Stereotypes of the Working Class

[Nolan]

We've all heard it - according to common stereotypes, working-class people are stubborn, uneducated, lazy, and irresponsible. They are presented as subhuman slime that deserve their plight. Capitalist apologists often bring up the "welfare queen" urban legend, and attack the welfare system on the basis that it breeds laziness and dependence on the state.

How can we combat such stereotyping? I think that is one of the biggest challenges facing the left today - even many working people buy into it.

[Tablo]

I guess the best way is to show this stereotype is just not true is to let the working class speak out for itself. It disgusts me how negatively the working class is portrayed. The only workers with a positive image are skilled workers that are generally considered "middle class". The sooner people understand that most important people are the workers the better.

[chimx]

I am stubborn, lazy, and irresponsible. Why is that a problem?

[vyborg]

Workers do not wash themselves very often!! But this is because the ladies like them that way....

[proudcomrade]

IMO, the root of US classism lies with its academics. That is where the eradication of classism must begin, in the ivory tower. As it stands nowadays, fat chance, sadly.

[AK]

Stereotypes of the working class are dangerous in the reality that now many members of the working class consider themselves middle class - some sort of ambiguous definition for someone with a certain income range and a certain level of education. Hell, some Bourgeoisie are even "middle class". This sort of attitude is not good at all - how can we have a revolution of the working class when the working class considers itself to either not exist or to be inferior? When the working class considers itself to be the same as some Bourgeois fuckers?

[Raightning]

The best way to dispel the negative image of the working class is to assail it on the local level. You'll never get those media scumbags and conservative filth to let up; much like any prejudice, you need to show people personally this isn't true.

If we want to destroy the lies of the bourgeoise on this matter, we must keep fighting and assisting in any possible way in the building of genuinely and unashamedly working class organisations within communities. Obviously, we are unlikely to turn the bourgeoise and their lickspittles (they are incapable of thinking of the people as anything more than 'noble savages'), but you can turn those who are being told to deny their class identity by the filth - and that is what is necessary.

Of course, what this means is the union of the working class. This in turn means the destruction of the 'middle class', and indeed both this measure and other measures taken will have to revolve around this; the measures necessary there will vary from country to country of course, and will be more difficult to pursue because they're institutionally enshrined, at least in the UK for example.

In short, essentially, all must go into the destruction of the false consciousness of the 'middle class', the greatest con trick the ruling class have pulled in a while. That is the biggest thing keeping our people divided and keeping the propaganda flowing from the mouths of the fooled.

[FreeFocus]

I am stubborn, lazy, and irresponsible. Why is that a problem?

*sigh* I really don't understand why some people, particularly on RevLeft, view these things as OK or desirable traits. There's really nothing to be proud of. Being stubborn leads to unnecessary difficulty in life more times than not (there is a place for reasoned stubbornness, but that's not what you're referring to). And lazy? Really? Sitting around doing nothing productive to better yourself or contribute to something is nothing to be proud of. Sure, sometimes we all want to just relax (especially with all the bullshit life under capitalism throws at us), but doing nothing all day, every day (or even most days) when you're able-bodied and capable is pathetic.

Whether we like it or not, sometimes right-wingers have a point when they call leftists immature or claim that we support what we do because of mental weakness. Our rationale for supporting socialism shouldn't be to free up people's time from work so that they can sloth around being lazy and irresponsible. Our rationale should be to free up people's time and space in life to fulfill their potential, improve themselves, and improve humanity as a whole.

[chimx]

I am not being proud, I am being honest.

The point is that trying to change stereotypes is meaningless unless you are pandering to classes other than those of working families. Feudalism didn't last so long because some noble felt his serfs were lazy. History is indifferent to idealism. The entire concept is just silly.

[FreeFocus]

I am not being proud, I am being honest.

The point is that trying to change stereotypes is meaningless unless you are pandering to classes other than those of working families. Feudalism didn't last so long because some noble felt his serfs were lazy. History is indifferent to idealism. The entire concept is just silly.

Of course I don't really care what the bourgeoisie thinks - the problem is that even some working people internalize these attitudes.

[RadioRaheem84]

Basically that we're lazy and want to work less hours for more pay. Which is actually more equitable under our notion of work!

But of course in a bourgeois society a "real" worker works more hours for less pay to be a tough, rough, hard working man.

[Antifa94]

The true proletariat is what we all aim to emulate. A bias, I think, in our views of proletariats as that we view many American workers as lumpenproletariats. This comes to the image of jingoistic, conservative imbeciles. It is up to us to reinstate a cosmopolitan proletarian image akin to that of the workers of St.Petersburg and Berlin in the 20th century.

[Antifa94]

We aim for a worker-student- alliance. We are the heralds of the Modernity. We are the avant-garde, the bohemians, the intellectuals, the destroyers of oppression. We are the future.

[Palingenisis]

We aim for a worker-student- alliance. We are the heralds of the Modernity. We are the avant-garde, the bohemians, the intellectuals, the destroyers of oppression. We are the future.

My, my...Are we? Luckas who for all his many faults was a great Marxist thinker gave a pretty good critque as to why we are not the "avant-garde" or the "bohemians"....The kids around my estate (read housing project) may carry in their postition to the means of production the future society...but they arent intellectuals. Personally I believe that "character" which is hard to define but you know it when you see it is much more important than being "intellectual". If you are not carefull you are heading into the same abyss as the "Anti-Germans" and "Primitivists".

[Palingenisis]

We aim for a worker-student- alliance. We are the heralds of the Modernity. We are the avant-garde, the bohemians, the intellectuals, the destroyers of oppression. We are the future.

Students are infamously pretenious and slippery....Who is this "we"?

[Antifa94]

I mean leftist intellectuals......

[Antifa94]

Hence I said it is an alliance. you need avant-garde intellectuals and cultural contributors along with workers.

[Robocommie]

Basically that we're lazy and want to work less hours for more pay. Which is actually more equitable under our notion of work!

But of course in a bourgeois society a "real" worker works more hours for less pay to be a tough, rough, hard working man.

Yeah I can't even tell you the number of times I've felt like a pussy for dreading being given extra hours, just because I had enough to pay my bills and didn't want to work my whole week - but there's a culture in workplaces that if you don't agree to take extra hours you're letting down the boss.

[Devrim]

*sigh* I really don't understand why some people, particularly on RevLeft, view these things as OK or desirable traits. There's really nothing to be proud of. Being stubborn leads to unnecessary difficulty in life more times than not (there is a place for reasoned stubbornness, but that's not what you're referring to). And lazy? Really? Sitting around doing nothing productive to better yourself or contribute to something is nothing to be proud of. Sure, sometimes we all want to just relax (especially with all the bullshit life under capitalism throws at us), but doing nothing all day, every day (or even most days) when you're able-bodied and capable is pathetic.

When the bourgeois press talks about workers being lazy, they don't mean they do nothing in their free time. They mean they don't work hard enough.

Devrim

[bcbm]

Our rationale for supporting socialism shouldn't be to free up people's time from work so that they can sloth around being lazy and irresponsible. Our rationale should be to free up people's time and space in life to fulfill their potential, improve themselves, and improve humanity as a whole.

i think people's lived should be freed from work because it is unnecessary and unhealthy. what one would do with this freedom is their own business.