Never Generalize About People

[u/Previous_Basis_84]

https://open.substack.com/pub/mitchklein/p/never-generalize-about-people?r=b162&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

James Griffith built one of the most successful home care businesses in Hammond. He treated his people fairly. He held a team together through sheer force of goodness and built a small economy around him. When he retired, he built a camp in Amite on the Tangipahoa River — water he’d fished his whole life. He worked thirty years so he could end up on that bank on his own time.

On August 22, 2025, the Smitty’s Supply plant in Roseland exploded.

Millions of gallons of oil poured into the river. The fire burned for two weeks. EPA contractors were still washing petrochemicals off the banks in Amite six weeks later. The state sat on lab reports for months. When released, they showed 24 different forever chemicals in the discharge. Arsenic. Lead. Chromium. Barium.

Before the explosion, Smitty’s Supply had violated its discharge limits 230 times. Seven chemical spills. Over $161,000 in fines.

The plant kept its permit until the day it exploded.

Three days later, the EPA and Louisiana’s own agencies issued a joint statement: no imminent threat to public health. Some of that sampling was done by a contractor hired by Smitty’s Supply.

James’s river is still contaminated. Nobody has been held accountable.

Jeff Landry took office and got to work.

He went to war with the cities. New Orleans was already broke. His answer wasn’t collaboration — it was criminalization. He pushed through a law making it a crime to sleep outside. Can’t pay the fine? Unpaid labor until the debt is cleared.

Then his allies on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana Republicans moved immediately. They eliminated a majority-Black congressional district and threw out 40,000 votes that had already been cast.

Meanwhile, the deals were getting made. Amazon. Meta. Billions of dollars were announced at press conferences with confetti cannons, while the elected officials who knew about them had all signed nondisclosure agreements. You found out when Landry shot off the cannon. Then your electric bill went up. Then the carbon capture pipelines started showing up in the river parishes — private companies seizing the land beneath people’s feet, calling it green energy.

One thing after another. Landing on people.

Farmers are watching their markets collapse. Ratepayers are watching their bills climb. Communities are watching their representation disappear. Landowners are getting lawyers’ letters about property their families have held for generations.

People across the state are slowly reading the same story and arriving at the same conclusion.

This isn’t what they were promised.

[u/thecrimsonfools]

But it's what they voted for.

Thou reaps what is sown.

[u/whataretherules7]

This is what happens republicans! You guys vote party only for decades and now you are all braindead and followed Diaper Demetia Donny to destroy the country!

[u/GodlyIllustration]

the thing is most people didn't vote for any of this specifically. they voted for a guy, not a blueprint for dismantling regulations and letting corporations run wild while regular folks get criminalized for being poor. that's the gap between what people think they're voting for and what actually happens once someone's in office. james griffith didn't vote for his river to be sacrificed.

[u/notevenkiddin → u/GodlyIllustration]

The guy they voted for was holding the blueprint, saying look at my blueprint, saying if you vote for me this is what I will build

[u/Previous_Basis_84 → u/notevenkiddin]

He wasn’t telling people that he would use nda to secretly negotiate away their land

[u/GodlyIllustration → u/notevenkiddin]

fair, but most voters aren't reading policy documents or following what someone actually said they'd do. they hear a guy say he's gonna fix the economy or crack down on crime and that's the whole message. the blueprint stuff plays to people already paying attention.

[u/CalmAd9801]

Damn so well put .

[u/clintybojangles]

What in the propaganda is this shit? Lmao. Lick boots, and our sorry excuse for a governor's shitty orthotics.