Why Elites Want to Mask the Suffering of Poor Whites

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/why-elites-want-mask-suffering-poor-whites



NBC's recent story on how 80 percent of Americans will be living at or near the poverty level in their lifetimes was accompanied by the above photo of a "poor white family".

The heart of the the AP's report on the (further) economic imperilment of the American people is focused on the rise in "white poverty", and the struggles faced by the "white working class" in the time of the Great Recession.

Images that feature human beings "work" in communicating political and social meaning because of how the viewer "reads" them. As such, there are stated and unstated assumptions which the person who is "seeing" applies to the "object" of their gaze.

For example, the White Gaze views a photo of a young black man wearing a hoodie and whose pants are sagging and sees a person who exists in a state of criminality, and is a social predator.

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. That's a good read.

The math of the new white poverty is simple, there wasn't enough left to loot with brown folks so whites became the new target. Its a new kind of "racial equality" doesn't bring people of color up, it just brings a whole lot of white people down, because that's where the (short term) money is. The photo isn't necessarily representative, but it does speak to some forms of oppression: For instance the food available to the poor tends to be nutritionally bankrupt, but high in fat. It leaves you hungry wanting more for lack of nutrients, and you pack on the pounds. I'm in that group of poor, under employed whites, and I can relate to a lot of this.

God, I've been on DU for years, and also connecting with all kinds of alternative media, watching this - disease - take over our country, and the world. Its about a fundamental failure in morality. Just tonight I heard some alternative source describe Wall St. behaviour leading up to the collapse as people who wanted to make their money, run off to some islands and not worry about the collapse, as it wouldn't "effect" them. But with every lonely day I spend thinking about this, calculating, researching the truth, the more and more I see that there is not such thing as "self" existing in isolation, free from what other people are going through. Our fundamental nature is that we are all connected. Liberation comes not from hiding from the world's plight - we can't, we are part of the world. Liberation comes from accepting it, and fulfilling our moral obligations.

All this greed and immorality is grounded in an illusion, and it will shatter. Those who invest in this illusion will suffer. But when will we come to this awareness, and how?

Back to work.

PEace.

[duhneece]

3. They think that living in gated communities, 'green zones' makes them safe

It gives them the illusion of safety, but if they checked with the elites of countries with no social safety nets, little investment in infrastructure like great public education, legal system (Mexico is our closest example), they'll find terror as kidnapping to make a living is commonplace.
There was a time when the very rich understood that their own lives, their own children's lives improved when they paid their fair share. Now, many are 'compassion challenged' like an illness.

[napoleon_in_rags]

11. The truth behind that is SOOOO deep.

Its a lot deeper, in fact than the threat of terror and kidnapping. Let's suppose the elites succeed at securing themselves while screwing the world, and 90% of the world dies while they drink cocktails. The defines a sort of momentum for the direction of the world, that's very hard to reverse. The fact is that that motion will continue, and all the smart money after such an event will be focused on surviving, or having their offspring survive, the NEXT such wave. This means things like training in tradecraft starting in kindergarten, cybernetic enhancements, genetic modifications of humans for the edge, etc. And above all, it promises the probability of 90% their offspring will not survive the next wave, and a probability of (1/10)^2 that a given member of their offspring will survive the wave after that, and the probability (1/10)^n their offspring will survive the nth wave. The elites who bank on "yeah, but we're the good guys" will be crushed, just like those who believed humanity was the good guys got crushed in the last wave.

Behind all this "cut the benefits for the poor" stuff has always been the sensibilities of Social Darwinism. If it were admitted, we could have the conversation of where that road leads: To the eradication of the human race, at the hands of whoever is able to engineer the more savage, advanced, hyper intelligent entity to serve their interests. Social Darwinism, or letting the poor die, once embraced becomes the path of good old fashioned biological evolution: If those who are selected by nature don't care about others, than you trust nature to produce ultimately "life forms" that don't care about anyone or anything, with vast intelligence and endless psychopathy to all weak and inferior humans. Such a future becomes the legacy for all the offspring of those who embrace social Darwinism now and prevail, oppression at the hands of whatever silicon enhanced cybernetic genetically altered monstrosity sits at the top of the position at the top food chain humans once occupied, and makes them the new version of the inferior people their ancestors once denounced as worthless.

But even that, even a nightmare for their offspring, isn't interesting to some of these people. Why can't they see? You have the coke. The ecstacy. The twin Serbian hookers. They work you over, and its good. Its very good. But its a moment, and now its gone, fading from memory. Its weak, its nothing. BUT THAT'S THE MOTIVATION FOR YOUR WHOLE LIFE, THAT WHICH IS FLEETING AND HAS NO SUBSTANCE. And you traded everything for it. The future of mankind, you cast all future generations into hell to have that moment with no substance. Don't you think you're underestimating the possibilities for your life? For human experience?

Rant over.

PEace.

[duhneece]

12. It's hard to imagine folks who care so little for their offspring, but there they are

Reminds me of a friend telling her teenage girls, "don't take things off the table now just because you don't want them; you MAY want them later more than you can imagine. Leave everything on the table."
I have much more hope these days after reading "Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined" a 2011 book by Steven Pinker arguing that violence in the world has declined both in the long ...and reading about activists who remind me that really it's about which side I'm on, where I'm putting my energy & action.
After reading 'Shock Doctrine' I was in a funk for months, but am back being active in the ways that I can now.

[napoleon_in_rags]

13. Thanks for the book rec.

I just added it to my Amazon buy list.

Yeah, man. Its a shocking moral state we find ourselves in. We used to couch the moral in terms of the religious, but I respect the atheist perspective, and frankly don't think we don't necessarily need the religious stuff to see things this fundamental: The ethical and moral realities stand on their own without religion, they are super real.

There's an oft threatened TV host, by the name of Abby Martin, who I admire, that reports on much of the junk going down. Someone asked her how she does it without fear of punishment, and she responded simply "It's not about me." She said its about people all over the world. That struck me. This is a person, who through moral action, has become bigger than herself. Its the same with Doctor King. They shot his self, but they couldn't kill HIM. He became much bigger than that little self. While for those who don't care about others, even their offspring, self is GOD. Self is EVERYTHING. And that little self is the only thing that we know is doomed. Humanity has a shot at continuing, but our little selves are doomed, now power, no money can change that. And those fleeting moments of power and privilege are even more doomed, to have one is to watch it die and to fade into memory. But those moments of moral action are eternal.

I apologize for my ranting, but that's the mood I'm in. Thanks for responding... I'm glad your active helping others. That's the good stuff, it gives me hope to hear.

Bless you, and thanks for the book rec. Peace.

[devils chaplain]

14. I will second the book rec...

I listened to the audiobook version -- it's thought provoking but not so dense as to require a written copy.

Like your name, by the way.

[duhneece]

17. Little self, big self

Bless you, too, Napoleon in Rags...It's so good to be reminded I'm not alone. You see things in much the same way I do...

[devils chaplain]

2. Most of us lower and working class white folks...

Vote for the party whose legislative priorities are eliminating capital gains taxes and slashing the top marginal income tax rate. Bizarre, but true. Nixon's "Southern Strategy" is slowly being defeated through demographic shifts; the coalition itself has still held together pretty well.

[Fumesucker]

4. There is a vast amount of sophisticated propaganda aimed at working class whites

There is an entire cable network devoted to nothing but propaganda aimed at working class whites and the rest of the media does it at least part time, even NPR and PBS play the right wing propaganda game.

I've seen it happen in my own family and read the stories here on DU time after time, a reasonable family member starts watching Fox/listening to right wing radio and turns into a shambling zombie who can do nothing but regurgitate cleverly deceptive talking points.

Once enough members of your community have flipped to right wing nut job it's very alienating if you don't also follow the herd, the pressure gets really intense. Again you can read about here in GD on about a weekly or better basis.

[Hydra]

6. It wouldn't be such a problem

But our party is playing into the "right wing nutjob" view of the world and catapulting it.

"Middle class" this, "Middle Class" that. The true middle class is almost extinct. What about the Working class? The Working poor class? Why aren't we talking about those people? Why are we funneling trillions to war and "terrorism" industries? Why are we coddling Wall St.?

All of the propaganda is merging into one complete and agreed upon lie...and anyone who is listening and believes our party is absorbing it and parroting it.

[devils chaplain]

16. To our ears...

Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. sound ridiculous to us because the lies and distortions they present are so obvious to the informed... but their talent and persuasiveness can't be understated. When they become one's primary source of news, it's pretty easy to fall down that rabbit hole. Goebbels won over one of the most sophisticated countries in the world.

[YoungDemCA]

8. I'm not sure that is true....

A lot of working-class and poor white voters are Democrats. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if a plurality didn't vote at all.

I think a lot of that, though, depends on region of the country, union vs non-union, religious beliefs, etc.

[devils chaplain]

15. Actually I would bet...

A majority don't vote at all. But if you look at the numbers you'll still see working class white folks tilt GOP. This isn't everywhere; in the northeast (Maine, Vermont, for example) and midwest (Minnesota, Iowa), a plurality trend Dem; but in the south, the vote is more along racial lines than anything else... the Nixon southern strategy. Exploit and foment racial tensions by making the enemy "violent, lazy welfare blacks", and the white plutocrats are suddenly your comrades in arms. It's a strategy that actually has been used successfully since the days of Reconstruction.
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Of course, there's also the "God, Guns, and Gays" issues with southern whites, but religious people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds have been able to get past this, and southern Democrats can still win elections with a good candidate. It's not a hopeless cause, but economic exploitation has to be brought to the forefront. Southern whites understand being screwed by the business elite.

[MisterP]

10. alas, the question now is, "WHICH party focused on further enriching the richest?" nt

[malaise]

5. K & R

Good read

[Safetykitten]

7. +1

[mick063]

9. We will evolve past this.

A popular term: "White trash"

The folks that live in trailer parks.

The "conditioning" has already begun.

[MrScorpio]

18. Chauncey DeVega is one of Alternet's best writers and one of my favorites

Thanks!