Understandable and I admit I kinda went off. If you don’t know much on US history, you’re in the same position of many MANY people in the US South.

Before the current Trump situation, there was the statues being taken down and people crying about destroying history… there were 24 states that put up Confederate statues, many of them during the fight for Civil Rights for the black citizens. Only 11 states seceded.

One of the biggest arguments the South loves to portray is “States Rights” IE: The south seceded not because of slavery but overreach of the Federal Government. The trouble with this theory is (beyond 7 states declarations of secession directly saying it was about slavery) that Fugitive Slave Acts where the southern states forced abolitionist states to allow bounty hunters to come in and round up “escaped property” (slaves that escaped)… which they weren’t exactly too picky, so many who were born free in abolitionist states got enslaved. When looking at ICE and the attitude on sanctuary cities… history has an unfortunate attitude of rhyming, just as the Republicans like to scream States Rights but they’re loving the lever of the federal government to crack down. But also on the states rights, the CSA constitution itself

Article 1 Sec. 9 (4)

No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.

Article IV Sec2 (1)

The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.

(3)

The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.

There’s a reason why one of the constant responses is “A states right to what?” because their federal government in fact denied states rights to outlaw slavery.

The other myth I brought up is the “War of Northern Aggression”, it’s really just plain and on the tin, the Union was the aggressors in the war. Thing is the slave holders were trying to rapidly take over non-state territories to get them in the union to make them slave states to try to outnumber the abolitionist states, this is how Texas formed (when they stole the land from Mexico) and they tried to do it in formation of Kansas… but that got to a point called “Bleeding Kansas.” Look up John Brown, that alone is a wild story. Well Lincoln got elected and they panicked that he would stop expansion of slavery… he was famous on not even trying to end slavery, whatever he could do to keep the union together. The biggest thing was he wasn’t going to invade southern states nor end slavery where it was at BUT would use force to maintain possession of federal property that the CSA seized, basically the forts, mints, and customhouses, the rest he was pretty much let them have it, outright even saying if there was no ability for peaceful enforcement of federal law they’d pull US marshals and judges out of those states. Lincoln tried to negotiate with the states. So of course the confederates attacked the Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina, then cried “why are we being attacked, we did nothing wrong” for the next 160 years.

So that last part where I was talking about the myths where they cry themselves the victims is the Lost Cause myth that the southerners have adopted for the past century. It’s a combination of above with a doctrine that was summed up well by traitor Clement Evans

If we cannot justify the South in the act of Secession, we will go down in History solely as a brave, impulsive but rash people who attempted in an illegal manner to overthrow the Union of our Country.

This comes down to a six part mindset they preach.

1. Secession wasn’t about slavery, it was constitutional (this is important for them to argue when being called traitors)
2. Slavery is a positive good and the slaves were happy in their positions
3. The Confederacy was only defeated because of the North’s number advantage in people resources. This is where the “Lost Cause” comes in.
4. The Confederate soldier is to be seen as heroic, knightly, honorable.
5. Robert E Lee. Since you don’t know much about US history, that name is more famous than many of our presidents because he was a southern general that the south worships more than Jesus.
6. Southern women supported the cause and sacrificed more than the men.

If you live in the South, it’s actually super easy to believe these things because it is inundated in the culture. You cannot avoid it. You grow up hearing “It’s heritage, not hate” a lot by people who carry the “confederate flag” (which is revisionism too because the longest running national flags of the CSA either looked too close to the US flag which lead to their own people shooting at each other, or the “stainless banner” which they changed months before they surrendered because hilariously it being a white flag looked like a flag of surrender) and the worst part is, many of the people believe it because the history isn’t taught well. I mean for fucks sake it’s illegal in Texas to teach the truth about the Alamo that it was a part of a bunch of slave traders stealing land from Mexico, but instead it’s the inspirational rally cry “Remember the Alamo!” The parts that made it shaky on the whole Lost Cause myth if you looked at it too hard was the combination of the constant push for the Southern States to figure out a new way to get Jim Crow laws back in, and hearing a constant “The South will rise again” growing up.

But the reason I reacted as harshly as I did, is growing up before we’ve hit this boiling point of Trump This was a common sight and that particular march was about removing it from the state house in South Carolina. I don’t have a better analogy, because there is only one flag to a country that lost that really signifies it… this would be the equivalent of a march of like flags in modern day Germany because one of their national buildings was being ordered to take down the swastika flag that it flies daily.

Literally was coming here to find this. This is the party that’s supposedly “against communism” yet here we are about to find out who the next Trofim Lysenko is going to be.

I’m sorry, but fuck Texas and it’s “denied secession.”

The American South plays victim every chance it can in its lost cause mythos and “look at how poor picked on we are” when they spent years pushing federal requirements like the Fugitive Slave Act on the non-slave states and got pissy when they couldn’t overtake the numbers of slave states over non-slave states so they wanted to take their ball and go home, but the North wouldn’t let them lea… no… wait… they fucking shot first. “War of northern aggression” indeed.

The mess we’re in is the culture that created the civil war originally can’t get over themselves and have mythologized themselves into the victims when they were the assholes causing the problem.

-Signed a southerner who is FUCKING sick of hearing how Texas never signed to rejoin the union every time he’s near at least three Texans.

Recruiters Who Use AI to Screen Resumes, Leads to Flood of AI-Generated Resumes.

Fixed the headline.

Living in a red state.

They won’t learn shit.

Live here and drove across the country, KC traffic is some of the nicer traffic compared to most major metros.

But part of what to understand with the shit police we have is helpful to explain that Kansas City is one of the only two metros that doesn’t have control over its PD (the other is St. Louis, which Missouri just took back over this year). So in the city, the police are ran by a 5 person panel, 1 is the mayor, the other 4 are picked by the governor.

And since we’ve had nothing but right wing nutjobs for mayors for the past 3, they love to go after the “liberal cities” which means it’s in their favor to be easy on the police in all forms, and what can the people in the city going to do about it? The answer is as long as the city doesn’t have control over it, then fuck all.

I’m going to say I 100% agree with you. The lunatic wants North Korean style marches and is angry that’s not happening.

But I also want to say, what clips I’ve seen holy crap their marching was abysmal, like I’ve seen Civil Air Patrol flights with better marching. I’m not military so I can only talk so much, when listening to vets, their comments are along the lines of the people in the parade basically doing a shitty job because “Mandatory Fun Day” as apparently it’s called.

Frankly I think that’s funny myself.

Well, individually I’m there with you. What frightens me is they actually have the capability to organize.

Coming from the south, they have an impressive ability to organize (fucking hell, potluck happens and shits on) and by the end they’ll be gathered together for a good rant of racist anger.

Dad talks about when he was a kid the KKK outright coming in full costume to give the tithe to show. The important part he said was that it wasn’t that they were so threatening they could do it, it’s because enough people there agreed with them to not throw them out.

Oh man, but the statement of Abbot vs Waltons.

She’s not even one of the actual inner circle Waltons, a married in one, has no real share power to Walmart, just rich as fuck. But I can’t stop laughing at the idea of Abbot getting confused and going after the likes of Alice and such as well.

Fuck, the only thing on the list I’m not is rich and I’m fucking scared of the Southern Baptists.

Nah fam, blaming the voters.

Trump wasn’t some “We never knew what he was like”, we had him as president for four years, and yet somehow in four years we went through a fugue state and reelected him as a country. So… yea… blaming the voters on this one. ANYONE surprised is a mouth breathing idiot.

What’s funny is the flipside to it… Telgram is absolutely fucking full of furries so grok’s gonna learn a shitload of gay leftist shit too.

I expect him to do absolutely nothing to Walmart, sure. I’m just REALLY REALLY hoping that he keeps ranting about them and gets his red hats angry at Walmart like he’s done to other corporations. I expect there won’t be any significant damage to its profits, but if it even tweaks the shareholders a little bit I’ll be over here cackling like a madman.

The only thing I agree with on Trump here is that he’s correctly pointing out that WalMart made billions in profits last year.

That’s pretty much exactly what I was saying. Really my only thing I appreciated is him going after Walmart, and okay, I’ll agree they should eat the profits on the tariffs, Musk may be the richest man, but the Waltons are the richest family and not by far. And yes, the tariffs are gonna suck for all of us and is one of the most mouth dribblingly stupid things that could ever be done. But here we are.

For the people hurting. It sucks. I’m in the same pool too so I’m in the same neck deep madness that’s our current scenario. I’m sorry… I just can’t bring myself to care as I’ve lived in red states full of people voting against their will and despite years of attempting voting outreach, having friends tell me proudly they just didn’t vote even though they’re in more danger of the policies than I… I just kind of threw my hands up on empathy and said fuck it, I’m gonna put on a helmet, hunker down and try to ride out this fucking storm with those that I trust. So right now I’m taking what little pleasure I can through schadenfreude of watching one of the companies that put America right where it’s at currently get its hand bit by the dog it feeds.

BINGO!

Oh I get it completely. There’s a bunch of subreddits I miss, my industry I work in which is very niche, leatherworking, heck even the motorcycle community in Lemmy is… lacking.

On the other part you brought in… OH BOY! Unhinged TED talk time.

So I live relatively close to the Royals and the Chiefs stadiums. John Sherman, gas magnate, the owner of the Royals decided he wanted to move the stadium to downtown, where things have been picking up. Specifically he wanted it in the Crossroads where there’s a lot of local community shops and everything, because he wanted it near Power and Light district where there’s bars and the like which… oh right, he owns a lot of. Troubles came up that the stadium proposals took foooooooorever to even come up, looked like it was drawn on a napkin instead of anything serious, and wanted a tax levy to be put on the city to continue one that still hasn’t been paid off for the last time the two stadiums were built. The whole time saying “Look how the stadiums bring business in!”… the area around the two stadiums have managed to keep a Denny’s and a Taco Bell alive, the big resort hotel couldn’t even survive. Yea… real great for business.

Another trouble is… as I say, I am one of those who actively detests sports… I wish I could find the post, there’s an old Reddit post describing what not liking sports was like and used archeology in how it invades everything around you so it’s easy to go from “I couldn’t care less” to “Okay, I hate this thing now. It is insufferable.” I say all that to say, just paying any attention to the news I knew at the time the Royals was the second worst team in the MLB, they were that bad. So they knew they couldn’t get this move off the ground so they went to the Chiefs who was the most recent superbowl winner which of course was happy to get money their way, and the ad campaign went out. And despite the Royals/Sherman being the push on getting this going, it was all Chiefs all the time. I literally even got a flier in my mail “The liberals are trying to take away our teams!” paid for by the team push, so yay politics even drug in. The whole time threatening “Well if you don’t vote it in, we’ll move. Maybe to Kansas (right over the border) or hey, even Tennessee.” Thing is, the state remembers St. Louis on the other side had the rams, built them a stadium and whoopsiedoodle they packed up and moved to California leaving a city with a stadium and fuck all to do with it.

So we’ve got all sorts of issue in state and local level, but holy fuck all the political pressure since the voters turned down the tax is “How can we keep these teams in Missouri!” And it’s funny, I said I’d be more okay paying for it if we got ANYTHING out of it… I don’t mind paying taxes to keep our zoo going and it’s nice I get a hefty discount when I go, but the Royals and Chiefs are giving a nice hearty “go fuck yourself” for us paying taxes so the billionaires have their teams.

On to the “Why are you a fan?” question you brought up. I don’t question it… but I’ve never understood it. I grew up in Arkansas that never had a pro team so college sports was big… I got to hear the “calling the hogs” my entire life and never comprehended the why. Probably because dad was not a sports guy and had the opinion “Why do I want to watch people play a game?” even though he played in high school and I’ve been pretty much the same. I get the community stuff, and that’s fantastic. I’ve just found a community outside of sports so it doesn’t resound to me. The reason I’ve become so against sports beyond it’s completely impossible to ignore it it’s so inundated in culture, is the sheer amount of money that goes into it in all levels. High school, if you’re one of the “football” schools, your school only has 3-4 sports, all the big stadium ticket getting team sports, the smaller less prestigious schools get more sports like wrestling and the like… guess which situation I ended up in? And watching schools dump money into the sports above all other things like theater, labs, etc. “But it brings in money for the school.” Cool cool… so why are we getting asked for a tax levy so the school can build yet another stadium? Repeat this for the college level so the “Hogs can have a proper place to play!” and now the city with pro teams level. And I hear the ticket prices and think I wouldn’t pay those prices to see my favorite band… and again, those ticket prices and yet we have to pay for their shit?

I’m not a sports guy, I’m pretty anti-sports actually (I can go on absolutely unhinged TED talks about how the local teams are trying to drain the city for taxes… I want to continue, so feel free to ask but not doing it here.) But I agree with you on the niche hobbies and local flavor.

I still have to use Reddit because there hasn’t been a good community for local on Lemmy (yes, I know everyone going “it’s user generated” but I’m like 1 of 5 instead of the hundreds still on reddit) and small hobbies in a lot of the crafting world is non-existent on Lemmy.

I don’t have an answer on this one, just sucks. It’s the trouble of being one of the first ones in the door.

Give him more money so he’ll leave him alone? Because that’s exactly what they’ll do.

That or fund the next right wing religious nutjob that’s worse than Trump but loyal to them.

100% This. Walmart is far from the “aw shucks” helping the common man image it wants to portray

Walmart won’t kiss the ring. They supported Trump. The only thing they’ll do is fight him if it looks like they can’t control him.