Try That In A Place That Hasn’t Opioided Or Woked Itself Into A Living HL Mencken Essay
By Mitch Berg
I may be the last person in America to comment on the Jason Aldean song.
But this is right in my wheelhouse, so I’m going to do it anyway.
I grew up in what was a big city in rural North Dakota; Jamestown is around 15,000 people – sort of that awkward stage where people from big cities think they’re in Mayberry, and people from smaller towns get nervous about traffic and crime.
I don’t romanticize small towns. I left Jamestown for a reason; there was literally no opportunity for me there. IAnd as much as North Dakota has evolved, there still isn’t (although if I were 22 today, Fargo would be an option); the town managed to avoid all that unseemly oil money to the west and big tech money in Fargo. And it surprises outsiders (!), but there is no privacy in a small town; everyone knows your history, going back a couple of generations. Even when I was 20, that was claustrophobic for me.
Beyond that? Ugly things happen in small towns. Small-time hoods wind up dumped in rivers after running afoul bigger-time hoodlums. Even if you leave out opioids and meth, which have ravaged many small towns that’ve been passed by economically, the same social patterns that *can* make so many small towns such stable and accountable (and infuriating, Lake Wobegon-like) places can also make for some pretty entrenched miscreancy.
But those same social patterns that drove me so crazy as a kid help enforce something that’s absolutely mandatory for a functioning democracy – the “high trust society”. If you trust that your neighbor isn’t trying to stab you in the back (figuratively – or maybe literally), you can spend that time and effort doing something useful.
If you leave your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition and go to bed, is your car going to be there in the morning? When everyone around you knows everyone and everything they’re doing, and the peer pressure is strong enough, probably, yeah.
And if the Sheriff knows he’s going to be going back to the highway patrol if he screws too many people over? You’ll have a well-behaved, ethical, *trustworthy* sheriff.
My favorite example: during Covid, I listened to some of Governor Walz’s press conferences. He sounded like he was hectoring a bunch of kids in a gym class. It was insulting. Then, I drove across the border and caught Governor Burgum giving a similar address. The difference was night and day; he sounded like he was addressing…adults. Equals. People who he knew would be bending his ear out on the streets of Bismarck if he got too big for his britches.
That’s not *entirely* a function of smaller towns and states; Salt Lake City and Boise and Plano Texas all do really well by those measures. But all of them have social cohesion and a high trust culture in common.
So if I were to do an edit on the Aldean song, I may go with something like “Try that in a place with high-trust area with social cohesion”.
(On the claims that the song is “racist?” That’s just moronic; you presume social disorder and crime are “black” things? And as to the courthouse used in the video having been the site of a lynching 100 years ago? Take that up with the Tennesee Film Board, which markets filming locations to production companies; many videos, and 2-3 movies (including the “Hannah Montana” movie and a Lifetime Christmas film) have been shot at that same courthouse. Oddly, the Tennessee Film Board doesn’t talk about lynching history any more than Duluth’s Chamber of Commerce does…).
July 27th, 2023 at 8:41 am
The RCC is rotten from the top to the bottom. I find myself being a vehement opponent to Rome, and denounce the pretender to the Holy See as vociferously as any Orange Order man.
To counter that, currently there is a parallel church operating, below the radar. There are several parishes that are celebrating the Latin Rite, and sticking to the pre-V2 dogma. I’m not interested in joining one of these congregations, because I have too many irons in the fire to get involved in a battle with a reprobate Bishop that shows up to crush the dissent.
I’d be interested in a PPX church, but there are not any near me. So I’ve been joining my friends at a Baptist church for the past 4 years.
July 27th, 2023 at 8:41 am
The RCC is rotten from the top to the bottom. I find myself being a vehement opponent to Rome, and denounce the pretender to the Holy See as vociferously as any Orange Order man.
To counter that, currently there is a parallel church operating, below the radar. There are several parishes that are celebrating the Latin Rite, and sticking to the pre-V2 d0gma. I’m not interested in joining one of these congregations, because I have too many irons in the fire to get involved in a battle with a reprobate Bishop that shows up to crush the dissent.
I’d be interested in a PPX church, but there are not any near me. So I’ve been joining my friends at a Baptist church for the past 4 years.
July 27th, 2023 at 9:26 am
Blade – funny story – a relative was stationed in Jacksonville and dating a woman who did children’s ministry at a local Baptist church. Thought I’d look up the church on the internet – how many Baptist churches can there be in one town?
LOL!!
July 27th, 2023 at 10:28 am
jdm, you were focusing on the wrong letter, lol. it should be “soci@lism”. “ci@lis” is a trigger word.
July 27th, 2023 at 10:35 am
U.S. Economic Growth Accelerates, Defying Slowdown Expectations
https://www.wsj.com/articles/us-gdp-report-economic-growth-92482437
But but but…Bidenomics is a failure…..
July 27th, 2023 at 11:18 am
^ [T]he federal budget deficit grew by $644 billion and GDP only increased by $305 billion that means that 211% of the increase in GDP was driven by federal deficit spending – or put another way – if the federal government would not have borrowed and spent and extra $644 billion GDP would have actually shrunk by $339 billion.
Bidenomics is just sleight of hand for the easily duped.
July 27th, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Biden should stay the course and let established success carry through to a majority win in November 2024. Two predictive models for elective success bode well for Biden.
One model is that a good economy in the fourth quarter of the preceding year predicts the following November’s winner. Right now it looks like Q4 for 2023 will be pretty good and probably above expectations. The world economy is continuing to integrate and trade while decoupling is smaller and more isolated than many think. In short, the tides are raising the boats.
The other model is that the public doesn’t focus on the election until Labor Day 2024 and then starts to focus on choices in October while the last undecided voters don’t make choices until the last 10 days. If this is the true dynamic, then broad-based success should be maintained until fall 2024 and then the campaign should sell what is working then and pitch the upsides of four more years. It probably all comes down to what the public believes about “four more years” in October 2024.
Republican efforts to “weaponize” Hunter Biden and other conspiracy theories capture base attention but have little impact on the middle. Same thing will probably occur with trying to play Biden’s age issue or that the vice president is an African American from California — Republican efforts will just marginalize these issues in most voters’ minds. They’re not pocketbook issues.
The impact of climate change and its adverse impacts is quite likely to be a large issue in 2024 of uncertain size, force, and impact. It will probably move a lot of younger voters more than many now think. Call it the wild card hiding in plain sight.
Biden is also likely to be the only credible candidate “standing” in November 2024 as the Republicans engage in unprecedented political malpractice.
July 27th, 2023 at 12:58 pm
HAcK has a population of around 500.
Within that tiny population, there are 5 registered sex offenders! No wonder rAT loves it there.
Searching for Sex Offenders in 56452 Hackensack, MN
Top Offenses:
Second-Degree Sexual Assault of a Child
REGISTERED AS A RESULT OF OUT-OF-STATE CONVICTION
Third-Degree Sexual Assault
First-Degree Sexual Assault of a Child
ISP9999 – FELONY CONVICTION AFTER 7/1/2011
Which one is you, rAT?
July 27th, 2023 at 1:45 pm
How free are you really if you’re subject to all kinds of complicated legal consequences for fomenting, aiding, abetting & trying to cover up an insurrection?
July 27th, 2023 at 2:07 pm
E, if there’s nothing to the notion that Hunter’s actions might implicate his father, please explain to me why the original plea deal that got thrown out had a broad immunity provision. There is permissible bias, and then there is willful blindness, and you are decidedly on the wrong side of that equation.
July 27th, 2023 at 2:12 pm
BN
in MN if you are required to register as a depraved sex offender you are only required to register the address of your primary residence not your summer cabin or your winter ski chalet. Thats why a lot of pedophiles have crappy little studio apartments in MPLS/STP that they list as primary residence when in fact they live in Grant Twp or Hackensack. For instance Pillsbury Ave in Mpls has dozens of registered sex offender vermin – who’s going to notice one more.
tl:dr
emery may not be one of the registered sex vermin in Hackensack, he’s likely registered somewhere else..
July 27th, 2023 at 3:33 pm
Let’s go Brandon will not be the candidate nor will Kamala Harris
Democrats will replace them with Gavin Newsom and Michelle Obama as soon as enough dirt comes to light so the party faithful will demand the change
Won’t make any difference because elections are not decided by who votes are cast for, but by who counts the votes. And democrats have that racket completely sewed up
July 27th, 2023 at 3:38 pm
^ agreed, big guy. The only interesting angle is if the Democommies use the trannie angle, up front and in your face, with Big Mike. For the sake of honesty, of course.
July 27th, 2023 at 4:47 pm
[…] DeSantis Touts Florida’s “Back To School Sales Tax Holiday” Shot In The Dark: Try That In A Place That Hasn’t Opioided Or Woked Itself Into A Living H.L. Mencken Essay, also, Complete Control This Ain’t Hell: Bergdahl conviction overturned, Four More Accounted […]
July 27th, 2023 at 6:08 pm
rAT wondered: “How free are you really if you…”
How free are you having to register with the police as a sex offender, rAT?
July 27th, 2023 at 6:09 pm
Searching for Sex Offenders in 56452 Hackensack, MN
Top Offenses:
Second-Degree Sexual Assault of a Child
REGISTERED AS A RESULT OF OUT-OF-STATE CONVICTION
Third-Degree Sexual Assault
First-Degree Sexual Assault of a Child
ISP9999 – FELONY CONVICTION AFTER 7/1/2011
Say rAT? Are you supposed to be on the internet at all?
July 27th, 2023 at 6:11 pm
Bigman, in the South the only thing you’ll see more of than Waffle House are Baptist Churches.
July 28th, 2023 at 8:26 am
How free are you really if you’re subject to all kinds of complicated legal consequences for fomenting, aiding, abetting & trying to cover up an insurrection?
Got to prove it first. Accusations aren’t proven just because you don’t like the guy.
Yet you continue to let him live in your head rent-free.
July 28th, 2023 at 10:31 am
“The Boss wanted the server deleted” 😎
July 28th, 2023 at 12:16 pm
“Wiped, like with a cloth or something?”
July 29th, 2023 at 2:06 pm
Wiped, like Pedo Joe’s ass.