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Texas was literally founded to be a slave state. I know this, because my ancestors were there doing that. No surprise that it's still oppressing big chunks of

Texas was literally founded to be a slave state. I know this, because my ancestors were there doing that. No surprise that it's still oppressing big chunks of its population. One thing I will say, it's hard to put all the folks in Texas in a bucket. Several classes of folks live there- most of my friends there are just trying to, like, keep the fresh tortillas in stock at the HEB or serve beers while keeping a functioning automobile. Regardless of the goodness or badness of their ideas (or even fantasies of sovereignty), they are still materially beholden to a powerful and oppressive state. People who get joy out of watching things happen to poor folks in Texas really don't understand gerrymandering, cultural hegemony, or any of the other mechanics of how oppressive governments operate. I can guarantee you that those same folks, in Texas, would be the conservative folks writing oppressive laws to empower their good ol' boy buddies to do horrible stuff to the population. Because at it's base, the inability to see oneself in oppressed people is the same everywhere we go. The view that the idiot lumpen serfs deserve to be oppressed (or, if you prefer, "deserve the government they 'elected'") is the same aesthetic position that leads the folks who own Texas to conclude they can do whatever they feel like to the people there.

snarf21 2y ago
Don't forget about the slave handle of Oklahoma. They gave away over 5000 square miles so they could keep slaves. And the reason they were forced to do this is that they wanted the US government's protection against Mexico and statehood prohibited slavery above the 36th parallel (Missouri Compromise. Quite ironic. (Also, you are right, our country has lost almost all sense of empathy)
- pdpi 2y ago
  > (Also, you are right, our country has lost almost all sense of empathy) From the outside, it looks worse than that. It seems more like the US has developed a weird active aversion to empathy, to the point where even enlightened self-interest gets rejected because it looks suspiciously like empathy.
- scarecrowbob 2y ago
  Yup. It's odd what they do and don't teach in Texas History. People tell me about how bad propaganda is in other places. Good thing they don't have it here, or those folks would probably be very mad at the systems who raise them- then they might have to examine their highly conflicted relationships to the abusive powers that be. Personally, though, I do see empathy here and there. In some places (especially among folks who think they are more likely to have been a plantation owner than a peasant anytime someone talks about 'land reform') it's notably attenuated. Empathy is not a lost cause- lots of good folks, and lots of folks who want to be good but don't know how. But it's gonna take some work to get make it louder.

snarf21 2y ago

Don't forget about the slave handle of Oklahoma. They gave away over 5000 square miles so they could keep slaves. And the reason they were forced to do this is that they wanted the US government's protection against Mexico and statehood prohibited slavery above the 36th parallel (Missouri Compromise. Quite ironic. (Also, you are right, our country has lost almost all sense of empathy)

pdpi 2y ago
> (Also, you are right, our country has lost almost all sense of empathy) From the outside, it looks worse than that. It seems more like the US has developed a weird active aversion to empathy, to the point where even enlightened self-interest gets rejected because it looks suspiciously like empathy.
scarecrowbob 2y ago
Yup. It's odd what they do and don't teach in Texas History. People tell me about how bad propaganda is in other places. Good thing they don't have it here, or those folks would probably be very mad at the systems who raise them- then they might have to examine their highly conflicted relationships to the abusive powers that be. Personally, though, I do see empathy here and there. In some places (especially among folks who think they are more likely to have been a plantation owner than a peasant anytime someone talks about 'land reform') it's notably attenuated. Empathy is not a lost cause- lots of good folks, and lots of folks who want to be good but don't know how. But it's gonna take some work to get make it louder.