The Socio-Politics of Night in the Woods and the Rust Belt | Gnoggin
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- Опубликовано: 18 сен 2024
- Night in the Woods features one of the most relatable settings in gaming, Possum Springs. It's economy and politics reflect the goings-on of the Nation, of generations, and most of all, of the Rust Belt. Let's take a gander at that. And note: my goal with this video is mutual understanding, I'm not trying to convert anybodies political ideologies to either side, I merely want people on both sides to understand the point of views of the other, even if they don't agree.
Check out SwankyBox's video: goo.gl/jzBHin
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Gnoggin is where gamers and geeks use their heads. Discovering the science behind various aspects of games. Developing one video game theory after another. We focus more on games like Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, (pretty much Nintendo) but we also go through other games from time to time as well! Even comic books and a film theory from time to time. From Minecraft to Halo, lets explore the psychology of many characters, the anatomy of mythical races, and the technology of fantasy worlds. Click that Subscribe and Bell button to get your bi-weekly dose of brain exercise for nerds.
“It’s all good in the hood,” Gregg said. But deep down, he knew there were many socioeconomic issues in the hood.
This comment killed me. I died laughing. Then I cried.
My day be so fine
then boom
gentrification
I'm framing this comment.
You a very brave man to make a video discussing both furries and politics. A very brave man indeed.
Horricule he has done it before.
TheAsylumCat it's a joke
While I get its a joke, wouldn't the fact that he has done it multiple times make him even braver.
Wouldn't that just mean his fans are incredibly tolerant people rather than being politically and erotically tolerant? 40,000 views on this vid. I buy that 40,000 people are tolerant.
A he is brave for talking about this multiple times
"Most of them don't know they are killing them selfs" *shows GameStop* lol that so true
He isn't incorrect. Gamestop is going to die off whenever physical media goes as well. This year alone prompted them to try and diversify into the retro market, only to get screwed over because of the workers in the warehouses not knowing the difference between an obviously fake bright red cartridge and an actual gray one (Yes this happened, google it).
Gamestop would do fine if they just made a slow transition from selling games to selling 'gaming merchandise' Sell consoles, the skins, plush toys, figurines and t-shirts. That is the real future for such stores, because people who buy things like that have a very tactile sense with their purchase, loving to see and touch it first before buying it and enjoying it.
supahvaporeon I only buy physical tho, I can't afford fast internet, and waiting a week to download games isn't going to work.
Gamestop isn't going to die. Some poor people who still like their games aren't going to leave their systems on for 8 hours straight. Let alone 4 hrs. And as long as games are getting bigger and taking longer to dl, gamestop will survive. Through the dying outlets of shopping centers, Gamestop shall survive. Whether your minor inconveniences are accompanied by annoyance when purchasing a game as common place, Gamestop shall survive! For as long as cartridges are coming back and physical copies of episodic games become may stays in a undoubtly dlc world without the ability of adding additional space beyond the consoles themselves much like dlc that's already on the discs; Gamestop. Shall. Survive!!!!
It's not a great truth. Just meh.
Said blockbuster
I like this political talk you give. You don't go too far to one side and stay to a perfect amount of objectivity while still showing sympathy to the concerns to both sides.
hope you do some more
yea more would be great!
Voraguard Valingranski I'd say I would like to see more. And while I have more to say that's my basic point.
Voraguard Valingranski Maybe so but unfortunately you can blame all of this on globalism. And if you want to get really really personal you can blame it All on George Soros, And anyone he sided with.
Voraguard Valingranski honestly gnoggin is better than matpat in general.
If you didn't see it, his video on the ngry Birds movie is also worth watching (like all of his videos, actually. This guy is a god)
Idea: Make a living community out of old abandoned malls. It’s big, with tons of places to rebuild up and make into apartments.
i think thats already kind of happening. i just graduated a school that used to be a clothes factory surrounded by abandoned houses. i think that the idea of "reusing" buildings could help a lot of people
Squatting? Join some anarchist squatting groups! Not an anarchist myself (ML) bit the comerades need all the help they can get
The state politicians wouldn't allow it. They tried something similar in LA, but with custom-made homes. Still shot it down.
Just don't burn down any business or hurt people, unless it's self defense.
Lockstin. One of the few RUclipsrs that can handle political topics with maturity.
A rare kind of youtuber.
It was really something new for me to! He really took a neutral and pragmatic stance !
He didn't condamned or salute the choice of Rust Belt inhabitants ! He explain why they have swing with historical argument !
It's worth noting that the game implies that it is necessary for working people to band together to achieve their aims. A lot of background attention is paid to the militant labor movement of the 1880's to 1930's in Possum Springs, in which workers were killed by police while protesting, or workers attacked bosses because the bosses' disregard for workers' lives led them to be killed in the mines. Working peoples power is what created the town of Possum Springs, not wealthy industrialists that took credit for it. For the townspeople to live, workers must reject the power of the bosses and build a power of their own. This is lampshaded at the end of the game when Mae's dad talks about making a new worker union, like his militant grandfather before him. No one will take care of the hardworking people but the people themselves.
Bea, who clearly has the best understanding of the social realities of the town, wants to go a step further and for workers to run the town themselves, if not beyond that; she wants socialism and the rejection of the uncaring, unseen force of the capitalist economy that destroys peoples lives in ways beyond their comprehension and control in the vain hopes that their sacrifices will bring prosperity to the town again (does this remind you of anything in the game?). Market forces far beyond the town have left it behind, never to return; but the truth is that the mines can run, the factories restarted and shops reopened if the workers themselves power them. The bosses and owners do nothing but pay workers with the profits accumulated from the sale of the products their own workers created; everything can literally work without them being there. And Bea realizes this; salvation can come for Possum Springs when the workers take control. If there is to be a future for a place like Possum Springs, it can be found when those who build everything, feed everyone and work for all become the owners of all. And people like Bea and Mae's father will be those leading the way.
( Plays soviet anthem ).
So is this the part where I kill the Tzar or
Beautifully put, even though many of the commenters here don't really see it.
In theory, it seem likes its a beautiful utopia. In reality, socialism according to Bea's depiction is very flawed. Like majorly flawed. Don't get me wrong, the oppressive boss is an evil flaw in the cogs of capitalism but it's how it's supposed to work in life. That's why the government is elected to avoid these issues. Without order and leadership (companies and CEOs), there is no proper output. Businesses and managers actually are under stress and heavy responsibility to manage a company. Corruption and deaths will inevitably increase in the area with a worker union leadership. Example the Soviet Miners Strike. www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-12-mn-290-story.html%3f_amp=true
There is a reason why the socialist nations fail easier and get destroyed by their own ideas.
@@wheatvegas7286 ah yes, destroyed by their own ideas, the US only repeatedly attacked the socialist countries and tries to ruin them from the inside out because they had to
As someone who lives in the Rust Belt, this is exactly the struggles we deal with.
My dad is a boomer so he saw all the jobs at the time and my family used to be middle class. When I was 7 years old, I learned what the word "foreclosure" meant. My dad lost his job at the factory because he was 50 and he "cost too much" to keep. Since then he had to bounce from job to job, getting screwed over by a "friend", and eventually having to retire early to get some kind of money. My mom had to care for the family until she lost her job as a secretary/accountant so she had to work three retail jobs. When THAT didn't pan out, she had to be self-employed and make money by organizing rich people's money. They looked at her and my father like filth. They held onto the house as long as possible until we eventually lost it when I was 18 and it was sold off to some rich guy who flipped it, destroyed all the graves of past pets, gardens, rooms, and everything that was my home for so long. I quite literally watched my home be destoryed. Afterwards, we had to move in with my emotionally and mentally abusive grandfather who I thought would kill me in the middle of the night (he was a war vet who had a gun under his pillow and was kind of unstable; and I slept in the room next to him). I tried to make friends with the local wildlife in the region since all the other people there were drug addicts or hated us because we were related to my grandfather. THAT didn't work out because he shot all of them. Only two things got me out of that hellhole; I was REALLY good at school and my husband (then boyfriend) got me out of there whenever he could to get me the hell away from that man.
My mom told me early on to be as good at school as possible, as it would be my only ticket out of the state. I wanted to be a scientist, so I devoted most of my time as a hard working student... rather than a kid. I got scholarships to a private school when I was just entering highschool, so I got to see how the upper class lived and did my best to emulate them to get friends and to get them to leave me alone. It kinda worked. When I was finally ready to go to college; I left and never looked back. My husband followed me; went into college, dropped out on his first year, and now is a factory worker making good pay. He is currently keeping us alive while I focus on my studies full-time.
I got out of there from luck and sheer determination. You cannot get out of such a situation without both. Most of the people here only live in Ohio because they were born here or are stuck; and you WILL be trapped if you don't take the first opportunity to go. I watched my happy childhood degrade and rust into a nightmare, and in order to escape I had to leave all my family, all of my friends; behind in the trap. I hate it. I hate it so much but honestly... I don't know any other life. That's how it seems to be on my end of the belt, but maybe I'm just extremely unlucky.
But I'm happy now. My life with my husband is tough, but we're tougher. We'll be fine, at least for now.
Tldr: The Crusty Belt is pain and suffering. Money and happiness went boom until pretending to be smart saved me. Grabbed a himbo and some PTSD along the way and now I'm married and stuff. Yay.
How did the studying go?
@@sixfeetundertheradar6080 graduated with a bachelor's of science and I'm saving up with my husband to move out of state!
B3 safe. Stay strapped. Or at least keep some pepper spray.
I grew up in Buffalo, NY, in Western New York. Formerly the second most populous city in New York state. Now, however, since the steel mill closed in the mid-70's, it's been dying. I'm also a small business owner, a massage therapist. I now live in Texas. New York, and Buffalo specifically, do not support local businesses, and actually make it quite difficult to BE a new start up. Part of it is stupid laws, part of it is necessary fees to try and keep the city from breathing its last gasp. But I can speak first hand that... yes. It's nearly impossible to be a small, local business in that area. It's a real shame. It's happened in so many places, that this historical cities and towns, once thriving, are now dying or dead as ghost towns. I've seen many other businesses close down, either moving away, or more commonly, closing permanently. It's disheartening when you learn your favorite mom-and-pop shop is going out of business... .... ....
I watched a playthrough of this game. It... made me... sad. It hit a bit too close to home. The town falling apart, the 20-something generation wanting to rebel but having... nothing to really DO with that desire but just... act out. Some trying to change, some trying to fit in, some just... running from it all, only to find themselves dragged back into it because they have even less than what they thought was nothing before. I've seen it. I've lived some of it. And I'm one of the ones that eventually gave up and left for, metaphorically, greener pastures. It's worked out... sort of. 10 years of having a business, even a small, barely functional one, vs not even being able to have the opportunity to start...
Living the American Dream, baby... to have your own business fail under you. Yep... living that... American Dream... Funny how they don't mention the debt that accumulates with it...
Yeah, to be honest it's really depressing to see the United States Fall apart like this. When I was little I had dreams of living on my own, having my own life going to college and such. But once the time came I soon realized that I had no way to even afford any of that. Stuck without a way out. It just fills me with despair knowing that this is how the world is now. And in years to come, it will only get worse.
One of the creators is from that area and did suffered from drug addiction
Which is on the rise, especially in that area
Maybe the people in the Eastern US and in Night in the Woods should do a Ring of Fire
Read Eric Flint's 1632 series
The resources are all around us. Trees. Old tools. Beg, borrow, [but don't steal] to get those tools! You can get everything you need from the land God gave. Praise Yeshua, his son.
Yeah, I live in Buffalo too. My family is expiriencing similar buisness problems.
I live down south of NY (about an hour from the city) but in my town there are a ton of local businesses. Seeing this video makes me appreciate my small little town and how many people come for that "American Dream".
I'm born and raised in the Rust Belt, and I can tell you this is all painfully accurate. I weep for the area. Many members of my family are struggling financially, and I'll be lucky to be able to pay off most colleges I could go to in the area. Getting a decent job is tough. I honestly don't blame my parents for voting Trump (Even as a Bernie supporter. Gnoggin's quip about how a socialist is made wasn't far off), they must be terrified for the future. I am too. I don't want to be like my parents; slaving away for most of their lives while getting little in return. The American dream died many years ago, and all that's left is the "American sleep paralysis".
Kurt Yarish I might disagree with you. So there are two rust belt comments I've seen
"I live there and it's not that bad"
"I live there and it's garbage"
What I can gather, parts of the rest belt are better or slowly getting worse.
So the American Dream is ether still dying or coming back.
Note: I feel I should mention I don't like socialism and maybe that's why I made this comment.
Fhjd Ghcfhc "It's not that bad" doesn't really imply much other than "my level of living is tolerable". I don't know anything about that person's living conditions, life style, or economic class. So I'll take that with a grain of salt. As for me, I grew up poor, and while personally I'm at a better point in my life, it's still hard for people. My dad, for example, is constantly struggling to stay afloat. But really it goes beyond individual stories. It's an overall economic trend. Whole sections of cities and towns are literally rusting away, the overbuilt infrastructure no longer in use. Small business, gone. Factories, empty. Land, unused. Have you seen places like Detroit? Cleveland? The Notheast Ohio area? I'm sure Pittsburgh isn't so well of either. It's sad. It's definitely not as bad as it was a couple years ago, but I wouldn't exactly say it's improved much, either. A polished turd is still a turd, you know? But that only my two cents.
Kurt Yarish so with the "not that bad part" was a paraphrase.
I've seen people compare their life to other towns showing that they are the same. Others say they didn't even know, both from a lack of knowledge and their twin being fine. It's more than just noggin missing a few people it's people haven't a life that isn't like Detroit they have lives like the rest of America
@@fhjdghcfhc1936 You're resting on your knee jerk reaction to socialism. It's unhealthy and only serves to hinder the common people of the world from actually realizing their worth as human beings.
@@fhjdghcfhc1936 You're resting on a knee jerk reaction to socialism. It's unhealthy and only serves to hinder common people from actually realizing their worth as human beings.
I kinda want more videos like this, it's informative and interesting.
Hi, I live in Wisconsin, in the rust belt area. I cannot thank you enough for bringing attention to the struggles and suffering a lot of us are going through. I live in a small town known purely for our placement next to the lake, and that's all we have going for us. We're practically the real life Possum Springs. My grandmother has lymphoma from her time working in a factory, as she was a single mother.
My point is that we aren't just the rust belt because we are falling apart, but because, as you said, we are being forgotten and left to rust away. We are slowly but surely filtering away into oblivion because the young are trying to escape to places like Milwaukee, Chicago, Madison, Or even bigger cities or Canada, And the old are no longer able to pay to live.
My grandmother lives in a two room apartment after spending 60 years working. She's nearly 80 and she still does freelance work. My mother, who studied to be a geologist, works in a grocery store, my father came here from the French countryside of Texas and works as best he can for us, but he's disabled.
I grew up having to drive nearly 30 minutes to school every day, the nearest Walmart was an hour away. Our roads are little more than gravel, our land is defined by the dilapidated barns and homes that line our countryside roads.
We're being bought out by bigger corporations. the family owned grocery store was bought by a bigger company this summer. I lost my job there shortly after. An entire block of our town was torn down to build an apartment complex.
My father voted for Trump because he had no choice. He truly thought that would save our home. It did nothing.
To anyone who read this far, thank you. I don't often get to talk about this kind of thing! Remember, you might not understand why someone does the things they do, but they know. You might not agree, but desperate people do things you wouldn't always consider rational.
Good day everyone!
Thanks for sharing your story, man
As a native Hoosier from The Region, I can see how far the decay has come. We used to be where most of the US's steel was made and now just look at Gary Indiana and the Southside of Chicago
Gary Indiana is a hellhole
Hoosier too, Huntington. Born in 1995 moved before I got to second grade because my dad joined the navy just trying to get us a better life. Every year it's crumbling just a little more. More shops are closing down, less people living there. Don't even have enough money to fix the roads at this point. The only thing that allows the town to cling to life is the Limestone Quarry and the car parts factory.
Tomcz12333 well my sister is going to IU for college and since my family are west coasters it will be nice to see the rust belt and central US first hand.
I come from a very small town close to the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The town I live in, according to older relatives, used to be a very well off town because of the coal mines. A majority of the older population living here worked in the coal mines at some point. Once the coal mines around the area were deemed too dangerous for people to work in, a lot of people moved away. There are a lot of abandoned buildings now because of it. Most of the family-run businesses have filled bankrupt and just left. We have to drive 15-20 minutes to get to a McDonalds. A majority of the people living here are either older people who have retired or drug addicts hiding from the police. Night in the Woods kinda reminds me of my little town and one of the bigger towns about 15 minutes away with all the coal mine related things and rundown buildings. There are still a few family stores around here but even some of them are starting to close because of some of the bigger businesses coming in.
Tomcz12333 I live in West Virginia so seeing the evidence of this decline has become normal. It's good to see these changes getting noticed by someone from out-of-state.
I’m a Gen Z kid from the rust belt. I live in one of the bigger cities so it might be different than the more rural places but I can’t say that most of us are conservative. One thing that’s for sure is that it’s very polarized. I’m more of a democratic socialist but there are some hardline conservatives as well. The younger kids I’ve been around, while still pretty much just following their parents and not yet fully finding things out for themselves, are pretty left as well. Many politicians today try to appeal to the swing voters, but none of us are satisfied with that. Both sides recognize that we need drastic change now, and those running not being more extreme makes us disenchanted with voting at all. We’re pretty much all Bernie sanders or trump supporters because anything less doesn’t feel sufficient. We just differ in which the direction, left or right, in which we choose to be extreme in. Just for some more context to those not familiar with how things are here.
[edit: i’m ansoc now lol]
coming back and bumping this, i'm like a full-on leftist now lmao so if that gives you even more of an idea
@@cukeumberr hell yeah
@@cukeumberr yes comrade !!
Congrats on the further move to the left!
I live in the Rust Belt, the area around here is so desolate and I often joked about it being borderline dystopian, but I didn't realize that this was the cause
1. This game sounds awesome, and I hope to one day play it.
2. I grew up in Indiana, and what you said is so painfully true. When I think back to those days I am overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness. The towns are all worn down with buildings no longer in use, and everything's rusty. The air is stuffy and just carries this sense of depression honestly. I'm glad to be in California now, but I do hope that someday I'll be able to go back there and see more smiles. Everyone just seemed so gloomy and tired and sad. I dunno, I grew up in the Kentland-Fowler-Somewhat close to Lafayette area. Just my thoughts on the subject ;;
But California is hella expensive, and the people can be agitating. Every place in the world has agitating people though, so I guess you just need to find a place where you have something worth living for.
A few years back a mall closed down in my area, though the upside is that it was turned into a community college campus with more of the mall still yet to be converted.
That's kind of cool.
That is kinda cool, turning one good thing into another rather than leaving it going to waste.
Beatrice Santello didn’t go to college to help her dad with his nervous breakdown after Bea’s mom died. Not because because they didn’t have money. They probably had enough to afford for Bea to go to college before her mom died.
Which is all the more reason she's filled with resentment.
Sinister Sweet I know that, I can’t help but feel bad for her and relate with her the most.
Good points in the video lockstin. I actually live in a rust belt myself. Ohio. The only thing keeping us up is the local Honda and the school system. I'm scared to think what we could lose without that. As well I'm depressed. Well anyway love your videos. Keep on using your head.
"Ohio" "local Honda"
...
There is a decent chance I live near you (though Honda is the thing holding a lot of Ohio together, so I'm told)... how do I not revel my location here.... 35, Blue Lions, Black Panthers?
Or just email each other and get their snapchat...
Ohio, gotta love it. It's almost funny how different central ohio is from outer ohio. (Eg. Cambridge V Pickerington). In picktown you got varied groups of teenagers who's parents moved there for the education system. Varied from the poor, to the middle class, and the rich kids of doctors. Majority of them just want to turn the country into a communist state, the others want to get good jobs and make money for their families or-soon-to-be-families. Then you have Cambridge (and a lot of Gurney countey) a place where there is a decent amount of poverty and the reality of the rust belt is set in. I grew up in Columbus & Whitehall, spent a lot of time with family in Cambridge, and spent my teenage years in pickerington. I have to say it's sad how many teens don't know about the rust belt when they live in it.
Allen County's basically being kept afloat by Lima's refinery and college-based retail
Live in Ohio too our local mall looks totally abandoned, not nearly as much people there since 2017 and more than half the stores are closed, I can relate.
This game especially got me interested in the Rust Belt, and actually gave me an entirely different perspective about a lot of things.
I just can’t stop thinking about this game and so many things about it since I first completed it over a year ago.
Woah, SwankyBox and you just uploaded a Night in The Woods video at the exact same moment.
EDIT: Oh wow, I didn't see the end of the video yet and I wasn't aware this was a (sort of) collab project.
Mae Borowski Hey mae!
I'm a total trash mammal
Qbeez 218 RIDE THE CHARIOT!
Qbeez 218 same
IVE GOT NIGHTMARE EYES
NO, I HAVE THE NIGHTMARE EYES
Nightmare eyes
You described Trump very balanced and unbiased. I am impressed.
seemed just as biased as most liberal media portrays him. promises everything and ended up lying about it.
*Night In The Woods is based off of my town. Pierogis, old factories, smelters from the smelting like Steelers from the steel City I grew up in. Yes I'm talking about Pittsburgh and I live here.*
I knew what the rust belt was. Didn't know I was living in it... also didn't realize it was called that because it's falling apart. But it makes a lot of sense. I'm from a town that sprung up around cereal production. It... It's terrible now. A lot of the old schools and hotels and places that were really nice are just left to rot. I love my city and I'm proud of it's past. I live with my grandparents and so I hear stories of what our town was like before wallmart and all these other sleezy chain stores moved in. It's always meant a lot to me especially because this is the only place I've ever lived. It's totally both. There are billboards up all over town that say "lowering taxes will bring back cereal production" or something like that but it won't. It just won't. The CEO's aren't being incentivized to take that money they would have been spending on taxes and use them to hire people. All the bigger houses around here have been turned into duplexes. Yea... our mall is dying here too and it's happening so fast. We have a few local businesses but they don't tend to stick around long. I've had two of my favorite shops close down (oddly enough one was because the owner and creator of product (it was a costume shop) was getting too old to manage her store and make all the costumes and she couldn't afford to hire. The second was a coffee shop. A guy started it with his dad and when dad passed he wanted to move on and I don't blame him but no one was willing to buy him out. This place both had better coffee than Starbucks and a way better atmosphere. Not even to mention they hung a lot of art by local artists on the walls and were helping sell local art.) I'm someone who has so many dreams of opening up stores and supporting local artists and creators but my family is barely surviving on what little pension and government assistance we can get.
Capitalism does its best to alienate you and suck every little bit of creativity, and love for what you do, out of you. But human beings are crafty, so I'm absolutely certain that we can turn this around. :)
@@MrCarpelan your Bolshevisms showing
This was surprisingly enjoyable. Most things that deal with political topics nowadays seem too one-sided in one way or the other. While this was a video on Night in the Woods, I'm glad there was a mature topic on what is normally considered a tabooed subject. And being a Northwest guy myself I learned something as well.
This to a tee. As much political garbage ive seen from all sides. This was unbelievable refreshing and enjoyable.
Mall these days is literally filled with many different cloth stores but expensive ... seriously the mall is useless for me for a long time now. I use to go game stop but later realized they like to rip people off. So now I only buy games through steam or Best Buy.
I knew they were starting to really rip me off with games when I would go looking for a game that was maybe close to ten years old, but it would be selling a the same price as new. Even if it was used and had a beat up box.
I went into a GameStop yesterday to look around. I saw SO MUCH FNaF merchandise. Also, overpriced Pokemon plushies. Though, they did have a very well priced Yu-Gi-Oh! tin I ended up getting, though I'm not sure the manager knew anything about the cardgames in the shop.
*"when I would go looking for a game that was maybe close to ten years old, but it would be selling a the same price as new."*
Was it a Gamecube game? Because those are super expensive no matter where you buy.
16:00
That doesn't seem like an accurate representation of Bea though. Seems to me she is very invested in local business, due to all her involvment with the chamber of commerce (Hosting a play, going to a dinner, etc). She is probably not opposed to capitalism, but rather in favour of wealth distribution within a free market, i.e. the Nordic Model.
For those interested in the greater political theory of constant "Flip-flopping", read up on Hegelian Dialectics.
@@crabeatcrab6011 Bea is part of the Young Socialists group. Why would you think that she thinks socialism = bad?
This is a great video. I live in western Pennsylvania and have seen many of these changes
But that black lung tho
Slick Bricks. I know what you mean It is sad. We cannot recover because there is not anything to fall back on.
eastern mate
I live in Central NY and I can honestly say that this is eerily true, all the cities are dying, jobs are scarce, and since the recession my county alone lost over half it's population when the Air Force base closed. The state is trying to recover by brining technology companies in but tbh it hasn't done much. I'm really glad you did this video because now I know that my feelings about how I see the area I live in aren't just mine, and I realize how large scale of a problem this is. Tbh my town's probably on the fringes of the belt if anything but the belt is spreading slowly into the rest if the state. Again thanks for making this video it really helped me come to terms with things.
"Donald is going to put all the coal mines back."
This aged well.
The fact that we buy foreign stuff has a bit to do a bit with it Gnoggin. America used to be proud of American made stuff. However, Someone realized it was cheaper to buy it foreign and then did. They then could sell for less and then people could buy their goods for less. Suddenly the home markets were being out competed by foreign goods so they went under.
I bring this up because it's a huge problem. It's not a greedy CEO thing. It's a "This is the only real way to compete" thing. It could be fixed by having tariff's on foreign goods so they match the costs of local stuff but that... would be politics and I'm not a fan of them and so I'm not delving deeper there. We buy foreign steel, foreign cars, foreign tools, and so much more... that used to be made in the US.
Please note. I'm not against foreign stuff. I'm not for local stuff. I'm making a note of a reason the rust belt exists.
www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tariffs-trade-analysis-20160724-snap-story.html
In addition to the above stories, there's other issues. There are work-arounds for tariffs, not to mention a whole mess of other potential issues even if it were simpler. Look at places like Brazil (which went hardcore on electronic tariffs and performed very underwhelming for job results because of workarounds, instead making it the most expensive place for games and movies and only creating a black/gray market), or a few other places that have hurt under it. Even if we just did tariffs on mexico alone, we'd see problems, including those hitting our companies directly when they actually buy stuff and operate on things from around the world for cheaper. The companies then need to pay more on either the taxes or more expensive local, which means things go up, which means the cost for groceries, materials, supplies both inside and sold by the companies, and just living go up. Meanwhile you might pull back in a company that just hires a few people to run a mostly automated or prepackaged goods assembly line. I don't think that's worth it. I believe that's why Gnoggin simplified it by discussing the taxes and regulations that make other places cheaper to export from, rather than bringing up free trade vs tariffs.
I agree that tariffs aren't a golden bullet. Nothing is really but the article you linked very specifically said "Tires from china" and that other countries just took over in selling and thus the tariff didn't help.
However, when I think of tariff I think "a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports." (Google dictionary) so tires from china being taxed technically isn't a tariff. That is just a import tax on tires from china. A tariff on tires would be any non-locally made tire would have a 35% markup regardless of origin.
Further, they mention 700cc engines and people getting around it by making a 699cc engine. Again. It'd be hard to get around it if it was simply "motorcycle engine".
The article has a valid point in that tariffs won't lower prices. However, the short term disruption while unfortunate will be accounted for when the billions of dollars leaving the country... potentially don't and instead are used to hire workers to meet the new demand (and sadly line greedy CEO's pockets).
The thing with Brazil and the grey market. That's because the electronics were something that Brazil COULDN'T make. A country shouldn't tariff something they need and can't do themselves.
Again. Tariffs are no golden bullet. A possibility. It, however, could simply blow up in our faces.
We can't survive in a global economy without trading though, many people don't realize that for all the foreign stuff we sell here other countries also buy stuff made in America that makes money for the U.S as part of the trade.
Cheap has a price tag and that price tag is lack of quality. Many businesses promote Made in America as a promotion of quality, to which they are generally right.
I was born in 1985, and I consider myself pretty liberal, even socialist, but I do not really push that very much, because I know that I am not an authority, nor am I infallible. Rather, there are many people with very different views who know things I don't, and I think that no matter what solution we reach as a society, it is something we have to reach together through cooperation, understanding, and compromise. Getting into screaming matches on the Internet and dehumanizing one another does not help that at all.
For that reason, I am really glad to see relatively neutral, balanced, and mature discussions of political topics. I would rather hear a well-spoken, considerate, respectful, and intelligent person from the opposite side of the political spectrum earnestly help me understand something I didn't realize than hear someone who agrees with my general principles speak in a simple-minded and hostile way that just embarrasses me to be associated with them.
I think that both major political parties in America are at fault for allowing wealth inequality to increase. I personally like the ideal of globalization because of its potential to enhance overall productivity, efficiency, and wealth, to bring us closer to the rest of the world, and to improve conditions in multiple countries, but it was done in a way that allowed wealth to concentrate in the hands of a few owners and leave a bunch of hard-working folk in the dust.
Even though I have some strong socialist leanings, I recognize some serious virtues of capitalism. One of the major tenets of capitalism is that benefits should be matched against costs. In other words, if you receive the benefit of something, you should have to pay the costs, too. When globalization benefits a few owners of international conglomerates at the expense of a whole country full of working class people, that is NOT matching costs with benefits. There are people getting the benefits without paying the costs and people paying the costs without getting the benefits.
Unfortunately, with all of the high emotions, the fake news, the false cries of "fake news", and everything else, I just do not see much hope for people to generally come to any agreements large enough to really fix the problems in the world. However, if we can at least try to be nice to one another, maybe we can bear it a little better and understand just a little more than we do now. I appreciate "Night in the Woods" for bringing this story to more people and maybe helping a more "human" conversation grow.
As someone who was born in 1993. I was raised as a Christian boy in Colorado. I was originally a socialist and eventually started to hate my own country and dreamed of moving elsewhere. There was nothing for me where I lived, no one cared about me no jobs no nothing especially when everyone expects you to exploit yourself or sell your beliefs in order to be accepted. For me I am more conservative but I actually still in The Stance of neutrality because I understand it requires more than just one side of the other to solve one problem there are multiple ways to solve one issue however which one will get the best result is the better question. Eventually after the Obama reelection I pretty much had just about enough of the Malarkey rhetoric as well as the indoctrination of my generation of false facts empty promises and being manipulated into cult and hives. I want to help my own people but they make it impossible to help them because they want it in their way. In other words they will not accept my help unless they are desperate and they had don't have a choice. I don't have a choice either but I have to make do what I got and do some rather hard decisions and outright disgraceful decisions to help me in the long run. I will not be the first to say that I may not agree with Trump and I don't like him. However I am not going to be one of those type of people who are going to despise someone simply because he just is or use false information and lies and racial discrimination to declare themselves to be greater because they sin less, the big problem is that the people within our country are not willing to put in the effort to actually build our country up they wanted to go down by forcing a new system that has been proven to have failed multiple times. And before you say anything the founding of America utilized both socialist and capitalist ideology and that is something that we need to get back into a mixture of both neutrality not just one or the other because if we go into one or the other capitalism will become fundamentalism and socialism will become fascism.
LuckoDaStars Studios
Thank you for sharing your perspective!
In my case I'm a hard lined conservative. Never really deviated from that but I started out moderate and have shifted more and more to the right as I've gotten older. I think a lot of the problems we face is due to the fact people are always trying to have the best of both worlds and don't want to deal with problems one side or the other would have. Which is understandable, no one wants any of the bad but when you try take all the good and none of the bad, you start to end up with the opposite. As we've reached the Information Age, where everyone can share their ideas from people with all around the world, ideals have become the commodity of the Internet. Ideals can be good, ideals can push you through the shaky start to do something great, but conviction without substance runs only on pursuing the ideal at the cost of everything else. And as I've come to realize, with so much information available, you can find whatever facts you want to support the flavor of the day if you look hard enough. It's gotten to the point that I don't believe anything anymore. Not a single news source, not a single research paper, not a single person no matter how respected. Everything has been touched by the political divide that I simply don't trust anything anymore.
+Lord Jub-Jub
I could not have said it better myself. I agree with everything that you said. I sincerely wish you all the best. 👍
agiar2000 you too brother
This is legitimately the best video I've seen covering the whole of the politics on this issue, talking about people's perspectives in way many people neglect. You did a great job being fair and reasonable. Great job.
Okay so I apparently live in the rust belt and never once heard of it until now. Although I live in a much better area than the counties that surround me.
I hail from South West Michigan, And I can say that the rust belt definitely hurts us. Small business just hardly exists. Thanks for making this video, it's very well researched.
On the whole California companies leaving remark- I'm seeing it for myself. I'm a Texas resident, and I live right next to the new Toyota HQ in Plano. We have tons of Californians moving in and the housing and business sector is absolutely booming rapidly, in what used to be a quiet part of the Dallas area. My town neighboring Plano used to be just a bunch of suburban houses and a few convenience stores. Now it's planned to become one of the top entertainment destinations in the Dallas area. I consider myself very lucky to be living in and witnessing so much growth and prosperity, but it's also sad. People and places from California are abandoning their homes and leaving it in a worse state only to make an ever-growing bubble in a new area. Neighboring cities as well are becoming crappy as well, since the newer cities are taking all the money, forcing those cities that relied on retail to close all their retail, becoming places that you just pass through on the way to the airport or the odd store that you go to that isn't in your town yet. It's just sad to see a place grow, only to have different places fade away as a result.
This was EXTREMELY encouraging to hear, and by that I mean you discussing the big picture and explaining both political sides instead of speaking in straight bias on one. You spoke out and sympathizes with both sides, breaking down their thinking into something understandable, which sadly doesn't happen enough today. Plus, I had never made that connection while experiencing Night in the Woods, I learned something new, so thank you for sharing this with us :)
I love this so much, ever since the election I've tried to talk to some of my extremely liberal friends about the fact that not everyone who voted for trump is racist, homophobic, but they were real people with real fears watching their livelihoods come down and we're looking to someone for change and for help. Of course I couldn't explain it as eloquently as you did here but dude keep doing what you do! Love your vids!
I can relate so much living in a rust belt area. Night in the Wood's town and this video is scarily accurate. Good job Lockstin on your research on this!
This was an excellent episode gnoggin, until now I had never heard of the rust belt before.
Thanks man
I feel so sad for the rust belters now...
Yet they're browbeaten and told they're neo-nazis, sexist, or racists for voting for the guy who ran on restoring their communities and making America great again. What about restoring their communities and lives is hateful or wrong?
@@awakenedpersona6488 Sadly that's also applicable to Nazi Germany.
@@awakenedpersona6488 the part where donald panders to neo-nazis, sexists and racists. tbc, no one calls them that; that's just a label they apply to themselves in their victim mentality when others call trump, banon, miller and others in their circle those things. they decided to throw in with that lot on a gamble that didn't pay off. it was mostly a cliton campaign bungle more than anything, really.
I live in Vermont, a very similar place to Oregon.
Specifically St.Albans.
The only franchise stores we have are Fast Food places like McDonalds and Walmart.
But downtown all the stores are local businesses, and recently downtown got a massive makeover and business is doing well.
Shout out to all my Green Mountain Boys & Girls!
I imagine gen Z will be a little less fiscally conservative once they're too old to be on their parents health insurance and have to pay that on their own.
I’m shocked gen z is conservative from what I saw I thought we were super liberal I mean I super far into the libertarian left
Not only did this help me understand aspects of the game on a deeper level, but also those on the other side of the current party lines. I appreciate that so much.
As someone who grew up in and is currently living in a small southern town that is on the verge of dying, this game, its characters, and this analysis video hit close to home. My town used to be a lumber and mining giant in our county. Many, many people had prosperous jobs and were able to run their own businesses no problem and had no real issue living in it. In fact, it was the ideal place to live compared to neighboring towns in the county. It was also home to a fairly large railroad network that still runs. But as time passed, strip mining and lumber cutting were slowly put to a stop as the mountains were cut and those jobs became far too dangerous to work, leading to many miners having some form of cancer and eventually dying. Come to late 90's and early 2000's, and those jobs became completely obsolete. People attempted to start up local businesses to stay afloat, but global and nationwide chains popped up at a quick rate, rendering them useless. Nowadays, our town has the highest unemployment rate of any town in the county, and drug problems are getting worse. The ideal solution now is to either go into welding, or just move. It's pretty depressing seeing some of the empty buildings for lease, and getting lectured in my school all the time about how awful unemployment is and how we need to take action.
So yeah, it's really depressing the more I think about it, and this game was a pretty accurate depiction.
Also, am I the one RELIEF that MatPat didn't make a video on Nitw? Just imagine how toxic would be if Matpat made a theory.
"IS NITW SETS IN THE SAME UNIVERSE IN UNDERTALE?!"
Lel
Artemis Arrow "IS NITW JUST A HALLUCINATION?!"
IS NITW A VIDEO GAME
Me too!
I think it would be much worse.
Gnoggin's like, the only person that can make a sort of educational video, and it be really interesting. I love learning when it's Gnoggin lol
So, you love using your noggin with Gnoggin?
...I'll see myself out.
I'll be honest, I expected the game to be a very hyper liberal game whose politics will annoy me, that is mostly due because one of the creators, Scott Benson, is a feminist who made an animation that that bashed people who questioned feminism and strawmanned their arguments.
But seeing how nuanced the politics of the game and this video are made me want to applaud you and the game creators for inspiring this video.
Robbie's Net Funny, I've seen many conservative and anti-feminist artists make fan art of the game.
I guess some people really like the art style of the game rather than the politics.
I promise you it's intentional.
I think that says more about you that you were willing to ignore the game because one guy on the team was a feminist.
There's no faster way to make yourself look like an idiot. Dirty communists? I wasn't aware they were advocating for property to be publicly owned and doled out according to needs. Maybe if that was their argument, the people in this game's version of the rustbelt could be happy since their basic needs were at least being met.
Funny... I just kinda left my mouse to auto scroll with ctrl + f and.... nothing about communists except for a a joke about the guy who faked his own stabbing and something about Antifa. Hmm... Self identify doesn't mean what you think it means.
I live a few miles north of Detroit and never heard the term Rust Belt before, but it's exactly what's happening. I went to a shopping mall a few days ago to get a lighter jacket for the summer, and the only stores that had any structure were the Sears, Old Navy, and Hot Topic. When I was little, the place was mostly small businesses like local bakeries, and now it's just big name clothing stores. It's really sad that a lot of the places I used to love visiting and shopping at had to close down and be replaced by megacorporations that can be found anywhere.
Interesting to watch this right after 2020.
I enjoy the song that plays after 10:34. It reflects the nature of somber tone on what you discuss as the song plays. I like it so much, I just wish that i knew what it was called.
if you’re still wondering it’s “Home Part 2” from the nitw ost
By my first hand experience, Gen Z is pretty liberal. Somewhat similar to Millennials but more Nihilistic and grew up knowing they will never achieve their dream job nor escape student debt in this hellish America. Basically depression and hopelessness in young kids are common.
Living Illinois in a small town I've seen local businesses close over 10 years. I learned about rust belts in high school. While not in the area of the rust belt on the map we used to have coal mining.
We have a population of 1700. Not a whole lot of support for local businesses even though they refuse to let chain businesses in town. So I work on the outskirt of town. It's hard to find a job near where I live. So people are leaving if they can. Some people around here don't have cars. Lots of people ran Windows 95 when Vista was a thing.
NITW reminded me of my town and myself. Went to college, stopped and haven't finished due to mental illness. Parents went from living lower middle class to being knocked below.
Sitting here in the rust belt, an a dead end town trying to get out.... i now realize why things are all busted and not getting fixed.
Even more motivated.
I'm not big on politics but it's really interesting to bring something deep in a video game. It makes sense especially with this generation. I was in the southern states and even I didn't known the Rusty Belt exist. Just finished playing the game and now I still wanna play it again.
Off topic, but I live in the rust belt and didn't know it existed till I watched this. Also, I feel that, at least Michigan, where I live, is mostly fine. Only seen about 20 homeless people in my life, and mostly everyone I know is upper middle class, so this is kinda shocking.
Maybe you live in a part of Michigan that isn't suffering? That could be a possibility.
Same, and I live in part of Wisconsin that’s suffering according to the chart he showed. It’s weird
20 homeless people is alot more than I've ever seen. In Alabama I've seen only about 2 in my whole life so
Amazing job man. It's refreshing to hear a empathic view on this subject. That game was a fantastic experience too.
It's nice to see a video that can talk about politics through the lens of video games while keeping emotion out of the analysis. Great video, have a like.
Every time he said "Night In The Woods too," I thought he said '2' to the point I quickly googled if there was sequel I missed
The truly sad part is that it's our reality and we have to endure it until change happens
As someone who's also living an a town like Possum Springs, I'd have to agree with you. There's a lot of train stations that seemed to be closed down where I live, and people barely go into the mall anymore where I live. Not to mention grocery stores (not including walmart) have closed down as well and replaced with a smaller grocery store.
I live in the specified part of Michigan, yet I'm sitting here like, "Why do you have a rusty belt?"
In Detroit, I mean.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LLIMA SHPAD HW DARE YOU LIKE POKEMON AL OF THOSE GAMES SUCKASS THATS IT YOU ARE GROUNDED GROUNDED GROUNDED GROUNDED GROUNDED GROUNDED FOR 3.53933935393520263032022540263020201614102629311528259261063 TRILLION YEARS GO TYOU ROOM RIGHT NOW
this video is rlly interesting. while i was playing nitw i felt so much isolation and emptiness while walking around the mall and through the streets even though there was people living here
i had no idea a video on this indie game would delve into socio-politics and economics and teach me something new thx!
I'm clicking here because it says Night in the woods and Gnoggin in the same video.
That game was great.
Tristan Krammel yall are trash mammals
Possum Springs reminds me of Portsmouth, Ohio. It's not a mine town but used to be a factory town. The town now is barely surviving but it's still there. They have gotten a lot of modern buildings recently over the last 10 years, but it's still struggling to survive in a sense. You can still see many of the old, refurbish or abandon factories today.
My grandma used to own a beauty supply store in Detroit called "Deep & Beauty" when I was in the 1st grade, at first things seemed to go well, but sadly overtime as she finds it more and more difficult to keep the small business afloat, eventually, she ends up not being able to run it. So, sadly she had to close it.
Wow, this hits hard. I was born in a rust belt town in Southwest PA. When I was younger I remember things being so much brighter and more populated, but when I visited in the last few years, everything was different. Empty houses, run down buildings, one of the two biggest malls in the area had closed and the other was on the verge of death. Another reason I connect with this game, it feels so familiar.
Dude we need more videos like this!
This is the most "real" and relatable video I have ever seen you release. It had me legitimately questioning life choices, and reasons behind them. Future goals, and potentials from them. I guess in a good way, I have never been so confused in my life. Thanks?
I've never even heard of Night in the Woods before this video, but you made the history lesson very interesting while being fair to both sides of the political spectrum.
Games like Night in The Woods are why I love video games. It’s not simply just playing to proceed to the next level, there is more to it than just that.
I grew up going back and forth between Ohio and Cali and... yeah... they've started renting out office space in the mall I used to spend my childhood in. Hah. But the sound track is still the same. I've never heard so much Avril Lavigne in my life.
Watching this in November 2019, Noggin, and boy did you hit the nail on the head in your prediction for California! Great research and analysis as always.
Wish the education in this country was better so people could understand that coal isn't coming back :/
melloe Don't blame the less educated, blame capitalist politicians. They're the ones who'd rather push a dying industry and destroy the environment if it made a tiny bit more profit, instead of retraining the workforce before millions run out of jobs.
melloe ruclips.net/video/KKHmEhf9JVM/видео.html
melloe ruclips.net/video/msILdyY6G0o/видео.html
Wish the education in this country was better so people could understand manufacturing isn't mining coal. Nor are particularly scammy old financial arrangements from the Gilded Age "tech".
Cute, but moronic. The Midwestern black middle class was destroyed by NAFTA, and all NAFTA gave us Indians was pipelines and more pimps. Also, anyone who backed the Clintons should know...
www.nytimes.com/1992/03/21/us/the-1992-campaign-democrats-clinton-says-golfing-at-all-white-club-was-mistake.html
I was a kid at the time, but "all-white country club" jokes existed throughout the 90s.
Living on Eastern side of newyork just outside the rustbelt. Can relate. Bunch of abandon textile, paper Mills lining the town river. Totally dead downtown that only has insurance agents and jyms (lol) totally ruins of agriculturel railway buildings and businesses
I grew up in Ohio and recently played night in the woods, both the game and this video have sent me into an existential crisis. Thanks.
As a fellow Oregonian I can say with full confidence that Oregon is the best of both Washington and California, weather wise. Warm summers, good annual precipitation, all the fixings.
To an extent, you're correct about the rust belt, however a lot of cities in it, like Pittsburgh and a few others(not Detroit), have been seeing a lot of infrastructure being rebuilt and being revitalized. Yeah, a good portion of it ten or twenty years ago were pretty bad, but it's wrong to say that they're "falling apart". People still live there and they care about where they live, a lot of state aid has been providing help for Pennsylvania and New York.
living on the south side of Chicago, a lot of local business close down with only the major retailers like Walmart staying open. five years in the neighborhood of Roseland there use to be a strip full of local business of all types. now its gone and it pretty sad. great video. I just found your channel and I have been loving the content so far
When you live in Detroit (the most famous rust belt) but this is the first I have heard of that phrase. DPS why have you failed me.
i live in north east pennsylvania and it’s like right on the boarder of the rust belt. my home town was a mining town back in the day and the immediate area where i live is mostly dead but i’m about 2 hours from philadelphia and new york so it’s a little more lively than areas a few hours west from here
Cleveland's coming back!
Zeit Geist Is it adapting to today, or reclaiming past glory?
Luchabul From what I've seen, both. One of the main ways you can revive an area is make it as attractive as possible to businesses.
That's fantastic
Somewhat recently went to the local mall with my brother. There were a lot of empty spaces, tons of women's clothing stores, and little else left. There was an antique shop, the old arcade (Somehow it is still around), and the pretzel shop. Otherwise, what isn't closed is clothes.
I live a bit outside of the Rust Belt and it describes this area pretty well too. Local factories are mostly shutting down (One national brand's factory is expanding, everyone else is closing), local businesses are drying up and we are more and more stuck with the same chain stores gobbling up the area (We have THREE Hardee's in this little town, THREE of them and THREE Subways). Very few places are hiring, and the jobs on offer are not exactly great. I don't expect this town to be much better than those in the Rust Belt proper by the time I hit 50.
I came from SwankyBox
Sam Animation lol same
honestly this is a very interesting video but as someone who watched the jello apocalypse streams of this game first im kinda suprised by how lokstin looked into this game also GOOO SMELTERS!!!
I'm here from the futuurree~ yes, California is falling apart. People are moving out like crazy.
When you mentioned about all these businesses moving to Oklahoma, that caught my attention because I live in Oklahoma. I grew up when OKC was booming; businesses are growing, there's more local businesses as well, there's construction all around now, etc. But ask anyone from the Baby Boomers or Gen X, and they'll tell you that Downtown OKC used to be a GHOST TOWN. The roads were dirt, everything was abandoned like car factories, the lights of the buildings down there would literally be shut off at night. Bricktown was falling apart. Heck we have a huge river now for rowing and such, but back then they used to say they had to "mow the river" because the river was literally a ditch. We still have a lot of rundown parts, but I guess you can say OKC was a rust belt town that managed to come back.
I wanna hug them more.
This game really speaks to me, I live right in the middle of the rust belt, Pennsylvania, and in my small town none of the actual shops are open, only the gas stations, grocery store, and barber. Plus smelters is obviously a parody of the steelers so this is set in a parody type Pennsylvania, and I must say its pretty accurate.
This Video makes me cry, it is so sad
I had grown up in Lawrence county, Ohio, one of the poorest counties Ohio. There are clay and coal mines in the majority of the woods around the town I grew up in. NITW hit me hard because the troubles and changes the characters went through were things that we as a generation in my town went through. Politics were things that we didn't understand, the world was changing around us, and we had no idea what was going to come down the pike next. As time goes on, I see more and more poverty coming to my home town, but they still continue to kick! This game makes my heart heavy as I see others around the world realize what life was like for us, and how it makes more and more people I can connect with, and instead of hearing "well, I can't imagine or understand what that must have been like," I get to hear "I can understand and actually get a mental image of the beauty of that life style." Something that finally breaks the mold of nothing happening in our tired old homes!
That 'glitchy' editing style is really hurting my eyes.
I grew up in the rust best of Indiana and around the time this game came out, I was roughly the same age as Mae, a recent college dropout, and had recently moved to a town that was even *rustier* than the previous, though within miles of it. And I have to say, NITW captured the feeling of these kinds of town perfectly. The stores in town are mostly empty brick spaces, I have to drive for nearly an hour to get anywhere, the only groceries are either in a tiny store with nearly nothing or a Walmart one town over. Walking around at fall just feels so... sad.
And the older people out here all suck majorly.
i live at what is the edge of the rust belt. the only reason we've managed not to been completely engulfed is that our area has a major corporation headquarters in it. that an and amazon distribution center.
hey i'm from alaska and we have so many problems similar to the rust belt and also i love night in the woods so like this nuanced take is refreshing AF
I grew up and currently still live in a small town in rust belt Pennsylvania. In all seriousness, it's livable for some, but hell for most. We have chain restaurants and grocery stores but I haven't seen an independent business that wasn't a cafe or bakery in years, and i've lived here for about 20 years. Everything is rotting, most houses are falling apart and a good portion of them are abandoned shelters for heroin addicts that run my town like a mafia. Most all of the permanent residents are 60+ years old and don't leave their houses aside from food and church. The population here doesn't reflect PA's democratic reputation, 4 out of 5 people are a hateful brand of conservative. Everyone glares each other down while we all wait to die. To be honest, I think it's a contributor to my own depression. Not all of it, but I'd be foolish to not see it as a contributor. Considering the population, no one really provides sympathy for things like mental illness either. It's all just "the problem with this new generation." or "why we're losing our jobs." Recently, i've gotten enough money to go to collage, I don't care how much debt it causes me i'm getting out of this state and god will never know when i'll come back.
Do me a favor though, as someone who was able to get her BA debt-free thanks to her dad's death benefit: Please don't waste your money on classes that are "fun." Get your general ed as cheaply as possible at community college, figure out a major that will benefit you if not economically then socially in some way, and save every single penny you have as you get your degree. If you must spend it on anything else at school let it be on ways to make connections.
This doesn't mean you can't still do things you like. Go to the library to read about things you like. Read as many scholarly papers for free on your favorite films or whatever it is you like. Join student clubs. But don't waste your money on the tuition+textbook game because you love art or something else in the humanities like I did. College isn't about love for knowledge or "finding yourself" anymore. It's about securing your future in a world that's getting more and more impossible to navigate.
My area, in western Pennsylvania, fits the description of the rust belt almost perfectly which makes me sad.
Detroit is actually pretty modern trust me I live right near there though it has its fair share of abandoned buildings and dangerous neighborhoods it's not all that bad. And the specific city I live in is almost exclusively filled with local shops.And is very democratic and non blue collar.I fell very miss represented.
*feel
Bacon Eggs what he said may be true of the smaller towns, idk though I'm from Lawn Guyland.
im 13 and im depressed, empathetic, and wondering my place in the world, i loved this game so much.