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2 months agoit’s just down the road from me. it’s a convergence point between a bunch of mining towns so it’s a bit of a significant labor organization point in central Appalachia. it’s also where Mother Jones founded the UMWA. also prior to European colonization it access between the Allegheny highlands and the great valley made it an ideal trading hub thanks to the New River, so it holds significance to indigenous rights organizers in Appalachia as well. the fact that the median income is $19k/yr is very much a policy choice of enforcing poverty
i would even say with enough time and deprogramming we can make them suck a lot less than they do. perhaps it’s true though that there can never be full recovery. but i think part of achieving class consciousness is having the faith to put in the effort in believing that better things are possible and that humans are neither inherently good nor inherently evil, but rather products of their environment