We had a project manager contractor for a year who lived there, having moved from the bay area during early covid days. She seemed to like it, no state taxes, cheaper real estate, she and her husband had little kids.
There is no middle class. There are workers and owners. If you own real estate and stonks you are still a worker unless you can live off of just investments. This is designed to corrupt and neuter you. You have enough skin in the game of the owners to not want to oppose them, but not enough to actually be them. Unless you hope to retire, at which point you make the transition from working class to owning class, but only at the end of your life, if you even make it that far, and often owning very little.
True statement: when I first heard the Perry Farrel song, I thought he was singing "She's got great tits, she's got great tits". Turns out he was singing "We'll make great pets" and it was a song about an alien invasion of Earth.
Like: Long-ass posts. Mastodon has a ridiculous character limit; lemmy doesn't seem to have any.
Dislike: Long-ass posts. Jesus people, the rants and drawn-out arguments.
Way longer than 8 years. Depending on your perspective and level of privilege, it's been decades, generations, or the entire history.
Things got bad after Obama got elected in 2008 and the racists lost their shit. But they were also bad after Bush started two wars, or when Bush got installed as preznit in the first place in 2000. Or when Gingrich went after Clinton's penis in 1998. Or when Gingrich took over the Congress in 1994. Or when Clinton first got elected in 1992 and the racists and militias lost their shit and started bombing things. Or the year before that when the other Bush started a war. Or when Reagan broke multiple laws and got away with it, thanks to Ollie North. Or when Reagan got elected in the first place in 1980. Or when Nixon broke enough laws flagrantly enough to get impeached in 1974. Or when he bombed the shit out of SE Asia. Or when Johnson started a war in Vietnam. Or... I mean it just keeps going endlessly. But that's just my lifetime. If you are Black or Native American the fuckery goes back as far as when white people first stepped foot here.
Exactly this. This is their life's work. It's what they are good at and what they love. And often tbe only thing. They would not know what else to do.