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> Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toledo, and so on got absolutely destroyed after all the mills were shut down. The bar for reviving is incredibly low. Those t

by afuchs 8y ago

> Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toledo, and so on got absolutely destroyed after all the mills were shut down. The bar for reviving is incredibly low. Those that could leave, left. The very people that could quicken the recovery of the fallen Midwestern towns are the same people who left. > Detroit has UM, Cleveland has Case Western, Pittsburgh has Carnegie Mellon which are all top-flight schools. In a strange way, they all have great local resources, but these are all, culturally, working class blue collar cities, and there is really nothing wrong with that. These cities ought to do better to embrace that identity. > I'm from Cleveland. The city was fighting hard against the impending collapse by building out the Rock Hall, rebuilding the Browns stadium and discouraging the Dog Pound, along with and other things to make it more like a major city, ripping out the soul along the way. When LTV steel went under, the dominoes fell one after another, which destroyed the day and night life of the flats.1 Yes. It seems like every mid-sized city has a large university. Regardless, most of the better paying jobs in the country are, over time, becoming concentrated in only a handful of places. > Everyone in America doesn't want to stare at a computer, drink $5 latte's, and eat farm to table food. There is nothing wrong with a town that has $3 beers in a plastic cup and a crowd of people screaming until at the TV until they are horse. Not everyone in NYC or LA or Boston want to stare at a computer either. A lot of them can and do go to bars to drink cheap beer and watch football. > There is nothing shameful about marrying a man or woman while holding each other's calloused hands at the alter. Few people anywhere have a problem with straight marriage. This statement taken in the context of the current cultural zeitgeist, sounds like an argument that gay marriage should not be allowed to exist. This type of statement often comes from someone who views the actions of others, that don't directly affect them, as a personal affront; someone who sees the existence of a different way of life as a personal attack. They often try to force others to to conform to their views, and then label any pushback they receive as bullying. Yes, middle america is downtrodden. However, a lot of what is presented as well meaning discourse is actually nefarious in nature.

aantix 8y ago
>This statement taken in the context of the current cultural zeitgeist, sounds like an argument that gay marriage should not be allowed to exist I didn't take it like that at all - I figured the emphasis was on the "calloused hands", meaning a typical, married, blue-collared life was nothing to be ashamed of.
e5india 8y ago
Perhaps it's me that misunderstood, but I took that 'nothing shameful' to be more about the 'calloused hands' portion of the sentence. It was meant, I think, to be a poetic way of referring to people who perform manual labor.
- jamesrcole 8y ago
  I think that interpretation is absolutely correct, because the quote in question is "There is nothing shameful about marrying a man or woman..." which says nothing about the gender of the person marrying that man or woman. It goes on to say "...while holding each other's calloused hands at the alter", which, in the context, is easily assumed to be a man and a woman, but which isn't actually, as it's referring to the hypothetical person and the man or woman they are marrying.
cabaalis 8y ago
> Few people anywhere have a problem with straight marriage. This statement taken in the context of the current cultural zeitgeist, sounds like an argument that gay marriage should not be allowed to exist. This type of statement often comes from someone who views the actions of others, that don't directly affect them, as a personal affront; someone who sees the existence of a different way of life as a personal attack. They often try to force others to to conform to their views, and then label any pushback they receive as bullying. The statement you are quoting had nothing to do with marriage equality. I think maybe you are trying to ascribe attributes to whoever wrote that statement that do not exist. The person wrote "man or woman" in place of "person."

by afuchs 8y ago

aantix 8y ago

>This statement taken in the context of the current cultural zeitgeist, sounds like an argument that gay marriage should not be allowed to exist I didn't take it like that at all - I figured the emphasis was on the "calloused hands", meaning a typical, married, blue-collared life was nothing to be ashamed of.

e5india 8y ago

Perhaps it's me that misunderstood, but I took that 'nothing shameful' to be more about the 'calloused hands' portion of the sentence. It was meant, I think, to be a poetic way of referring to people who perform manual labor.

jamesrcole 8y ago
I think that interpretation is absolutely correct, because the quote in question is "There is nothing shameful about marrying a man or woman..." which says nothing about the gender of the person marrying that man or woman. It goes on to say "...while holding each other's calloused hands at the alter", which, in the context, is easily assumed to be a man and a woman, but which isn't actually, as it's referring to the hypothetical person and the man or woman they are marrying.

cabaalis 8y ago

> Few people anywhere have a problem with straight marriage. This statement taken in the context of the current cultural zeitgeist, sounds like an argument that gay marriage should not be allowed to exist. This type of statement often comes from someone who views the actions of others, that don't directly affect them, as a personal affront; someone who sees the existence of a different way of life as a personal attack. They often try to force others to to conform to their views, and then label any pushback they receive as bullying. The statement you are quoting had nothing to do with marriage equality. I think maybe you are trying to ascribe attributes to whoever wrote that statement that do not exist. The person wrote "man or woman" in place of "person."