3 ms·

> I'm sick of people complaining about pulling their weight or saying they are too important to do so The people complaining the most are those too well off fo

by Swizec 8y ago

> I'm sick of people complaining about pulling their weight or saying they are too important to do so The people complaining the most are those too well off for assistance and too poor to bear their responsibility comfortably. That portion of the population where it feels like you can pay health care/insurance/taxes or afford to go out to dinner one night a month instead of cooking. It’s not a fun place to be. I grew up like that. There was a lot of talk about assholes in power stealing from us to give to the lazy bums on welfare.

forapurpose 8y ago
I've heard that. In your experience, does that match the hypothesis that it's just a tactic of the right to divide voters - turn the working class against each other (on racial and rural-urban lines too)?
- Swizec 8y ago
  I think “the right” flames it up, but my family was very liberal, even socialist, yet still felt this way. When the taxman takes so much it feels he’s stealing from your children’s mouths you’re gonna complain. Fundamentally people in this situation, in my experience, don’t really care who is in power because they see them all as the same sort of enemy: the rich and powerful oppressing the working poor and pandering to the destitude so they look good and charitable on paper. This is hard to imagine if you’ve never been in a situation where a 5% discount on a gallon of milk is incentive enough to go to a different supermarket for this week’s grocery run.
  - noobermin 8y ago
    There is a bit of human nature in there perhaps, but from the beginning, subdivision into groups has always been a means for the wealthy to maintain their power. Here is exhibit A[0]. That it persisted to the point it became culture is one thing, but from its inception, subdividing the working class into groups (one of them being black and white) has been a means for the elite to maintain control. The KKK also had a similar start, being funded in part by former wealthy plantation owners fearful of white and former slave alliances during reconstruction. The subdivisions into class (middle class vs. working poor) is very similar. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion

by Swizec 8y ago

forapurpose 8y ago

I've heard that. In your experience, does that match the hypothesis that it's just a tactic of the right to divide voters - turn the working class against each other (on racial and rural-urban lines too)?

Swizec 8y ago
I think “the right” flames it up, but my family was very liberal, even socialist, yet still felt this way. When the taxman takes so much it feels he’s stealing from your children’s mouths you’re gonna complain. Fundamentally people in this situation, in my experience, don’t really care who is in power because they see them all as the same sort of enemy: the rich and powerful oppressing the working poor and pandering to the destitude so they look good and charitable on paper. This is hard to imagine if you’ve never been in a situation where a 5% discount on a gallon of milk is incentive enough to go to a different supermarket for this week’s grocery run.
- noobermin 8y ago
  There is a bit of human nature in there perhaps, but from the beginning, subdivision into groups has always been a means for the wealthy to maintain their power. Here is exhibit A[0]. That it persisted to the point it became culture is one thing, but from its inception, subdividing the working class into groups (one of them being black and white) has been a means for the elite to maintain control. The KKK also had a similar start, being funded in part by former wealthy plantation owners fearful of white and former slave alliances during reconstruction. The subdivisions into class (middle class vs. working poor) is very similar. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion