What's going on with people lately?

I did a two-year stint there, and everything you say is true. I did door-to-door canvassing for Barack Obama and encountered an incredible amount of hostility.

This is a Rust Belt town hit hard by the collapse of the steel industry, with a healthy manufacturing base also vanishing in the past few decades. The county is about 95% white, with average income a little below $30,000.

I'd love to blame the bigotry and racism on these factors, but I have no reason to doubt that such hatred was in place when the region was thriving. It seems likely that bigots here, like elsewhere, feel empowered to broadcast their bigotry, thanks to the racist in chief who's currently occupying the White House.

the bravery required to out one's self in such a community.

The hillbillies still have their trump stickers on their trucks and in front of their trailers. I hate living here.

Many of the local residents here are still mad that their side lost The War of Northern Aggression.

a gunzstamp program. You'll be very popular.

If you run on that platform, you'll be elected for life!

I see what you did there.

I've heard people say that's why women on welfare have more kids, the more kids the more welfare. They also think you get hundreds and hundreds of dollars in food stamps. It's unreal.

The haters have a collective orgasm of self-righteousness every time they hear about somebody getting arrested for scamming a few hundred bucks out of the system, in part because this proves the racist "welfare queen" fantasy they've been swooning over since that asshole Reagan first poisoned the national debate on the subject.

I will often ask how these local racists feel about corporations getting billion-dollar tax breaks even as many of their employees require public assistance to survive. They invariably declare that it's apples & oranges.

Incidentally, when I ask how they feel about Trump himself scamming the system, they praise him for his brilliant business sense. Got that? A rich white asshole scamming millions is a smart businessman; an impoverished woman getting an extra $10 bucks a month is a a parasite and a criminal who deserves the harshest punishment possible.

hollowed out logs? I also say to them that if that is what they think of illegals it's obvious that they don't know any.

As far as the other part, I have no problem with food banks etc..for animals or "food stamps" if you have a need. It's better than giving the pet over to a shelter because of financial hardship.

"Congratulations," I say. "You're an illegal."

In their parlance, "illegal" is absolutely and unquestionably a racist term, because it allows for easy dehumanizing of a (to them) undesirable type of person.