Fuck You, Texas – A (Political) Podcast Journey

By: Kailey Charles

Quite frankly, this has absolutely nothing to do with Texas. Except that they should have voted for Beto (so, actually, yeah – fuck you for that, Texas.)

I have a strange relationship with Texas. I’ve visited it once before (San Antonio), so I know everyone from the Lonestar State would rally up in arms (literally) about how great their state is and I don’t know anything, and blah, blah, blah.

I don’t care.

It’s one of my least favorite states (only beating out Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Arkansas). Essentially, it seems that I despise the midwest. At least I’m self-aware enough to admit that my hatred is misplaced (maybe) but certainly unwavering.

Maybe my dislike towards Texas stems from the fact that it reminds me so much of where I was born, raised, and still currently live: South Carolina. The armpit of Hell, so they say. And they aren’t wrong.

Ass backward in every single way, Texas and South Carolina have so much learning to do. So much change to occur. So many ways in which they need to grow. And, unfortunately, I’ve rarely met anyone from these places who actually want to do any of that work.

The reasons are endless and redundant. Unimportant because they are so clear (and yet, people love to deny them – again, fuck you, Texas).

But I’ve met a few people who do care. Who also say, “fuck you, Texas,” and do the work and try (oftentimes to no avail) to make things better on so many levels.

[PS – If you haven’t realized that “Texas” is a metaphor by now, it might be a good time to move on.]

And these are the people I desperately want to work with. The ones I need to talk to. The few I have to have in my life no matter what.

And what better way to do that than to cooperate? Right here, right now. To ask the questions I’ve been dying to ask, to get the answers I’ve been needing so badly to know, to dive in deep into all topics (yes, including politics, Texas) so we can begin to air out some of the garbage this land carries.

Older people are the ones in power. Younger people need a voice.

Here at the Cooperative, we’re getting one.

We invite you to join us as we embark on a new phase of our journey, which we like to call The PRESS (Podcasts | Records | Essays | Series | Social), a cooperative multimedia expansion that will be incorporated and built into our site.

As our site grows, so do we. And we need the tools to get us there.

To be truly cooperative, we have to include all kinds of media so we can reach all kinds of people in all kinds of places. This is the first step. And it will take some time to get it right (probably a lot of time, money, energy, effort, blood, sweat, and tears if we’re being honest).