Do a majority of white posters on here have any idea what poverty is like?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Given our overwhelmingly suburban demographic (and that's not to say that poverty doesn't exist in the suburbs, because it does), combined with the fact that just about everyone on here comes from a middle class background (remember the threads we've had on 'what do your parents do for a living'? Pretty much everyone here, with a few notable exceptions, is the child of mid-level managers or professionals), would lead me to think that no, most of them don't.

This isn't at all surprising, but that's true of most liberals as is. They don't empathize with the poor or seek to build solidarity with them, they pity them. That's where their politics comes from - not a position of wanting to help someone raise themselves up and assert their own dignity, but one of pity and sanctimonious holier-than-thou bullsh**t about great it is that they 'care' as opposed to conservatives.

Yes, everybody on this forum is a patronizing, self-righteous middle-class liberal. You, on the other hand, are totally justified in being patronizing and self-righteous toward any social or ideological category of people that isn't yours.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Now, I am not going to make the same large scale character assassinations as TNF, but I would like to comment further that I find it incredible that a thread on some random Arkansas legislator nobody knows saying slavery was good for blacks (as admittedly outrageous and downright awful that comment is) gets a lot more outrage than heads of multi-billion dollar corporations and even presidential nominees claiming it's okay that millions of Americans live in abject poverty.  The only time people even really seemed upset and outraged was when Romney was dumb enough to claim that 47% of Americans mooch off the government.  In fact we even have Atlas posters who somehow believe that starvation is acceptable "if you don't work hard".

Not saying that the former isn't a big deal, surely apologism for the white supremacist confederacy is no small deal and it should be reported.  However, comments like the latter generally refer to something that is ongoing and that millions of people in this country who are better off are outright refusing to deal with and even justify in many cases.  I think I am the last person on this website who would claim the past isn't important however at the end of the day issues of the present are the things that should matter.  To me it seems that there is a very large group of people in this country who care more about "symbolic" actions than "meaningful" actions.

Actually, I've seen plenty of outrage on this forum when a Republican says stupid/horrible things about poor people, similarly to when they say stupid/horrible things about blacks, women or immigrants. I haven't bothered to quantify it, as I never thought that there would be a contest between these different kinds of assholery, but sorry if I'm missing something.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I don't think many of the posters here of any race have any idea what poverty is like. I know I sure don't.

This.

I would have posted something along those lines if I hadn't been distracted by TNF's sanctimonious drivel.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm pretty sure you are well-versed in the academic debate over the nature and character of social stratification, and the various paradigms that it has inspired (of which class is one of many). You just chose to ignore it in order to get a cheap shot. Classy.

As for the first part of your post, LOL.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm pretty sure you are well-versed in the academic debate over the nature and character of social stratification, and the various paradigms that it has inspired (of which class is one of many). You just chose to ignore it in order to get a cheap shot. Classy.

As for the first part of your post, LOL.

It's not an academic debate for me, dipsh**t. It's a lived reality. So excuse me if I don't take your 'lol class don't real' bullsh**t seriously.

Jesus F**king Christ man, now you're resorting to actual insults? And I'm the one who's unable to communicate with other people? Seriously, it's not healthy to get so worked up about some guy on the internet you've never met. All we are doing is exchanging opinions.

Believe it or not, I deeply respect your working-class background and fully acknowledge that you have had it harder than I ever have and hopefully ever will. That doesn't give you the right to think you're better than everybody else, or that everyone who disagrees with you is a bad person. You can have strong opinions and still have some respect for your interlocutor.

[Antonio the Sixth]

as I seem to recall you saying once that 'social classes don't exist' on IRC,

If he said that and it isn't ridiculously out of context then that is pretty cringe-worthy, so fair enough.

For the record (and in the hope to end this bullsh*t once and for all), what happened is that I expressed my disagreement with the class-based paradigm in sociology, which pertains to a particular conception of how society is structured. Obviously no sociologist with half a brain has ever argued that social hierarchy does not exist, but views differ on the way this hierarchy plays out. In academic debates, the term of "class" refers specifically to the Marxist view of society, which has very little relevance to modern western societies.

The problem is that "class" has another, much more loose meaning in common American parlance, and that obviously in that sense saying that "classes don't exist" would be moronic. Of course, TNF doesn't give a sh*t about these nuances if they could preventing from getting a cheap shot at a goddamn lib'rul.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Why does every twentieth political discussion on the internet have to come back to that issue?

Because TNF is desperate for a sick burn.