Coexistence and Compassion.
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With two major hurricanes hitting the south within two weeks of each other, breaking records one right after the other. I've seen a lot of online "progressives" jump to be horrible about southern people.
Well I'm a trans person from the south. Just left one of the areas that was majorly affected by hurricane Helene. I grew up in these areas that so many "progressives" act as if are lost causes. Without understanding that, it is that very mentality which has made the south into the world of bigots that it is.
You still have to care about people you hate.
Every person on this planet, is trying to survive just as much as you are. Some of these people are pretty vile, but why? When we look at how hatred and bigorty spread there are a lot of factors, but its mainly societal standards around things your taught from the generations that are older than you. Once of age to start thinking critically or not, you are bombarded with propaganda. All of this too help the status quo.
In the south just about everyone around you is bigoted, so the likely hood is your going to be as well, and breaking that chain is not an easy thing. It takes years to unlearn and break the cycle of hatred that you have been taught to ingrain into your brain.
What about learning on the internet?
Most people here do not have the internet, and most young people who do are actually more progressive. Most young people in the south are far more progressive than their parents or grand parents. So internet does help! Just not for older generations though. Older generations are increasingly harder to find online, as many of them don't know how to use the technology. This divide creates both the loneliness issue, but also an issue of education on subjects like race and queerness.
It is hard to get people to even admit they are in the wrong so getting people to figure it out and work on it is even harder. Times change and people need to change with them of course. That is also easier said than done.
Gerrymandering.
The "Well they voted for it" defense.
I mean did they though? To say people voted this way is to ignore the overwhelming truth. The south is gerrymandered to shit. Try as they might the federal government does nothing to stop it either. Georgia having one of the worst times with it. This is systematic in how they do this, It is done to make sure they win with no issues. Minorities dont have a chance when it comes to this because it needs change within the federal government to do anything about.
Other horrible things to say
"Just move"
"Just Evacuate"
"Natural Selection"
I cant teach you empathy. Go fuck yourself.
Coexistence.
I feel like the online left has gotten to a point of "me vs you" and this just isnt sustainable. The working class is infinitely diverse. No two workers are exactly alike. Many of them will have views that are antithetical to you and your existence. Obviously you dont want to work with someone who hates your guts, but we do have to work with people/adjacently to people, that we don't agree with.
During the 2023 Sag-aftra strikes it was pushed that the president, Fran Drescher was anti-vax. This is obviously a major issue, Some people they worked with after the strikes would come out saying they dont agree but still had to find common ground to work with her. This is how we have to work, the finer details of how people are can be issues that will be addressed, and can often be addressed once we are strong and together.
Movements live and die by coexistence. Things like this are used to create seeds of doubt within movements so that they may break up and become weaker. The way to stop that from happening is to see these faults within people but still work with them towards a common goal till these faults can be addressed at the correct time.
Its highly likely you don't completely agree with all your friends politics. You can say "well we disagree on pizza toppings! Not on racism." and... yeah obviously. However you do disagree with them on politics. That's just normal, I have plenty of friends who are pretty "extreme" vegans. I'm not a vegan, we don't see eye to eye on this but we are still friends and coexist.
But friends is a bit much here. I'm not telling you to like racist people. I'm telling you to coexist. Appalachia and the rest of the south is not the lost cause people act like it is. People can be changed, and can be helped. Republicans want you to believe this isn't true, they want to keep their stranglehold on the south, and we cant allow that.
Compassion.
You have to care. People want to love and survive on this planet, and if you don't care about one people its possible for you to not care about any. Which can and will, and currently IS being used against you. The hatred you feel towards southerners is xenophobia. It is the same xenophobia that people feel towards non-Americans, towards people from other countries. It is all the same, just from within America.
Southerners have compassion for one another, in times of need its a "we are all just trying to get by" mentality. In our time of need when we where moving, people where there to help us move. Friends and neighbors where there to get us on our way. When thanked they said something a long the lines of "we gotta watch out for each other." That is a sentiment that has been true for us consistently.
You don't have to like people to care about them. Caring about people means helping when you can, caring about people means knowing everyone is a human. A human who has a life, who has people they love and that love them. A human that is trying to not just survive, but is trying to live.
I can't force you to care, You have to figure that out yourself. You have to find some way to look at people who you don't like and don't agree with, and still see them as human. Because they are.
Love Every Trans Woman You Meet Before It's Too Late.