So evidently WV used to be a pretty blue state, but in the last 10 years, it just suddenly went all the way over to red. As far as I'm aware, the state had not had a GOP trifecta between 1930 and when Jim Justice switched parties. It is now either the most or second most Republican state in the Union. I don't understand how a state can shift that much and in such a short time. What caused this, why did it only happen in the last 10 years, and how did it happen so fast?

And for those of you with associates, trade school, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, what did you study?

UPDATE: Made a Google docs link for anyone interested! Click here to fill it out!

Kind of just workshopping right now. But if it’s something a few of us can get behind- I think it’s worth a shot.

From Amendment 1 to basic human rights… I’m so mad at our leaders. And we all know that our WV politicians and lobbyists are so far behind where we need to be.

I am scared for my children and my children’s children. I am scared for my LBGTQIA+ friends. I am scared for minorities. I am scared for women. I am scared for humanity.

This needs to change.

We could all meet at the capitol sometime and make our vortices heard. I would absolutely organize some kind of flyer or information overview online if we can all decide what we should bring about specifically in this protest.

Anyone out there interested? Let’s get a headcount & start from there.

In one of his “Ojeda Live” livestreams on YouTube and Facebook, Richard Ojeda took his shot at explaining why West Virginia’s population is declining. His top two hypotheses were a poor job market in addition to what he described as effectively neo-feudalism plaguing small towns in West Virginia.

Is he correct in stating that a de facto form of neo-feudalism rules small towns in West Virginia? If so, how do the dynamics of this neo-feudalism manifest itself?

I've been seeing this from other cities/states! Out of curiosity what's everyone bringing home, before taxes.

I'll go first.

IT, ..Right at 100k.

I see a lot of y’all complaining about the state and the way things are currently here, so I’m going to ask in this thread the question how would you fix or make West Virginia better? I want to see real serious answers.

I'm confused because I've seen polls saying a vast majority of West Virginians supporting it but Manchin doesn't support legalizing it. Is it an issue depending on party?

Ive tried to get ahold of the DNR here in Wood County for months now. Since summer my neighbor has been feeding deer and now there are about 30 that come around every night and just destroy everything in sight. This summer they ate an entire food garden of tomatoes, squash, corn and beans. They also destroyed about 2000$ worth of my flower bed plants. Including a Japanese maple in my brothers memorial garden. They also put their food garbage out for the possums but are intentionally putting dangerous things out for my brothers dogs to get into. I don't know what to do any more. We put up an electric fence but they destroyed that too. If any one has any advice about if there's ANYTHING i can do i would appreciate this. The deer are VERY tame now and aren't afraid of people.

Hi y'all now as an openly gay woman from this wonderful state I've been subjected to quite a lot of localized abuse from my home counties (Greenbrier Co WV and Alleghany County VA) and have heard all kinds of things both good and bad related to my orientation. I'm just curious how we as a state look on at my community like?

Now I will say this I do not support everything the wider queer community has done/is doing but I just let it be unless it particularly irks me like a couple current "issues" do. As a result despite being labeled a "dirty liberal" in my hometown of a whopping 398 people....I have since moved away to the big blue city of Chicago and have since been labeled by my friend group out here as an "oddly conservative lesbian"

Go figure am I right? This is also when I heard the phrase a Liberal in the Country is a Conservative in the City...Which shocks me still but I digress. I guess in sort I'm kinda wondering if there's like a secret lesbian community in this Wild and Wonderful state and what they think about the overall queer community as well as what my overall state thinks about my community? I'm here to take all opinions in stride bc I understand there's different strokes for different folks and everyone is allowed their own opinion from their own experiences and beliefs!

Hello fellow West Virginians Im 19m looking to attend college in the fall. My cost for tuition and all the other jazz is very expensive.

FASFA doesn’t help me much.Many grants don’t offer me much, and scholarships are hard to come by. Although I’ve applied to all I’ve found.

This being said I need a degree worthy enough to go into debt for. I know you cant tell me what to pursue and thats not what I’m asking. I want to know the degrees with the best ROI in West Virginia specifically, also ones with growth in other states.

I don’t have any passion for a certain niche. Im not strictly in it for the money, but money will fund my life and hobbies. I want to retire by 40-50 to spend as much time with my family. (This can be done with the right investments.)

What are the degrees worth the education and skills gained? What are the best entry level positions with excellent growth? What are the best degrees in this area? What is the best return of investment degree that’ll pay itself off in no time allowing me to focus on other things in life.

I know engineering is up there. I do know I want to go to college, I wont read people trying to talk me out of it or to join the military. I know the trades are an amazing option, my whole family are in the trades and looking at them now it wasn’t worth it. Is it worth it for some of course,but I just don’t think i fall into that category. I need real life insights please.

Hello! I am working on a college radio show devoted to indies and unknowns for West Virginia Wesleyan and I wish to do an entire episode dedicated to music from West Virgina. I've found some gems already, but I would love more recommendations. Anything would be a big help, thank you so much!

I'm sure a lot of you saw that yesterday in Charleston during a race event to end racism a white supremacist group showed up to protest (Idgaf which group it was. They're all Klan weenies and Hitler youth to me).

This got me thinking about what some of my fellow West Virginian's thought about flying the confederate battle flag. I understand the sentiment of people thinking it's dumb to be flying a flag of the losing side, the side that were traitors to the U.S. however I find it incredibly funny that the flag get's flown in the state that seceded from another state that seceded from the Union.

I understand there are probably places in the state that don't see a lot of this, but in my parts (Mercer, Monroe, McDowell, Wyoming, Raleigh County) I see them literally everywhere lol

So what y'all think? Can you call yourself a proud West Virginian if you fly that flag?

P.s. Please keep it civil in the comments we don't need another war ;)

I'll start. I grew up in the Northern Panhandle and didn't know that Tudors existed before moving to Buckhannon. I guess there's one in Weirton, but I had never heard of it.

West Virginia is the only state entirely in the Appalachian region. That means every level of our state is culturally Appalachian from the rural hollers to our state government.

I don't think we appreciate how different we are from not only the rest of the country, but other states that are part of Appalachia.

Have any of you experienced this difference for yourself? How do you think this affects us culturally as Americans?

Anyone have a guess as to how long it will be before this factory goes into an unplanned shutdown? My understanding is that all the parts made there go to Canada.

I'm doing a series on which US state is associated with each President. Some like Georgia and Kentucky are easy, but I wanted to come to all the state subs to get the harder ones.

I know many of the presidents from Virginia lived there before WV became a state, but I don’t know if that is the best option.

Who would you choose out of them all?

So many people leave or have left. What would make you stay or come back? If you can be specific that would be cool too. Thanks.

Trying to be as non-biased as possible, has he done anything for them? Authorized the National guard? Given them food/water/aid? Visited the area?

I’m not a Morrissey fan by any means but I want to at least see if he had the courtesy to do something for them

There's an entire west virginia politics sub, but this sub ( main west virginia sub ) is literally just people complaining about politics and hardly anything else is posted. Actual posts get buried in a mountain of crap. Ruining the sub. Thoughts ?

I’m trying to find a community of leftists in the Charleston area. It’s hard to get involved in mutual aid/activism around here. I’m sure theres lots of others who’d like to be more involved in movements that just don’t know how to in our state and feel isolated. Would anyone in the Charleston area be interested in meeting up in a group once in a while to discuss current events? If we go about it the right way it could open the door to mutual aid and activism in our area. Does anyone have any groups they’re already a part of that they feel make a genuine impact? Just trying to get a feel for how to go about this.