• Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    As someone from rural Arkansas who in my early life was around these farmers and their families quite a bit until I was in my mid twenties. I can tell you they are some of the most obstinate people you can meet. They regularly got welfare in the form of subsidies and then talked trash about anyone needing welfare or food stamps. Some of those people were their workers.

    I’ve watched them buy new vehicles and trash them in just a few years when they could have taken care in the fields with them. Instead they would twist them like pretzels pulling and pushing on farm equipment instead of thinking things through. They didn’t care because they would be getting some graft from the government to pay for a new one.

    So no they don’t need help. Unless it mental health. They will never vote in their best interests. They will continue to believe they are better than everyone around them. They will of course whine like toddlers when they don’t get their way.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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    8 days ago

    “In the last 14 months, five of my customers have committed suicide. That’s how serious this is,” said another Arkansas farmer who also works as an ag equipment financier.

    Jesus Christ.

    • PattyMcB@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      I’ll send some thoughts and prayers (since I can’t afford much else these days)

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      8 days ago

      Hmm, when Trump’s treason and corruption can no longer be denied, maybe we’ll have an epidemic of MAGA suicides. Too bad they ended funding for suicide hotlines.

      • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Too bad they ended funding for suicide hotlines.

        I forgot about that. IIRC, Canada had setup some new hotline to help Americans or something along those lines.

    • tehn00bi@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      It’s already a very poor area, I can’t imagine anything looking more bleak than an entire lifetime of work slip away. What is your purpose after that?

  • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Hope they don’t get a fucking dime. Cant vote to fuck the country then ask for handouts from the blue states when it does.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      8 days ago

      I haven’t been wanting to say it, but it’s crossed my mind several times over summer.

        • Maeve@kbin.earth
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          8 days ago

          With tariffs and aluminum, plus the rotting food on farms, that’s all the more reasons to do this. I bought eight cans of tomatoes recently and probably as many beans, with the intention of more

  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    They watered their crops with librul tears and are now complaining that someone salted the earth. May they learn to actually think about what their vote will accomplish.

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Didn’t Trump say he was shutting down FEMA because the states could do a better job on their own? So let Arkansas figure out how to bail them out this time.

  • HowAbt2day@futurology.today
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    8 days ago

    “Struggling Arkansas farmers” or MAGA bootlickers that fucked up and voted for a shifty, no-good, greasy, New York sidewinder because of some-dick complex? #fuckaroundandfinout #youdonefoundoit #gofuckyourself

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      What, are they going to vote for the people with Blah candidates or allow the purple-haired trans people to use public toilets?! Are you kidding me? What choice do they even have?

    • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      They’ll shove a fork in their eye while chanting “Let’s go Brandon”.

      They’re fucking idiots.

  • Godort@lemmy.ca
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    8 days ago

    What’s the over/under that Arkansas farmers actually learn from this and stop voting Republican?

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      8 days ago

      Zero, that level of rational thought makes them understand how fucked they are, at which point they kill themselves. Or sell the farm to a megacorp while they’re still above water on their loans

      And I’m not joking about the suicide thing. There’s suicide hotline programs specifically for farmers realizing they’re going to lose everything, which of course have been cut

      • FoxyFerengi@startrek.website
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        8 days ago

        In the 00s my uncle was in a position where Monsanto was suing him for not holding up his end of the contract, because he had a bad crop year. Anyway, my grandparents bailed him out by financing a lawyer who settled for him, and it really didn’t fix the problem at all. He still lost his farm, my grandparents were no longer wealthy because they kept trying to help him, and the uncle died a couple years later to cancer (probably driven by stress). They bailed him out because they were afraid he’d kill himself over the farm, and it took him out anyway

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          8 days ago

          Damn, that’s rough. Monsanto are fucking demons, honestly? Solid chance they were making him use some product that causes cancer. Either way, the whole industry is horrible, sorry your family went through that

          • FoxyFerengi@startrek.website
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            7 days ago

            I have no idea if he used protective gear when applying it, which certainly could have increased his exposure. I would love to blame Monsanto, but most of the family carry the risk genes for this cancer too, and as yet his children are cancer free. Their babies though, not so much

            • vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              7 days ago

              Fuck :/

              Yeah… I would also love to blame Monsanto but from what I understand it’s basically impossible to definitively say what caused someone’s cancer specifically.

              It’s just the first instinct when I hear their name and “cancer” in the same sentence.

              One thing we can be sure of is cancer sucks and anything we can do as a species to understand it better is more than worth the effort.