These coal miners didn't read the fine print: the administration is a cheerleader for coal mining BUSINESSES, not for coal miners. Coal miners, especially sick ones, are just a sunk cost to them.
this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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As the son of a 30-year coal miner, not reading the fine print is a prerequisite to mining. If they were worried about the finer details the majority of them wouldn't be there to begin with.
Print fine like the silica dust
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Trump has been a cheerleader for coal mine OWNERS. He doesn’t give a shit about the people in the mines. Never has.
I thought that's what they voted for?
They voted for their kids to work in those mines too.
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Unfortunately dying is the only thing that will keep them from voting Republican.
It's just like the COVID-deniers during the pandemic who cried and begged for the vaccine as their lungs filled with fluids, flailing and gasping air like a fish. The tiny few of them who survived the ventilators went right back to voting for anti-vax politicians.
What, the anti-worker leader of the anti-worker party is anti-worker? Who would have guessed?
Well duh. The fuck did you expect?
I have been saying this for nearly 10 years. How the fuck does Trump do it? Trump has had a lifetime of being a conman, of failing at business, of screwing over his partners and his employees at every turn. Yet for all this he STILL has people who crawl and cower towards him and still act like he is the pinnacle of business success when he is the pinnacle of business failure. His father, Fred Trump, was a grade A asshole (Woody Guthrie even mentioned him in one of his songs) but he actually WAS good at business. All risks that he took were calculated and he planned out his real estate plans very carefully and he absolutely took into account what advisors had to say. He was a terrible boss, yes, and an incredibly racist man, but he still consistently made money off his investments while Trump never did. Even in the 90s when Trump was increasingly becoming a joke there were still people that thought of his as highly successful when he had just gone through a string of embarrassing failures.
Just how does he do it?
The underlying problem is that Washington Democrats are largely worthless sleazebags. When you have two parties that both screw over everyone so that billionaires can get richer, often people just throw up their hands and vote for someone, anyone, who might be different. Trump is different.
And of course many people, tens of millions apparently, love having someone to hate. This is, of course, the underlying motto of today's Republican party.
Simple answer, (many) people are uneducated/dumb and these people love a showman who tells them what they want to hear.
As I understand it, the public perception of Trump was distorted by how he was portrayed on The Apprentice: https://www.psypost.org/new-research-sheds-light-on-the-influence-of-the-apprentice-on-donald-trumps-political-rise/
The producers at NBC had to jump through a lot of hoops to make Trump appear competent. Their chief marketing officer from that time is very sorry for what he did: https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2024-10-16/we-created-a-tv-illusion-for-the-apprentice-but-the-real-trump-threatens-america
Once Trump became the republican candidate, the right-wing media took up the responsibility of filtering and distorting what their audience got to see and hear about Trump.
Trumps opponents are gormless democrats who are so out of touch that even when healthcare is the most important issue to 75+% of americans, they will proudly claim that "universal health care will never ever happen." Or that "Healthcare isn't their highest priority," as if 75% of Americans were yearning for bailing out the same banks that they all hate.
I was also referring to Trump before he got into politics. Even when he debuted in the 70s and early 80s there were tons of newspapers who pointed how just how full of shit the man was, but there were still others that bought the lie that he was the next Rockefeller when he was absolutely not.
Yeah i sure as shit do not know.
He has no redeeming qualities and seems to make the worst possible choice at every juncture but he inevitably seems to fail upwards.
I have a few observations.
He lies about everything all the time with no shame. As in, reality doesn't matter it only matters what people hear you say.
He's always the centre of attention. He's always doing something controversial and is constantly on everyone's mind.
He's offensive. He offends the sensibilities of every rational person. Everything he says makes half the world feel exasperated and frustrated and angry, while the other half chuckles along because hes made the leftards angry.
He thinks and talks like an uneducated boomer, and that makes other uneducated idiots feel validated rather than feeling stupid.
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Some of you will die. That's a sacrifice Trump is willing to make.
West Virginia voted for DJT. DJT fucked them over on this. They got exactly what they voted for.
CLEAN BEAUTIFUL COAL
That's fucked up that guys are still digging coal and getting black lung, there's no way that shit is cheaper than solar or wind
They actually consider working the mines to be their cultural heritage. The number these mining companies have done on these families’ heads is astounding.
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Ah, but the cost of the miner with black lung is increasingly handled by that individual or their family.
If you are a coal miner and you think that a man that lives in a gilded apartment can relate to you and has your best interests at heart you are going to be sadly disappointed.
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Can someone explain to me why in 2025 people are still ending up with black lung? Don’t they wear respirators on the job to prevent inhalation of silica dust?
Over the past few years, mine owners cut on safety while Republicans blocked regulatory enforcement funding.
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Have you ever tried getting certain folks to wear a mask?
If you’re not going to wear a mask, then don’t come crying when you get sick. 🤷♂️
But seriously — is this why they are still getting black lung???
Dude it's so fucking hard sometimes to stick to systemic analysis, these people make it so fucking hard. Like yes, there has been a steady growth in the number of black lung victims in recent years due to safety rollbacks by Republicans, lax training and ppe by business owners (supported by republicans), and in general a growing disregard for health and safety due to a variety of socioeconomic, educational factors, all brought about by Republicans.
But Jesus Christ, it's 2025. We knew what caused black lung centuries ago. Like fuck antivaxxers, but at least there is active bullshit linking vaccines to autism. There is a lie to believe, even if its a lie. But these fuckheads thought, what, masks caused asthma? Coal has magic medicinal properties? Its so fucking stupid. No one sold you on black lung, you just fucking did that. How fucking stupid.
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The head of Health and Safety at my previous job used to work at a mine, and he said that gains in PPE were basically a victim of their own success, in his opinion. Wearing your respirator and other PPE will go a long way towards mitigating these risks, but they're not the most pleasant things to wear for hours on end. He told me that lots of younger guys would come in, start working and see all the old guys at it with their respirators on, but they'd opt not to wear them whenever they thought they could get away with it, since they didn't personally know people who developed black lung in the field. That's just what he had told me, so I couldn't say how accurate it really is, but given the attitudes I've seen from guys in other fields towards wearing all their PPE, it wouldn't really surprise me if it were largely true.
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Given the number of "coal miners for Trump" stickers I see driving around in coal country, good. Fuck em.
Of course they are cast aside. They cost money with no benefit for Trump. Money he would like to spend on his billionaire cronies instead.
Proper medical care for 100 normal people or one more yacht for a rich guy? Guess what he'll choose.
1000% this. These workers are the dumbest motherfuckers who vote against their own interest and go full pikachuface.jpg when he doesnt support them. What do you expect of a tyrant? Love and support? These troglodytes are fucking cattle to be slaughtered in their eyes of the capitalist elite.
Room temp IQs with the stupidest takes again. Need that "fell for it again" meme.
HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BLACKEN OTHER PEOPLE'S LUNGS!! 😢
The coal miners have served their purpose.....why would Trump care?
"I voted for him because he speaks his mind (and hates ******** just as much as I do)".
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I've said this until I was blue in the face. The closure of NIOSH in Morgantown, the place that arguably led the charge for discovering black lung's cause and combatting it, and continually working on particulate science, was the absolute biggest slap in the face to this state that could have happened. The biggest ally miners had in the the twilights of their careers is gone, and in it's place, you get a "good job, bro" and kicked out the door by the mine barons. Any shot you have at recompense dies when they declare bankruptcy with yet another shell company; the holding ponds they're responsible for? Not their problem. The recovery costs of the natural environment? State's cost now. Yet all those profits go right into ol' Jimothy Justice's pockets. Probably amped as fuck that he gets to continue his racket, and ALSO vote on the policies that regulate the industry. How fun that is!
Fucks sake.
So glad we got rid of the illegals so our kids can share in the proud tradition of getting black lung and being forgotten. /s
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As opposed to before, when we'd grow them new lungs at the clone store and slap them in before sending them back down?
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Correct
The plan is to cast everyone aside to die once their capital has been extracted. The ones who survive must still have some capital left to extract.
Coal miners voted for Trump so you get what you voted for there guys.
I guess this is one way to fix stupid.
That face eating leopard be looking like Mr Creosote right about now.
It blows my mind that there are people that think they wouldn’t also be victims of his greed.
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