Pretty much all of outstate MN and WI is like this (elsewhere too, I'm just from this area so I can testify firsthand). Working poor. Reliant on food banks (govt grants), Medicaid healthcare, subsidiaries for their healthcare insurance, government grants for housing starts or multi family housing, government funding for low income childcare and preschool, government jobs, and on and on.

But these people read at a sixth grade level and do math lower than that. Younger people only get information from TikTok. Older people from Fox News or Facebook. Most have never earned a post secondary degree or even attended college. Most adults haven't read a book since highschool. Many have never traveled more than 150 miles from home their entire lives.

It's like the absolutely perfect group to be duped again and again by propaganda and ruled by robber barons. When viewed as a group, it's easy to say, "haha get fucked." But interacting with many of these leopard victims, especially the young ones, I just kind of feel bad for them. Unpopular take here I know, I enjoy the schadenfreude as much as the next person.

Yet, I usually end up talking to someone at a bar or somewhere and we talk about a lot of other things first, animals usually or kids or the weather. And I think, "hey that's cool... they adopted 3 shelter dogs and are volunteering at the school and so on." But then the political shoe will drop and I'm like, "Really? You too? Don't you know x, y, or z are all the things you, well, need to survive?"

They're just ... Well... Dumb. Dumb in the way little kids are dumb. Naive and unable to tell truth from fiction, mentally and emotionally stunted people who will never grow out of it. Lied to and taken advantage of so many times they eventually become diehard bigots and lonely assholes.

Sigh...

This is one of those where you start laughing because it's very clever and then the chuckles slowly turn into sobs because it's so true right now here in the US.

Lol. Get fucked.

The fact that you even weighed the pros and cons of your proposal puts you light years ahead of most hiring managers.

Ha. Couldn't happen to a better bunch of dildos.

It's almost as if efficiency and cost savings weren't actually the point.

I don't live in Iowa but have a small farm and live surrounded by farmers and ranchers. You have to understand that these people have the tiniest of perspective to the world. They spend almost their entire lives on one property, rarely go anywhere due to the nature of farming, and constantly have right-wing radio on in the truck and the barn and fox news on at home. You combine that with limited education across multiple generations and you have a group of people perfectly suited to consistently buy into propaganda and almost never able to identify things that will eat their face in the end.

I left Reddit. Came here. Happy with my choice so far

Forgot their brown shirts at home.

I work in a K12 school and no school in our state mandates COVID vaccines. While we keep track of any/all vaccinations and report them to the state health department per state law, a parent can also submit exemption paperwork for individual vaccinations to not get them or not report them.

Whatever brainworm guy says at the federal level doesn't mean shit because it's state law. However what it does accomplish is getting dumb fucks riled up with misinformation and propaganda so they frequently call or email schools to harass and threaten school employees. This happens frequently in my school and neighboring schools. It serves as a useful distraction while various government funding streams and programs are cut.

Wilford Brimley? Didn't know he played tennis. Die a beet us!

For anyone else in the US ... Look at Mr. Moneybags here with 2 (2!) eggs for breakfast. Sheesh. Some people just gotta flaunt their wealth.

Isn't Iowa one of those shithole countries? /s

Best comment.

Gross. Just gross.

I'm sure they'll be able to find a job with Tesla forest service, X public health, or other private companies that spring up. Of course they'll need to get used to the "market rate" of poverty wages and no benefits but hey it's better this way, right? /s

I understand that is a desperate attempt to placate downtown St. Paul business and building owners but it is just a bandaid and is just dumb in the long run. Remote work isn't going anywhere but highly qualified state workers might. And downtowns are still going to be full of empty expensive office buildings nobody wants.

Sluggo can do better.

Look elsewhere.

I have high school aged children so all of the sabre rattling is unsettling to me. I would love my kids to maybe explore degree programs outside of the US because I don't see things getting better anytime soon. I don't want them sucked into some bullshit conflict started by that guy.