289 Comments
User's avatar
тна Return to thread
Mike Lew's avatar

Not being lynched = " they got more rights than we got." Disgusting.

Expand full comment
David Court's avatar

I missed that Right in the Bill of Rights. Was it an AmendmentЁЯЩД?

Expand full comment
Arun's avatar

> "Not being lynched = " they got more rights than we got."

They erected a gallows for Vice President Mike Pence outside the Capitol, and in return he hasn't been very vocal about his right to not be lynched. Something is truly wrong with these people.

Expand full comment
Eastern Promises's avatar

This is the GOP in 2023. I hope SVL is listening. However, I fear the cognitive dissonance is real. Its like chasing after an old significant other that dumped you and got married to someone else. Sometimes you have to know when to take a hint.

Expand full comment
Kate Fall's avatar

What does that even mean? I've had this phrase drilled into my head almost my entire life and yet not one person has told me even one right that "those people" have that they don't.

Expand full comment
Bruce Brittain's avatar

Had he said, "They have more rights than we have", he would immediately have been spotted as an educated infiltrator, mostly likely to release tapes.

Expand full comment
Maggie's avatar

This is the most important part of the story. Kindly reporters from the "coastal elite" keep going to "the heartland" to write thoughtful pieces about how left behind these places are, the grievances that motivate people, and what can be done to "reach" these people or better their existence.

This corner of OK hasn't been left behind. It is willfully staying behind. The grievance here is the inability to kill black people and reporters without facing repercussions. That's the grievance, they spelled it out for us. Not "the grocery store closed" or "the elementary school can't fund an art department" or "the roads have a lot of pot holes". It's "I don't have the unquestioned right to kill black people; they get to just walk around free from the implicit threat of violence". There is no "reaching them", because they are ruled by their most barbaric impulses. Despite the governor insisting that they don't represent "Oklahoma values" I would hazard to guess that they do represent the values of their community, because they were elected by their friends and neighbors and coworkers. And they obviously felt comfortable saying this all in a group setting.

I would not move there, or build a business there, or even drive through there if I could help it. These people are spelling out what they want: the ability to inflict violence on people without repercussions. That is the end goal. This community should be deeply ashamed, but they probably aren't. They're probably mad everyone is making "a big deal out of a joke".

Expand full comment
Mike Lew's avatar

You still see this claptrap everywhere. Non-fascists need more outreach to "understand the common clay of the new west." This piece (and your amazing comment) tells me what I need to know.

Expand full comment
Maggie's avatar

The Sherriff Department replies: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=245359354686191&id=100076363850310

I mean, the police department are the real victims right? Someone recorded them sketching out a plan to murder journalists and that was really unfair. And it looks like the hospital has shut down it's main entrance due to "unrest from the protests".

Come on, are we really to believe the protesters are a threat to the community hospital? Because they are protesting something totally unrelated. Probably a stunt to demonize the protesters, because the upper tier of hospital management is buddy buddy with the county officials.

Expand full comment
Mike Lew's avatar

But, but, but blue lives matter!

Expand full comment
HoyaGoon's avatar

Can't wait for the 267 think-pieces from the NYT about how "economic anxiety" is driving the fears of white elected officials in Oklahoma

Expand full comment
Maggie's avatar

I'll right a summary so you can skip them.

"All the teenagers learned nothing in high school, which was very proud of their football team but put little emphasis on academics. The smart kids moved away, but most of the girls who stayed became single mothers and most of the guys have substance abuse issues and are sporadically employed. All of the elderly people said things were better 50 years ago when there were more jobs. Also here is a woman raising three grandchildren because the mom has a substance abuse problem. Their lives are hard. They blame Obama. Here is a Black family that worries about the police, the antipathy of the general population, and their economic prospects. They are skeptical as to what policy solution would make things better. The white people think building a Mexican border wall and banning abortion would make their town better. Oh dear."

Expand full comment
Mike Lew's avatar

I can't think of a single trope that you missed. Well done!

Expand full comment
Maggie's avatar

I honestly kind of feel like the NYT should just reimburse me what it would cost to fly a reporter out there.

The sad thing is, this is my life. I mean, I have a good little community in my college town bubble I live in, but this description applies to easily 70% of the towns within a 1 hour radius of my house.

Expand full comment
steve robertshaw's avatar

Athens,Ga? Gainesville,Fl? Tallahassee,Fl? EVERY college town in America?

Expand full comment
Maggie's avatar

Hahaha. Yeah you could put together quite a list. Asheville? Chapel Hill? Ithaca NY? South Bend, IN? Columbus OH? Spartanburg or Clemson or Columbia SC? Lexington KY?

Expand full comment
HoyaGoon's avatar

Needs a line about the factory shutting down and all the jobs leaving so everyone has to work at Wal-Mart.

Expand full comment
Maggie's avatar

Three times a week, Bianca, 63, leaves her grandchildren with a friend and works a shift as a Walmart greeter. "I don't have to be on my feet the whole time, so it's manageable. It doesn't have all the benefits that Rob's job had, but the employee discount helps my SNAP benefits go further and they're always looking for workers". Her late husband Rob worked at the Murica Stuff Factory as a machinist for three decades, before it shuttered it's doors in the 1998. Rob passed away from diabetes 6 years ago. "Obamacare didn't do nothing to lower Rob's blood sugar", Bianca told me as we walked out into the Walmart parking lot. There was a steady influx of pickup trucks as it started to rain. It's where most of the town shopped. And worked

Expand full comment
Mike Lew's avatar

You missed the bit where Murica Stuff closed after it was bought-out by Bain Capital. The gripe about diabetes and Obamacare was beyond perfect! You might consider sending your resume to the New York Times. :)

Expand full comment
Hilbert's avatar

I would love to be able to ask them what rights the "blacks" have that they don't.

Imagine the disgusting word salad that would spew out

Expand full comment
Eastern Promises's avatar

They would tell you, but The Jews won't let them. /s

Expand full comment
HoyaGoon's avatar

"Why we can't even use the n-word anymore but those people get to sing about it and say it all the time!"

Expand full comment
Hilbert's avatar

Ugh. I hate that this is probably accurate

I can basically hear my boomer maga relatives saying something just like this

Expand full comment
Mike Lew's avatar

Beat me to it. :)

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Apr 18, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Mike Lew's avatar

I live a complete life without those syllables exiting my lips and fingers.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment removed
Apr 18, 2023Edited
Comment removed
Expand full comment
TomD's avatar

You can't buy beer in a regular store unless it's 3.2%--and it cannot be sold cold. by law.

Expand full comment
ErrorError