this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
240 points (98.8% liked)

News

23304 readers
4476 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

There is a deepening sense of fear as population loss accelerates in rural America. The decline of small-town life is expected to be a looming topic in the presidential election.

America’s rural population began contracting about a decade ago, according to statistics drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau.

A whopping 81 percent of rural counties had more deaths than births between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis by a University of New Hampshire demographer. Experts who study the phenomena say the shrinking baby boomer population and younger residents having smaller families and moving elsewhere for jobs are fueling the trend.

According to a recent Agriculture Department estimate, the rural population did rebound by 0.25 percent from 2020 to 2022 as some families decamped from urban areas during the pandemic.

But demographers say they are still evaluating whether that trend will continue, and if so, where. Pennsylvania has been particularly afflicted. Job losses in the manufacturing and energy industries that began in the 1980s prompted many younger families to relocate to Sun Belt states. The relocations helped fuel population surges in places like Texas and Georgia. But here, two-thirds of the state’s 67 counties have experienced a drop in population in recent years.

Non-paywall link

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FlyingSquid 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

In what state is this 'smaller but more queer friendly town?' Because I'm guessing it's not rural PA.

[–] hydrospanner 1 points 4 months ago

Are you from rural PA?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Its not haha, its Bloomington IN. I cannot believe how queer that lil town is, its amazing

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Really? I grew up there. Seriously. Born in Bloomington Hospital, went to BDLC, then Bloomington Montessori, then Batchelor Middle School, then BHS South (graduated in '95), then IU (dropped out because I'm a dummy). My mom still lives there, as do a ton of my friends.

It is definitely more queer friendly than a lot of towns, but you go over to the west side of town, a place like Highland Village, and you walk down the street holding hands with your boyfriend, you'll probably still get harassed at the very least.

There's still a ton of redneck townies there.

That said, I have the misfortune of living in Terre Haute and we're planning to retire in Bloomington (unless Trump wins, in which case we're using my dual citizenship to get the fuck out of here) and my daughter is queer, so I'm glad we'll be retiring in a place where she can basically feel safe.

What floors me is that Terre Haute got a Pride Center and had its first Pride celebration after fucking Spencer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Well to be clear were in Ohio now, so my standards for 'queer/trans friendly' arent high, but the area we hang out in has been nicer than our current place, more affordable, everything we want.

Its no west Hollywood haha but its a start

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Please don't tell me you are in Chillicothe, because I was there for a while too. (And North Hollywood rather than West, which is on the other side of a mountain range).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Further south, right on the KY border

It suuuuuuuuucks

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 3 months ago

Chillicothe sucked too. One bar and it was all country music and cowboy hats. Dudes, you're in fucking Ohio.