4 ms·

It's not racism, it's classism.

kbenson 7y ago
I think this is correct. If we accept that stress causes or exacerbates mental health issues, and if we accept that money can reduce stress to a degree, then it makes sense that the poor will have more mental health issues, and it's one more thing that the wealthy can see that appears to be fundamentally different in outlook or resilience between themselves and the poor, confirming the narrative that it's really their exceptionalism that is responsible for their current situation, and not luck or inherited wealth.[1] Yet another differentiator that prevents empathy. 1: That's not to say there aren't exceptional people that are wealthy, just that being exceptional is not a prerequisite to being wealthy, or even becoming wealthy (but I'm sure it helps in that case).
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
So how does that explain the poor people on the right who don't want to change the situation in the way the left wants are what?
- danans 7y ago
  Because among people's worst traits is the pleasure in knowing someone is worse off than you, especially if they are from an identifiable group you already dislike. Your life might be miserable due to poverty, but you might still view that as a preferable situation compared to another even poorer group getting the same universal benefit as you, even if that universal benefit would make both of you better off.
  - Frondo 7y ago
    This is also the strategy that white former slave owners used to disrupt a more equitable reconstruction in the South after the civil war. They took all the poor white folks who were feeling a certain class alliance with the former slaves and said, "look, we know you're dirt poor, but at least you're not like those people." And created the race divide that's still, of course, prevalent in the US.
    - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      Sure the wealthy fostered those feelings but I think the fact that a war was just waged on their land and lead to their economy being upended and blacks were the only ones who seemed to benefit probably had something to do with it. White southerners weren't going to instantly give up all the beliefs that they used to justify slavery just because they lost a war.
    - Frondo 7y ago
      For anyone who'd like to read more, W.E.B. DuBois was the first person to write about it, and this is a nice little jumping-off point: https://psmag.com/social-justice/taking-freedom-capitalism-democracy-and-du-bois https://psmag.com/social-justice/taking-freedom-capitalism-d...
- asdff 7y ago
  It's useful for a politician working for wealthy interests to have the lower class population fragmented and a portion actively voting against their own shared economic interests, rather than a united and motivated voting block. The only war is the class war, and racism is the tool politicians use to mask that fact from the masses. Sadly all to many people on the right buy into racist rhetoric as the substance and fail to see it as the facade that it is.
vkou 7y ago
Race and class in most of America is deeply intertwined.
- asdff 7y ago
  And it really shouldn't be. A poor white supremacist and a poor minority have a lot more in common than they would like to admit, and the rampant political rhetoric surrounding race is designed to keep the lower classes in constant conflict, fragmented, and in the case of poor republicans, reliably voting against their own economic interests.

I think this is correct. If we accept that stress causes or exacerbates mental health issues, and if we accept that money can reduce stress to a degree, then it makes sense that the poor will have more mental health issues, and it's one more thing that the wealthy can see that appears to be fundamentally different in outlook or resilience between themselves and the poor, confirming the narrative that it's really their exceptionalism that is responsible for their current situation, and not luck or inherited wealth.[1] Yet another differentiator that prevents empathy. 1: That's not to say there aren't exceptional people that are wealthy, just that being exceptional is not a prerequisite to being wealthy, or even becoming wealthy (but I'm sure it helps in that case).

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

So how does that explain the poor people on the right who don't want to change the situation in the way the left wants are what?

danans 7y ago
Because among people's worst traits is the pleasure in knowing someone is worse off than you, especially if they are from an identifiable group you already dislike. Your life might be miserable due to poverty, but you might still view that as a preferable situation compared to another even poorer group getting the same universal benefit as you, even if that universal benefit would make both of you better off.
- Frondo 7y ago
  This is also the strategy that white former slave owners used to disrupt a more equitable reconstruction in the South after the civil war. They took all the poor white folks who were feeling a certain class alliance with the former slaves and said, "look, we know you're dirt poor, but at least you're not like those people." And created the race divide that's still, of course, prevalent in the US.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Sure the wealthy fostered those feelings but I think the fact that a war was just waged on their land and lead to their economy being upended and blacks were the only ones who seemed to benefit probably had something to do with it. White southerners weren't going to instantly give up all the beliefs that they used to justify slavery just because they lost a war.
  - Frondo 7y ago
    For anyone who'd like to read more, W.E.B. DuBois was the first person to write about it, and this is a nice little jumping-off point: https://psmag.com/social-justice/taking-freedom-capitalism-democracy-and-du-bois https://psmag.com/social-justice/taking-freedom-capitalism-d...
asdff 7y ago
It's useful for a politician working for wealthy interests to have the lower class population fragmented and a portion actively voting against their own shared economic interests, rather than a united and motivated voting block. The only war is the class war, and racism is the tool politicians use to mask that fact from the masses. Sadly all to many people on the right buy into racist rhetoric as the substance and fail to see it as the facade that it is.

vkou 7y ago

Race and class in most of America is deeply intertwined.

asdff 7y ago
And it really shouldn't be. A poor white supremacist and a poor minority have a lot more in common than they would like to admit, and the rampant political rhetoric surrounding race is designed to keep the lower classes in constant conflict, fragmented, and in the case of poor republicans, reliably voting against their own economic interests.