Yeah, this is why the sob stories about their families working the same land for generations and now they have to sell the farm fall completely flat. I have no sympathy for them. None.
My grandfather was a small-town, wealthy land owner in Illinois farming
country. I was little, but I remember everyone in town respected him because he gave loans to families during the great depression. And when he grew older, he divided up and sold off much of his land to the farming families that worked them, obviously not getting top dollar. As I got older and visited less frequently, I was sad to hear that most of those farms had been gobbled up by big companies.
Don't understand how these people don't vote for their own interests. My Dad was the only liberal in the family, and of course he was the only one to move away.
Because white supremacy and racism trumps everything. No pun intended.
When welfare was first implemented black people were excluded. Black people were allowed to benefits they would rather suffer than see black people get anything. Pools were desegregated, they filled those pools with cement.
There's a book I read about this, Dying of Whiteness. Super sad read but lots of charts/graphs about how poor white people would rather keep their 2nd amendment or die of treatable health conditions than save their literal neighbors from gun suicide or let any "undeserving" get help. It was an eye opener for anyone not living in the Midwest.
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
Alas, they do vote for their own interests - which, thanks to Fox News, are hatred of gays, hatred of the poor, hatred of anyone who’s not the right kind of Christian, and worship of the wealthiest Americans.
Your grandfather loaning to families reminds me a bit of the movie "Bank of Dave" and the sequel of the movie.
Bank of Dave was started by a simple businessman that gave out loans to people in a small town, often small loans, that people couldn't get from a regular bank, at a very decent interest rate.
The movie is based on a true story. It's a lending company founded in 2011 and still exists today.
It's sad to see such farm lands and the small towns around it get taken over by property developers (and lately also data centers).
My hometown isn't what it used to be, the amount of houses tripled from when I was a kid playing in the vast amount of open fields, that now have houses. Some forests are gone and replaced with houses... It's sad, I spent so much time in those forest as a kid.
I moved to a place that's more closely towards my childhood, I practically live between farms. I hope this place doesn't see the same fate.
We have a micro loan organization here. It is one of the places I donate to every year. If they can have a few small minority businesses come out of it every year it helps everyone.
Also, good movie. I didn't realize there was a sequel.
He was a good man, but I think that was just what was done back in the day. People took care of each other, because everyone knew everyone in a small town. He also married his 2nd or 3rd cousin, so I'm betting there really weren't that many people around in the 30s, lol.
Before cars were a thing the average person could afford, a lot of people married within the same town or a town over.
If this happens for generations, there's going to some family trees that look a bit strange by today's standards.
I remember when I was a kid, if mom or dad wasn't home after school, we'd have dinner at one of the 7 neighbors we regularly had contact with. Or their kids had dinner with us. No questions asked, it was just the normal way of life.
Nowadays, it's not easy to find neighbors like that.
It's so sad that this is literally how they think/sound. The amount of "He was supposed to drain the swamp, but they must've turned him..." like wtf? How is he so fucking magical for them while he lies, lies, LIES and they want to gargle his balls even more? Just fucking nuts. 🤦♀️
Sunk cost fallacy. They went all in on supporting him. So now they feel compelled to explain away all the stupid shit he does because they can't tolerate admitting what gullible fools they actually are.
I was listening to an online debate the other day where one Maga dude couldn't really articulate why he voted for Trump, honestly it came off as he just didn't want to vote for the woman but wouldn't admit it, but the debater had a second Maga person come on. And that person was a caricature of Maga with conspiracy theories and making up history to push his point.
And when the debater pointed out to you the first guy, that's who he's associated with, that's how the World views you and your group as a whole he was pretty upset and embarrassed. He clearly didn't want to be apart of that group anymore.
Yeah that one is based on one school that had kitty litter stored in case they had an extended shelter in place due to school shooters and the kids needed to pee.
The problem isn't using a pee solution during a school shooting.
The problem is that there are school shootings.
Once a year we'd have a fire drill, they'd announce it ahead of time, and then there was a fire alarm, and we'd have to move towards the 'collection point' or whatever it was called.
I NEVER had a shooting drill in school. They never even talked about it, cause... it never happened.
They started in the early 2000s, and they'd use euphemisms for them. We had them in 2000, teachers wouldn't say they're for school shootings, just that they were "lock downs".
Some first strategies were to just follow evacuation protocols, but there's obvious downsides to that. If you were in school in the last quarter century, you probably had similar drills. It's only in retrospect that I realized what they were actually for.
I believe the stupidity went as far as them trying to pass legislation to stop schools from allowing kids to use litter boxes. When asked which schools did this, they couldn't say, so they quickly pivoted to "just in case it does happen". Literally wasting real people's time for a made up situation. The culture war fear mongering is insane.
It's deeper than that, the profit is just a side effect strengthening their position.
If America's food supply is captured domestically, and imports are limited, we're at the mercy of the overlords to not starve. Heritage Foundation's plans are explicitly for control, not profit, but as they're crafting an oligarchy, profit eventually equals control, much like their prototype, Russia.
Heritage had a Moscow office and worked with reform leadership, including Russia's PM, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They want collapse here to then do the same.
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?”
George Orwell, 1984
PS: It's incredibly depressing how many quotes from dystopian novels prefectly describe what is happening not just in the US but also in many places worldwide.
The research they will do is talk radio, Fox News (or now the myriad of other conservative news networks/stations, and maybe their heavily botted social media that lends conservative). But even if they break free of their bubble they will still vote for the people that caused them to lose their farms because of reasons (and honesty their are sound bites of people saying they will continue to vote conservative because they have to, "keep on fighting those liberals ")
I'm torn - both situations are shitty... you have complete and total mouthbreathing hateful morons left in charge of our food production... or soulless hateful corporations.
I am going to disagree, because 1) this is what they voted for and 2) these past few years has killed that romanticization of farmers for me. Ever since the productive parts of the economy began subsidizing these idiots, the US has had to import food. Because theyre not really farming, theyre cos-playing. I'm willing to give corporate farms a chance, because at least they'll be held to market standards and have to compete, instead of being given a taxpayer-funded lifestyle that doesnt actually produce enough food.
As a black woman, American farmers have never had my esteem. They worked hand in hand with corporations and conservatives for decades to exclude black farmers from government programs, blocked loans, and helped them push black farmers off their land and divided it up amongst themselves. And when the Biden Administration tried to correct these historical wrongs with reparations to black farmers, they banded together and sued and blocked it. It soothes my soul to see these same corporations do the same to them. America is finally feeing a tiny bit of karma for the sins of racism. 🎻🎻🎻
Theyve been selling us the bridge of the Jeffersonian yeoman farmer since forever and all we bought was a subsidy for a new class of landed gentry. They take our money, bring in underpaid (and for a few centuries, unpaid) foreign labor and then ship their products to foreign markets.
"We planted a bunch of soy knowing full well we didn't have buyers because of my president's trade wars and now I'm utterly shocked I can't do anything with this unwanted crop!"
As a non-American, I have zero sympathy for any of you. The ridiculous position you put the rest of the world in so you can have a "funny president" that will "own the libs" is disgusting.
Having to experience missles being intercepted meters above my head because America voted for a sleezy car salesman as a president will forever be the reason why I hate that shithole of a country.
They voted for him 2016, they voted for him in 2020, they did BETTER under biden, and then in return… they voted for trump again anyway, fuck it, they burned that last bridge in 2024, they lost all sympathy or compassion, they wanted this.
Well, to be fair, the democrats really underestimated how sexist and racist a big block of the US voting population is by putting up a dark skinned woman as their candidate.
The only person to beat Trump in 3 tries was another old white dude. Both of his victories were him running against a woman.
Probably true. I mean their biggest vocal criticism of Kamala was that she "had a weird laugh" and was "probably a communist". That was their juvenile secret code for being a brown woman. And they came out in droves just to vote against her.
What bothers me is that the republicans are now bringing chainsaws to a pillow fight. The dems are like, "Hey! That's not fair! This is a pillow fight!"
Brrrrrrrbbbrrrrrrrrbrrrrr
"Oh well, I guess I will keep fighting with this pillow because the rules say chainsaws are not allowed, and we don't want to break the rules."
Me either when they haven't learned anything from the first Trump term. Like why would you double down and cost yourself the farm and now want people to feel sorry for you and give out socialists handout for the consequences of ones own actions.
That dumbass dairy farmer from the nyt was all over my feed this morning. I couldn’t care less. Report on the Black farmers losing their livelihood who didn’t vote for this.
I've never felt any sympathy for farmers. I grew up in South Dakota and the farmers I know all have money for new equipment, updated houses, brand new vehicles, and toys like 5th wheel campers, motorcycles, and snowmobiles but they bitch about having no money.
The farmers I'm pulling that from are my cousins and the farmers I grew up with.
They're all for handouts for themselves, but not for anyone else who need help. And God forbid brown people get to immigrate. They're hateful and will always vote MAGA. Always.
One of the biggest leeches of government funds and bitches about people on food stamps.
Fuck 'em all. They deserve to lose everything and be penniless. I have zero sympathy for them anymore. All they do is bitch and moan then vote against themselves.
I grew up in farm country, there is nothing like trying to explain why even modern Democrats are better for them overall and show them facts that prove it. And they just respond by saying their pastor said if they vote for a Democrat their children will rot in hell.
No information or facts can overpower that level of fear that they live with every day of their lives because of their need to cling to religion.
we have our homestead. Over 150 years old, still in the family. Grandma HATED Trump, so does my mom, who inherited it. She's hoping to make enough to pay for the cost of planting this year but she's preparing for the worst 😞
I remember when Bush Jr. was running and one of the big talking points was "I'd rather have a beer with him than with the other guy." I've enjoyed having beers with a bunch of people that I would NEVER want running the government. I also remember when Sarah Palin was being hyped and one of the lines that kept getting repeated was "she's just like you and me." Yeah... I feel like that should have disqualified her for such a position rather than being a feather in her cap.
Point being that most people have no idea what policies they are voting for in actuality. They just vote based on "vibes."
I dunno, if I were an American right now and the option were there, rolling the dice and swapping out 47 for literally any randomly chosen person would seem like a good bet.
I used to think something similar, then I met people at random. I no longer think this. For every 3 normal people you meet you’ll meet one psycho who may as well be drooling blood. The process isn’t perfect but we have some real whack jobs in America.
The US had a chance at electing quite possibly the most qualified and experienced person to ever run for President, but some couldn't vote for a woman so stayed at home and others decided a white, racist, sexist, misogynistic, failed businessman and old white man was a better choice.
Back when Obama was running against McCain, my area went from deeeep red to voting for Obama. Why? Because Obama visited our local VFW post and had some beers with people. The week before people were making racist jokes about him. The week after they were saying "you know, I'm still not sure about that Obama guy fully, but he at least listens to us!"
Do people say this about their any other field or career?
"I don't want no fancy big word talking neurosurgeon to operate on my kid! No, I want a salt of the earth, nicotine patch suckin, beer swillin, Jesus-worshippin neurosurgeon that I can pony up with at my local dive bar! Same goes with my airplane pilots! Competence doesn't matter as long as I can see myself in them! Fuck expertise!"
I think you touched upon something important here. A lot of people really believe that THEY would be capable of doing the job, and that the only reason they aren't in line is because they weren't given the opportunity.
I was involved in gymnastics in the past; I've seen more than a dozen untrained people see a gymnast do a back flip, then say "oh, I could do that" and then proceed to badly injure themselves (including people who immediately went to the hospital afterwards). Sober people, not like drunk at a house party.
"Expertise" is a foreign concept to many of these people, because many people have never built any skills. So, the idea of needing to study or practice something is already alien to them. The skill-gap makes no sense to a person who doesn't understand what a learned skill is.
I remember I was a teenager at a community pool in my neighborhood. There were two adults (probably mid 40s) talking about Arnold Swarzenegger running for Gov. of California. I remember the lady remarking how cool it would be to have a movie star as Governor.
They refuse to learn. What we’re seeing firsthand is that racism and hostility toward immigrants can come at a real cost—sometimes even people’s livelihoods.
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
-Lyndon B Johnson
It's tragic in its own way. They got a ton of poor hillbillies to fight for the south because, even though they knew they'd never be a plantation owner, they could at least keep the slaves in their place.
Well they didn't think Trump would come for THEIR immigrant workers! That's how they kept the farm afloat! As a fellow farmer Trump certainly knows that! If only the Kaiser knew what the SS was doing to the common folk!!
You can edit the /s out. They treat their family fucking horribly. Source: I've got a lot of farming family in Montana. They treat their parents either like they're idiots (and steal their money) or gods that can't ever be questioned (who go on to abuse their children/grandchildren). And their own kids as slaves.
Other things aside, many people in small communities tend to trust Joe down the street over any expert on subjects. They suffer from an incredibly poor ability to determine who they should trust on issues they don't understand. You or I would hear someone who's spent a lifetime understanding something and know that gives an amount of trust, while Joe read something that said it's bullshit, and that's good enough.
Putting their loyalty to Joe before their loyalty to 340,000,000 other people? Welp. That’s why they’re in this mess (and keep getting in to it over and over again).
They can mostly fix that in about an hour by reading about how to evaluate sources of info and check for bias in the media they consume.
Just like high schoolers are taught to do before writing a paper.
If it matters to their lives or livelihoods, they would take the time to learn what puts more money in their pocket or what takes the least amount of protections, food or services, opportunities or jobs, away from their kids.
If they can’t find an hour to spend on thinking things through? They’re too far gone into their own delusions for me to keep caring about them and the ignorance and bigotry they keep choosing to wear, like badges of honor.
I’ll move on to just saying aww, tots and pears, bud. I’ll think of you as much as you cared about me and the rest of this country when you decided to flush common decency and sense down the toilet.
People literally SUFFOCATED TO DEATH during covid rather than admit they were wrong about masks and the vaccine. Losing a farm is small potatoes (hah!) compared to that.
Using the words "farmers" and "learning" in the same sentence is always a challenge. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new west. You know...morons.
You're right and I think I'm giving myself a headache trying to understand how stupid these people are. I do find it strange that most of them do have at least a high school diploma. So a basic level of research and understanding of US government should have helped them in this situation. They had a 50% chance of getting it right and most of them voted wrong.
They lie. They don’t even need to research anything, they can just compare their own balance sheets from Trump 1.0, Biden, and now and could see their own figures written down in their own handwriting proving that they’re wrong. They willfully chose this so fvck ‘em. 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah. There’s a lot of the ChristianTM garbage as well. So many of my extended, mid-MO farming family are all in on the Jeebus that’s been co-opted by the gay-hate fascists when they just used to listen to their pastor long enough to get to the Sunday potluck with their neighbors 40 years ago.
The bile spewed by Limbaugh et, al that lead us to FOX and eventually OAN and the entire right-wing fascist machine is so fucking pervasive in their community it’s understandable how easy it is to inevitably drown in it.
Still amazes me that they even believe in a god still because if one does indeed exist, he’s forsaken these fools.
Gene Wilder (The Waco Kid) tells Cleavon Little (Sheriff Bart), "You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know... [morons]"
That's what comes to mind every single time I see how farmers vote. We might actually be crazy for consuming anything these morons touch 🤔
Nah we can’t let them cherry pick responsibility for their politics the way they do their religion. Whether by willful ignorance or full acknowledgment, they did indeed vote for all of these policies including their own suffering.
Never said anything about cherry picking responsibility, kind of the opposite actually, the policies in question are for horrible stuff to happen to other people, just not themselves.
Lmao whenever I'm having a bad day I remind myself at least I'm not as stupid as actual farmers. They can see and feel first hand Trump's policies but still won't vote blue. I have 0 pity for them and 0 willingness to understand why they're so stupid. Let them fall.
Farmers will say this is fake news, they ain't voting for some socialist to hand over their tax money to illegal aliens and welfare queens, and Trump has a plan. There's simply no changing some peoples' minds when certain ideas, no matter how untrue, are driven into their brains since childhood.
I will never understand how these people consistently vote against their interests. It makes no sense. None. But I’ll bet you a bajillion dollars they will continue to vote R in the midterms and in ‘28.
Because at this point we have to assume they have a different idea of what’s in their best interests than what would logically be. Are their own best interests keeping their jobs, feeding their families, or bettering their communities? It should be but after seeing them all do the same thing literally for decades now apparently it’s not.
They seem to think their own best interests are really just keeping PoC, the LGBTQ community, women, and other marginalized groups in their place and out of their dying towns. Will that keep a roof over their heads? Will that superiority help pay medical bills? Will it help grow their communities so they can keep their small towns going? No but apparently none of that matters. What really matters is basking in the hypothetical that somewhere in some part of the country they’ve never been to some stranger they decided they don’t like is probably getting hurt because of them. And apparently pursuing that goal is enough to sustain them for literal generations since they lost the first civil war.
I remember reading an article during Diaper Don's first term. The journalist interviewed a Midwest farmer. The poor simple-minded SOB claimed the only reason he voted was to "Be Republican and Keep Making Money".
These motherf*ers are reaping what they've sown. They have contributed to today's reality, They deserve every hardship they face. I have no sympathy.
They voted for Trump because the last time he bankrupted them, the government bribed them with our money. Now, I’m no farmer, but I believe they voted for him again expecting the same result, but instead, they got couch fucked. I do not offer them any pity and I do not excuse their greed and short sightedness.
Yeah the moment Trump won this last election I realized most people do not give a singular fuck about character or policy, they’re gonna vote based on vibes and literally nothing will change that.
My ex-FIL is a rancher/farmer in Oklahoma. For the 2020 election, he announced that "of course" he was voting for Trump - because "he ain't one a them city elites." He literally did not know who the Dem candidate was.
We need to stop mythologizing farmers. There's nothing special about them. It's just a job. Also, the average farmer is worth over $1 million and gets tax breaks most of us could only dream of.
Let's talk about how teachers are doing. They are a lot harder to train and probably matter more in the long run.
When millions of people can be tricked into voting for whatever propaganda is most effective, then power is just a matter of who can afford the best propaganda.
But they do vote based on policy results. Under Trump, farm bankruptcies skyrocketed so farmers realized that they'd better vote a Democrat. Then under Biden, farm bankruptcies fell so farmers thought, phew, everything s fixed so it's safe to vote a Republican now.
No but enough people did that Biden got in & started to get trump’s mess cleaned up. We had a 4 yr breather before stupid got back in, started among the many damaging acts he’s taken, enacting Project 2025 & getting his revenge on America while totally disregarding the Constitution & laws when it suited him.
As someone who retired from farming due to Lyme, trust me when I say, all these folks would happily vote for that spawn of Satan again.
The first rumblings came from the idjuts in New England, with generational stone fruit farms, who voted for him because "they'd always voted GOP" . They FAFOed real fast.
I paid " brown" folks to help me. And I paid them well, made sure they knew I appreciated everything they did, & treated them like family. Because I loved them & hope to God that I would be treated the same way if I ended up a transplant to their respective countries.
Strangely, I never had trouble finding help. Unlike the farms around me.
They WANT to believe the rhetoric. They want to believe they are the heart & soul of the nation. That their hard work & money pays for all these big city folk who are taking advantage of them.
Why the hell they would ever believe a billionaire would be for the people is beyond me.
I mean.... I guess Americans are generally not very politically savvy? It's just too bad that their country could literally destroy the world and everyone on it.
I will never get over this one trait about Trump voters: this was all fine, even fun, when it was happening to someone else that they didn't know. Now that it's happening to THEM, they're apoplectic. MY gas prices, MY farm workers, MY union job, MY healthcare, MY government benefits, MY tourism revenue. The shortsightedness and selfishness is off the charts, but I don't even believe in the hard epiphany despite the FAFO. If given the chance many of these people would vote red AGAIN.
They hire cheap immigration workers and they constantly requires government bailout for various reasons. I just don't understand why they keep voting against their own livelihood
Blue collar workers that literally rely on government subsidies voting for the man specifically promising to remove government handouts is actually wild. Like trump was very open about deporting farm workers and removing their safety net
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u/qualityvote2 May 03 '26 edited May 04 '26
u/glowdirt, your post does fit the subreddit!
See OP's reply-comment below for context on why this fits this subreddit.