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The Socio-Politics of Night in the Woods and the Rust Belt | Gnoggin - YouTube
Channel: Lockstin & Gnoggin
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Night in the woods is a very interesting game.
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And not one that I would just recommend to
everyone.
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Though I enjoyed it greatly myself, itâs
not the kind of game that just anyone can
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enjoy.
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Though if you are around the age of 20, and
are at all depressed or empathetic or are
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wondering your place in the world, this game
is for you 100%.
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But one of the most interesting things about
this game to me, was Possum springs, the town
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the game takes place in, it is one of the
most interesting, unique, realistic, and relatable
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settings in a video game I have played.
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So yes, there will be spoilers here, but nothing
major.
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So lets learn about Possum Springs, and its
inspiration from the sad reality that is the
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Rust Belt.
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Now, maybe itâs just me and my west coast
education, But I hadnât even heard the term
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Rust Belt until about a year ago.
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And as I think about this, I feel like this
video may be common knowledge to those who
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live in it, but for me and I assume many of
the rest of this side of the country, its
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all new information.
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But even though I had no idea what a Rust
Belt was when I first heard it, thankfully,
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I was able to piece together where it was
just by the name of it.
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Itâs this area of the U.S, Mainly Michigan,
Indiana, and Ohio, but also crossing into
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Pennsylvania, Illinois, and western New York.
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And it gets the name rust belt becauseâŠ
well, basicallyâŠ
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itâs falling apart.
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The most famous city in the rust belt is of
course Detroit.
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So think of everything famous about Detroit,
but spread throughout small towns scattered
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across that part of the country.
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Here we see the modern ruins of a prosperous
past.
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In the mid-20th century, this part of america
was at its richest.
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Its factories and mines were pumping out products
left and right, and the big ones too.
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Coal, Cars, construction equipment, machinery,
steel, lumber, everything.
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And this is reflected in Night in the woods
well.
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Possum springs was a mining town.
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And the locals are proud of it.
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Spanning murals of their prosperous time along
walls, and erecting monuments.
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Their local sports team are the Smelters,
named after their once prosperous smelting
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facilities in the area.
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And the older citizens refer to the gold old
days frequently.
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These older citizens mostly would be from
the Baby Boomer generation, the time when
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this area WAS at its most prosperous, they
grew up in an ever-improving world of high
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middle class living.
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Only for things to come crumbling down in
their adulthood.
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âAnd the kids these days don't understand
that things used to be better,â because
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they grew up at its worst.
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But why did it crumble?
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Well that of course depends on the political
views of who you are asking.
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Those on the right will often say itâs because
Taxes and regulations got too costly, which
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caused these businesses, mines and factories
to either shut down, or relocate to where
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it's cheaper.
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And those on the left will tell you itâs
the greedy CEOâs moving out to where they
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can line their own pockets more.
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And in reality, itâs both, along with the
added factor of technological improvement.
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I mean, 1 miner with a machine can do the
same work in a day that 10 miners could in
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a week 60 years ago.
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And yes, it became significantly cheaper to
move these factories elsewhere because of
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regulations and taxes.
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But many, though not all of those regulations
were for safteyâs sake.
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Afterall Mines and factories are dangerous
places.
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So It can be viewed as greedy CEOâs wanting
to just move instead of spending money on
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guard rails and paperwork, but it also makes
business sense.
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Take me for example.
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Just a few months ago I moved out of california
because the cost of living is too high and
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they tax me too much.
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Being a Youtuber is considered running your
own small business.
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So I moved to Oregon for business reasons...
and because the weather is much much nicer
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here.
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Factories, especially at the time, tend to
have good wages.
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Supporting tons of middle class families from
1 person, usually the father, working there.
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So when these factories leave, suddenly these
middle class families are stuck with middle
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class bills to pay, but are stuck working
for lower wages at retail jobs⊠and thats
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if there are even any of those left!
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This is also reflected by Maeâs dad.
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He used to work in the mines, but now works
at a grocery store, and he hates it, Maeâs
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mom has to work now too.
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And it sounds like, despite their efforts,
something is going to happen to their house...
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They probably cant afford to keep it anymore.
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Beatrice and her father run a business together,
but recently had to drastically downscale
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to a small, worn down apartment, because they
simply couldn't afford the nice house anymore.
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The rust belt is full of empty houses, especially
nicer empty houses, at least they used to
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be nicer.
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But all of the middle and higher class people
left, or dropped into the lower class, foreclosures
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skyrocketed, and most people could no longer
afford to keep their houses.
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The same goes for parks, schools, and businesses.
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Because if people can barely afford their
small houses and apartments, then they donât
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have leftover money to spend at other businesses,
so those businesses dont make enough money
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to stay afloat, so they either fail, or move
out to a more prosperous area.
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LEaving the rust belt town even more empty
and worn down.
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At one point, you drive for an hour just to
get to a mall, a nicer place to shop and hang
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out, but even it is a bit run down and empty.
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This is the point in the game that resonated
with me the most, because this is happening
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across the country, not just in the Rust belt.
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Malls suck nowadays, at least compared to
how they used to be.
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And why?
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Well beatrice says it pretty clearly.
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Because of the internet.
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There are many articles and predictions from
economists that state that a âMallpocolypseâ
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is just around the corner.
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Multiple mall-chain stores can no longer afford
to keep running.
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They canât compete with internet prices
and still pay Mall-rent.
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Malls charge a lot for rent, and haven't really
adapted to the times.
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Most of them just donât realize that they
are killing themselves.
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And while its hitting malls hardest, the same
thing is happening to outlet stores and small
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businesses in general.
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The internet is making them obsolete.
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But while this is hitting the nation, it hits
the rust belt especially hard, since its almost
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all they have left.
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Another point that gets brought up is that
the small local businesses are closing first,
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and they are being replaced with major chain
businesses, like the Snack Falcon.
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Seeing this made me relive a bit of culture
shock I had a year ago, when I first visited
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Oregon.
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I had no idea that so many local businesses
could exist in one area.
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My hometown of Redding CA is 95% chain stores
and restaurants, because the only places that
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can afford to exist there are the ones with
major backing.
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But the problem with that is, when you say,
buy a starbucks coffee at a walmart, most
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of that money is going to another part of
the country, where their headquarders are
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based.
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But when you buy a local thing from a local
store, all of your money is going to be used
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to further advance your own local area.
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You are supporting your local area.
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But at this point, the rust belt cant afford
to support local, because there are so few
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local businesses these days, only the major
chains can afford to be there.
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And so, its a cycle, and the people get poorer,
and poorer.
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And the effects are well shown in Night in
the woods.
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Firstly, everything is run down, but also,
there are Lottery ads all over.
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Notably, the poorer you are, the more likely
you are to buy lottery tickets.
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And lottery companies know this and prey on
the poor for their dollar.
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Lots of the young adults here, especially
beatrice, wished they could have afforded
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to go to college at all, but they can't, Too
expensive.
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New technology is expensive too, and even
though this game takes place in 2017, most
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of the tech in the world is outdated, from
the early otâs.
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People cant afford to keep up here.
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One of the most prosperous and well kept local
businesses in Possum springs is a pawn shop.
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Likely because the poor citizens are selling
their more valuable belongings to afford food.
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Another interesting yet obvious statistic
is that pawn shops also do better the more
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poor a particular area is.
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Also, the poorer it is, the more crime and
drug use there is.
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Which is also why the shadier of pawn shops
do well.
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And this is also referenced by Maeâs friend
Casey apparently being in the Meth making
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business.
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Another trait of the rust belt is sinkholes,
which is a recurring point in night in the
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woods too.
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Its why there is so much construction going
on, repairing the sinkholes.
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The reason sinkholes are such a big problem
in this part of the world is because of all
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the old abandoned mines just sitting there,
empty, slowly eroding holes underground.
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The surface ground can only stay up for so
long.
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And this segways nicely into the spoiler-y-est
part of the video, its about the underground
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cult which, thoery: im pretty sure consists
mostly of the city council members.
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Though they are the antagonists of the game,
I feel like they fit into the relatable category
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of villains.
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The ones that have a good point, good intentions,
and are relatable and understandable, but
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go about things in... not the best way.
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In this case, they discovered that a sinkhole
within one of the abandoned mines lead to,
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EHEM, an eldritch horror known as the black
goat, and when they sacrifice someone to it
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their town prospers a bit for just a while.
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So the connection between them and the city
council is obvious, they are the only groups
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you see in the game, and the both have the
same goal.
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Make the town great again.
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And there we go, I said it.
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Make the town great again.
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Lets go political.
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The way I found out about the term âRust
beltâ is the same way many other people
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found out about it.
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The 2016 US presidential elections.
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It was the unexpected twist of rust belt states
turning red that caused Trump to be elected.
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If you go back and look at these political
maps, its easy to see that while the rust
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belt contains a few swing states, they tend
to be bluer, the few times they go red is
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when the entire country has a very obvious
preference.
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But in recent years, people have been getting
more and more polarized, so most media outlets
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assumed these states would all be blue because
of their more recent history.
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Its why it was thrown left and right that
clinton had a 90% chance to win, and then
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she didnt.
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Because of the Rust belt, a part of the country
that is usually ignored.
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And while places like Buzzfeed and popular
tumblr blogs will tell you its because they
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are sexist and racist, (even though they dominantly
voted for Obama both times before, and have
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been blue for most of history⊠so how and
why would they suddenly become thisâŠ.)
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Anyway⊠the real reason is much more complicated,
and much sadder than that.
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Its because this part of the nation is called
the rust belt for a reason.
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*Video Clips *I voted for that obamer feller
years back, I thought he would help* *Trumps
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going to bring the jobs back, thats all I
care about*
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And a few journalists covered it very well.
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This part of the country is experiencing all
of those problems I mentioned earlier and
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more.
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Politicians of all kinds always promise more
than they will ever give of course, but Obamas
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campaign in particular was one of hope, hope,
and change.
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Which is exactly what the whole rust belt
wanted at the time, and still wants, they
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hope for a change that will make their part
of the country, great again.
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And after Obama made those promises, and fixed
nothing...
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well..
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Whats the point in voting for Hillary?
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One of the major flaws that political analysers
on ALL sides point to in Hillarys campaign,
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was that she offered very little change.
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She stood for basically everything obama did,
little more, little less.
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And since Obama did very little for this part
of the country, why would hillary?
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MeanwhileâŠ
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Trump went out of his way to appeal to the
rust belt.
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Claiming that he wants to bring those jobs
back.
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Which is exactly what the people there want,
itâs what they want more than anything.
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And they can look past the flaws that the
media pounds upon constantly, because they
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see voting for him as the greater good.
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And even if he didnât campaign in that area
exactly, many analysts still believe that
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these states would have voted for him.
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Because he still represents some form of change.
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At least something will be different, at least
there will be some, even if minor, some small
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chance that things will get better...
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And thatâs all these people want nowâŠ
change for the better, instead of the constant
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decline, and instead of being ignoredâŠ
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And before the comments turn into a dumpster
fire for me daring to say anything remotely,
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vaguely, slightly, positive about trump.
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*ehem* of course he isn't actually doing anything
to help much at all, in fact a few of the
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government programs that he is cutting the
funding from are programs *specifically* made
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to help that region do better.
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Welcome to politics 101, every politician
on every side promises more than they will
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EVER be able to do.
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Wow.
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But the politics of the region and even the
rest of the country are well portrayed in
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Night in the Woods too.
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Albeit subtly.
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Both the rust belt and possum springs share
a certain dynamic between conservatism and
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liberalism.
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The older generation is religious, with churches
scattered about.
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Christendom in the broadest sense, has both
a form of conservatism, and generosity involved,
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though not through liberal means.
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What i mean is, politically speaking, christians
and even just religious people in general,
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tend to vote more conservatively.
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Yet at the same time, tend to be involved
much more heavily in charity organizations,
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such as helping the homeless.
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And youâll notice that the majority of the
characters involved in the church even remotely,
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are much older.
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Meanwhile the discussions you have about spirituality
with the younger characters reveal that they
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tend to go either agnostic or atheist.
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This along with the political ideologies we
know of in the game, such as bea being part
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of the young socialists, goes in line with
what is currently happening.
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Many in the older generations tend to be more
conservative in general, while the younger
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generation right now seems to be the most
liberal theyâve been in modern history.
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Part of it is due to polarization of course,
but its also because of..wellâŠ
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everything.
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Politics, especially in the broadest and generational
sense, tends to be complicated.
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Nobody is purely one thing, everyone is a
shade of grey.
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Near the end of the game we see Bea talk about
the old cult people wanting to gain back the
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âworld of the past that barely existedâ.
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Which is very accurate to how many younger
people these days see the older generation.
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You see on the news, older people talking
about their glory days, about their booming
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businesses, about Ronald Reagan, about a time
where they could walk into a store with conviction
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and get a job immediately.
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A time where things were only getting better.
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More than anything, the world you grow up
in and spend your young adult life in becomes
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your normal, it makes you who you are.
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So âkids these days, they dont knowâ does
have *some* merit to it.
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Kids these days grew up in a post 9-11 world
that was already falling apart, and ghost
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towns are all over the place now.
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This is the new normal, and many younger people
cant even fathom it being any different.
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Much like Bea, they have terrible childhoods,
working extra hard just to be able to eat
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tv dinners.
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âIf only those business had stayed, then
things would be better.
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But they are gone now, those businesses ruined
everything, its their fault.
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Forget the business sector, capitalism ruined
everything!
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the government should help the social sector
so that my life would be better, so that its
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more fair.â
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And thus a socialist is born.
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This is also exactly why we have phases and
flip flopping political views through the
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generations.
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Kids grow up being raised by their parents
from 1 or two generations behind.
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Plus they grow up in a world that is being
mainly effected and controlled by the previous
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generation.
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And because most of us are little rebels,
at least on the inside, we want to be different,
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unique, so we go against that.
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While what classifies as conservative vs liberal
has changed over the generations, its notable
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that baby boomers were, for the time, very
liberal.
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But in turn, they raised generation X, a more
balanced but leaning a bit towards conservatism
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generation.
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By today's standards though, both fall into
conservatism much more, and that factor, along
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with being raised by boomers and gen Xers,
the Millennial generation is the most liberal
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generation, possibly in history.
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The Main characters in night in the woods
would fall into the very tail end of this
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generation.
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And being raised in a more extreme environment
of any kind affects your outcome too, in their
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case, it makes sense that they would lean
towards the left.
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They are living in a falling apart city whose
older inhabitants are all much more conservative
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and, from their perspective, are stuck in
the past.
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And because the more conservative government
doesn't seem to be interested in helping,
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well, it just makes sense to do the opposite.
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And tangential fun fact, the extreme left
views of Millennials and early Gen Z kids
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in general seems to be leading to the bulk
of Generation Z being the most conservative
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generation since the 1940s.
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At least according to political, pop media
trend, financial, and generational analysts.
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And speaking of analysts, not to jump on any
fear-trains, but Iâve read more than a few
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times and even did my 6-month-long final project
in High School on the prediction that California
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is going to become the next sort of rust-belt.
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Which looking at my home town, I can see 100%.
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The politics and policies that *definitely*
benefit southern california, are destroying
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northern California.
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And thus, more people and businesses are moving
out of california, and moving to states like
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Texas, Oklahoma, and Washington.
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But thats a subject I could spend on hour
on for another time.
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To summarize, Often times, people who live
in the area I do, the West coast, will have
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no idea about the problems in the rust belt.
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They are confused why and how they could even
flip flop politically so much, especially
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during the last election.
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And to those people I say, Check out Night
in the Woods.
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Itâs easily the most accurate portrayal
of that part of the country.
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Desperate, yet strong and hopeful people of
a once-prosperous part of the nation.
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They are strong, and do everything they can
to stay afloat, arm in arm they raise each
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other up in their small towns.
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Though, through seeing the continuous decline,
some get desperate, and will overlook any
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crimes or misdoings if it potentially works
for the greater good of their area.
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Sure, you could say some are stuck in the
past, but at least they haven't given up.
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And as on Ohioan, Iâve certainly experienced
a lot of this first hand.
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My home town was pretty much a cookie cutter
rust belt area.
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Oh hey, its Swankybox from the youtube channel
Swankybox which has multiple awesomely in
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depth videos about Night in the Woods, what
brings you here?
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Weeeeeell, you know, I just magically edited
my voiceover into your finished video!
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By the way, did you know that the stars and
constellations in Night in the Woods and its
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prequel games may have foreshadowed the events
of the game?
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I didnât!
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But that sounds awesome!
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Looks like the developers didnât only put
details into the Rust belt aspect, but the
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astrological aspect too!
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Iâll definitely check that out and encourage
my viewers to also!
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So what do all you think?
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Is Possum springs an accurate portrayal of
the Rust Belt?
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And did you expect a big lesson in politics
from a video about a game featuring cat-gods?
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Let me know down below, and until next time,
never stop using your gnoggin!
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