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
I won't stand for this coal miner slander, they used to be militant unionists agitating for workers' rights. They were thoroughly crushed and defeated, but not before making major material gains. Efforts have since been made by those in power to make the Appalachian people forget their history, and all that remains of that movement are traumatized and chronically ill elderly folk.
It's a whole 'nother generation and breed of miner, my friend. Those miners understood the power of collective action and the power they held within the nation as a major contributor to the economy and what essentially made the country move.
Today's miners, meaning in the last 40-60 years, have been coasting on the battles hard-fought by their fathers and grandfathers. Do you think the miners of today would have fought for unionization or medical benefits? I sincerely doubt it. No, today's mining culture is a far cry from those who died at Blair Mountain and fought against Pinkertons.
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What, the anti-worker leader of the anti-worker party is anti-worker? Who would have guessed?
I thought that's what they voted for?
They voted for their kids to work in those mines too.
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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
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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"I voted for him because he speaks his mind (and hates ******** just as much as I do)".
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No, no, no, I voted for other people to be cast aside to die!
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.
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.
Sounds a lot like the general population when it comes to vaccine efficacy, too. I cannot tell you how many people have told me, since about the 90s, when the denialism really started to get underway, that "I didn't vaccinate my kids and they never got sick!"
/facepalm
I remember talking to my retired grandmother, who worked her entire life as a nurse, about these experiences while she was still alive, and she had zero fucking patience for that shit, since she was of a generation that saw the effects of many of these diseases. It positively enraged her, if you want to be honest. And she was very right to be mad.
This PPE thing is rather exasperating to hear about, too, but at least people are not putting others, including their own children, at risk, I guess...
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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?
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.
Simple answer, (many) people are uneducated/dumb and these people love a showman who tells them what they want to hear.
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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.
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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Trump has been a cheerleader for coal mine OWNERS. He doesn’t give a shit about the people in the mines. Never has.
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.
West Virginia voted for DJT. DJT fucked them over on this. They got exactly what they voted for.
HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BLACKEN OTHER PEOPLE'S LUNGS!! 😢
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.
Correct
That face eating leopard be looking like Mr Creosote right about now.
other than I told you so, who the fuck grows up and decides... "there's some black rock I could go dig out of dirt and other rock, risking my health obviously, for 12 an hour" ?
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Surprise! Everyone is cast aside to die under Trump!
Coal miners voted for Trump so you get what you voted for there guys.
I guess this is one way to fix stupid.
As opposed to before, when we'd grow them new lungs at the clone store and slap them in before sending them back down?
Had enforced regulations about respirators and dust levels and money for the limited treatment we can do
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CLEAN BEAUTIFUL COAL
As are we all. Trump cares about no one but himself.
What fucking year is it again?
1825
The coal miners have served their purpose.....why would Trump care?
It blows my mind that there are people that think they wouldn’t also be victims of his greed.
Well duh. The fuck did you expect?
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