#republicans like uneducated people

[kasuaalipelitelevisio]

This us election shows that signifigant chunk of us citizenens are fundamentally stupid and racist.

[foe-of-fate]

It’s wild seeing some people trying to claim that no one cares about women’s sports during the Olympics.

Really?

Because last time I checked those people care A LOT about women’s sports when a trans women gets involved 🧐

[politijohn]

Distractors when discussing Kamala’s loss

I'm frustrated by liberals and Democratic strategists blaming voters, racism, and misogyny for the election loss instead of the candidate and party. Dems will lose forever if their analysis remains this shallow. It shows they still don't understand how this game works.

Perhaps this is a hot take to some…

Kamala’s key reason for losing wasn’t because she is a woman or because she’s black or because of Jill Stein or non committed voters. These excuses are distractions to a deeper underlying issue.

Kamala lost because the Democratic Party abandoned their base, swung right, and catered to their donors rather than the American people. Look at this embarrassment:

Kamala lost because she ran on a radically pro-Israel stance despite a majority of voters disagreeing with that approach. Say goodbye to the Muslim vote (MI). Look at the staggering difference in Dearborn, MI, a significant Muslim district when you campaign for your constituents:

Kamala lost because she backtracked on fracking and the environment. A majority of Americans want to see more done on the environment and this status quo agenda was uninspiring.

Kamala did terribly with young people (who are significantly more left leaning) because they saw a mediocre centrist platform, students saw classmates tear-gassed during pro-Palestine movements on their campuses, and no real messaging that spoke to their needs.

Americans want to hear how the candidates will improve their livelihood. Trump makes a lot of empty promises. We knew that since 2015. But Kamala barely even tried. When asked how she would have governed differently than Biden the last four years, she said nothing except put a Republican in her Cabinet. Voters aren’t to blame for this pathetic response when we know Biden's popularity and the economy are incredibly bad! Differentiation, where? Solutions, who?

The good news? We can fix these things! Focusing on misogyny, racism, third-parties, etc is NOT a winning strategy - they exist and can’t be fixed in four years. I know, groundbreaking. You need to bring people in, not turn them away like the Democratic Party has for years. I mean, on a surface level did you think the condescending comments about uneducated Americans, men, non-voters, third-party voters, and Latinos was going to win them over, bring them into the fold, encourage them to vote for Kamala?

Where is the camera?

There is so much to be learned from Bernie’s stump speeches that captivate all kinds of voters.

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Not to wade into discourse, but the reason why Taylor’s measured tone on the Republican ticket and instead detailing what issues are important to her and why Harris and Walz have earned her vote and prioritizing voter registration efforts are precisely because she has such a huge, influential platform with an audience from so many different walks of life.

There’s no doubt she hates Trump, and it’s even in the subtext of what she’s said in her post, but coming out guns blazing on Trump in an endorsement for the other candidate not only takes away the power of that candidate’s platform, but can turn off uneducated readers who she, like many campaign efforts, are trying to reach. People don’t want to be told who to vote for, but by Taylor saying what issues what matter to her, she’s signaling to voters what issues the candidate stands for too. People want to feel like they’ve drawn their own conclusion vs. being told what to do.

I’m not naive enough to think Taylor can sway an election at all. (And before anyone says it, I know she’s not an activist and I have never claimed she was.) But she’s kind of taking the “trying to gently make a case at Thanksgiving dinner with your blowhard cousin you see once a year with facts instead of taking the bait with their rants” approach with this. It’s not both-siding the candidates or trying to be apolitical or not ruffle feathers. It’s using facts and policies to make a point instead of only raw emotion or opinion. It’s outreach, in its own kind of way.

There will be plenty of time for her to make her thoughts on the Republican ticket known, if she so chooses. (I hope she does, not because I don’t know she hates those two, but because I know she can eviscerate them so eloquently and cuttingly.) But I don’t think this endorsement, on this day, with this kind of spotlight on it, was going to be the platform for it. Obviously she wants the Democrats to win, but she wants people to learn about the issues themselves so they personally understand why these issues are important and make the choice for themselves instead of because of a celebrity telling them to.

​

[runawaymun]

Two takeaways right now that I really cannot stress enough: 1) We cannot afford to keep spouting the "The American public is fucking stupid" and "Republicans are dumb and uneducated" rhetoric. I have already seen a new resurgence in the past 24 hours. Yes, it's true: One in five Americans are functionally illiterate. Many of them live in states like New Mexico and Mississippi, below the poverty line, with underfunded educational institutions, and very little access to resources to help them. A staggering amount of USAmericans read below a sixth grade level. This is not a moral failing. This is not their fault. This is a societal failing, an infrastructure failing. We've been failing the rust belt for decades and it's only getting worse. And it does not help our cause if we continue to turn up our noses and say they're all stupid cousin-kissing hillbillies who deserve what they're getting. That only helps Trump. That is how we got here. The division only helps the people in power to keep up the grift. As long as we continue to disparage and underestimate working people from the Midwest and the American South, we will continue to lose. They are tired of being condescended to, and that is why they like Trump. He at least pretends (badly, but he at least pretends) that he cares about their interests.

Remember this bit of propaganda?

All the way back from 1754?

We have to stop fighting each other. We cannot afford to continue saying 'Trumpers are stupid and hateful and uneducated' and continue this us-against-them mentality. It is JUST as bad as my Midwestern parents who say that Democrats are evil satanic child-killing communists. I grew up steeped in that environment. I fully believed it. Many people are just as scared as you are. They are working with the information they have. They believe they are doing the right thing, just as you do. They are watching their communities literally disintegrate and the only person that promises to bring them jobs is Donald Fucking Trump. And he is employing every propaganda tactic in the book to grift them. A big part of the lies the Republican party loves to spout is that they're persecuted and they're underdogs -- I grew up in this environment. It stems from an Evangelical worldview that to be righteous is to be persecuted. Disparaging these people, insulting them, condescending them, only feeds this narrative. The only way I got out of this mentality was by having access to community college, meeting kind people outside my bubble who were willing to have a conversation with me, and finally getting education that wasn't steeped in evangelical propaganda.

I invite you all to go and watch Megan Phelps-Roper's TEDtalk (or read her book, it's excellent) about how she left her family's cult. The only thing that broke through that fog of 'We are persecuted and therefore righteous' was when people stopped throwing cups of hot liquid and piss at her (when she was a child!), and started being kind and empathetic. We all can stand to learn a lot from stories like hers. The second that evil god-hating people started being kind to her was the second she began to question everything she'd been taught.

Yes, it's very easy to look at these people spewing hateful rhetoric and label them as evil. But they're not. The people exploiting all of us are evil. The people exploiting fear and division are evil. We need to call for accountability with news outlets, to fund grass-roots efforts to give adults with educational gaps access to help. Many of them simply could not continue going to school because their families were impoverished and they had to work so they could fucking eat. Many of them have undiagnosed disabilities because they do not have insurance to even go to a doctor. To be ignorant is not a moral failing. Willful ignorance? Absolutely. But ignorance, no. The only thing we can do now is be kind, invite people into discussion, and remember that the only enemy is the oppressor in power who views everybody as pawns and dollar signs. We are all the same to them.

2) Please do not fall into the trap of thinking this means that your vote does not count. Voting is more important than ever. You need to vote in your local elections. You need to. The Senate and the House are the lawmakers and the people in charge of declaring war. They have term limits. They are not untouchable. They are the only people now who are capable of checking Trump. And your local mayors, councils, etc are the people who are going to make the real difference between public healthcare, good education, censorship, civil rights, housing, etc. States have an immense amount of freedom to operate. That is how I have access to incredible free healthcare in mine. That is how we have one of the best public transit systems in the country. That is how we placed penalties on industries and got rid of smog and heavy pollution in the 70s. That is how we have gay bars and drag brunches and well-funded libraries. That is all local-government stuff. If you want your communities to change, you HAVE to vote locally. Please, please, please do not give up and think your vote doesn't matter. It does. It matters immensely.

[shaftking]

The level of cope coming from people right now. There's people demanding recounts, saying all trump voters should be killed or to kill themselves, calling half of America uneducated hicks, calling lgbt or latino's/blacks who voted for trump faggots or sp*cs/n*ggers who are piece of shit traitors. And this coming from bitches who 100% believe that they are good and kind hearted, not to mention all the grief posts that are acting like their family was just murdered and they're about to be thrown in a prison camp. It's baffling

It’s insane. Bc even with republicans last election at their most unhinged they were mostly just grumbling and miffed outside of the blip that was Jan6 compared to the literal riots, calls for Trumps assassination, assaults on Trump supporters, calling people fascist and Nazis that the left has cheered on for literally years.

I can barely say it’s a mask off moment for the ones acting like that when they’ve been acting like insufferable losers for ages.

I don’t think that most left or left leaning people are evil, but I think a lot of them have been riled up into paranoia and anger at people who don’t really warrant that sort of reaction and are just other Americans with different opinions on how to address our country’s issues.

[intheholler]

so @indiestarlight was tellin me about a conversation they were having with an international friend, trying to explain generational poverty in the south and why it feels so impossible to break out of. they asked if they could share with me what they said, and upon readin it i found it so on the nose that i asked for permission to share it here.

of course, education or a lack thereof is only one path we get stuck on when trying to get out of poverty, but i think it does a good job of illuminating a very common appalachian multigenerational experience, in a very human way, and is something interesting to consider if you ain't from here and wanna get a better understanding.

and i think this part in particular here...

and yep alright now even though great-granddaddy was a union organizer your daddy is a republican—and maybe you aren't, and maybe you try to reason with him, but it's hard to get through to him when the objective truth is that yeah, liberal politicians HAVE failed him, and yeah, liberal politicians DO ignore the south.

...deserves an entire fucking post on its own. anyway, enough of me. read their full thoughts under the cut

for many people in the south it's just an endless cycle of. your great-granddaddy was never able to graduate school. so he worked in the mines, or in a factory, or in any other job he could get without a degree. he didn't make enough money to send your granddaddy to college, either. maybe your granddaddy graduated high school, maybe he even got a scholarship and managed to enroll in college—but then his daddy broke his leg and couldn't work anymore, or his ma got sick and couldn't take care of his little siblings, or or or a thousand other issues that could've been solved with money or better access to healthcare or better access to education, but he didn't have any of those things so instead he came home to take care of family and he never got a degree and then he also worked whatever job he could get without a degree. and your granddaddy didn't have enough money to send your daddy to college, and anyway when your granddaddy went to college for a semester everyone treated him like dirt and all the professors acted like he was stupid, so why would your daddy wanna go to college, anyway? and then your daddy thinks that colleges are full of stuck-up snobs, and ohh now fox news is telling him that's because colleges are full of pansy liberals who've never worked a day in their lives, not like him, not like his family who've been fighting just to scrape by for generations, and yep alright now even though great-granddaddy was a union organizer your daddy is a republican—and maybe you aren't, and maybe you try to reason with him, but it's hard to get through to him when the objective truth is that yeah, liberal politicians HAVE failed him, and yeah, liberal politicians DO ignore the south. and now maybe you do want to go to college, but… with what money? with what opportunities? you can't get academic scholarships because the educational barriers you've faced mean that even though you graduated high school, your grades aren't near good enough to get any kind of scholarship on them. income-based scholarships exist, but they can be hard to get, and they'll cover maybe 40% of the cost of attending school, and there's no way in hell you can cover the other 60% yourself. your great-granddaddy worked in the mines, 'cuz he didn't have a degree. you work in mcdonald's, 'cuz you don't have a degree. and one day your own kids are gonna ask about going to college, and you're gonna have to tell them that mcdonalds doesn't pay you enough to pay their tuition. and the cycle continues, and every time you go to online leftist spaces and try to get people to help you organize and make things better, instead everyone just mocks you for your accent, for your "bad" grammar, and they make jokes about how stupid and uneducated everyone in your hometown is, and you realize they are never going to take you seriously and they are never gonna help you

[anakinskywalkerisfave]

Something something people who aren't Americans calling Americans as a whole stupid (specifically when they include people who didn't vote for the damn felon). As if stupidity is solely an American issue, that people in other countries haven't had corrupt and terrible people get elected. And how it ignores the fact that Republicans have been waging a war against education (and the quality thereof) for decades. They've become more obvious about it in recent years, but it has been going on for far longer than that. They do so because by keeping people uneducated, they are far more susceptible to falling for their lies and voting for policies that will hurt them.

Additionally, voter suppression is widespread. It has always been a tool to prevent oppressed people, such as poc (especially bipoc), women, poor people, etc. from voting.

These are by no means the only factors (there's gerrymandering, misinformation, disinformation, the stupid fucking electoral college, etc.) but they are key reasons as to why this happens.

There's a lot of factors that get someone elected, and your country is not immune from electing somebody horrible and stupid. This is not an American-exclusive problem, stop fucking acting like it is.

[mothgardens]

I am so genuinely upset that Trump won.

I started this election undecided because of the household I grew up in. I was uneducated, but I wanted to make the right decision. So, I informed myself on every topic I could.

Now that I am educated, I don’t understand why anyone would vote for Trump. My mother did, she tells me that it’s because of his reputation in the economy. But, we are on his tax plan, and it doesnt end until 2025. Republicans voted against border regulations, that Kamala tried to place, bc of his alleged influence. Trump wants to cut rates for the 1% and large corporation-businesses. He doesn’t believe in abortion. He exploited christianity to gain votes after announcing on more than one occasion that he is not a christian. He is for himself and the rich; He is not for the people.

I’m so afraid of what the hell is going to happen now, and I hate that. It shouldn’t be like this. I hope that I’m wrong and that it really was all just propaganda, but I don’t have hope in that. I had in hope in Kamala. I had hope for change.

wtf is america

stay safe <3 stay alive. we can make four years. my dms are open.

[this-dude-over-here]

I know every election there's people complaining about the Democratic party having shit strategy, people voting third party, minorities/women not showing up enough, whatever the fuck else but. There comes a point where we have to realize that the much bigger problem is this country being ran on hate. Trump has won twice now with fear mongering and hate speech being his only tool. Like, sure, some people are just voting Trump because they're uneducated on policy and want to stick to the Republican label.

But I assure you an even larger percent voted Trump because they're completely educated on the kind of man he is and they hate women, people of color, immigrants, queers, generally anyone who isnt a white christian male. Trump won because half of this country hates minorities and let's not brush that under the rug

[theeternalwombtarot]

Community does not need this!! But they’re loud in the comments about how harmful this could be for the community and divination and other spiritual practices and traditions! Thankfully!! I was just talking about spiritual psychosis on my close friends on Instagram yesterday and then I see things like this and post just went viral of some woman absolutely losing it, snot running out her nose and everything over the eclipse.

The fear mongering and demonization of spiritual teachings, astrology, tarot and spiritual practices and traditions is about to start becoming very big. It was already a really prominent thing oppressors have used for ages especially against poc who practice forms of witchcraft or deity worship they brought with them from home. I was just watching a docu-series yesterday that highlighted how the native population on mt. Shasta were forced to leave and practiced ritual and held ceremonies in the caves of mount Shasta and those who colonized would go into those caves after they left and preform mockeries of their ceremonies and rituals as entertainment.

We’re about to step into a reality and time where spiritual people, practitioners and others within the community will be replacing celebrities and individuals of high rank or people who hold a lot of power in this world and I said before that the oppressor has a very specific recipe for oppression and trying to keep people (especially in the west) as unaware and as stuck in perpetual karmic cycles and systems as much as possible. And this is just yet another technique they use to discredit individuals with gifts. They use psychics and astrologers and others themselves to help them predict and interpret what’s coming.

They use these types of stories or ideas to fuel radical religious beliefs and ideas that are built upon fear mongering and hatred, they use religious institutions and manipulated versions of their Bible and beliefs and create division within the west. Vast majority of republicans are statistically uneducated and are conservative who hold onto heavy religious beliefs and views to back up, support and justify their actions and beliefs. Heavily similar to antebellum America and the justification of slavery and the mistreatment of African American people.

To add onto that, this movie about tarot does not accurately portray what tarot really is and how it works whatsoever but guess who’ll believe it and perpetuate it. Half the negative ideas that are swirling around about metaphysical, Wiccan or spiritual practices are due to pop culture and horror movies and the individuals who sit at their desks in the dark scribbling away these plots and releasing these movies.

[leviismybby]

Bold for you to assume that I support that shit fucker Republican. And staying quite while your government commits war crimes without a peep and constantly feeling sorry just for yourself isn't guilty enough? From what I have seen here you all have ceased to post things regarding my brothers and sisters in Gaza. Too much even reblogging the genocide in act? Again, feeling sorry for yourself when things start to get stale.

And curb your European haughtiness and calling me "uneducated". I have heard plenty from you lot, since you dismiss the pain of people not like you and like to pretend to be better than people that just want to live.

Bold of you to assume that I don't speak about Palestinie. Ask any of the people close to me, i donate every month to both Palestinie and Congo, I went to protests here in Germany, very often post about it on my Instagram. I don't reblog politics on this blog, not once. Not even when it even involves my own country.

"People not like you." Is a dumbass statement. I work with kids, I don't see color and I wasn't taught to see color or religion where I grew up. You're the one making assumptions here, not me, anon. Especially since you quite literally are dismissing the pain people under Trump's presidency will have to face, that includes your people too. Trying to get yourself out of a messy comment you made and bringing up Plasatine to justify it is not a good look in your books.

Next time say this stuff to someone who actually doesn't care instead of coming for someone you don't know and basing your opinions online.

[dhaaruni]

It’s also soo frustrating because the gap between white women with a college degree and white women without a college degree is so large and yet it’s us highly educated democrat women who have to bend over backwards to apologize for uneducated women who vote Republican who most likely are not in our social circles and we have limited interactions with because the way that class works in our county.

This sounds a bit whiny and classist but its true 🤷‍♀️

People scream at Whole Foods moms in Montgomery and Loudoun Counties for voting Republican when they should actually be screaming at those women's aunts in the Cincinnati suburbs who dropped out of college to have their first kid. I actually have a fair amount of sympathy for the latter group, more than I do their male equivalents, but I still think the blame is utterly misplaced.

[seraphic-sibyl]

I’m tired.

This is gonna be depressing, so for my poor mutuals’ sake I’m gonna put this under a cut.

I’m so tired.

I’m so, so tired.

An election should not have people having to log onto social media and beg their mutuals not to kill themselves. An election should not have people making posts about how to survive a dictatorship, which books are likely to be banned, to stock up on medication.

An election should not have people crying in the streets or terrified for their lives.

I log onto social media and it’s like a bunch of people in the brace position before a plane crash. Everyone is helpless, knows something Very Bad beyond their control is about to happen and can do so, so little to protect themselves. You can’t stop the plane from crashing. You can only brace.

And what? 80 million people are CHEERING for this?

I have a hard time believing all these people are that hateful. But they are uneducated, or selfish, or ignorant, and the Republican party just takes advantage of that.

And so many of them really are that hateful.

And when bad things happen that don’t affect those people, they cheer. And when the bad things that do affect them happen, it’ll be anyone’s fault but their orange god’s. They don’t realize they are a cult, and they willingly traded away EVERYONE’S freedom for this.

I just voted in my first election. I don’t know if I will vote again in an election that matters.

And I will be one of the last few that remembers civil, peaceful elections. I was a young child when Obama won reelection against Romney. Back then, the teacher could hold a mock election amongst us kids and it wouldn’t turn ugly. I can’t wait for the next election, I thought, it’ll be such a fun spectacle.

Nope. We got Trump 1.0 instead. And ever since then the rot has been so obvious.

There are kids alive today that won’t remember the world any different.

I’ve had some time to think about how people are this evil, or apathetic, or easily brainwashed (Gen Z is becoming MORE conservative??? Are you NUTS??). I have no good answer. I feel like I’ve truly lost the last of my innocence. I miss being 14 and just loving life, being optimistic and believing in the inner good of humanity.

And the worst part is, there is no comfort. People are consoling one another and trying to reach out and find solace in community, but there is nothing we can do to delay what is coming for us. And it is bad. People are turning to their friends and local communities because they are realizing that their government will no longer do anything to help them.

Look, I know there have been Bad Periods and Good Periods everywhere on Earth for all of humanity. It’s nothing new. But now I feel that I won’t see the good again in my lifetime. Things will never be as good as they were when I was a kid. If in the future there is ever someone here where I am sitting now enjoying our hard-earned freedoms, it won’t be me.

The climate is what scares me, too. If it weren’t for that I’d feel that at some point things would be good again, right? Right?

Now I just wonder if everyone, even the ones who played fair, even the ones a million miles away, have run out of time.

There are barely any memes. Tumblr was all prepared with the Destiel memes and then it turned out most people were too depressed to even use them. (November 5 will never hit the same, that’s for damn sure.) No one is laughing anymore. When I looked at Tumblr on Wednesday morning, no one was even saying what happened. They were just reblogging hope posts and cute animals and goddamn suicide hotlines. No one wanted to say it.

I can hear the bell tolling.

There’s nowhere to hide anymore. And I am SO. Goddamn. Tired.

Why are humans such a species?

[ileftherbackhome]

seeing people defend chappell roan for being uneducated when talking about us presidential ENDORSEMENTS is making my ass itch.

notice how chappell said there's "problems" on "both" sides and yet every single fucking news outlet is focusing on why she won't endorse the democratic candidate?

i am BEGGING yall to understand that how you talk about elections matter when you're a celebrity because the media will run with whatever narrative causes the most social unrest.

it's not about her "being right" its about how the fucking story will get spun to benefit the republicans. yall are missing the fucking point like yall missed the fucking point in 2016.

[intheholler]

On Appalachian and Southern Stereotypes

After seeing some people leap at the opportunity to insult and further harm us under my posts, even by obviously leftist accounts, I wanted to address some of the most popular stereotypes of our region.

Not as an excuse. There are many negative, violent and otherwise harmful features of the American South. We have a horrific history especially in terms of the violence we inflicted and continue to inflict upon the Black community that cannot be forgotten, and, as a culture, we do need to pay our dues.

But maybe this will help y’all apply some nuance to the situation and understand that we aren’t all your enemy.

Stereotype 1: Everyone is a Republican Racist

Absolute horse shit, my friends. There are people like me all over the south and in the hollers. We just get drowned out by the fascists, and it is all by design. 

In my home state of North Carolina alone, they are working tirelessly to make it impossible for young, often liberal (if not outright leftist) voices to be heard. They specifically target regions with heavy POC populations.

As recently as May of this year, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned their own previous ruling which once made gerrymandering illegal. This allows Republicans free range to draw their congressional lines wherever benefits them most. 

Meanwhile, Roy Cooper, our Democratic governor, has been in office since 2017.

Gerrymandering is a real problem, and it reflects the worst of us. But it does not reflect all of us.

We are a working class, pro-union people.

We are coal miners and mill workers and farmers.

We took up arms against the government and fought for our labor rights during the Coal Wars as recently as the 1920s.

We bled for labor rights at the Battle of Blair Mountain.

It’s a myth that you keep perpetuating that we are all closed minded, bigoted regressionists. It diminishes the efforts of everyone from the coal miners to people like me while we try to make the region a better place.

It actually only worsens what you say that you wish you could “saw off into the ocean.” 

That's my home you're talking about.

Stereotype 2: Everyone is Obese

36.3% of the overall population of the Southeast is obese. This is true.

Have you considered why that may be? For starters, Southerners are more likely to be uninsured compared to individuals living in the rest of the country.

"Among the total nonelderly population, 15% of individuals in the South are uninsured compared to 10% of individuals in the rest of the country."

Partially because they didn't even expand the same Medicaid benefits to us. and partially because we are just so fucking poor. 

17% of the American South is below the poverty line, compared to 13% in the Midwest, 13% in the West, and 13% in the Northeast.

Percentages under 5% may not seem like much, but when you consider 1% of the total United States population is around 3,140,000 people, yeah, that adds up real quick.

How does this relate? Well...

Mississippi has 19.58% of its residents below the poverty line, and a 39.1% obesity rate.

West Virginia has 17.10% of its residents below the poverty line, and a 40.6 % obesity rate.

Kentucky has 16.61% of its residents below the poverty line, and a 40.4% obesity rate.

Are you seeing the trend?

We, generally speaking, are more likely to be unable to afford to feed ourselves wholesome foods, and we are less likely to be able to afford medical insurance--two things that are obviously important to maintaing good health and a "healthy" weight.

By the same token... 

Stereotype #3: We're All Uneducated 

The South and Appalachia are some of the lowest ranked in terms of educational funding and spending per pupil in the entire country. We don't even break the top 30 on the list, y'all.

49. Tennessee at $8,324 per pupil 47. Mississippi at $8,919 per pupil 45. Alabama at $9,636 per pupil 42. Kentucky at $10,010 per pupil 36. North Carolina at $10,613 per pupil 35. South Carolina at  $10,719 per pupil 33. Georgia at $10,893 per pupil 32. West Virginia at $10,984 per pupil

The top three best-funded states, by comparison, receive between $18k and $20k per pupil.

In terms of higher education, student loans are a death sentence for everyone but especially impoverished kids just looking for a way out. It just isn't feasible for most of us. And that's if we even tested well after going to shitty schools our whole lives. If we had better education, we'd have better literacy in all things, including critical thinking, allowing us to better see through the bullshit we are taught. But we don't. And you aren't helping the ones who are trying in spite of that.

Stereotype 4: Bad Teeth

Quickly going to touch on this one--when we consider a lack of access to affordable, healthy food, shitty medical insurance in general and our poverty rate, this one is kind of obvious. Even so:

“Dental coverage was significantly lower than the national average in the South Atlantic (45.6%), East South Central (45.6%), West South Central (45.9%), and Pacific (48.0%) regions.”

Every time you make a toothless hillbilly joke, ask if poverty is really the butt of the joke you want to be making.

These are just the most pervasive of them, imo. And they can all be underlined by extreme poverty which is absolutely by design.

It also contributes to why it isn’t so easy to “just leave” as we are so often dismissively told to do. Moving is expensive.

And why should we have to, anyway? Why should we have to flee our homes?

Why, for those who feel safe enough and/or have no other choice, should we not stay and fight to better the region?

And why can’t you other leftists get behind us and help us in our fight instead of perpetuating harmful stereotypes? We're your people, too.

Just some food for thought. And I hope some of y’all take a big ol bite.