Critical thinking is the ability to analyze information objectively, question assumptions, evaluate evidence, understand cause and effect, and reach a reasoned conclusion rather than simply accepting a claim at face value.

For MAGA in simpler terms: looking beyond what you’re being told and asking whether the facts, evidence, and logic actually support it.

🔵 Farmers know Trump created the problem in the first place. His tariffs make many imported goods and inputs more expensive for American businesses, including things farmers buy to operate. Then retaliatory tariffs can make American crops harder to sell overseas, hitting farmers from both directions. The government then gives farmers aid to offset some of that damage. Raise their costs, hurt their markets, then hand them money and call it help.

🔴 Farmers, by contrast, are portrayed as lacking critical thinking; the ability to think for themselves. Instead, they simply say yes to Trump and put on their kneepads quickly.

so, they will drive their trucks/tractors to protest high diesel prices and make the orange zombie do something about it.

they're wasting diesel when they should walk instead to conserve such a valuable comodity.

that's the funny bit to me. Protesting expensive fuel prices... by burning said expensive fuel?

It looks like there will be a bailout coming for farmers. I think this is not a bad thing. Of course, there should be rules:

First, all recipients should be drug tested (routinely);

Second, their criminal and civil records should be examined (with disqualification for law-breakers);

Third, their output should be audited to make sure they are only producing high-profit products (none of those low value crops that no-one needs anyway); and

Fourth, their spending should be tracked (the taxpayer shouldn't be giving them money so they can blow it on cakes, candy, or soda pop-no frivolous expenditures on my dime!)

But don't worry, it's not Donald Trump's fault, it's Ukraine's fault for hitting Russian refineries.

Governor in Missouri declares diesel prices a State of Emergency

Farm bankruptcies were up 46% in 2025 and, to quote the article from March..."[t]he outlook for 2026 is bleak." Why?

Current Distress in the Agriculture Sector

The U.S. farm economy has experienced a multi-year downturn characterized by eroding profitability, escalating costs, and rising leverage. After record highs in 2022, net farm income has declined, with 2025 marking the latest contraction. The causes include:

• Falling Revenue. Weak crop prices—particularly for corn and soybeans—combined with softening livestock margins, have reduced cash receipts for four consecutive years. Global surpluses and uneven export demand continue to suppress prices.
• Elevated Costs. Production expenses remain near record levels, driven by fertilizer, fuel, labor, chemicals, and interest expenses.
• Rising Leverage. Farmers increasingly rely on larger operating loans and carryover debt to bridge gaps. Many are tapping credit lines simply to plant, with repayment periods lengthening.

Magas are sneaking into the blue dot farmer groups to just spread hate and bitch about how we are creating the divide and can't seem to understand that we are responding to the divide their dear leader had caused.

They keep threatening to start a red dot farmers thing- saying we will be upset about that.
The thing is that most people looking for the blue farmers don't really seem to care if they want to have their maga farmers organization.

Why do they think it will upset us?
Why do they care where we spend our money?
And why do they try to claim morality because they will sell to anyone and not "discriminate"-their words not mine-against blue shoppers?
Why can't they understand that choosing where to spend our money is how we support businesses that align with our views, morals, and ethics?

Like they cannot help themselves and always have to interject their opinions on things like this that they deem as not fair. Because won't someone please think of the white racists?

Farmers and truck drivers aren’t just getting squeezed by high diesel prices, they’re facing a much bigger long-term threat: automation.

New autonomous trucks are being developed that can operate with little or no driver involvement, while electric and alternative-fuel models could reduce or eliminate diesel use entirely. That means the future challenge isn’t only the cost of filling the tank, it’s technology that could fundamentally change trucking jobs and the transportation system farmers depend on.

Art by Trilemma

This links to a page where you can see who receives subsidy payments county by county in the US. The data can be seen year by year since 1995, or as a total since that date:

https://farm.ewg.org/top_recips.php??ips=00000&progcode=total_mfp&yr=2024&regionname=theUnitedStates

For example, I found that one local farmer who is the chairman of my county Republican Party and frequent MAGA contributor to the local weekly newspaper has receive just over $1.4 million in the last 30 years.

EWG also provides A LOT of useful information about all things financial related to farming and the federal government.