sarah, 28

Hey all this is an unfolding tragedy happening in eastern Kentucky right now. I want to say a few things about it:

1) Mining. Mountain top removal mining happens in this region and it FUCKS the local hydrology. Over 500 ancient mountains in Appalachia have been blown up. Complete destruction of extremely biodiverse flora, fauna, habitat, of forests that would absorb rain when it came and slowly filter water and trickle down in crystal clear streams. All gone, and on a brutal scale.

Mountain top removal mining is still happening to this day. Due to Russia causing a huge jump in fossil fuel prices, mining companies might pick up the pace.

Another part of mining is filling the valleys/hollers with the rocks and stuff they’ve mined. They just use those areas like garbage dumps. The valleys/hollers are also where the headwaters of the streams are, so even if you water comes out of the ground clean, it’s polluted after going through that garbage.

Remediation: If you’re “lucky” the mining companies when they are finished destroying the land, will cover the now flattened area with some shitty non-native grass, maybe a few non-native trees. They will also call channels with gravel “streams”. Words don’t do this justice, so here’s some photos.

Southern Appalachian stream

Mining companies say this is totally cool and does the same thing ecologically.

Yeah, it’s fucked. Also, hands down, these horrible companies paid the best around. By a long shot. You could leave school very early and tear your body up doing awful labor so your family could have a better life. And yes, historically in this region, the smart ones move out and never come back, though a few do to try and make it better, and a few outsiders love the nature so much they’ll come too.

You can cruise the region on google maps and see mining damage all over the place. Remember: it used to all look like that top photo.

2) There’s not a lot of people here actually. States don’t want to invest a ton of money in infrastructure in rural areas, such as flood controls. Poorly populated rural areas are just kind of forgotten. There’s only so much money to go around. Related to that, there’s a long history of outsiders showing up, being horrified by the poverty, and then insisting on creating programs that will save the locals. The programs never last, the money runs out, the outside saviors get frustrated that they cannot single-handed save communities that have decades of complex social issues. So the locals learn to never trust the outsiders, who look different, sound different, and are usually somewhere between patronizing to hostile. No one really wants their family home that they worked hard for to be splattered on the New York Times as an example of backasswards poverty and Everything That Is Wrong With America.

3) The right is very happy to be here. Right wing radio breathes unending rage and fire, and that the time for revolution is near. I shit you not. I hear that at work myself. Churches are still what help hold the community together, and where the government is weak the church is strong.. and religiosity is strong. People have to believe that someone, somewhere will help them when things go wrong. Fox news has no issue with getting viewers in this region.

4) Yes theres lots of bad drugs destroying families already struggling with the loss of the good mining jobs (they need far fewer miners that they used to). Just like the rest of America, it is hard to survive and raise a family on service mining jobs.

5) Education is … not great. It’s just not. Literacy is not a given.

6) Lets talk poverty. Last I checked there’s at least 9 counties in Kentucky impacted. Of the 9, 2 of them are seriously some of the poorest in the country. Owsely County KY has a median household income of $25997 - 2nd poorest in the nation. The only place poorer is Buffalo County, South Dakota, where the Crow Creek Indian Reservation is, they’re at $22,901. Clay County KY has a median household income of $26,866 (4th lowest in the US). The median household income in the US is $67,340.

it's that staff was able to react to quickly and harshly when one of their own was being "harassed" but every single day they ignore reports from their users about n*zis, p*dophiles, t*rfs, etc.

I've reported multiple people for calling me slurs and nothing was done. I was just told to block them and move on.

and let's not forget about all those black bloggers who got sniped by staff under the premise that they were "Russian bots".

FAKE TRANS DOCUMENTARY/ORGANIZATION: Here’s the ridiculous story about how extreme the far-right is willing to go to dehumanize trans people. I was nearly tricked into doing an elaborate anti-trans documentary by Matt Walsh’s film crew this month. It started with an email from the “Gender Unity Project” a couple weeks ago. They claimed they were doing a film on the trans community and gave me names of well-known trans individuals and surgeons they had interviewed. It all seemed normal at first. I even talked to the producer (Makenna Lynn Waters) on the phone beforehand. She sounded like a well-meaning cis film graduate who was just curious about the trans community.

When we chatted, she claimed the documentary was self-funded. I was suspicious because she had finished college recently, but figured she was just rich (who has that kind of money?). Later, she told me the individual they were interviewing in Chicago had suddenly canceled (this happens, but is still sus). Then she offered to fly me to Nashville: where Matt Walsh lives. They finally sent me a release form this morning, which strangely didn’t have the name of the company on it. So, I looked up the Gender Unity Project. It used a registered agent to shield the company owners. It’s dubious but sometimes registered agents simply make it easier to incorporate. Then I looked Makenna Lynn up. Her name didn’t show up anywhere.

After some heavy Google searching, I realized she used her middle name as her last in our emails. I found the IMDB page of her real name (Makenna Waters). It turns out she’s a producer for the Matt Walsh show! That’s not a red flag: that’s a gun to your face. If you’re not familiar, Matt Walsh is a white supremacist who makes a living denying the basic humanity of trans people. She wasn’t just a producer for his show: she worked on over 200 episodes of it! I finally found her Twitter, which features videos of Walsh berating protesters and Ben Shapiro doing his usual BS.

I decided to look closer into the “Gender Unity Project.” After searching its state registration number, I learned it was registered to Justin Folk, a white supremacist documentarian who works for Matt Walsh and Prager U. His initials (jrkfolk) were also listed in the release I thankfully refused to sign. So, if you’re contacted by these slimy assholes, don’t respond. The last thing we need right now is another “gotcha” anti-trans documentary! Stay alert and take any media personalities with a grain of salt.

Eric Louie

Gold Room, 2018