Wood politics with Nish Weiseth

I mean by that? We're gonna take our hood antennas and not so much user to understand politics, but to understand other people and how politics affects them and maybe see ourselves in people that one don't believe me and you are like already and two you probably I kind of don't want to see yourself in. So we interviewed my homegirl, Niche, who brands this pod called Impolite Politics. First of all, Nis is brilliant and there's not enough words to express how amazing she is and how necessary

she is for the culture. So I'm gonna talk to her about a lot of things. Check it all right, ladies, and gentlemen, this is a special episode. Uh, We're going across town, across the railroad tracks, up the street, around the ConA, all the way to Salt Lakes City, Utah. Y'all, I don't even know how to pronounce your last number. One. I don't know how I feel about being addressed as the girl from the other side of the tracks. Okay, my last name is Wi. This is Nishi, y'all, make

some noise for Nish. What's up? Names we're calling this one would politics because I live in the woods actually like an Idaho now, which is crazy. Are you an Idhodho? It's even like I'm in central Idaho. I'm in a tiny rural town of about three thousand people. So this is about to get real. You're about to How are you doing that? Can talk about that? Do talk about that a little later. Well, you probably have much more land than I do, and probably probably it smells amazing

like pine trees outside. That's that's kind of amazing. Like there are times like I'm definitely like a water soul, like like in the sense that like I need a beach somewhere within an hour. But um, yeah, but some people are like you know, mountain souls and like forest souls. You know what I'm saying that like this, So when I get there and the smell of like the pine tree, You're just like, oh, this is it's nice. So this is so this is oxygen. That's where it all comes. Yeah. Yeah,

it's amazing. It's so nice. It's peaceful, it's quiet. We moved here like three years ago, almost three years ago in March, and it's one of the weirdest things. We moved from Salt Lake City and we lived across the street from like the grocery store, bus stop apartment complexes next door. It's just like noise all the time, like you live in the city, you know, there's just ants, constant hum all the time. And moving from there to the woods, literally the woods, it took me weeks to

be able to false leave because it was silent. It was silent outside. I'm like where I like, had you start using white noise machine. I was like, this little weird nightmare. So everything okay, it feels a little serial killer ish, but we're gonna We're gonna get over it. Oh man, it's so funny. So this is a is a political expert, brilliant home Girl, super Dope, so glad to do this. Um, we're gonna get girl. You already know.

Here's what sparked this episode to catch everybody up. I was during the two thousand and sixteen election, like listening to the complaints of like the coal miner, like just trying not to you know that at that time, like it was okay to sort of peek into somebody else's echo chamber and just learn something back then you do. You know what I'm saying. It was like it wasn't as like, um sacrilegious, right, So oh, I was just speaking and I was just like I'm trying to hear.

I want to hear what you have to say, like help me understand your argument. I'm listening to a call of mine. I'm listening to like people talk about just like opioids, painkillers and stuff like that. And then just like trying to get my brain around these laws and like you know, meth and stuff like that. Like we've always thought that like meth was like that's like a that's a white drug. Obviously, drugs are indiscriminate. Drugs are

the most tolerant, right thing that we have. You know what I'm saying in relation to where they were going, what was happening, who's being affected, and how the justice system was treating people involved in this. I was like, Yo, this is super familiar, like you know in listening to when someone's an addict being like so so the solution to this addiction has put them in prison. That's like I don't know, like I where did y'all get Where did that come from? Right? And the pusher, who's who's

being Who's who's like selling these drugs? It depended on what level of the chain of product, Like the product chain depends on where you are in the product chain as to like how much time you're gonna get right. So in me, it was this just looks like it just looks like the crack attack. It just looks like I know where the crack came from, the CIA. You know what I'm saying like this saying like you we don't like you brought like y'all brought this here. No

one's nobody going to jail except for the distributor. You know. So when I'm looking at this, I just look at the Sackler family and you know this, these other like companies that knowing full well what they're selling these people is killing them, Like when it when are they going to jail? Right? You know, where is the rehabilitation part of this? Right? So it just almost made me feel like you put the same ingredients into any situation, what's

gonna come out is this. It's crimes of survival, it's addiction. Is somebody saying, look it better your family to my family is not like it is not like there's jobs, right, So what do you want me to do? You want to go get a job? Like where where I'd love to go get a job where? So that made me say, I think, I think we have more in common than

we know. Yeah, that's exactly right. And I think that so much of the problem is inherent across cultures, which is especially when it comes to drug addiction, opioid addiction, alcohol abuse, like you name it right, like that there is a fundamental taboo and misunderstanding about the nature of addictive substances and people's propensity for addiction, and that it is a mental health tragedy. It is a it is a it's a crisis. It's a mental health addiction is

a mental health crisis. That's what it is. And the more that we can identify it for what it actually is. I think the more will probably see some forward movement on things like opioids and that sort of thing that you know we see affect our community, which you know, we do have, you know, math opiate use, severe alcoholism where we live, and a lot of that is perpetuated by poor economic mobility, poor economic stability, and unaddressed mental

health issues. Tell me how that looks on the ground in the family unit where you live, Like what does that look like? Like, I know what it looks like to be like, Okay, we're all in this together. Um, you got one uncle that's hooked, one uncle that sells, I'm going to jail. You know what I'm saying. It's just like what it's doing to our mom, you know what I'm saying. Like, you know, and you're kind of

caught in the middle. Like then, like you said, there's no economic stability, Like how you know, how do you look at your mom working three jobs and being like, I know, if I just make this caper right quick, three months worth the rent, you know what I mean? Like, I know it looks like so maybe like lay this out, like how does this look to the family. Yeah, that's

that's a really great question. And I think that in regards to opia use and abuse in particularly in in our community, I think a lot of what you'll see is is it starts with someone going to the hospital, right because they have an unaddressed health need, and they go into an e ER because they don't actually have health insurance, right like that, Like this is what I say, Like there's all these layers, right, and so they don't have health insurance, they don't have healthcare coverage, so they

can't afford to go to a clinic to actually determine what is wrong, and so they go into an e R knowing that they can't be denied care. The e R it's a small rural hospital, e R is overloaded. They have a pain issue, they get prescribed pain killers, and then from there it's a downward spiral and then the ease of which pain killers are being made available kind of across the spectrum, whether it's through illegal dealing over prescriptions like you name it, the problem just gets

perpetuated and perpetuated. So as it pertains to the family unit, do we see you know, one families addicted, one families in jail, or like one one family members in jail, one family. I don't I don't know, I don't have the statistics on that, but I do know that, like

does it affect the family writ large? Of course, of course, because then you're going to see like that person as they as they grow more addicted, unable to meet the needs of their child, which then the child performs poorly in school, which then there's behavior issues, which then like it's right, it's the self perfort almost like the self fulfilling prophecy, especially for young children being in homes that are, you know, stricken with addiction for something that wasn't ever

anyone's fault. It's awful. It's awful. Yeah, the layers is what makes me so interested, Like that what what we call an injustice work interlocking systems of injustice where the layers make sense. So unemployment in the woods, right, it's something I find I also find interesting, right because inter

city issues. It's like, well, you know, if there's no there's no jobs here because the you know, these gross unilizations, but because this corporation figured out that like well, yeah, there's not a there's not a useful workforce, so like why would I stay you know, what I'm saying, and or I can pay someone else cheaper, right, you know, so just all of those and then even if the workforce comes in, they probably got they probably all carrying strikes,

they all got you know, NIX on their on their record, you know, meaning their cons you know what I'm saying. So it's like, so if I have I've already committed a felony, if I'm trying to be better, what do you It's not like I could go can go get work? Yeah, Because so there's the there's the criminal criminal justice, in equality part of it, there's like a resources a part of it, and then for us just the overall just

racial under its own practice us being brown people. But I'm interested in what that looks like, you know, for the rule worker, you know, the person who's like I think it's also very interesting you talk about people who have just knowed how to work with their hands, if that's what they know, you know what that does psychologically to again the psyche of of of the neighborhood. There

you can make maybe talk a little bit about that. Yeah, absolutely So right down the road about forty minutes forty miles from us, it's a town that used to have a giant lumber mill, Okay, and so they I mean obviously very manual labor. The whole town, like a huge chunk of the town was employed by this lumber mill. Right. Well, the lumber mill closed for a lot of different reasons.

A lot of it like it's actually cheaper to get a lot of our lumber and wood from China, which we can talk about that later, but there's exactly so there's there is a lot there. There's just a lot of factors, automation, you name it, their lack of need for building supplies during this particular downturn. So the lumber mill closed. And when it is located in a town, a rural town with no other metro area in its vicinity, all of a sudden you have a giant population of

this town that's found unemployed. And they are found unemployed, but they have been employed by this lumber mill, which has a very particular set of skills needed to work there. And a lot of that is manual labor, right So you talk about that like work with your hands. A lot of it was just based on the economics of the town for years and years and years, and now

it's um it's just not available. And so unemployment is intricately tied to industries throughout the world that are beinging um impacted by things like automation, by trade by you know, lower prices that you can find elsewhere, and so it is affecting rural America, and that unemployment aspect is brutally hard for people, particularly in rural areas, because it's really

not much different than in the urban areas. Right because economic mobility and the ability to find a job based on you know, whatever those you know, points of impact are, it's equally difficult. Even though they're they're they're different, it's still near impossible to go find the job anywhere close to town because there's nowhere to get a job where. Yeah, where the just just like your question, where am I

going to do that? Totally in the same way that I'm going Look, man, I am like you cut me open, saltwater comes out like like I am Pacific Ocean, California, saut like Los Angeles. But if you were to tell me, hey, there's a job that could pay you this much, if you'd be will to move to I don't know, Columbus, Ohio, I'm like, there's not a job in the world that's gonna make me leave the West, you know what I'm saying, Because it's like this is what that is my family,

This is my unit. And what I what I also know about, like these rural communities have that are also very similar to the hood, is like our family ties are so much more than just blood. You know what I'm saying. It's like I lived across the street from this kid since we were in preschool. Like you know what I'm saying, Like that is my cousin. Like I don't know what else to tell you. That's my cousin.

And I'm not gonna like what do you you learn how to create this whole economy among itself in the sense of like I need a transmission fixed, or you know my oil leak? Is my car's leaking oil? Okay, homeway down the street? Like here, let me bring you a six pack of coronas. Can you work on this out? You need babysitter? Okay, good, my sister's home, so like my sister will watch your children. You fix this. Anybody need a ride, I'm gonna go to the store. You

know what I'm saying. We like even on my street, right now like we do when we do like you know, trader jail runs or whatever the case may be, Like we text each other, you need anything, anything, because it's just like this is our family. So if I leave because of some job, like I'm not just leaving to get work, like I'm leaving an entire kinship unit, you know. So it's not as simple as just being like yo, I'm out, Like no, it just we won't have like like I think a lot of times people forget like

the nuclear family kind of a function of economics. You can pay for extended families, you pay for babysitters, you pay for nannies, you pay for this. Let me pay for that. My neighbor does it, you know, right? And I think that there's so many people in our generation and the generations behind us, have this mentality of like, oh, well there's this job, I'll just pick up and move right.

But for there are so many people in different communities where you are intimately tied to a place like who you are, you're identity, your your your culture, everything that you know, your fans, like all of it is in a particular place, and it's like who am I if I'm not here? Who am I that. I'm like, that's exactly what we think, right if I'm not from here? Who?

And ultimately what you said about it being an issue of economics, that's exactly right, because this idea of getting the ability to pack up and move to another state. Number One, can we talk about moving costs? Holy crap, we just did it. It's so pensive to rent track, get the boxes and do all the things and sell the house and whatever. It's so expensive. Number when you

have moving costs. Number Two, if you have kids, like your job that you're picking up and leaving for better pay enough to pay for childcare because you're moving away from grandma and grandpa or that anti or whatever that is built in childcare that you don't have to pay for, and all of a sudden you're looking at all of these incurring costs and this job that is gonna pay what maybe ten twelve thousand dollars more than what you make right now, which is nominal, not even going to

scripe the surface of childcare coverage is like, it's just not worth it. And so we have this um kind of mentality in this generation and the generation behind us going like with this, it's a mentality that it's bad. It's just a fundamental lack of understanding of someone's tied to a particular place and how important that is, how actually beautiful that is, and are ties to our culture, our ties to our location is really really great. For

lack of better farm like, it's just it's important. And I think that we do a disservice to a lot of people by kind of looking down on it and not treating it as something of value. I don't know so good. So I think that like these these systems, this idea of like man, like I'm from here, I'm born here, I'm gonna die here, Like I want to make this work right at some point with all the issues, Like at some point you're gonna ask yourself like, okay, well now we need a villain, like well then why

is it? And I feel like um, which brings us to the next part of this, like where we could talk a little bit about the answer in tariffs and um who who created all of our problems? Right, which I think a lot of times feeds the racism that's cinophobia, Like it needs a lot those things, because you got it. If it's not our fault, right, if we didn't ask

for this situation. It came from somewhere, right. So one thing that I've noticed about our Democratic candidates is like, depending on who where you're standing to be on, to be on somebody's team, you gotta hate those dudes. Like there's a there's a those dudes, right, So like kind of scratches the same itch I think that Donald Trump scratch, which is like, yo, your problem is those people, and

I'm here to protect you from those people. Now, granted he's making up shit I'm saying, like that's like, that's what you're saying is verifiably not true, right, And he's just making boss moves, getting his homies off, you know, buying, buying the judges. You feel me like just super hood, right, And part of me feels like I getting a slight satisfaction in seeing, uh, the rest of America rit large see what poor and brown communities have always known the

criminal justice to be. Like you just just like if you've got enough money, you find what I'm saying, So they always okay, yeah, but but like you gotta have a like the problem is them. If you're you know, if you're if you're a Bernie Bro, then like well, the problems are wealthy. If you're on Elizabeth Warren, Okay, well the problem is the corporation. You know what I'm saying, Like that's the problem, Like take care of, take care of,

take down of this, take down to this. I read this article in Time on Time magazine a few few years back about the coal miners, saying it was this lady. She was writing about her dad and she's her dad's like just olg like coal miner, you know. And her thing is like, look, dude, you're her daddy. Don't hate this immigrant, Filipino immigrant that's like in this cave with me. She's like he case Sedan, the guy sitting in the office cutting our lunch per Diem, Like he's like, man,

I made this guy. He got a black lung, like I got you know what I'm saying, like all I hate this dude, Like I hate that dude. We're me and him sharing a freaking cause, Junior Sandwich. You know what I'm saying, Why you over there? But anyway, the idea of like you gotta get a them, that's the problem. So my question is for the woods, who is them? Who's the problem. I mean, it depends on the issue.

I think Donald Trump in particular liked to make immigrants coming to like that there was immigrants coming to take your jobs, which if you've lived in any rural community that that has been affected by economic downturn, by the closing of factories or you know, lumber mills, like we talked about, it had nothing to do with immigration. Zero moving to Idaho. Zero point zero percent of it was affected by immigration. But it's an easy bogey man, right,

It's an easy because it's them. It's they're coming over the border to take your jobs. And it's like, well, are they coming to central Idaho mountains to come take our jobs? Like no, No, that's not something that's happening. And so, and I don't mean to laugh at it, because it genuinely has been this instilled fear in people that we're having to really work out and deprogram people.

But when you are constantly on edge because you can't make enst me, you can't feat your family, you don't have healthcare, someone's addicted like you have all right, like all the players, you are inherently going to be more inclined to fear, and you're going to be more inclined to the other, because, like you said, it gives you a scapegoat. It gives you a reason for all of the horrible, shitty things that have happened to you. And so what who is the other? Who is the bad

guy in this scenario. A lot of people understand it for what it is, is just a matter of economics that's really awful. A lot of people are really frankly kind of delusional and they're you know, like they believe that Donald Trump is going to bring back the lumber mil right, like he's going to bring back all these jobs. He's going to bring back that factory. And it's like, I don't know that that factory is not coming back, Like it's gonna stay in China. It's gonna stay in

China with all their fancy computers. Like it's not coming back to your tiny rural town. I wish it was for your sake, but it's not going to And so there's there's a bit of delusion, and you know a lot of people do see it for what it is, which is there are a lot of factors and systems

at play way above any of our pay grade. When we talk about things like tariffs, and I mean not not just tariffs, but like the global economic space and how the United States and our industries fit into that space, it naturally affects towns like ours that we're providing those goods, were providing that machinery, we're providing those factories that it's just a lot cheaper to do it elsewhere, and it's terrible and it sucks, but it's the reality of the

world that we live in. And so some people understand that. Some people are looking for a scapegoat, and the easy one is, well, the immigrants came and took our jobs, which makes no sense. And then you have that delusion piece of Donald Trump said he's going to come and

fix this, He's going to bring back these jobs. And so then not only do you have a scapegoat, you have a savior um and it's a savior that is built on really crappy and false promises, as we have very clearly communicated, and so you have all these is kind of combining at the same time, and it just creates this vacuums like hole in a vacuum where Donald Trump fits really perfectly into that, and his economics and his answers to things fit the puzzle pieces that that

these people have in their heads and it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking, which is why so many of these towns are Trump country, and a lot of it is especially with that immigrant piece, I mean deeply ingrained racism. You can't say that it's not like it is economic anxiety that is fueled by racism like they are. They are both it is. It

is a band not in either or um. If I have to read one more think piece about economic anxiety and rural America where it doesn't talk about the realities of racism, going to lose my damn mind because it's a bothan and so yeah, like it can be two things at the same time, two things can be true.

So I think, yeah, that's that's kind of the landscape of economic realities and making someone the bad guy and yet looking so desperately for someone to fix it because it's a complicated with you, right, Like the lumbermill closes in town, there's no other jobs that fit your skill set, You no longer have the ability to pay for health care for your family. You need someone to fix it because there's no easy answer. And this guy comes along

and says he's got an answer to fix it. What are you gonna do ye, I'm gonna follow that, dude, or I'm gonna sell or I'm gonna sell purpose it exactly right. Yeah, that's exactly right. And so that's kind of the realities on the ground. And it's it's hard. Like I said, it's it's it's heartbreaking. It's in raging,

don't get me wrong. As someone who looks at Donald Trump for who he is and all the lies that he says and realizes that he's completely full of crap, Like you can see it, but there are a lot of people who, because of their situations, are literally not able to see it and able to see it for what it is. And you have to go, man, that's enraging, but also very sad. So you you mentioned, which is one of his quicker solutions, is a tariff. Right, so

you got the wall. Well, it's like, okay, if we just build this medieval barrier, then like you can't get past that, So we're good, you know, or I'm gonna make sure you know, you're gonna make us some money. If you can make us some money, you're gonna come in. But one of the one of the things you mentioned, China May you mentioned a tariff. So like, let's step back and like give vocabulary lesson here. So in your your your political science brain, like explain of tariff. Okay,

So a tariff is simply a tax, that's all it is. Like, that's a that's a great way to describe it. So we all pay our taxes, right, we pay taxes hopefully maybe yeah, sure we Right, we pay our taxes for things like schools and you know, roads and I mean all the things. Right, So we pay our taxes. That is a domestic tax that we pay for those services. Um, A tariff is simply a tax that the federal government

puts on imported products from other countries. So we have standard import taxes on pretty much every good and service that comes in from another country, and other countries have it on our stuff too. This isn't just a one way street for America. This is global. Everyone has their tariffs. What Donald Trump has done is ratcheted up those tariffs because for whatever reason, he thinks that things like aluminum and steel need to be taxed super super high because

we're getting a really you know, unfair deal. And so what he does is he ratchetscept tariffs, so that tax makes them really really really expensive. And so what a lot of people will look at it face value is say, oh, yeah, the Chinese, they stole our jobs, they stole our factories. Let's make them pay. Let's pay, Let's make them Let's slap that tariff on him, start a trade war. They're the bad guys, right, Who, in the end do you

think pays for that consumer? It's the consumer that price has to As Republicans like to remind us all the time, trickle down, right, trickle down from somewhere, which is why right now across the country, aluminum and steel prices are through the roof. Therefore, house building costs are skyrocketing. Right, not just house building, but like any sort of industry building, building new factories, building new buildings, and inner cities, building

new I mean, even affordable housing. We can't pay to build more affordable housing in urban areas because the cost of building is so stick and expensive, because why tear us so good? So if you want to so so translation, if you want to sell them my block, it's got to cost you. Right, I'm gonna selling your block. I know you're gonna charge me. But if you're going to raise the price for me to sell here, I'm just

gonna raise the price of the product. Right. If I raise the price of the product, then that means the consumer is going to cover it. But if the consumer

doesn't have no jobs, this don't help nobody. So if the yeah, so, if the problem is you're saying, I'm gonna raise the costs on aluminum, which means, now, if I'm a wage worker, a construction worker, right this company that wants to build houses, that means that if it costs me more for material, that means I gotta pay you less, which means I'm probably not gonna hire you. So you right back in the same situation in the first place, The tariff don't help you, fan, It doesn't

help anybody. And actually it not only doesn't help the consumer, it doesn't help the business trying to sell the product, because at some point there's going to be a price cap, right, Like, there's gonna be me so high that a consumer will

pay for a particular product. And if they will not pay above that market value, as we like to say, right, then the business that is providing that product is going to have to drop their back end prices, which means they make less money, which means less less net profits, which means businesses lose lesson they close, they lose more money they may clothes. Right, So there's this like it's this multilayered process between consumer provider and then the actual material.

But ultimately it screws all of us when Donald Trump slaps giant terrorists and then eventually China goes, which which any other provider would say, Okay, well are you telling me yeah? If you if you yeah, either a tip for tat. You know what I'm saying. It's like what you want to slay here too? First of all, one in four humans on the planet is Chinese. There's just more humans here, so right, So there's that. And then number two China is like, okay, so you telling me

that this block that's too high of a price. I guess I'll just go across the street. That's too high. So I'll just sell this product that you get that all the young people love. I'm just gonna go ahead and take that down to Canada. I'll just selled it in Canada. Ain't charging me that much, you feel me? Right? Everybody loses yep, exactly exactly right, and like they and

they have retaliated right, and they totally retaliated. Yeah, and there have been countries in Europe where we have Trump, I can't say we Trump has slapt on terroriffs and then they're like, cool, how about a really fat tariff on like Tennessee whiskey. How do you think Mitch McConnell felt about that for Kentucky burban I guess it would have been so like, yeah, I mean there's there's there's a also very quickly an element of vengeance that comes

into it, which creates a very volatile global market. So ultimately slapping these sort of terroriffs, especially on companies like China who are massive economic players in the global economy, um, it's such a bad idea. And I mean economists across the board, not just liberal ones, conservative ones are like I don't think this is a good idea. Stop stop stop, Like everyone's like, this is going to do what you think is going to do exactly. Everyone's like this is

a bad idea. Economists the globe over going like this is not a smart move. So there's that too, not a good move. And it's affected the hood and affected the woods. It has niche. That's about our time. I'll hold you too. Much longer. But thank you so much. Oh my gosh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. You just took us down such a dope route. I love the wisdom and the poise and just so rad. Do you have any thing you need to plug? Where can people find you on the inner webs? Drop it all along?

All right? Well, you can find me on Instagram if you want to see my life in Narnia, Yes, the woods, you can follow me. It's at Nishi se and that's really where I'm at right now these days. Props. It's just on Instagram, trying to like scanal back on that social media taking over by smart You went to the woods and your whole life slowed down. You was like, look, I don't it's nice out here. These pine trees smell amazing.

It's a little nice. I like to stop, and you know, I don't need everyone's anger in my eyes all the time. So it's been good. But yeah, there it is, like we always like to end every episode. Politics is just gang banging in nice suits. Thank you for joining us, yo, yo, Thank you again, Niche for coming through. Hopefully you saw yourself in a mirror that you never thought you'd see. This episode it's recorded by myself, It's mixed and mastered and scored by my man Matt Osawowski. He still don't

know how to say his name. Um and special thanks to our Patreon who's made this thing possible. You go to Red couch pot dot com to get your hands on some episodes and bonuses and things you don't even know about. And our theme song was made by the one and only DJ Shaan p y'all will see y'all next week. Boostin's so little like college, how