NO. I watched rural Republicans laughing that my state was on fire. I saw them saying we deserve it because of “something something heathens”. Nobody deserves it. This is a national spotlight and I’m going to be as clear as day. We have one party who flat out denies climate change, which is directly causing all of this. We have another party who is not doing nearly enough, but at least have some plans. This is absolutely a political problem, because voting for the party who actively denied this is happening is slapping you in the face. You should absolutely be angry at them. People’s houses floated away and that party is shrugging and sending thoughts and prayers. Being active now is the empathetic approach.
Sorry for the losses but shit like this is caused by ignorance for and/or denial of climate change and its causes.
Don’t use the victims to silence the solution which indeed is better policies to avoid or at least dampen the impacts of climate change. And it is a political problem that can only be solved by voting for those who take care of the problem and don’t deny it.
I wish you and all the people there all the best. And as soon as you’re all safe please make sure you all go and fucking vote.
Unicoi county went for Bernie in the 2016 primaries. It’s a very small town that has gone through a lot of shit trying to claw it’s way out of horrendously bad politics in the 80s and prior. Bumpass cove, where I’m sure some of worst damage was, was the site of nuclear waste dumping, and has been the nucleus of a major swing to the left for a lot of people in the area. Right down the road is Johnson City, a very progressive college town. Dumping on the victims of a disaster because their neighbors, or even they, have shitty politics is a shitty thing to do. Maybe those school kids deserve to get shot because their grandpappy is a Republican? Yes, moments like this should be catalysts for change, but victim blaming isn’t the route to take to that.
Yes, the lawsuits by the community collations belived nuclear waste was being dumped from the nearby NFS, but the NRC would have been all over their ass for doing so.
Now there may be chemical dumped from the deenrichment processing, but when I researched into this topic a while back, all my sources lead all the chemicals was coming from the chem plants in Kingsport, mainly eastman.
I mean, northerners assume that bc on average it’s mostly true. Southern states are absolutely full of ignorant people that prefer to stay ignorant and ignore the world around them. Roll coal baby! Let’s get rid of the dept of ed fuck yeah. Get rid of NOAA what’s it do for me?
I live in a deep red southern state, with a purplish metro area 150 miles away. 99% of my state will continue to vote for stupid policies that are bad for the state and the world at large. Red states exist bc the constituents vote that way.
At a national level, I think some of it just comes down to resentment at popular policies being blocked, largely because of lawmakers from southern and midwestern states. I’d also wager context plays a part in this. Sure, NY has its share of rural Republican voters, but our dumbfuck GOP voters mostly manage to just mess things up for our own urban areas, appropriating funds from the MTA budget to build bridges to nowhere in their home districts so they can point and cry about those god-damned socialists in NYC not even being able to manage the budget for a single agency (that they actively work to undermine) so they can further gut public services.
Sure, it’s not ideal, but at least we’re (mostly) only hurting ourselves. GOP Congress-men and -women from southern and midwestern states collectively hold the rest of the nation hostage through their disproportionate impact on the Senate. Whether it’s climate change, student loan forgiveness, universal healthcare, packing the Supreme Court, or any of numerous other issues, these states hold others with vastly larger populations hostage, impeding broadly popular policies in a profoundly anti-democratic fashion.
It may not be fair to the non-GOP voters in those states, it may be misdirected resentment, but I don’t think it’s all that difficult to understand why people from majority Democrat, northern states might be kind of tired of the south and midwest’s collective shit at this point. If the GOP-leaning demographics in those states could either be dropped into a volcano, or, failing this, soundly beaten at the ballot, it would go a long way towards addressing this stereotype
This is true. My extended family leans conservative but is from the far north(think border of Canada north.) It’s honestly really weird how the more rural you get, the more republican people are.
However, my cousins and the younger members are far more left than the older members(are lgtbq friendly, support BLM, acknowledge climate change is real ect) some of them left the area and some stayed, but in general the difference in generations has given me some hope.
Removed by mod
NO. I watched rural Republicans laughing that my state was on fire. I saw them saying we deserve it because of “something something heathens”. Nobody deserves it. This is a national spotlight and I’m going to be as clear as day. We have one party who flat out denies climate change, which is directly causing all of this. We have another party who is not doing nearly enough, but at least have some plans. This is absolutely a political problem, because voting for the party who actively denied this is happening is slapping you in the face. You should absolutely be angry at them. People’s houses floated away and that party is shrugging and sending thoughts and prayers. Being active now is the empathetic approach.
if you’re just complaining on Lemmy, that’s not political activism
Sorry for the losses but shit like this is caused by ignorance for and/or denial of climate change and its causes.
Don’t use the victims to silence the solution which indeed is better policies to avoid or at least dampen the impacts of climate change. And it is a political problem that can only be solved by voting for those who take care of the problem and don’t deny it.
I wish you and all the people there all the best. And as soon as you’re all safe please make sure you all go and fucking vote.
Unicoi county went for Bernie in the 2016 primaries. It’s a very small town that has gone through a lot of shit trying to claw it’s way out of horrendously bad politics in the 80s and prior. Bumpass cove, where I’m sure some of worst damage was, was the site of nuclear waste dumping, and has been the nucleus of a major swing to the left for a lot of people in the area. Right down the road is Johnson City, a very progressive college town. Dumping on the victims of a disaster because their neighbors, or even they, have shitty politics is a shitty thing to do. Maybe those school kids deserve to get shot because their grandpappy is a Republican? Yes, moments like this should be catalysts for change, but victim blaming isn’t the route to take to that.
Bumpass cove is not a nuclear waste dump site. However, there is a chemical dump site there.
That’s not just what the teenagers call it? Bumpass Cove is it’s actual, legal name?
Wow, that’s certainly a… choice.
I’m not the most familiar with the story, so many I’m remembering wrong. But I googled it to make sure before I posted that.
PDF the screen shot is from
Yes, the lawsuits by the community collations belived nuclear waste was being dumped from the nearby NFS, but the NRC would have been all over their ass for doing so.
The NRC clearly states there is no nuclear waste there. https://web.archive.org/web/20170325023938/https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0930/ML093010711.pdf
Now there may be chemical dumped from the deenrichment processing, but when I researched into this topic a while back, all my sources lead all the chemicals was coming from the chem plants in Kingsport, mainly eastman.
In that case, heres some thoughts and prayers
Northerners just assume everyone in the South are ignorant conservatives. There’s no such thing as a red or blue state, it’s all shades of purple.
I mean, northerners assume that bc on average it’s mostly true. Southern states are absolutely full of ignorant people that prefer to stay ignorant and ignore the world around them. Roll coal baby! Let’s get rid of the dept of ed fuck yeah. Get rid of NOAA what’s it do for me?
I live in a deep red southern state, with a purplish metro area 150 miles away. 99% of my state will continue to vote for stupid policies that are bad for the state and the world at large. Red states exist bc the constituents vote that way.
It’s the same in the North though. The divide is rural vs metropolitan.
At a national level, I think some of it just comes down to resentment at popular policies being blocked, largely because of lawmakers from southern and midwestern states. I’d also wager context plays a part in this. Sure, NY has its share of rural Republican voters, but our dumbfuck GOP voters mostly manage to just mess things up for our own urban areas, appropriating funds from the MTA budget to build bridges to nowhere in their home districts so they can point and cry about those god-damned socialists in NYC not even being able to manage the budget for a single agency (that they actively work to undermine) so they can further gut public services.
Sure, it’s not ideal, but at least we’re (mostly) only hurting ourselves. GOP Congress-men and -women from southern and midwestern states collectively hold the rest of the nation hostage through their disproportionate impact on the Senate. Whether it’s climate change, student loan forgiveness, universal healthcare, packing the Supreme Court, or any of numerous other issues, these states hold others with vastly larger populations hostage, impeding broadly popular policies in a profoundly anti-democratic fashion.
It may not be fair to the non-GOP voters in those states, it may be misdirected resentment, but I don’t think it’s all that difficult to understand why people from majority Democrat, northern states might be kind of tired of the south and midwest’s collective shit at this point. If the GOP-leaning demographics in those states could either be dropped into a volcano, or, failing this, soundly beaten at the ballot, it would go a long way towards addressing this stereotype
This is true. My extended family leans conservative but is from the far north(think border of Canada north.) It’s honestly really weird how the more rural you get, the more republican people are.
However, my cousins and the younger members are far more left than the older members(are lgtbq friendly, support BLM, acknowledge climate change is real ect) some of them left the area and some stayed, but in general the difference in generations has given me some hope.