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Pro-Trump Idaho Farming Town 'Nearly Destroyed' As ICE Raid Leaves Community Without Harvest Workers (www.ibtimes.co.uk)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/LeopardsAteMyFace@lemmy.ca
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Nobody in Wilder, Idaho expected this. The tiny farming town of 1,725 people—where nine out of ten voters backed Donald Trump in 2024—is now scrambling to figure out what comes next after federal immigration agents swept through in mid-October and arrested more than 100 Hispanic workers at a local horse racetrack. So far, 75 people have been deported, and the farms that keep this place running are facing a labour shortage with no easy fix in sight.

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[–] 10 points 9 months ago (8 children)

I mean, it gives me pause to think about how I benefit from cheap exploitative migrant labor.

I was talking with my mom recently, and we came to the conclusion that it's not possible to buy something new in the US that does not have inhumane practices as part of the product at some point. Basically, the are no morally "good" things you can buy.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    Hand made items from local merchants...and for example I don't mean ordering gems/beads from China and stringing them, I mean like a person who makes wooden or ceramic beads and threads them. But then there is the cord, so you'd have to spinbyour own twine etc

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    Unless every part of it came out of that merchants back yard, then it probably had exploitation at some step. Roads are frequently cleaned and maintained using prison labor. Cars are partially assembled all over the world in order to find the cheapest labor and materials...

    I literally can't think of a single thing I've bought in my lifetime that didn't have industrialized human misery as a component or result of it's production.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)

    I know. You'd have to have your own forest and farm land, raise sheep to make yarn, etc. Best we can do is as local and artisan as possible

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    Even then, I live on stolen land. I didn't steal it myself, but at some layer I'm complicit, because I bought it from someone who bought it from someone else... Until you get to the guy that stole it in the first place, and he probably stole it because of the value it would have in the future. I don't want to be here, but I don't have anywhere else to go. Even my own backyard is rooted in human misery.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    We have to move forward and make reparations where possible, and try to live a better consumer lifestyle. But until billionaires are brought into check this world is rife with exploitation.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    We have to move forward and make reparations where possible

    Agreed, but it can be hard to find the path when it hasn't really been used for decades. At a certain point, you're just trampling a new path to somewhere, over the stuff that is just trying to exist in the gaps.

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