as a sidepoint it's insane how people demonize unions so much. I saw an Australian documentary about how "greedy boat employees are stealing vital medical supplies and are destroying this country" when it was literally just them not being paid for overtime so they stopped working overtime
Guess who has the money to fund shit tons of anti-union rhetoric? Guess who also owns almost all the media? Guess who also owns all the companies that produce school books?
I could go on, but I think you probably see my point. If you do, congratulate yourself, you're smarter than the average blue collar American worker.
From a Norwegian point of view it was really confusing reading American news about unions and how they're so controversial. Until then, I just assumed unions were a fact of (work) life everywhere.
What really kills me is that there are absolutely corrupt unions in the US but nobody wants to accept that and talk about how it happened. I'm pro union but man, police unions and construction unions are some really really questionable unions in the grand scheme of things just for what they get up to.
Which is also why I hate modern country music.
They don't call him Warren ""I am not fit for this office and should never have been here." -Warren G Harding" Harding for nothing.
He was less racist than your average fellow at the time is just about all I'll give him. And giving us Coolidge is a little based, even if Coolidge did nothing to prevent the upcoming depression. Otherwise, he gets a "F - see me after presidency" rating. Probably died to get out of that awkward meeting.
I think Coolidge is definitely underrated even if he couldnt predict the future depression. For his time a very progressive guy (I'd say most progressive, for the day) and he understood the limits the people put on his position and held himself back to those standards. The worst thing he did was signing the Immigration Act despite his concerns raised in a sworn statement.
No man is perfect in history but in terms of even keeled presidents I think Coolidge stood out.
Not that Coolidge was an ideal to strive for. But he really did respect what he understood to be the limits placed on his position.
Me and all my redneck homies hate harding
Yet the vast majority of modern rednecks support anti-union and anti-worker candidates because at least they aren't Democrats.
Yes and no.
See, the term redneck has two origins, and two meanings.
In this context, west Virginia still has WV rednecks, which comes from the union busting fights that this meme is talking about. See the red bandanna? That's the purported origin of the term in West Virginia, and there are still folks in west bygod that follow that way of thinking. They may or may not also be rednecks the way the other version of the term means, may or may not be conservative, and even when conservative, may or may not be Republican.
Now, the numbers of that old school activist redneck faction are dwindling.
And, there's reasons for that, but that's a separate discussion, and it's pretty damn rare for anyone that doesn't have roots in coal country to care. But it's a mistake to assume to know an entire state based on an outsider perspective.
"Modern" rednecks, that's usually meant as the rural/farming or physical labor origin of the term that's become more associated now with either all country people, or people that pretend to be country, sometimes with it being used for southerners in general by damn yankees and other carpetbaggers.
And there, you have a very accurate statement. The rural folks of West Virginia lean hard Republican, even when they aren't conservative, and there is a difference. Which goes back to why the WV rednecks are dwindling, since it's the same basic reason for non conservative Republicans in wv (and the southern Appalachians) dwindling. There is a contempt for the democrat party, if not individual democrats that's likely beyond repair at this point, even among otherwise moderate, centrist, or left leaning people in the region.
But, make no mistake, the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of those men that fought the fight back then remember. There are still people there, and people that left, that are proud of that history, and use the term redneck for that kind of willingness to fight against the kind of oligarchy that they fought against then. Hell, great-great grandkids of those men are part of it still, and still passing down that heritage of fighting spirit against bigotry, against corporate domination and for community.
Can you tell I'm descended from those crazy bastards? Lol. My family on that side spread out up and down along the mountains, and eventually even farther, but we remember, and others do too.
Admittedly, there's some debate as to whether or not redneck as a term was used by them then, but kinda irrelevant tbh. And there's other historical questions left, but again, that's a different discussion.
EAT SHIT BOB
Come all of you good workers, good news so you I'll tell. Of how the good ol union has come in here to dwell.
