Moving epitath to Joe Bageant from Fred Reed

[ellenrr]

Joe described himself as a redneck socialist, and he was. He was profoundly concerned with the fate of the people he wrote about, those who worked hard all their lives and ended up with nothing. Funny: I’ve never met a socialist who didn’t care about others, or a capitalist who did. The truth is that a great many decent people are on the wrong side of the intelligence curve, don’t come from families that send their young to university,and can’t protect themselves from the corporate lawyers and bought legislatures.

It wasn’t a pose. He really and truly, honestly, demonstrably and implausibly, had no interest in money. He lived for some time in Hopkins Village in Belize, a seaside community of black, downscale Garifuna and, when some money began to come in from Deer Hunting, regularly gave it away to help the locals. He didn’t have a sainthood complex. He just didn’t care. He wanted books, a guitar, friends, internet, wine, and occasional substances not approved of by DEA. No pretenses. Drop acid, not names.


rest at:
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2011/03/bageant-moves-on.html#tp

via Counterpunch

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

[blindpig]

2. RIP Joe.

n/t

[hootinholler]

3. Kick to find later. n/t

[Dappleganger]

4. Had no idea he was from the Winchester area...

before we moved down here to FL a decade ago, we lived in Shenandoah county just south of there. He's absolutely right wrt to much of America being middle class, that is all a media/Hollywood-driven perception and by the "wannabees". We have driven off the beaten path all the way up and down I-81, and you'd be hard-pressed to find that "middle class neighborhood" except those who came from DC/NoVA and those fucking developers who speculated most every average American there out of their dream to ever own a piece of property, much less to be able to build a house on it or earn a living off their land. People who had been there for generations cussed those developers and the "wannabees" every chance they took.