• theangryseal@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I disagree. I think it’s clever. I’m a hillbilly who doesn’t live far from this guy so I may have a little bias.

        I just wish like hell he hadn’t included that horrible line about poor folks. He’s off the mark about who his enemy is.

        I was too at one point. I was so burned out dealing with those people. Where I’m from that’s all you see. You have people who work every day or you have huge people riding around on mobility scooters with skinny half starved children begging for a bag of peanuts. When that is your experience day in and day out and you haven’t yet had the opportunity to learn why that is, you just get angry at what you see.

        I hope he comes to understand the source of those problems and directs his anger at the right people.

        He could end up being the protest singer that we need in Appalachia to offer a decent perspective.

        When I was younger I wrote an entire mini book on how much hatred I had for the junkies in my community. It would embarrass me right into my grave if I had to read it today. I ended up falling into the trap myself and then I realized it wasn’t a choice they were making. Once I realized that my people had been intentionally poisoned and lied to so some jackass wearing a suit worth more than our houses could grow his bank account, I was furious with myself for what I had believed earlier.

        I hope this dude gets some truth and brings more people around.

        Sorry if this is a jumbled mess. Trying to type it out at work and keep my train of thought is a terribly difficult thing to do.

        • nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Thanks for your perspective. I come from a completely different background but also started conservative and became more left leaning as I learned more about history and economics and social science etc. as well as years of gaining lots of real world experience caring for all kinds of different people. Like you said, it’s not really their choice. Nobody wants to grow up to be on welfare or a drug addict. Of course there is some personal agency but it’s far more complex than what this song and the popular narrative make it out to be.

          Unfortunately my parents, many of my coworkers, and of course the entire Republican party still buy into that caricature of evil poor people choosing to steal from the rest of us hard working patriots but it’s easy to forget that they too are brainwashed. I appreciate your reminder to be kind and understanding above all and hopefully we can raise everyone’s collective level of understanding, empathy, and care instead of deepening divides.