural New England, and it becomes apparent by the day that younger people are moving out. My town and surrounding towns are kept alive by a pulp mill that is starting to struggle due to supply chain issues. We already have issues with infrastructure and healthcare, so if that industry goes, our community collapses.
Do you see rural and small town America thriving again in the future? With the implementation of things like high speed broadband and remote work, is it feasible that younger people may move out of cities and repopulate these towns? Do you think new industries like microchip manufacturing could start a new generation of small towns? And additionally, do you think the politics of these areas will change?
I would like to hear your predictions for this specific subset of American communities.
Gab user Hans G. Schantz highlighted this response from one reader. OK, admittedly, it's in an "ask a liberal" forum, but its heartlessness and doctrinal dogmatism are astonishing.
Some areas of rural America will soon be booming - specifically areas where there is a low-skilled labor pool that can be used to manufacture munitions and other arms. The US is about to become the industrial cradle of world-wide democracy as the Ukraine War has shown the superiority of western weaponry and created a new (world wide) demand to stockpile a ton of it. I would be pretty bullish about the industrial midwest - PA, OH, IN, IL, MI.
On the other hand, the left has now definitively seen that a certain portion of the rural US population is irredeemable and, frankly, not worth redeeming. The Trump phenomenon destroys the image of the "morally upright American farmer", replacing it with the image of the "militiaman/mass shooter in training that supports the Confederacy and Donald Trump".
Democratic policies aimed at convincing rural voters of a different path are utterly pointless. Even the Inflation Reduction Act, which has pumped an insane amount of federal money into rural hands, is not going to change any minds out there - rural voters are irredeemable.
So what is to be done? The Democrats should pursue policies that crush rural voters and make rural life as miserable as possible. Things like refusing federal flood insurance to rural areas, leaving rural roads wanting for federal dollars, not using federal money to build bridges or expand electric or sewer, ending federal ethanol subsidies and other farm subsidies, etc. - all of that can make rural life even less attractive than it already is and force that population of irredeemables into the cities where they can be reeducated and turned into citizens with something to contribute. With Trump, they let the mask drop and all of the country can now see: there is no reason for the United States to ever spend another dime on rural America, and the sooner rural America is just a memory, the better.
So small towns will come back. But the rural areas that are Trump country are going to face long term consequences for that and they should.
The very fact that any human being can feel that way about his/her fellow citizens is depressing enough: but its blinkered approach to reality is even worse. Just where does this writer think his/her food, fuel, electricity, water, etc. comes from? They're all out there in the country, imported to the city where (presumably) he/she lives by road, rail, pipeline, electrical wires, and so on. If those with such opinions "crush rural voters and make rural life as miserable as possible", just how long do they think those essentials and amenities will keep flowing?
As for yours truly, I moved to a smaller town because even years ago, I could see what hellholes our cities were becoming. Today, they're places to leave and/or avoid. Obviously, the writer above doesn't see it that way . . . but that reality is already a fact of life for many city dwellers, and it's going to become more so as time passes. I'll pass, thanks.
What say you, readers?
Peter
43 comments:
I consider the liberal response to be casus belli for succession from the blue zones and failing that, civil war.
I note the force that population of irredeemables into the cities where they can be reeducated and turned into citizens with something to contribute statement. That sounds just like the Chinese Communist struggle sessions, where you will be forced to believe the proper Marxist ideology or else. And remember, Bill Ayers along with his Ivy league counterparts who seriously discussed the logistics of eliminating the ones that couldn't be reeducated, so it's not like this is a lone crackpot posting this.
Also, starvation has been a key tool of totalitarian regimes to enforce population compliance, and this person sees himself as part of the nomenklatura who will be fed regardless of what happens to the kulaks. See the former Soviet Union for an example.
The person did get something right in their response, which was ending subsidies for ethanol and farming.
Liberals hate you. They want you dead or reeducated in camps. This has been the communist way forever.
They think that all they need to do is crush the idiot hicks that live in the country, and they will all bow down to their intellectual and moral superiors.
This won't work with an armed population, which is the exact reason why they want you disarmed.
The writer has a rather unique view of what is good and desirable. People living in rural areas who want to be essentially left alone? Bad. People in rural areas who build weapons of war to kill people in far-off lands? Good. Well, without double standards, liberals have no standards at all.
Sounds like his opinion about how to treat rural communities was essentially a declaration of war on rural folks. It is justification for rural communities to wage an unconventional war on urban centers and liberal politics. Nice to hear them say what they really mean and what their intentions are out loud. It removes a lot of ambiguities.
The irony is that much of what he believes about rural conservatives could be equally (and more justifiably) applied to urban cities and their ghettos. And the Democratic political machines that run those cities seem to be doing just that; making them less attractive than they already are with high taxes, hostility to business, inadequate energy infrastructure, crime, homelessness, drug legalization, and tolerance for uncivil behavior. "Frankly, not worth redeeming." And those are some long-term consequences that they should suffer through.
Note that very few cities have their own power plants situated in them. Most power plants are outside in rural areas and get their fuel from rural areas. I haven't seen many natural gas wells or coal mines in downtown areas. Let's see how they handle having their electricity shut off for a few weeks or months.
As well thought out a reply as economic sanctions against Russia.
This individual does not understand the infrastructure of food or electricity.
I'm rural in Alabama. Haven't seen a any money pumped in anywhere. IMHO-The money is going to the politically connected in state capitals, not to the deplorables.
80% of cows come from farms with <20 head, i.e. hobby farmers who sell their cows at auction which go to feed lots and then the table. As you said, where does the food come from? Answer - Lots of small rural farms where people work other full time jobs. (OBTW-Lots of Chicken houses closing down in my area, people can't make the money they used to and not worth the effort)
Is she aware of the golden rule, treat others as you want to be treated? I can play by those rules. She does not understand how much manufacturing is done in small rural American towns either. Take a drive sometime, and I'm not talking just food. In my area they make socks. Get socks from overseas? Good luck on current trajectory with BRICS going to gold backed currency and ours is fiat. We are on a path to see our imports go down substantially.
How will they make rural living terrible? Most of what they consider bad I consider good. I heat with wood, live on a dirt road (County already grades and maintains miles of this, can convert pavement back to dirt/chirt). I grew up pre-internet-take away the propaganda? I don't watch TV. I don't have traffic jams. Health care is on a trajectory to fall apart (Read Carl Denniger) so I'm not sure access to health care will be a club. Groceries are an issue, but again - where do they come from. Fuel - do you want my cows and eggs? (Most vegetarians cheat and they have to due to nutritional deficiencies). I do like electricity and air conditioning but have lived without it. But where are the power plants. Where do the plant operators (I used to be one) live? Take away electric from rural and operators won't be operating. (Even if you give operators special privileges how about the guys who do maintenance, Operate with with 50, maintain with hundreds). So bring it. I suspect rural America can bring more misery to the cities than vice versa.
Somebody hasn't thought through the results of their position.
Rural areas are net producers that balance the net consumption of cities. Without them, there won't be cities.
I think it is oversimplification to treat rural areas as a monolith - having lived in several in different parts of the country, incomes, housing, basic costs, life philosophy, etc all vary more than most people realize - analogous to how city conditions vary.
Some rural areas are prosperous and offer high pay; others are dying and have few jobs with low pay.
That leftist statement is not an isolated opinion. The vast majority of leftists think that way. It is way past time for conservative working America to accept a fundamental reality. The left hates us, they want us imprisoned or dead and they will stop at nothing to achieve that goal. We are at war with them amd few understand that fact. If we don't start fighting that war...and fight it to win America and freedom dies. And this is NOT a war of words and ideas. It's a physical war of violence and bloodshed. The left is saying it and the right is burying their heads in the sand and refusing to accept reality.
Growing up the biggest town I lived in had a population of 2,200. The biggest export of small towns are their children. Ideology aside, what small towns need is jobs.
So - Arsenal of Democracy, The Sequel? I've noticed for some time that the brilliant minds who think they're in charge also think that they can tear down the foundations that make civilization possible, while at the same time continue to enjoy the benefits of civilization.
The answer to your question about how someone can look at their fellow citizens like this is easy, they don't see them as fellow citizens or even fellow human beings.
Long ago they declared war (sotto voce) on "normal" America.
That's what they want....so give it to them, good and hard.
War to knife, knife to the hilt.
I would call that "refreshing clarity". Too many on our side still think the coalition of deep-staters, welfare chiselers, race grifters, perverts and criminals, virtucrats and educrats, military-industrial-complex, migration-industrial complex, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Chicoms, Davos oligarchs and Bilderbergers (in no particular order ... this list could continue for a long time) can be reasoned with, that if we just convince them of the sincerity of our intentions, some form of middle ground can be found.
No sir.
They are playing hardball. Nothing short of our total defeat and surrender will satisfy them.
As the character played by Jack Nicholson in "The Departed" says: Act accordingly.
Its us or them. Killing any number of leftists or their allies is simply self defense at this point.
This is where the "Atlas Shrugged" scenario comes into play, where us "irredeemables" drop off the map and the cities collapse... One way or another WE will get by. On the other hand, the cities will go apocalyptic in a matter of days...
...Have fun, kids...
Believing those that live in rural areas will accept government mandates without resistance is the belief of someone with a simple mind and evil intents. Tyranny never worked in the past, isn't working now, and will never work in the future. When you add a well armed population, any efforts to do so will end with extreme violence, deserted cities, and brutal retaliation against those that attempt to force citizens to accept tyranny.
so they move in the illegal aliens who have no notion of the principles from which U.S. Constitution evolved and have neither love of nor loyalty to the United States of America.
That reminds me, I need more ammo.
Rural is less fragile than urban, but we still need one another.
This kind of thing makes me think Vox Day is spot on, with this being a moral conflict. If it were just greed, the Masters could continue to bleed the wage slaves with 30% income tax and get away with it. Instead we pit urban against rural, left against right, men against women, children against their parents, it goes on and on. Destruction of Western Civ and Christian Civilization is the goal
While rural may come out ahead of urban the difference may be one has land to build an outhouse while the other relies on chamber pots and a daily honey wagon (aka medieval Europe). No one wins, just the least looser.
The question is what to do about it. Prepare a bit more every day. When will things go pectoral fins up-no one knows. But be ready to build islands of stability. Fight the chaos.
'... pursue policies that crush rural voters ...'
You mean like the war of northern aggression? All else he wrote sounds very much like the lead up to 1861.
I'll be his huckleberry.
That doofus gets his food from Whole Foods Market, his power from the wall, water out of a tap, and just flushes his poop away without ANY understanding of the infrastructure it takes to make all that happen.
Seriously shoot up some of the big distribution transformers and Mostly Cajun can tell you how many months it will take to get a new unit.
Or, have those deplorable prole truckers not deliver groceries for a few days.
I'm sure they'll enjoy starving in the dark.
Not only are rural areas net producers, urban centers are completely surrounded by rural America. Supply lines go through them. So unless they think they are going to survive by flying in everything they need to live, they are in for a harsh dose of reality.
- Jonesy
Yep, my thought is he gets his way, where will the food come from??? And he also 'forgets' that many of us poor rubles in the rural areas hunt for food too!
That poster everyone is wringing their hands about understand politics.
Most Griller Normies and Boomercons and large swathes of the semi-serious Right don't understand politics.
If you want to win, you have to put your boot on the necks of your enemies.
So get busy figuring out how to starve your Enemies into submission. None of this "I just want to be left alone" nonsense. You're not going to be left alone.
Lee Kuan Yew, absolute ruler and saviour of Singapore understood this well. You had the option of not voting for his People's Action Party... but should your district return an opposition member of parliament, well no MRT station for you... hope you like catching the bus to work. And be a pity of there was a bus shortage to boot.
It's the only way. Always has been. Always will be. Forget all that Normal Rockwell crap. A brief sweet summer's slumber dream in the great tide of human history. Wakey wakey time.
LOL, the threat is to withhold fed money from us? Those terms are acceptable. The devil pays in his own coin, and he can damn well keep it.
I think we are going to get some of what he wishes for but as many above have said, rural folks are less dependent than this goof ball thinks. And when the rural areas cut off his supplies of food and energy he will end up sitting in the corner of his room, knees pulled up to his head and crying while he starves to death surrounded by his own waste. What a fitting end to a jerk.
I see. All these "federal funds" are not handles to redistribute physical units of labor-produced wealth like barrels oil pumped and refined and bushels food grown? Instead they are wealth magically created by legisators casting magic spells from the alters of their workshop floors under especially-magical dome-shaped roofs.
There is no reason for rural United States to ever spend another dime on blue county America, and the sooner blue America is brought to the peace table by starvation and Winter temperatures, the better.
You can count the number of those nitwits who even know about the crushing famines China suffered after they tried exactly that with their "Cultural Revolution" in the 1960s.
The difference is, unlike the Chinese, rural Americans are armed to the teeth, and the blue hives will be eating each other before they figure out the critical flaw in their plans.
Prediction?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY
Quit teasing us, libtards.
Fish or cut bait.
I volunteer as a tribute for District Thrteen!
Ignoring, for the moment, the insane ramblings of the soulless leftist, what I know of small towns is from growing up in one. This example is not meant to be a microcosm of small American towns, but it might be noteworthy
I was born (as a baby boomer, 1946) in a small, rural, and isolated mountain town in east Tennessee. The town had surrounding agriculture, lumbering, light industry, and coal mining as supporting economy that kept the place rolling, and was quite a busy little berg in its day.
Over the years, though, the generally low education and unionizing efforts by outsiders drove the light industry away. Agriculture moved from small family run farms to larger industrial farming and the small farms simply closed shop, and succeeding generations lost interest in farming.
The EPA stopped all but the very large coal mining operations, but then the local lodes of coal played out anyway and it became untenable to mine. Lumber likewise played out as places were stripped of timber and no replacement trees were planted.
In short, the town became the "victim" of its own success and modernization. Unemployment skyrocketed and the Appalachian townsfolk and country folk were loathe to move away from their parents or the place they knew as home.
Today the town still hangs on, running on momentum and fumes. Drugs and alcohol (and yes, the stereotypical moonshine) is a viable though lethal business there. I lost one niece who lived there to drug abuse. Low levels of education and illegitimacy and welfare have about half the county's population in their thrall. The TV series "Justified" could have been filmed in my old home town.
I don't know when people will finally decide to give up on the town, but I beat the rush and reached escape velocity as soon as I graduated from high school. But still, despite all odds, the town steadfastly hangs on with almost ghost town-like characteristics. Maybe it's too ornery to die.
Wait, is this genuine or a troll? It's hard to tell the difference.
We lived just outside of Randolph, Vermont (pop.> 2,500) during the 1990s, moving there from NJ because I took a job there- and because the elementary school that our oldest would have started was increasingly showing up in the local paper’s crime section. Being a city kid from NJ, it was a very difficult transition for me (think the TV show “Green Acres”), and one that I never fully made during our 5 years there, but my wife and kids loved it… of course, they didn’t have to get up at 6 AM and drive for about an hour to go to work; the kids were home schooled.
The town we lived in was about 45 mins away from ‘‘civilization” but had a lot of amenities uncharacteristic of most rural areas- a supermarket, pharmacy, two hardware stores and even a theater which the locals called the “opera house.” This anomaly was because the town has a college and a hospital, which I imagine is still unusual for most rural areas today.
The summers were incredible- temps in the low ‘80s with little humidity, but the winters…I have never been that cold in my life. Many days the temperature was minus 35 when I left for work, and never got above zero those days; the first winter I thought our outdoor thermometer was broken and when people from NJ asked where we lived, I told them “Frostbite Falls.’’
Agreed- in Vermont, we saw the same exodus of kids as soon as they graduated HS,and most ever returned.
This was a major reason why so many dairy farms went under, as the parents aged out if the physical demands of farming. The idea of a family farm existing for multiple generations became quaint nostalgia.
Anonymous and Anonymous:
We live in Vermont, in one of those 'higher elevations' in the not-quite-central part of the state, and you're right, the kids have been moving away. I have noticed though, that once they get married (does anyone anymore?) and have kids of their own (ditto), they realize what they've left behind.
For all its very annoying wokiness and deep blueness, Vermont is an incredibly beautiful, very safe, state. When we bought our current small farm a decade ago, the former owners apologized for not having a front door key to give us, they'd never bothered to lock up and had long since lost the key. It's even possible to drive on the Interstate for miles without seeing another car.
Maybe I'm wrong, but with the current, very welcome, implosion in so-called higher ed, a lot of kids who would have gone off to an out of state college are looking for something different. Our village awards small scholarships to graduating high school seniors who qualify, and recently the awardees have indicated that they're not necessarily interested in college. One has been accepted to a beauty school to be a hairdresser and another will be continuing her (!) training as a blacksmith; both of these young people will easily find good jobs right here. It may be a trickle right now, but it's a welcome one.
P.S. to Anonymous: yes, it gets wicked cold around here, last winter the lowest low was -23ºF plus a stiff wind, some winters are a lot colder. I'm not a huge fan, but I can function in the cold; the heat (anything over 80º) just makes me feel unwell.
The Baby Boomers are dying off. Within 15 years, we'll be gone and those places where we concentrated will become ghost towns.
@LL,
Wanna bet?
Seen any videos from the southern border in the last few months?
You're being replaced by not-Americans.
The coming revolution is being imported by the busload.
The to saving smaller communities in rural America is affordable high speed broadband. It's not the solution, but it is part of the solution. The other part of the solution is local leadership. I've worked with rural communities in twenty-eight states, and the rural communities that succeed in changing their fate are the ones with local leaders who are not content to let things slide away until there is nothing left.
The CCP and the USSR both managed to subjugate the rural areas for 4+ generations. You all need to put some reality into your thinking....
People on the right simply need to tell leftist that when the SHTF, their lives will be of no value other than for fertilizer or as a farm implement at best.
I like to tell leftist that I'm an aspiring concentration camp director for a future Adolf Pinochet regime. There is no reasoning with them. I have friends I no longer really talk to anymore. If things got bad, I'm happy to see Biden voters die from their own stupidity like taking the clot shot.
My take away from reading this is that the writer is young, maybe early twenties. Head full of ideas and zero life experience. In other words, a dumbass.
The most instructive thing for these Marxist fools (excuse the redundancy) would be for them to stage a belligerent foray into rural America. Have a “platoon” of these empty headed preadolescents attempt an armed assault. I’m convinced enough shreds of their contingent would remain to provide forensic evidence of the foolhardiness of such an attack.
If the BLM idiots think burning a ghetto is tough, try assaulting a VFW hall in Oatmeal Nebraska.
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