A Worsening Culture War
taibbi.substack.com
A Worsening Culture War
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Re: A Worsening Culture War
#2This thing is phrased in a really weird way. First: "The left believe the right are dumb and don't have values" followed by "Evidence the left are correct" then "They're as bad as each other".
Re: A Worsening Culture War
#3"That's all the media and the politicians are ever talking about, the things that separate us, things that make us different from one another.
That's the way the ruling class operates in any society. They try to divide the rest of the people. They keep the lower and the middle classes fighting with each other so that they the rich, can run off with all the fucking money.
Fairly simple thing. Happens to work.
You know, anything different, thats what they gonna talk about. Race, religion, ethnic and national backgrounds, jobs, income, education, social status, sexuality. Anything they can do, keep us fighting with each other so that they can keep going to the bank.
You know how I describe the economic and social classes in this country? The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class. Keep them showing up at those jobs."
George Carlin had us pegged ages ago.
So did Doctor King:
The other day I was saying, I always try to do a little converting when I'm in jail. And when we were in jail in Birmingham the other day, the white wardens and all enjoyed coming around the cell to talk about the race problem. And they were showing us where we were so wrong demonstrating. And they were showing us where segregation was so right. And they were showing us where intermarriage was so wrong.
So I would get to preaching, and we would get to talking—calmly, because they wanted to talk about it. And then we got down one day to the point—that was the second or third day—to talk about where they lived, and how much they were earning. And when those brothers told me what they were earning, I said, "Now, you know what? You ought to be marching with us. [laughter] You're just as poor as Negroes."
And I said, "You are put in the position of supporting your oppressor, because through prejudice and blindness, you fail to see that the same forces that oppress Negroes in American society oppress poor white people. (Yes) And all you are living on is the satisfaction of your skin being white, and the drum major instinct of thinking that you are somebody big because you are white.
And you're so poor you can't send your children to school. You ought to be out here marching with every one of us every time we have a march."
Re: A Worsening Culture War
#4So both sides identify the problem and have different ways to solve it. Keeping the two sides focused on their own method of solving the problem prevents any meaningful change. This keeps the rich ruling class in place as-is for now.
Sounds like they are doing short term self preservation well.
Re: A Worsening Culture War
#5This thing is phrased in a really weird way. First: "The left believe the right are dumb and don't have values" followed by "Evidence the left are correct" then "They're as bad as each other".
I'm trying to find your quoted phrases inside the article and I'm not able to. Can you paste the entire paragraph?
Re: A Worsening Culture War
#6This thing is phrased in a really weird way. First: "The left believe the right are dumb and don't have values" followed by "Evidence the left are correct" then "They're as bad as each other".
No, I don't think so. Rather, Taibbi proposes that the very wealthy and powerful see as useful the division of the country into a "stupidity death-cult" vs. "roving bands of Pelosi-coddled Antifa troops looking to 'attack your homes'".
Re: A Worsening Culture War
#7This is just another blame-the-rich piece without any evidence. I guess blaming the rich is very popular right now.
The article is really interesting, so it's too bad he mars it with this kind of unproven, cruel and vitriolic thesis.
Re: A Worsening Culture War
#8Essentially, in the wake of Trump, the political class is accepting the inevitability of culture war, and urging it on, as something preferable to populist revolt.
In a rare inversion, the headline is more correct than the article.
The wealthy (really, the elites: a wealthy small business owner has nothing to do with this) want culture wars because they want the middle and bottom fighting with one another, rather than with the elites. They aren't accepting anything, this is what they want, and they have the means to achieve it.
Re: A Worsening Culture War
#9The craziest part of this american culture war, to me, is that it seems to spill over to the rest of the world.
My sister and I, living in Germany, have a very loving relationship, but we absolutely disagree on almost everything political and basically are stuck in our seperate bubbles.
This gave us an interesting observation: 5 years ago it took us about two to three months, to have a fight over something that started to become a hot-topic in the US.
Over time, this has shrunken to about 48 hours. This is not because our bubbles are particularly US centric, more that it has become envogue to simply discuss whatever gets "the other side" going.
In particularly, it is very interesting that "the other side" is aligning ever more so with the US political spectrum, where in the past such a thing was unheard of, atleast here in Germany. I've heard similar stories from Friends in other Non-US Nations, be it in Asia, Africa, aswell as other european nations. Does anyone else have similar stories?
Re: A Worsening Culture War
#10I generally agree with the notion that the parties raise money off this rhetoric. However the implied group in the title, “America’s wealthy” isn’t covered here. The DNC fundraisers benefit a group of people who don’t generally fall into that category. They’re rich, and powerful sure, but they’re not Jeff Bezos. Americans would do well to be able to tell the difference between the oligarchs and their lackeys.