Think Deeper

Frequently, I’ve had people tell me, “It’s not that deep,” or “You’re overthinking it.” And maybe I am. But not thinking past the surface is what gave us Jeffrey Epstein. Blowing everything off as a “conspiracy theory” or an overreaction is how people in power have been able to manipulate our parents’ generation, and how the Epstein class of elites — and the politicians they control — have been able to get away with unimaginable crimes and abuses of power.

So maybe it actually is that deep.

Free thought is dangerous to a group that only makes up about 1% of the population — especially when 50% of the entire U.S. population holds only about 2.1% of the wealth, while that small 1% holds around 30%. The other 20%? That’s the shrinking working and middle class. These numbers show us something important: we are overwhelmingly the majority in this country.

So maintaining that kind of power requires strategy. It requires organization. It requires a system designed to keep wealth and power circulating within the same small group. Unfortunately for the majority of us, that system does not include sharing that wealth.

Even many charities, which people assume exist purely to help others, often operate within this same system. CEOs and CFOs of major charitable organizations are frequently paid enormous salaries funded by donations — donations that come from both wealthy elites and good, hardworking people. Meanwhile, the people the charity is supposed to help often don’t see even half of that money.

Then there are government-funded NGOs and programs where millions — sometimes billions — of taxpayer dollars get spent on projects that do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Americans. The money moves in circles, staying within the same networks, while the rest of us watch our communities fall apart due to bad policy and empty political promises.

Whether you live in a city or a small town, you’ve seen this pattern: politician after politician promises to help the working and middle class. Then the second they get into office, they bow to donors and lobbyists. The cycle continues, and our roads, homes, and lives get more difficult while they get wealthier and more powerful.

This became glaringly obvious during COVID. Suddenly, the wealthiest people were talking about how wonderful it was to have their kids home and how well the stock market was doing. Meanwhile, that 50% and that 20% I mentioned earlier were barely keeping their heads above water — or drowning entirely. People were getting vaccines they didn’t want because they were afraid of losing their jobs. People were laid off, locked in small apartments, isolated, watching t

heir savings disappear and their credit card debt pile up.

To this day, I still hear wealthy people say they “miss COVID.” Think about that. There are people who became enormously wealthy because of COVID. They took advantage of every program, every grant, every connection. They had access to information and opportunities that the average person did not. In this country, wealth buys influence — and influence gives you the power to decide what the rest of us do, what we’re allowed to know, and what rules we have to follow.

And that brings me to something people keep telling me “isn’t that deep” — the post-COVID push to overdevelop and gentrify rural areas across the South, the Midwest, and even parts of New England.

They call it “progress.” They tell us it’s just because people want cheaper land, better weather, or lower taxes. And sure — those things can be true. But that’s the surface-level explanation.

Because what we’re actually watching is small-town America being transformed.

Towns where everyone used to know each other — towns with one stoplight and a main street full of local businesses — are turning into smaller versions of big cities. Roundabouts. Townhouses. Luxury apartments. Identical boutique shops. Three fancy coffee shops. A “New York pizza” place. Maybe one original store left, selling tourist T-shirts and mugs.

What used to be unique main streets that you couldn’t find anywhere else in America are now all starting to look the same.

And the people who built those towns — the working-class and middle-class families — are being priced out of their own hometowns. Every luxury apartment complex, every overpriced townhouse development, every mini-mansion neighborhood with an HOA drives property values and taxes higher. Then come the tax reassessments from local councils, and suddenly the people who lived there for generations can’t afford to stay.

The only people who can afford to move in are people coming from places where they just sold their homes for twice what a house costs in these small towns. The only people who can afford the rising rent on Main Street storefronts are transplants. So the businesses change. The culture changes. The town changes.

Everything becomes uniform.

And when small towns lose what makes them unique — when they lose their culture, their history, and the working-class people who built them — they also lose their ability to fight back. They lose the community bonds that made those towns strong in the first place. And a population without strong community ties is much easier to control.

So no — maybe it’s not just about cheaper land and better weather.

Maybe it’s also about power.

Because when people start thinking deeper, they become dangerous to people who rely on them not thinking at all. The elites want us to believe this is all random, all natural, all just “the market.” But it can be true that people are moving for cheaper land and true that powerful people are shaping these changes in ways that benefit them.

If you wanted to weaken the working and middle class, what would you do?

You would make homeownership harder.You would increase debt.You would divide people by culture, race, religion, and politics so they never unite over class.You would destroy tight-knit communities and replace them with isolated populations.You would make people feel alone, so they rely more on institutions and less on each other.

You wouldn’t need tanks in the streets.You would just need policy, development, media narratives, and time.

In the end, this is about wealth and power staying with the 1%, while the rest of us are told that if we just work harder, keep our heads down, and follow the rules, maybe one day we’ll be there too.

But the real divide in this country isn’t race.It isn’t religion.It isn’t culture.

It’s class.

And the one thing that has threatened powerful oligarchies and tyrannical governments throughout all of history is this simple truth:

There are more of us than there are of them.

And if we start talking to each other, organizing, collaborating, and thinking freely together, we become more powerful than they are.

And then we might finally get the transparency we deserve.

To begin to connect with other like minded individuals trying to protect the things that make small towns strong and save rural working class and middle class America join the group!

Small Town Heroes