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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe National Review doubles down on blaming poor whites
This is kind of fascinating, in a train wreck sort of way
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/433060/white-working-class-debate-facts-can-be-nasty
Yet millions of Americans arent doing their best. Indeed, theyre barely trying. As Ive related before, my church in Kentucky made a determined attempt to reach kids and families that were falling between the cracks, and it was consistently astounding how little effort most parents and their teen children made to improve their lives. If they couldnt find a job in a few days or perhaps even as little as a few hours theyd stop looking. If they got angry at teachers or coaches, theyd drop out of school. If they fought with their wife, they had sex with a neighbor. And always always there was a sense of entitlement.
In response, Ive received quite a bit of blowback but very little actual argument. Im nasty and self-hating, Im trafficking in social Darwinism, and at least one writer feels my words are so self-evidently awful that merely quoting me is an illustration of the extraordinary sewer that is the American right today. But lost in all the name-calling is any actual refutation. There is an enormous problem with self-destructive behavior in the white working-class indeed, in poor and working-class families of all races. There is an enormous problem with entitlement. Talk to public school teachers. Talk to social workers. Talk to medical professionals in poor and working-class communities. Yes, they can point you to salt-of-the-earth families striving to make the best of terrible misfortunes, but they can also point you to many, many families where the parents engage in appalling behavior, the kids learn from mom and dad, and yet theyre befuddled and angry that they cant get ahead.
Its fascinating the extent to which some of my conservative critics have adopted leftist arguments. I could type all day about the failings of the establishment or the elite (indeed, Ive written far more about the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of Americas cultural elite than any other social class), and my cheering section is vast. To use the Lefts language, thats punching up, and thats cool and fine. But when I talk about undeniable, rampant problems in Americas working-class, then Im a meanie. Thats punching down.
This is classist nonsense. Its the soft bigotry of low expectations. Were all responsible for our actions, and our income is irrelevant to our moral obligations. We could have the greatest elite in the world, but if Americas poorer citizens cant stay faithful to their spouses, are indifferent to their academic and work performances, and abuse alcohol and drugs, then their lives will be a struggle even if we created the big-government, protectionist utopia that the socialist Left and Trump Right seem to crave.
raging moderate
(4,297 posts)I personally know members of both groups, and I canvassed and phonebanked in Illinois. Believe me, these two groups have NOTHING IN COMMON! Furthermore, the "socialist Left" is not trying to create a big-government, protectionist utopia, but rather to DISMANTLE a big-government, protectionist utopia for the top 1% and their stooges. What we have RIGHT NOW actually IS BIG GOVERNMENT handing out money, covert action, military support, police brutality, and official harassment to keep the money and power and products flowing in one direction.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I just find this whole episode fascinating
raging moderate
(4,297 posts)Actually, I meant to criticize French.
Partly because my 35 year career as a public-school itinerant speech/language pathologist took me to many towns throughout rural Illinois, and I witnessed the arduous labor of most of these working class rural residents, and I had grown up among working class urban residents. They are by no means as homogenous a group as French and his cohorts seem to imagine. Some are artistic and creative, using their gifts to earn little sums here and there. Others read extensively in their spare time, from public libraries and secondhand bookstores. Mostly, however, they spend their lives dodging various bullets and meteors that life throws at them, problems which are blissfully ignored by people like French. I was not surprised when the lifespan of rural working class women went down. Those women mainly pull double or triple duty in life. And most of the men work just as hard as they ever did. I don't have as much familiarity with current urban working class people, but I bet it is not too different for them. I suspect that people like French take brief glances, overgeneralize, and jump to too many conclusions. I know they conveniently forget the MANY HUGE favors our government actually does for wealthy people.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)So Dumbya is one of "America's poorer citizens"?
malaise
(268,904 posts)How does this part differ from the elites?
hatrack
(59,583 posts)Apply enough of it, and all of your shortcomings are magically washed away!
Piss on the National Review from a considerable height.
malaise
(268,904 posts)Money Money Money...Moneeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!
Recursion
(56,582 posts)He's complaining the elites don't preach what they practice, and have much higher marriage rates and lower divorce rates than the poor, but refuse to urge the poor to emulate them.
malaise
(268,904 posts)The elites may have higher marriage rates - what about affairs??
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)This is exactly the "honest" continuation of the conservative philosophy, and the right absolutely can't stand it.
forjusticethunders
(1,151 posts)Please, continue making the same arguments you made against black people and directing against poor white people.
Are these guys even trying anymore? They're actively trying to undermine the one thing keeping the pitchforks away from their mansions - the psychological wage given to poor whites for not being black.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)The right wing needs to connect that final dot. For the group they are now bashing, that sense of entitlement is a direct result of several decades now of blaming "the other" for the poor white man's problems.
Can't get a job? Why they must have given it to a minority. Lousy liberal affirmative action.
Can't get an education? Damn liberal elitists run the schools anyway.
Can't get ahead? It's because those damn Democrats are stealing your taxes and giving them to people on welfare!
Your relationship stinks? The gays are getting married, that's why!
Dude, you've programmed them never to look at themselves for answers. That it's always someone else's fault. Are you honestly surprised now?
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)You fuckers fed my demographic group hate and bile for decades to get them to vote for you elitist fuckers against our economic interests and only NOW are you ashamed at what you have created?
Go to hell. I hope Trump tears your party apart and eats you fuckers alive.