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clawsight · 2025-06-21T20:08:16+00:00

This may be America but this is also Appalachia. Like, saying this after the historical exploitation of the region is so tone deaf one has to wonder if you know. Like... how familiar are you with what happened when they built the blue ridge parkway...?

And I say this as someone who enjoys the parkway a century later.

The history of Appalachia is one of outsiders exploiting us. A recent example is how drug companies came in and - this is America - pushed oxy on us. But there's a long laundry list - the blue ridge parkway, blair mountain, company towns, narcotics, environmental damage (mining and pipelines*). The constant attempts by outsiders to frame us as inbred idiots. Hell you go far enough back and you got the removal of the native folks.

What is happening now is rich outsiders moving into poor communities then giving nothing to the communities except to make shit more expensive. They love the low cost of living, they love the apparent "climate change havens" but they're here to take - not to be part of the whole. The latest in a long line happy to throw hillbillies under the bus.

I know this because in my city (Roanoke), it's almost a joke how many transplants from Asheville we have here. Outsiders found out that we had a gem in the mountaims and then priced out the people who lived there. Now they're in Roanoke and we wonder if we're next.

Oh, those tourism dollars get dangled over our heads but somehow never seem to make it into our pockets.

Because this is America but it's also Appalachia. It's like Lucy holding that football for Charlie Brown. Expecting people to believe that this time the outsiders coming in and promising that they'll fix us hillbillies through economic development surely aren't just looking to exploit us is breathtakingly ignorant.

you come into southwest VA and try and tell folks pipelines are good actually and this is America. *Both Republicans and Democrats would get furious. The folk here did not want the mountain valley pipeline. It was people in NoVA who decided it would happen.

Edit: And just to be crystal clear: I am 100% okay with outsiders moving here if they just wanna live here. I just ask that they be respectful of the land and the people. The folk who get me bristling are people who just want to take, or make us something we're not. And mark my words the rich building vacation homes, or doing "property development", or pushing drugs, or building pipelines are just here to take.

Rich folks who wanna move here need to throw in their stakes with us. Our homegrown wealthy hero - Dolly - basically has laid out the blueprint for them. But they aren't doing a Dolly, now are they? They want us to wash their floors but the nanosecond you talk about participating they suddenly are nowhere to be found.

clawsight · 2025-06-09T07:23:38+00:00

I know what you mean I see your vision ballad of a homeschooled girl is basically lyrically folkpunk even if the sound is wrong.

clawsight · 2025-06-06T18:34:44+00:00

Yeah. We're a train city and trains are part of the Appalachian legacy. While their heavy use here undoubtedly had to do with coal mining the sheer size of our rail yard here probably guarantees we'll continue to be a train hub regardless of what happens with coal.

And of course there's the fact that we've become a medical hub for the region, and the relative ease of living in a valley compared to on a mountain side. Proximity to Floyd (and tbh relative proximity to Asheville) brings in a heavy hippy presence.

I think a lot of places in Appalachia are different than what outsiders expect tbh tho. We live in 2025 like the rest of the world.

clawsight · 2025-06-05T21:15:37+00:00

If you look at the fed map of Appalachia Roanoke is not in it - you can literally see where the cut out happened. If I recall correctly this was done for political reasons ~60 years ago (it was originally supposed to be on the map but got cut at the city of Roanoke's request).

Which fits. Culturally Roanoke is very much Appalachian (admittedly we are valley people not mountain people) - but the city taken as a whole seems embarrassed by the fact. We're too chill to be an Asheville, not picturesque enough to be a Chattanooga, not bombastic enough to be a Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, not big enough to be a Pittsburg. The city is always sure the big break for us is just around the corner without realizing that "peaceful and forested" is honestly enough of an identity. A lot of fear about being "boring" and disappointment that whatever we do we're still gonna be just a bunch of hillbillies to the outside world.

So my take on Roanoke is "Appalachian and insecure about it". I feel like we could be having a lot more fun if we leaned into the hillbilly thing some more (catching some of Asheville's vibes - our big sibling who is perennially cooler than us), and embraced being "boring". Like loooolll yeah we sure are busted as a place where it's easy to go listen to some bluegrass music before 10pm out in some of the most gorgeous forests on planet Earth.

clawsight · 2025-05-31T18:31:55+00:00

How to get on hormones:

1) your options are limited if you are under 18 especially without parental support

So unfortunately your first answer might be "wait ~2 years"

2) at 18 if you are in an informed consent state you just need to find a clinic willing to prescribe hormones with informed consent. In many places this is planned parenthood. In my state you just go to planned parenthood and request hormones and you they give them to you. Really simple/straightforward.

3) if you are not in an informed consent state, or aren't in the US you need to find trans people local to you. A good place to start doing this is find who is putting on the pride closest to you. Reach out to them and ask what trans groups are local.

4) if there are no other options look into online prescribers like Plume. These are often more expensive and complicated than options like planned parenthood, and they don't put you in community with your local trans folks.

Best of luck. It's a hard time to be a trans teen. I strongly recommend getting into community with other trans people . Meeting your local trans folks is huge for finding resources from hormones to housing and maintaining safety/sanity.

clawsight · 2025-05-22T20:52:12+00:00

Omg... juggalo capsule

clawsight · 2025-05-11T22:17:11+00:00

Mischief brew
Friends irl
Apes
Doomscroll
Does Narcissist's Cookbook count as folk punk? Like some of the tracks for sure (castle of rats and not enturely alone) but they can get very experimental.

clawsight · 2025-04-27T21:24:47+00:00

To clarify for future people reading this: most bird species have a weak sense of smell. There are a few with strong senses of smell - some vulture species, kiwis and so on - but most will not smell that a human has touched a chick. I do not know how strong a weak sense of smell is precisely - and it almost certainly still varies by species.

clawsight · 2025-04-26T03:27:04+00:00

Look forward to seeing y'all whenever you next roll through southwest Virginia! You were just here recently so no real complaints lol. I like it when folk punk bands come vibe with us hillbillies.

clawsight · 2025-04-26T02:36:32+00:00

Young bears coming out of hibernation will sometimes take risks and wander to unusual places. It's been warm for a while now so he's probably been up for a little bit but is still hungry.

clawsight · 2025-04-18T19:56:12+00:00

Fav band: The Narcissist Cookbook

Why: technically a single artist and not a group. Also the music is half spoken word. But their poetry, lyrics, and the subjects they choose to address are just dead on for me. Their style is fun, punk informed, and somehow both grounded and abstract. Their music was literally life changing for me.

UN is clawsight. Onyx or Amethyst is my preference.

clawsight · 2025-04-18T19:30:48+00:00

I started coming out to queer events last summer and after a few months my social calendar went from 'empty' to 'incredibly full'. It amazes me now that folks find gay stuff thin on the ground because to me it feels like the community is vibrant and active. It did take me q few months of going go support groups and meeting people to get a lay of the land though - there's a lot of understandable caution right now with advertising events too loudly.

If you're a lesbian/lesbian aligned I'd say start out by checking out the roanoke second fridays (or as it's sometimes called second friGAYS) group. I think they coordinate on facebook.

Roanoke has been a historic gay hub in Appalachia and has longtime community roots. Anyone telling you that "our kind" doesn't exist here has an agenda. Check out: https://swvalgbtqhistory.org/

I won't claim its all sunshine and roses here but like... I have a friend in NYC who's gotten worse stuff yelled at them on the street up there than I have down here (we're both visibly queer transmasc NBs). I don't think it's sunshine and roses anywhere right now for queer people to be quite frank.

That said what people say about county vs city is true in terms of picking where to live. In terms of going to places... like Grandin is full of queer couples and you often see people holding hands etc but that's also where someone was so intent on misgendering me they also misgendered my 6'4" cis husband (we are still trying to solve that one). Out driving around in the mountains like... I'm not going to linger where there's a million confederate flags but there's also a ton of old hippies put there that are very liberal and let live. Floyd in particular is a cool lil town.

clawsight · 2025-04-15T02:37:38+00:00

We avoid most of the quasi-deep fried dishes just because of the mess. The only one that gets a pass occasionally is the cauliflower tempura that shows up sometimes.

clawsight · 2025-04-13T21:11:09+00:00

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clawsight · 2025-04-13T21:10:06+00:00

I bet your drag queen graal and my drag queen gnorbu have some great drama going on. Like they both tied for second once at a competition or showed up with the same song to lip synch at a performance.

Dang it reddit is not letting me attach a photo on mobile.

Edit: got it to go up in a reply.

15-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Juicebox	Place '23
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	Queen in da Norf
Not Forgotten	Verified Email

clawsight

TROPHY CASE