2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Fuck the white working class [View all]NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Let's get something out of the way: I'm a member of the white working class (WWC), and a woman. So what? That should take care of all the responses of "I'm white working class and I'm not like that!"
It's not about me, or you. The RP was talking about a wide swath of the WWC. I know them, you know them, if you live or have ever lived in the Rust Belt, the deep South, or in certain rural areas. It's God, Guns, and their absolute right to be dirt stupid and still have high paying jobs. It's hatred--ignorant, blind hatred--of anything and anyone who challenges "all that is dear" to them. It's hanging on, desperately, to the past that no one will ever see again, and many of us don't want to.
You can't reach these people. Their families and loved ones can't reach them. They are impervious to rational argument. They are anti-education, anti-science, anti-anyone who is not exactly like them, and who does not think like them.
Yes, we ought to help them with our liberal policies, even though they don't appreciate it. Not because we feel sorry for them, but because those policies benefit all of us, not just them. And they won't like that. They want everything for themselves and cannot understand that a strong society means safety nets for all who need them.
Yes, yes, I UNDERSTAND that not all members of the WWC are as described above. I'm not, and I don't believe you are either. But it's not about us.
And yes, Fuck them.