[HN Gopher] The Muscular Compassion of "Paper Girl"
___________________________________________________________________
The Muscular Compassion of "Paper Girl"
Author : mitchbob
Score : 17 points
Date : 2025-10-23 19:43 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| mitchbob wrote:
| > In her new book, Beth Macy returns to her home town of Urbana,
| Ohio, using it as a ground zero for understanding right-wing
| radicalization.
|
| https://archive.ph/eUs98
| Animats wrote:
| Urbana isn't even that dead for a small town. It's a county
| seat. 11,000 people. Still has a high school. Had a university
| until 2000. There's some industry left.
|
| The big milestones in the death of a town are when the high
| school closes, and, finally, when the post office closes.
| fellowniusmonk wrote:
| Last one to leave Mansfield turn off the carrousel.
| neilv wrote:
| I think stories like these are important for comfortable blue
| state liberals to read, for awareness and moving forward.
|
| Coming from a non-wealthy, very religious, partly-conservative
| upbringing, I turned out to identify as very liberal-progressive.
| (My parents grew up in rural areas, my mom had a huge wood Reagan
| campaign sign in our yard, they were big on responsibility, and
| we weren't allowed to ever miss a single blessed Sunday of church
| nor religious extracurricular. Yet they were also epitomes of
| Christian charity, kept us in the city even when my dad's job
| tried to relocate him, and switched us to a noteworthy
| progressive church parish.)
|
| As a liberal-progressive with this background, I've had a mix of
| pride and concern, over the years, about how my current
| socioeconomic peers have supported some good causes, but also let
| huge swaths of the nation be thrown under the bus.
|
| There's some truth to the stereotype of the techbro "left"
| glamorizing greed and exploitation, and focusing on a narrow set
| of fashionable social issues to support, while ignoring the
| plights of most people.
|
| This began before "dialogue" "on both sides" devolved into
| scoring points against the enemy team. Now --especially with the
| overt rise of the fascist right (and a lot of ears-covering
| cancel culture on the left), and other intellectual dumbing-down
| of the citizenry (partly created by techbros) -- it will be much
| harder to find sympathy, and to reconcile.
|
| But I suppose one of the first steps is for people on "sides" to
| start understanding the other, including by reading some of these
| stories about the experiences of others.
| weakfish wrote:
| This is particularly why I am a registered independent. The
| Democratic Party seems intent on shooting themselves in the
| foot by focusing on cultural issues that only alienate rural
| voters, even if they are important.
|
| I think that's why Sanders and Mamdani have found success -
| they focus on kitchen table issues, and don't let themselves
| get caught in culture war crap that just pisses everyone off.
| gbacon wrote:
| Casually flinging vague accusations of fascism or of having
| sympathies with a particular historical socialist workers party
| contribute zero to the sides understanding one another. Words
| have meanings. Which specific people are forwarding which
| specific fascist positions?
|
| I see a significant asymmetry in the sides' understandings of
| one another. The right are typically able to articulate the
| left's views reasonably well, but the left operates with
| caricatures -- the aforementioned irresponsible accusations
| included.
|
| We're barely a month past Charlie Kirk being gunned down in
| cold blood on a college campus, and not a hit carried out by
| any sort of right winger. The piece's handwringing over
| radicalization on the right comes across as the left failing to
| understand the other side and refusing to look in a mirror.
| Radicalization on the _left_ is an enormous problem.
| bsder wrote:
| > As a liberal-progressive with this background, I've had a mix
| of pride and concern, over the years, about how my current
| socioeconomic peers have supported some good causes, but also
| let huge swaths of the nation be thrown under the bus.
|
| How can you live through _Reagan_ and can say this with a
| straight face? I _remember_ 25% unemployment rates (see:
| Johnstown, PA). I _remember_ Reagan specifically breaking the
| unions which were the only bulwark against getting ground to
| dust. _Reagan_ threw the Rust belt under the bus, let the
| companies loot the pension systems, and transferred vast
| amounts of money into defense contractors on the West Coast.
|
| I _also_ remember the equivalent of MAGA from back then
| _cheering while this happened_. _This_ _is_ _not_ _new_. The
| "I'm okay being miserable as long as you're more miserable"
| crowd has always had a strong showing in this country.
|
| This was also not US specific. Things seemed to be even worse
| under Thatcher in the UK.
|
| Did the Democrats make anything better? No. The unions screamed
| about NAFTA (signed by Clinton, but started back with Reagan
| ... see a trend?), but nobody listened.
|
| However, where is the accountability for _Republicans_ and the
| policies _they voted for_? I feel like I 'm taking crazy pills,
| but the memory hole isn't new either (dates to 2004):
|
| "Remembering Reagan" by Kirk Anderson:
| https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg...
| janwl wrote:
| >The "I'm okay being miserable as long as you're more
| miserable" crowd has always had a strong showing in this
| country.
|
| If the choices are "I am miserable whilst my enemies are
| happy" and "I am miserable whilst my enemies are even more
| miserable", I know what I would choose.
| deeg wrote:
| One of the many troubling aspects is that MAGA policies are only
| making it worse for these voters. Where do they turn when tariffs
| lead to inflation, tax cuts for the wealthy generate even more
| debt, and the economy goes south as immigrant workers get
| deported (or flee)?
| dfxm12 wrote:
| This is already happening, and don't forget the government
| shutdown which will cause these folks to lose a lot of much
| needed benefits, all while Trump is tearing down the White
| House to build his now $300MM ballroom, all while house
| Republicans refuse to go to work while still collecting a
| paycheck. One thing is clear, Republicans, maga or not, hold
| all levels of power federally and it is clear that they are
| going out of their way to leave working Americans behind.
|
| There are a elections coming up in a few weeks, maybe we'll get
| an idea of where the wind is blowing, especially in NJ and VA.
| aaroninsf wrote:
| If you doubt how effective surveillance capitalism is at
| stochastic mind control,
|
| look no further than the weaponization of ignorance in places
| like this.
|
| All that is required is voting not according to manufactured
| cultural issues, but in accord with widely shared values and
| common interests.
|
| We can have and used to have a capitalism which self-moderated,
| and with sufficient surplus as in the post-WWII years, gains were
| widely shared.
|
| Society wasn't perfect but shit was moving in the right
| direction.
|
| Then came Reagan, deregulation, and the decades-long project by
| the right of fomenting ignorance and maintaining it through
| unchecked propoganda.
|
| Today, under surveillance capitalism, all the tools are in place
| to continue driving ignorance and weaponizing it against those
| responsible for the loss of prosperity, opportunity, social
| welfare net, and common infrastructure, that were considered the
| definition of the American Dream.
|
| People have been made ignorant, encourage to be righteous, made
| fearful and angry, and it's worked.
|
| Bw, the reason Meta can pay so well is that it's been uniquely
| successful in accelerating and profiteering off this dystopian
| nightmare. Don't kid yourself if you work there what you're
| contributing to.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-10-23 23:01 UTC)