The Battle of Blair Mountain saw 10,000 West Virginia coal miners march in protest of perilous work conditions, squalid housing and low wages, among other grievances. They set out from the small hamlet of Marmet, with the goal of advancing upon Mingo County, a few days’ travels away to meet the coal companies on their own turf and demand redress. They would not reach their goal; the marchers instead faced opposition from deputized townspeople and businesspeople who opposed their union organizing, and more importantly, from local and federal law enforcement that brutally shut down the burgeoning movement. The opposing sides clashed near Blair Mountain, a 2,000-foot peak in southwestern Logan County, giving the battle its name.
Miners then often lived in company towns, paying rent for company-owned shacks and buying groceries from the company-owned store with “scrip.” Scrip wasn’t accepted as U.S. currency, yet that’s how the miners were paid. For years, miners had organized through unions including the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), leading protests and strikes. Nine years prior to Blair Mountain, miners striking for greater union recognition clashed with armed Baldwin-Felts agents, hired mercenaries employed by coal companies to put down rebellions and unionizing efforts. The agents drove families from their homes at gunpoint and dumped their belongings. An armored train raced through a tent colony of the evicted miners and sprayed their tents with machine gun fire, killing at least one. In 1914, those same agents burned women and children alive in a mining camp cellar at Ludlow, Colorado.
That was a forgiveable mistake the first time around. Howver, the insanity and utter bullshit I saw during COVID was not so forgiveable. And then, electing him a second time? I don’t think there’s any way back.
It’s such transparent propaganda, it will probably always astound me that people were so easily fooled. Pepple I thought were intelligent, wise, and that I respected. The Qanon stuff, the COVID conspiracy stuff, antivax, climate change. They have ended up in a false reality that most will never escape, and it was so obviously a lie. I’m still in a mild state of shock from time to time, I still grieve it.
Intellectually I know how it happened, but my gut cannot make sense of how they fell for it.
No, you shouldn’t be surprised that people easily fall for transparent propaganda. We all do it, including you. This isn’t exactly new, and neither are the solutions. We are going to require political candidates who communicate believable plans to actually improve peoples’ lives. Since we lack that, we get candidates like Trump who make believable plans to harm political enemies.
Again, intellectually, I get it. I’d read about Nazi Blood Libel, Mao and the Great Leap Forward, the Khemr Rouge, Rwanada, and so on. It’s just difficult to comprehend when you see it happen all around you.
As for myself falling for transparent propaganda, it’s possible but unlikely. I think it’s likely that I’m somewhat immune to it at this point. Religion, politics, hatred of outgroups are the main levers used and I’ve pretty much had that burnt out of me. I have a finely honed bullshit detector. I can certainly be tricked, at least for a time. However, I believe in so little, at this point, that I think it would be pretty difficult to uncouple my reality from the real world.