The demonization and marginalization of the working class by liberals

[Left-Wing Nutjob]

Not exactly sure where to put this thread, but meh....

This is kind of a rant, so bear with me...

What I have noticed, on so many occassions, is that the same educated, affluent upper-middle class types who claim to be "allies" of working class people (if not the working class as a class) are the first to dismiss working class people as "stupid", "ignorant, "brainwashed", "racist", "uneducated", "voting against their own interests (or not voting at all - the horror! :rolleyes: ), etc. ad nauseam. I know I'm not the only one who has noticed this.

Furthermore, many of these same liberal middle-class types are utter hypocrites. They project their own prejudices and "political incorrectness" onto working-class and poor people. You especially see this with racism, but also with sexism, misogyny, and homophobia, along with hatred of and contempt for the poor in general. And woe to anyone who dares call these liberals out on their rationalizing, condescending bullshit!

My somewhat-rhetorical, somewhat-serious question is: How can such a class - the elite, educated, upper-middle class, whose members define themselves, in large part, on NOT being working-class, and who are in an antagonistic relationship to the working-class - call themselves "allies" to the working-class?

Perhaps this is part of marginalizing the working class socially and politically. "Those stupid proles need to be managed and told what to do" The implication being,the working-class organizing itself politically as a class is a threatening and frightening notion to affluent, professional middle-class people - who have a stake in the capitalist system as the intellectual and professional guardians of and apologists for the ruling class.

IDK, does any of this make sense to people here? I'm just frustrated with liberal bullshit, I guess!

[Counterculturalist]

The explanation is that liberals don't see themselves on the side of the working class. Instead, they are terrified of us.

As a former factory worker who just spent a number of years in a university, I found my fellow students' (and many of my professors') attitudes towards working people to be fascinating, and ultimately pretty sad. These were mostly people who, if they were political, would have situated themselves on the left side of the spectrum.

The amount of rhetoric about the poor, uneducated, reactionary criminals who allegedly make up the working class was as offensive as it was inaccurate. People would react with astonishment when I mentioned having worked in a factory for years. One professor said - I'm not even kidding - "Wow, that's so... diverse of you."

The consensus, as you indicate, is that we need to be saved from ourselves. You can see that attitude reflected in the statements of prominent liberal darlings like Bill Maher, whose idea of being "progressive" means chiding lower-income people on their "stupidity" and arguing that only "intelligent" (read: wealthy) people should be allowed to vote.

In Chris Hedges' Death of the Liberal Class - a rather incoherent and muddled work for the most part - he does make a pretty good case for the notion that liberals' disregard for, and mocking of, the poor and dispossessed fosters reaction by associating left-wing ideas with sneering condescension.

[Left-Wing Nutjob]

In Chris Hedges' Death of the Liberal Class - a rather incoherent and muddled work for the most part - he does make a pretty good case for the notion that liberals' disregard for, and mocking of, the poor and dispossessed fosters reaction by associating left-wing ideas with sneering condescension.

Exactly! Though, I question the notion that what liberals promote are "left-wing ideas." Maybe a distorted, co-opted, bourgeois version of the Left that doesn't even respect working-class people - to say nothing of having a place for working-class agency!

If THAT is what is being offered as "Left", then maybe it's no wonder that a lot of working-class people want nothing to do with the "Left."

[G4b3n]

Personally, I have never seen the term "political correctness" used against anything that wasn't bigoted or at least offensive to some degree in regards to marginalized people. And those who complain about it are usually people upset that they have been called out on their shit. If a worker is espousing racist views (which it does happen, sadly), then I personally don't think it is out of line for a middle class liberal to say something in regards to that racism.

As for the left liberals who consider themselves "allies" of the working class. This understanding rests on a flawed understanding of what constitutes class society. These people honestly believe that class struggle is something that is created by dissident workers in unique situations, not something that has always been and always will be inherent to class society. On top of this, they are unwilling to recognize the means worker's must partake in to realize this struggle. So, no, they could never be allies. Bourgeois ideology makes every attempt to defend the irreconcilable antagonism that the bourgeois state holds together through violence. Bourgeois ideologues only support this violence, the violence of the state, not the violence of worker's resistance.

[Counterculturalist]

Personally, I have never seen the term "political correctness" used against anything that wasn't bigoted or at least offensive to some degree in regards to marginalized people. And those who complain about it are usually people upset that they have been called out on their shit. If a worker is espousing racist views (which it does happen, sadly), then I personally don't think it is out of line for a middle class liberal to say something in regards to that racism.


I agree, and I wasn't complaining about political correctness. That's straight-up reactionary talk. And of course many workers are reactionary and bigoted and should be confronted for it.

The problem is when wealthy or middle-class liberals see themselves as vastly superior to the great "unwashed masses" whom they view as inherently incapable of transcending that bigotry. Like you said, as a class, they're gonna look out for their own interest, namely the continued perpetuation of class society. Unfortunately, that self-interest also perpetuates the very bigotry that they profess to despise.

[Antiochus]

Modern liberals are basically deformed classical liberals. Although one shouldn't kid oneself. Liberals have and always will consider the working class "too stupid" and "easily manipulated".

Basically, they view the working class as worthy allies only if it is them doing the leading. Liberals don't really want working class people to vote, because *gasp* they might vote the wrong away, or choose to not vote at all.

[Lily Briscoe]

Modern liberals are basically deformed classical liberals. Although one shouldn't kid oneself. Liberals have and always will consider the working class "too stupid" and "easily manipulated".

Basically, they view the working class as worthy allies only if it is them doing the leading. Liberals don't really want working class people to vote, because *gasp* they might vote the wrong away, or choose to not vote at all.

I don't know where you live? Personally, most of my coworkers, and most of the working class people I know, are liberals (albeit generally pretty apathetic ones)... It's funny, because there almost seems to be an assumption at play here - that there are liberals on one hand and working class people, who are assumed not to be liberals by default, on the other - that actually exemplifies the sort of weird condescending assumptions that University students make about the working class.

I suspect the sort of elitism described in the OP is pretty consistent among (to quote him) "educated, affluent upper-middle class types" regardless of political persuasion.

[cyu]

People would react with astonishment when I mentioned having worked in a factory for years. One professor said - I'm not even kidding - "Wow, that's so... diverse of you."

I like how the media likes to refer to CEOs as the upper class, and people like middle management, doctors, lawyers as the middle class - as if the poorest 90% are the lower class, while those above the poorest 90% are "in the middle" - oh the "middle class" are protesting against some center-left politician, so that must mean he's defying "mainstream society".

[ckaihatsu]

Liberal attitudes are also very tied up with loyalty to the legacy and enterprise of Western Civilization.

In both history and science adherence to the storyline of the West will readily trump more open-minded thinking about broader trends in either discipline.

It's essentially tribalism at its greatest and worst -- people's attitudes to the world's dominant culture block out critical thinking, in favor of perpetuating privilege based on social stratification. The notion of a class analysis is inherently problematic for the liberal mindset because on the one hand it's *factually* true (labor wants to get paid more while ownership wants to get things done for less), but to acknowledge it means that one's privileged position based on Western-culture-identity is exposed as mere tribalism and groupthink.

[ckaihatsu]

Here, f.y.i., are objective-type frameworks for history and science, respectively:


[1] History, Macro Micro -- Precision

http://s6.postimg.org/nmlxvtqlt/1_History_Macro_Micro_Precision.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/zbpxjshkd/full/)


You Are Here

http://s6.postimg.org/jlhry1h81/130828_You_Are_Here_aoi_xcf.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/z6z3hzt65/full/)

[etiennel]

Liberals aren't important. They mean nothing. They are phoney leftists who support free markets and capitalism and individualism. They are just like conservatives but slightly less dickheads. However they are also slightly worse because they are seen as being allies of the left.

[Fire]

I am probably guilty of this to some extent, even if I should know better. I often worry that as a visible trans woman that working class people might be more likely to attack me or confront me. That is a stereotype and I should really know better. My emotions get the better of me.

When I worked as a land surveyor before I transitioned, my coworkers overtly threatened to murder me for being gay, and even showed me the place where they would leave my body so no one would find me. They also threw a machete at me and called me a "faggot." To be fair, I wasn't really cut out for the job. Still, when I complained about it, there was a boys will be boys attitude about it of "what do you expect, they are construction workers." and my complaints were dismissed as me being too "stuck up and PC." I quit the next day. I've been somewhat wary of self-described "rednecks."