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The Two Middle Classes

quillette.com

61–70 of 88 posts

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#61
post #58

So does Michael O Chruch's "3-ladder system of social class in the U.S." need revising? https://web.archive.org/web/20151006183427/https://michaeloc...

He's just an opinionated software engineer, not a forefront of sociological and economic thought.

Is this the same guy who got fired (or resigned?) from Google a week after getting hired for something silly like refusing to sign the employee code of conduct?

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#62
Class tension has been a fact of life since the dawn of civilization. But in healthy societies, different classes are able to work together to bring about positive change. There's no reason in principle why small business owners, engineers, reporters, professors, priests, police, soldiers, teachers, and even oligarchs, shouldn't want to work together for the betterment of all. The real question, to which I didn't find an answer in the article, is why in our current society these class tensions have become so much more vicious.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#63

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.

[flagged]

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#64

This article is a bit confused. It pits the left and right middle classes against each other and also against the oligarchy, and then brings up how Trump stands against the left middle class without mentioning how much he represents and supports the oligarchy that systematically takes advantage of both the right and the left. It also tries to cast the left middle class as allies of the oligarchy by bringing populist…

It's Quillette, after all. That's what they're there for.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#66
The most interesting point made is that secular societies still have a clerisy (or clergy? What's the difference?). People who are powerful but not rich; deriving their power from moral authority; and highly dogmatic.

The details of the piece don't have quite enough support given how contraversial they are. That doesn't mean the author is wrong though. Worth more exploration and discussion.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#67
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's just an opinionated software engineer, not a forefront of sociological and economic thought.

Is this the same guy who got fired (or resigned?) from Google a week after getting hired for something silly like refusing to sign the employee code of conduct?

No, that's a different guy.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#69
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the motivation for your comment is easy to deduce. It's okay, WalterBright gets downvoted sometimes too. I assume I am being downvoted because I didn't read far enough to hear the author pivot into a tangent about green energy (which was apparently wrong, and which seems to be everyone else's focus). While Quillette's mission to highlight well-formed ideas that are unpopular may seem admirable, it cannot es…

I didn’t downvote you. I appreciate the links, though not your dig at liberalism (“central hypocrisy”, etc.) and apparent affinity for libertarianism. My guess is that most of your downvotes come from Quillette defenders, who like to think of themselves as a cut above Daily Stormer readers (albeit perhaps less honest).

I was rather more negative about libertarianism than I was about liberalism, if you read carefully. I'm not a libertarian, but I do see the movement as a more meaningful criticism of modern politics than whatever the "right" is up to.

Re: The Two Middle Classes

#70
post #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.

Yep. They're only breaking into the main page a couple times a month. Still surprises me.

And judging by the replies here, seems like it surprises a bunch of other people. I'm not sure what the "opposite of political correctness" is except tilting at a strawman.

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