I prefer the Benjamin Hart version of this think piece over at The Awl:

For the life of me, I don’t know why someone in May of 2017 is fighting to make sure we all know that people who said they would vote for Trump and then did vote for Trump could not have been motivated by racism or sexism. I can only assume you’re trying to get a job at CNN or something?

So coal is still their only industry, they have no union, coal makes no money on its own anymore, they’re pulling out of safety and environmental legislation, and citizens are happy about this? I feel like Detroit is/was better off than this. Unless something drastic happens, in one or two generations America is going…

If WV flipped from blue to red because of Democrats “warring on coal” and left populism is the key to flipping it back, does this mean left populism has to punt on environmental issues? I don’t see how you square those two things.

There have been way more retail job losses than there are current coal miners. The only reason people care more about coal miners is because they are white men and retail employees are often black women. It says a lot about the state of journalism in this country where one is reported and the other isn’t.

I wish I could give you 10,000 stars. I grew up in Grafton, WV but spent alot of time in Elkins and down south in Bluefield. I KNOW how people are in WV and the vast majority of people there are extremely racist. As a POC they made my life a living hell. When I turned 18 I got out of there as fast as I could.

Fuck em.

Fucking thank you. You hate women, the LGBTQ community, and POC so much that you’re willing to sacrifice your own financial future? Die in a fire, morons.

Once again another piece on the poor white worker that doesn’t get into the exclusion efforts that these workers practiced for decades as a reason for being left behind. The failure to progress and be inclusive is a major reason for the current state of the white blue collar worker. They voted against their interest…

As someone who gave living in West Virginia a try (I’m originally from California, lived in WV for about two years, then moved back to CA) there were some good points to this article, but I think you really underplay the role of racism/sexism in Donald Trump’s election there. When I was living in WV, I routinely heard…

The solution within every one of Hamilton’s columns: “Join a union.”

Yeah about the “good old days” in West Virginia. I don’t think that a return to that is universally welcome. Lots of people were killed and beaten during that time for the crime of being a darker complexion or for simply not having a penis. If they want to go back to that, then fuck them with their breathing machines.

“West Virginians’ dislike for the Democratic Party’s positions on hot-button social issues has become stronger than their affinity for the party on economic issues.”

That’s a bit of an oversimplification. The real switch was from blue collar workers to white collar professionals and semi-professionals.

lol

They bought it, they broke it, now they can live with it.

I want to feel sorry for places like this, i really do. But pretending that the wider world doesn’t exist and you can magically bring the past back to life is delusional.

Stopped Reading after the first Paragraph. I live in WV and work in Social Services. Nothing is going to happen because for a revolt you need young people and WV doesn’t have too many of those. Everyone leaves to find work outside of the state. Also WV has one of the highest percentages of people receiving SSI,…

Revolution for a lost cause.

The bestest, most tremendous people. No bad hombres here