why do working class people become right wingers rather than left?

[Dr Mindbender]

is it because the right media shouts the loudest or is it more complicated than that?

Does the left have an intrinsic impotence in conecting with the working class because of the machismo chauvinism that is synomonous with neo-conservative and fascist ideas that has greater appeal? How do we combat this?

Entertain me here because i am sick of living among ignorant fuckheads that are too gullible to realise when theyre being screwed over when they should be on our side fighting the right fight.

[mykittyhasaboner]

fascist and ultra nationalist ideas usually use a scapegoat. such as immigrants, religions or nationalities; Nazi's used the Jews, BNP preaches against immigrants especially muslims. so its easier for people to absorb the rhetoric that they spew.

otherwise, the left may seem to complicated and hard to achieve to the average working individual. this is because they have been born into capitalism and its all they have ever known. abolishing money, and uniting everyone in the world seems alot harder than just giving more power to the government to fix your problems.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ Why not suggest repression against the bourgeoisie, even to the point of extermination?

[al8]

^^^ Why not suggest repression against the bourgeoisie, even to the point of extermination?

Yes exactly! That is or at least can be a macho/bravado thing to do. That can easily be made substitute for other resolute certainties, i.e that emphesize toughness and discourage pussyfooting.

[OI OI OI]

It is natural that people are conservative. They want to preserve not to change "by nature". Peoples' conciousness does not catch up with the objective conditions and lags behind. But when it does catch up then it explodes in revolution. Thats why we have revolutions and not peaceful and linear transitions from one form of society to another. Imagine it like a volcano. The volcano is quiet and looks like an ordinary mountain for most of the time. But there is a point where it suddenly (there are some signs of course just like with people) explodes leaving nothing from the old natural surroundings. Same with people.
It is only the most class concious working class people that are left wing. And naturaly there will be the vanguard in the revolution . But as I said you should not worry that working people are right wing now. Their conciousness will perform a qualitative leap at a certain point and nothing from the old forms of society will be left. But you have to wait for the right objective conditions. When quantity transforms into quality.

PS: And Don't forget , Fascism rises when the revolution fails. Thats why we should be ready for the revolution and with the right ideas !
Read the book Germany from revolution to counter revolution and you will understand!

[raynai]

maybe because they are religious, want morals to be encouraged, etc. communism is secular, against morality, etc.

[RedAnarchist]

maybe because they are religious, want morals to be encouraged, etc. communism is secular, against morality, etc.

There has been plenty of religious Communists and Anarchists.

[Labor Shall Rule]

The “United States” was founded on the basis of white supremacy - so white workers, from the very start, are innately privileged and are tied to an ideology that expresses that. This not to say that they are not 'exploited' - in fact, many white proletarians in the former 'rust-belt' where I live are working low-wage service jobs - but that does mean they are more likely to adopt reactionary, anti-immigrant, racist views.

[al8]

And through their wealth and power the ruling class have an easier time of networking. Doing youth propaganda work through youth clubs. Witch I learned was a bigger factor than I excpected the other day.

[lvl100]

fascist and ultra nationalist ideas usually use a scapegoat. such as immigrants, religions or nationalities; Nazi's used the Jews, BNP preaches against immigrants especially muslims. so its easier for people to absorb the rhetoric that they spew.

otherwise, the left may seem to complicated and hard to achieve to the average working individual. this is because they have been born into capitalism and its all they have ever known. abolishing money, and uniting everyone in the world seems alot harder than just giving more power to the government to fix your problems.

Exactly.

Usualy people tend to be extremly superficial regarding politics. No matter of their political / economical choices they like to be spoon fed with easy solutions .
How many capitalism fans do you think that they read Adam Smith ? OR How many of citizens of the former socialist states had a decent knowledge of Marx ?

Thats why right wing propaganda always win becouse they offer simple (fake) solutions like "if you work hard enough you always have the posibility to become richer than Bill Gates" as oposite to a whole theory of class strugle , dialectics , revolutions ect etc

[Sir Comradical]

Because for the most part, the only thing they have to offer in order to survive is their labour. When they're in this position of need they stand to be exploited but they won't oppose this injustice because they have no other choice.

[progressive_lefty]

Interesting question.
I know in Australia, the Liberal Party of Australia(Main Conservative Party in Australia) has won considerable support from labor union members from across the country. Under John Howard, by far the most right-wing prime minister in our history, he managed to establish a voting bloc known as the 'Howard battlers', meaning workers or welfare recipients who supported his right-wing government.
The saddest thing being, the conservatives won the largest support in rejection of accepting refugees. See 'the tampa affair' at wikipedia.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

I'm working class.

[RedAnarchist]

I'm working class.

He's not saying all working class people become right wingers, but that a depressingly large minority do.

[Dr Mindbender]

He's not saying all working class people become right wingers, but that a depressingly large minority do.
the depressing thing is in the UK im not sure it is a minority, if anything the opposite.

In everday life i barely get through a day without hearing my fellow workers complaining about immigrants or 'political correctness gone mad'.

[rocker935]

As already stated earlier, I believe it has a lot to do with scapegoating. Its easy to dump your problems on other groups of people rather than uniting and fixing the problems yourself. Its human nature to place the blame where no blame is deserved, that's why you have all of this immigrant oppression shit. What needs to be made clear is that the problems don't originate from this relatively new issue of "immigration" but the problem that the working class is having now is the same problem that the working class has had for hundreds of years, oppressive hierarchical states.

[el_chavista]

It's all about Gramci's distinction between political society (the police, the army, legal system, etc.) which dominates directly and coercively, and civil society (the family, the education system, trade unions, etc.) where leadership is constituted through ideology or by means of consent.

There is not a popular workers' education encouraging development of intellectuals from the working class.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Red:


He's not saying all working class people become right wingers, but that a depressingly large minority do.

Fair enough, but then a large minority shift to the left at other times.

However, I have yet to see the statistics that support the original contention. All I can see is a bunch of allegations and sweeping statements.

[Kwisatz Haderach]

Because the left typically doesn't use good, direct counter-arguments to right-wing propaganda.

For example:

Right-wing propaganda: "Immigrants are stealing our jobs!"
Direct counter: "No, they're not stealing anything from us, because we don't control our jobs, do we? Our bosses control our jobs. Our bosses decide whether we keep our jobs or not. Not us, and certainly not any immigrants. We should worry more about what our bosses do."

[Dust Bunnies]

Probably because of propaganda. I know some working class people, and their son says that faux news is fair and balanced. LOL. They supported Mitt Romney.

Propaganda is the reason.

[Sir Comradical]

Interesting question.
I know in Australia, the Liberal Party of Australia(Main Conservative Party in Australia) has won considerable support from labor union members from across the country. Under John Howard, by far the most right-wing prime minister in our history, he managed to establish a voting bloc known as the 'Howard battlers', meaning workers or welfare recipients who supported his right-wing government.
The saddest thing being, the conservatives won the largest support in rejection of accepting refugees. See 'the tampa affair' at wikipedia.

I have a name for 'Howard's battlers'...i call them idiots. These are people at the botom of the economic food chain who were convinced that workchoices was beneficial to their standard of living.