Post-Trump, Conservatives not shy about showing their contempt for the poor

You’re presuming not only that everyone can afford to move but that there is a place where everyone in struggling communities could find work if they simply looked for it.

That’s a pretty extraordinary oversimplification. But then you make it pretty clear when you say “While I would not use the language used in National Review, nor would I use the term responsible, the idea is correct”.

Phrasing it differently doesn’t magically make a bad idea good.

11 Likes

As someone in France put it (can’t remember who), workers who complain that their jobs are shipped overseas are in many cases slightly mistaken: their jobs are simply destroyed, to be replaced overseas by completely different jobs.

It would be interesting to observe if Donald Trump’s core base is similar to what researchers have found about Front National’s in France: not the poorest, who largely skip voting, but the category just above, afraid to become part of the former.

4 Likes

You might not be aware, but the American working class often has done
this, more than you probably realize. But the cost of moving also can
prohibit that.

I do realize that most of these towns were formed due the industrial boom, and now that there is no industry, there is no future. But human population has never been this high, and when speaking economics of demographics, we have to understand that everything is unprecedented. So the migration patterns of the past are nothing compared to what’s required now.

I am not saying move to Bangladesh. The US is a huge place, there is still work to be had, despite the best efforts of politicians. Again, I am not saying that this is poor people’s fault, because the circumstances of our existence are not in our control, This narrative of “Evil Mexican takin’ our jobs” is just denial of those circumstances. No strongman leader is going to solve this problem.

I would also point out that painting all poor whites as Trump voter is Stereotyping. Poor people lack education for various economic reasons, but education does not magically make you wise*. The biggest trump supporters online are Middle Class young men. People who hang around /pol/ and vdare.

*As the commentariat of BoingBoing can clearly show us :wink:

You should know that many jobs that once existed literally no longer exist in the US. And yes, working class people have moved for work.

I agree. I’ve heard labor people make that some point - that migrant workers need to be accept and brought into the labor movement, not subjected to racism because people are frustrated… You are assuming that all working class people feel the same about immigration and they actually don’t.[quote=“muddi900, post:45, topic:75077”]
I would also point out that painting all poor whites as Trump voter is Stereotyping.
[/quote]

I never made the inference or assumption. Plenty of working class people are voting for other people - Clinton, Sanders, even other republicans. I’m not sure where you got that from, but not from me.

6 Likes

I don’t think so.

Again, I disagree.

I was just describing how I understand your point of view. I do not engage in ad hominem attacks on nameless, faceless people on my screen. I’d much rather give them the benefit of the doubt. That’s my advice to you too.

good day.

1 Like

You do realize that you just did the opposite of giving @Ulysses the benefit of the doubt on him knowing about poverty, right? You just said he doesn’t understand it at all. Why not give him the benefit of the doubt that he might understand poverty? [ETA] You don’t need to agree with him to do that, either. You can think he’s wrong and still accept that he might know something about poverty…

11 Likes

As with most internet conversations, this one will solve nothing, so no sense in getting heated about it.

2 Likes

I know… and I wasn’t really. I disliked his dismissal based on what they think that you know, without knowing that…

1 Like

But you’ll notice he didn’t answer my questions about salaries/benefits/working conditions.

9 Likes

Well, duh, how do those things fix poverty? /s :wink:

2 Likes

i wonder how much the fact that so much money for schools comes from local sources reinforces the cycle for poor communities.

http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/index.html

10 Likes

For the last millennium and a half enthralled has meant “enslaved by”, “captured”, that is what he meant, right?

1 Like

It’s not hard to understand the thinking of white trash who vote against their self interests all the time…

"I may be poor, but at least I ain’t a ngger!"

or spic
or slope
or injin
or queer
or woman
or [insert slur here]

2 Likes

Wow, GOP really is post racial.

4 Likes

Benefit would require doubt in this case. I gathered his ignorance on the subject due to his comments. In fact I gathered he was ignorant on most subjects when he starting frothing at the mouth on the first sign of ‘rich’

I could’ve pointed out that ‘rich’ as a relative term and that in dollar amounts I would not even be able to afford an apartment in New York City, in the best of times. I could’ve pointed out that I am an immigrant as well, which would mean times aren’t so good. I could explain the complex economics of living standards, upward mobility and great personal anecdotes, but he made it clear when he said he wanted to rob me because of one personal detail I revealed that wasn’t even part of my point, despite claiming not to be a Marxist*, that he is not interested in discussion.

So no, I did not have any doubt that he was talking out his ass, from which to derive a benefit.

*Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I think Lenin called that “voting with your feet”.

Preventing that is part of what anti-terror laws do. If everybody named “Mohamed Hussein” isn’t allowed to travel, that’s a few hundred thousand that can’t vote with their feet.

In any case, there isn’t enough work to go around any more. There aren’t enough legal jobs available to occupy every human on the planet that needs a job.

BTW, sorry about the hostile tone here. I recommend you ignore any post you consider impolite.

1 Like

Apparently, yes.

2 Likes

On the surface, yes, “in thrall” here means “held down.” Which is hard to disagree with!

But what’s holding them down? “A culture.” And since the author suggests that just moving somewhere richer would somehow solve their problems, it seems he means their culture—poor culture.

He’s trying to insult people while sounding compassionate.

2 Likes

Barring global disaster, this will only ever get more true. Manufacturing will gradually come back to the US, but it will only employ programmers, researchers, and skilled machinists/craftsmen/mechanucs. Not unskilled labor, ever again. Unless you abolish the minimum wage, than maybe some people will still need work so badly they’ll be cheaper than robots.

Or, you know, we acknowledge that the concept of “need a job” is going to be obsolete at some point, probably within my lifetime.

5 Likes

It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that.

I do note, however, how they took time out both for bashing Washington and for taking a shot at immigrants. (Not even bothering to claim they speak of only illegal immigrants, of course.) So I guess they’re not completely off message just yet.

4 Likes