I'm also from Appalachia. But just across the river in WV.

>from what I’ve heard but not completely personally confirmed, it’s already contaminating downstream into the Ohio river.

As someone who grew up in the town both The Devil We Know (Documentary on Netflix) and Dark Waters (loosely based on real events) are about - and the bizarre fillings to prove it - when it was happening to the people living there, this is sadly normal.

>But. I don’t know what to say. Other than… these people have been voting against their best interests. Their entire damn lives.

This is such a patronizing thing to say. Especially given this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34635291

>How can you possibly have any wake-up call for a populace so deep into hatred & corporate bootlicking.

The other side would accuse their opponents of...exactly the same things. The boots are just Big Tech flavored. And the hatred is based on ignorance, as it usually is.

>They got what was coming to them. I don’t know how many this catastrophe will wake up to the fact they’ve been swindled all this time, that the political party they’ve sworn their lives to have already sold their souls for pennies on the dollar, so long ago.

Which political party is that? The recent strikebreaking was led by Biden, which would make the party you're talking about the Democrats:

>So on Friday morning, after three years of failed negotiations, President Biden instead signed into law a measure that imposes the contract agreement brokered by his administration back in September

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/02/1140265413/rail-workers-biden...

>But, again. I do not know what to say. For decades, so many of these people have voted for those that pass laws to make corporations not even slightly accountable & strike down reforms aiming to regulate these industries - regulate so that they’re forced to take up safety measures so shit like this cannot happen

Again, the recent strikebreaking wasn't the party you're obviously implying.

>The damage is done, and they will die before they ever see a better community - politicians that care for their well being.

Outside of Bernie, and maybe the Pauls, I'm not sure those exist.

>They got what was coming to them. I don’t know how many this catastrophe will wake up to the fact they’ve been swindled all this time, that the political party they’ve sworn their lives to have already sold their souls for pennies on the dollar, so long ago.

And you accuse them of hatred? You should re-read what you've written when you've sobered up, methinks.

>Appalachia is such an unfortunate place - so beautiful, but abandoned by modern first world society. (okay, northern ohio is technically slightly out of Appalachia proper - GOMD)

Appalachia goes all the way up into NY state, homie. Much of Ohio along the eponymous river is just Appalachia with a big river in it. And the mountains are older than Saturn's rings(!).

>that the politicians they’ve been voting for as long as they’ve been able have sold out their entire livelihoods for the most meager amounts of $USD

So we've correctly identified the problem as politicians that don't serve their constituents interests. What do we do about it? I suggest uncapping the number of members of the House. Let's see a country where people actually know their Congrescritter. Like it was supposed to be.