I’ve run into a lot of people who feel like I do about Oklahoma, who have been here maybe twice. It doesn’t take long to find out that this place is hard to escape. The video is partially about the car curse, how trying to leave Oklahoma (and particularly Tulsa) is going to face some supernatural odds…. Awful things happen, improbable things, and this place, most of this state doesn’t make sense even to those of us stuck living here……
I mean I just got done loving on one of my kids, and trying to focus on the good, but that kid is probably stuck as I am.
I just don’t know if anyone is escaping this heat is the thing, looking at the map right now. I guess you get to escape the bad policy and that’s the win. You get to escape having to work in this heat. The uncertainty is awful, I keep having to be out in the heat of the day without planning for it because there’s never a warning so I just have to plan to be out in it every day. I plan for it to rain every day too. Used to be I actually kept track of what was happening, but this job….. this state.
I prefer underwork to overwork, I’ll say that. No one is asking me to chase any more work than I’ve got, and I know the work I want to chase when I get the breath to do it. Heaven or hell knows when that’ll happen. Maybe the void knows, we should personify the void, give it a mascot and mysticism. Just spitballing ideas, I wonder if we built a religion around existentialism if we could defend it better.
Update because I’m not writing another post at this time of night;
New York has a 33 year old Democratic Socialist Mayor, he’s for socializing grocery stores and taxing the rich, I like this guy so far, much better than Eric Adams, and that’s all the politics I’m doing I know I’m stopping but come on, this guy is more on my side than 99.999999999% of the population. He wants to freeze rents, that’s a start!
All this is going to happen in New York, but stuff like this can ripple. They might even try a universal basic income….. which if it worked could be rolled out nationally. I’m just jazzed for rolling out seizing grocery stores, there’s some corrupt stuff happening in the food distribution industry and it needs to be nipped in the bud.
Look, we can have conservatism again, when it’s safe for conservatism….. when people aren’t starving and dying of diseases we wiped out 80 years ago……….. I said I’d stop. I get worked up. I’m very tired…. working a few hours a day moving a few inches closer to getting out of here.
8 comments
lo i googled “is oklahoma that bad” and even the AI won’t say “nah” O_o
That fucking rocks about NYC. Maybe the democratic party will finally wise up and realize that you don’t win elections by being moderate. Not when the country is on fire, we don’t want to see safe candidates who sit on their thumbs trying to be kinder & gentler, we want to see action.
I remember when Bernie mania was sweeping the young generation with his socialist ideas back in 2015. Holy shit was it 10 years ago? Too soon I guess. The dumbass democratic party buried him and a lot of voters never forgave them for that.
Well a mayoral primary is hardly a national election, but NYC is the most populous city in the country so maybe we can see some signs of hope. I still don’t plan to be alive for the next presidential election, but regardless it would be nice to feel like the country isn’t totally batshit nazi fascist
as for Oklahoma, I’ve never been but I can sorta guess. I did spend a lot of time in rural Alabama if that’s anything close. Yeah the heat. The unemployment. The conservative southern mentality. It’s so oppressive. We didn’t talk much of escaping the state, it was more about making it to the big city, Birmingham or ideally Atlanta across the border. That was our “escape”. If you’re already in Tulsa I suppose you’ve hit your glass ceiling.
Holy crap, I just looked up the political map of OK and you guys are as polar as the country. The state is overall deep red but it’s interesting to see it’s geographically divided. Everyone along the river is blue. Everywhere else is red.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/mlfqwk/oc_how_each_county_in_oklahoma_voted_in/#lightbox
Ever notice how there’s something about water that turns people calmer, more forward thinking, more progressive? Coastal areas and river communities are always bluer leaning than the hard conservative landlocked areas. Wonder if that has anything to do with the heat you mentioned.
No joke, heat plays a huge role in politics. Plays a huge role in suicide too. I think studies show that as little as a 1.5 degree rise in avg temp results in significantly higher suicides.
it’s not the water- it’s large city vs small city (rest of the US). Large Cities tend to be around water (bc water is life). Large cities (even in red states) tend to be democratic. Smaller cities/more rural areas tend to be red, even in blue states.
The whole Blue vs Red map of the US establishment media shows us is bullshit- it not that we have “blue” states and “red states- the reality is- we are living in a country of Red but dotted with cities of Blue. That’s why you see cities by water voting blue bc large cities in general vote Blue and the more rural/suburban areas vote Red.
i’m sure the political map of the US is shown in “red” vs “blue” in this manner is done this way to purposely drive the “left” and “right” against each other.
we can’t have real change when the majority of the population are either asleep or have bought into the elite’s propagandas- especially Americans who seem dumb as shit, following “Team Red” or “Team Blue.” It’s Team Rich vs Peasants.
Totally agree. This whole red/blue team thing seemed to erupt in the last 10 years and take on a life of its own. This didn’t happen because neighbors were suddenly choosing sides, it happened because rich fuckers realized that it’s an easy way to stir the pot, sow chaos and thereby retain control. The sad thing is it works like a charm.
If the peasants start getting wise and banding together, what’s the first thing a shrewd ruler does? Pit the peasants against each other.
Cities are islands of sanity probably because people build strong communities & infrastructure which makes them less susceptible to hate/fear mongering. Those who are in isolated rural areas are more likely to listen to the voices on their radios and believe all the conspiracies.
What’s interesting is even though it seems fucking hopeless, we can look at countries that have been around far longer than us, take UK for example, and see that they’ve gradually simmered down from their savagery. UK still has its issues but talk to any UK person and they’ll agree, their most batshit crazy factions are moderate by American standards. Anyway, I wonder why some countries settle into a (comparitively) calm political landscape while America is pouring more kerosene on it every day.
probably bc their media hasn’t been completely hijacked like in the US. I mean sure, they have their propaganda corporate news, but not like the US. Europeans tend to be far more knowledgeable and informed than Americans by far, when it comes to politics, the economy, international news etc. In the US, the more MSM you watch, the less “informed” you are as you are watching 90% propaganda, not just on MSM but even on “independent” social media channels bc those are bought too (bc they all take “donations” and how easy is it to buy off the most popular YouTubers and influencers to sway the dumb masses? Too easy, that’s what).
I mean, just mention “China” or “Russia” or “Socialism” and BOTH the right wing and left wing go nuts (anti-Russia propaganda is a huge left wing talking point among the boomers). Both sides are idiots/lemmings.
idk- i personally do think it’s pretty hopeless- we are living IRL Idiocracy. The masses are idiots. Can’t have sweeping change when the vast majority of Americans are dumb as shit, vote against their own best interests, or don’t revolt and just continually put up with their bullshit. You see constant riots in France and other countries who refuse to stand for the elites bullshit. But Americans? We’re too dumb, too lazy and too cowardly to DO anything. Change isn’t going to happen unless people PUSH BACK against their oppressors.