Taichiliberal
Shaken, not stirred!
Originally Posted by Taichiliberal View Post
But wouldn't such legislation affect ALL Americans and not just white folk? My parents and grandparents were subject to the same foibles of the outsourced manufacturing in America as anyone else. Why would white folk feel singled out?
White folks aren't singled out; they just feel that way.
Working class white people with minimal education have had a chip on their shoulder,
mostly out of resentment over the deindustrialization of America, which is understandable,
but they've been voting directly against their own economic best interests as a reaction to it.
One consequence of being undereducated is that you're susceptible to believing any con.
The more sophisticated have noticed this pretty clearly, and despite having faults like everybody else, Biden is politically sophisticated..
I think Biden is trying to show them that they've been fucking up big time without actually setting them off by saying it.
Ahh, but here's the thing:
Just because you are identified (or identify) as "working class white" does NOT mean you are ignorant or "uneducated". One of the perks of our home grown manufacturing industry was upward mobility....you learn a skill, become proficient, learn more. Couple that with the G.I. bill (vets furthering their education) and you have a (working) middle class (Post WWII to about 1968).
Now as you said, deindustrialization has put a serious hurt on the aforementioned. But what you left out is OUTSOURCING our manufacturing industries. That in conjunction with computerization really put the kibosh on a part of Americana that was the hope and dream of my parents and grandparents. My generation really came into the beginning of the end for this.
I observe that this whole "white victim" mindset stems from what I call the "Ozzie & Harriet" syndrome. That's when TV reflected this life in America where non-white folk were essentially "in the background"...content, causing no strife, assimilating totally with the lifestyle of the protagonist white stars of the program...the "noble non-whites". Enter the late 1960's.....hippies, anti-War movement, Civil Rights movement, Watergate, etc.....and the promise of an "Leave it to Beaver" life was fast disappearing for the next generation.
That bred a LOT of resentment and dismay for the majority population of this country. A resentment born of an idealism that glossed over many things to be achieved.
So this "coded" message that the subject title states essentially exists only in the mindset I've just described. In reality...EVERYONE is affected.