7
as more and more remote southern Appalachian communities get hooked up to high speed internet, the videos of crazy ass shit that has been normalized there are gonna be fucking bonkers.
back under obama there was a federal promise zone designation for much of the region, and a few companies ran wild with it in the most isolated areas, running fiber lines to get that federal dough. people where i lived, me included, went from having two choices
- $100/mo for a 2GB/mo quota on satellite broadband at like 75mb -$25/mo for 56k dialup
because everybody but a few rich people was broke, everybody was on dialup.
suddenly in 2014ish--after a lot of rumors for years of seeing workers doing shit at the utility poles, within a few weeks--they could all get 300mb fiber for $35. it was insane. they were all on youtube watching funny videos and realizing that they could upload videos too.
so much of far hinterland rural america is a national blackhole for stories. they receive stories from outside, but the stories of these places have been stuck in place only to be shared after being reframed to fit the narrative of outside interests.
and people who live there have mostly normalized what has happened to them. it takes something really egregious like this to drive a reaction, but when i lived there i saw so much wack shit that i knew people in developed america would flip over.
people who support the primacy of the logic of the market should have to live for a year in these places where the market reigns supreme and has ruled with an iron fist for a century. and drink the fucking water.