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The Two Middle Classes

quillette.com

31–40 of 88 posts

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#31
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are assuming the "yeomanry" mainly consists of the old, but I think that's an overly narrow and basically false assumption. The participants in the yellow vest protests in France - largely members of "yeomanry" I would think - are as much Gen X and Millenial as they are Baby Boomers. As for the oligarchs, there are certainly wealthy individuals entrenched in the traditional fossil fuel industries, but the number…

But the yellow vests are overwhelmingly lower class - and in France you might even say peasantry. Weather or not some rich people are using these people by manipulating them is another question

That hasn't been my impression. While they may not be business owners, I think many of the yellow vests could be considered working middle class.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#33
I'm always surprised to see Quillette show up here. For all the complaints about partisan bickering, politics in tech, etc. Quillette is an obviously biased political opinion page. (Not that I have a problem with bias in media -- in fact I'd much rather have opinionated media rather than the milquetoast 'both sides in equal measure' media we seem to strive for today.)

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#34
post #33

I'm always surprised to see Quillette show up here. For all the complaints about partisan bickering, politics in tech, etc. Quillette is an obviously biased political opinion page. (Not that I have a problem with bias in media -- in fact I'd much rather have opinionated media rather than the milquetoast 'both sides in equal measure' media we seem to strive for today.)

There aren't a ton of quillette posts upvoted: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=quillette.com

I wouldn't say they really stand for anything other than "opposiste of political correctness" regardless of the topic. They post articles that would never be allowed in other media.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#35

I thought Quillette had been blacklisted on HN. It’s a right-wing rag and never leads to any interesting discussion.

I neither condone nor condemn your assessment, but I do agree it's somewhat relevant to keep these things in mind:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quillette

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_dark_web

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#36
post #4

It describes a part of the middle class that gets its income from the market and another part that gets its income from non-market sources such as universities and the government and I found it a useful lens through which to view current events.

Um middle class university jobs are badly paid compared to professionals working at say a FANG

not sure how the relative pay amount applies to my comment about the source of income.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#37
I know I will get downvoted but I don’t care: I come to Hacker News because sometimes it links to great pieces about computer science and technology. If I stop coming to HN, it will because I will have grown tired of its penchant for the intellectual dark web/phrenology.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#39

I know I will get downvoted but I don’t care: I come to Hacker News because sometimes it links to great pieces about computer science and technology. If I stop coming to HN, it will because I will have grown tired of its penchant for the intellectual dark web/phrenology.

May I ask what your contentions are with the intellectual dark web? It is my understanding that membership in the IDW is largely based on embracing open conversation and potentially controversial facts

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#40
post #19

The "class of public intellectuals" that Quillete likens to the Second Estate largely parallels the formation of the nomenklatura in the Soviet Union: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenklatura A more cynical, but illuminating, depiction of the way this class came to be recognized and criticized was given in an old New Yorker article about why Americans don't like Hillary Clinton -- from 1996 : https://www.newyorker.c…

This is a great addition to the discussion, thanks for the links to the additional papers.
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