Do you know any poor white people?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

P.S.: Does anyone seriously believe a generic racist, sexist, or homophobic comment would've attracted nearly as much attention or condemnation as posting a few pictures of hicks did?

I guess you could post some pictures and comments intended to denigrate these groups of people and see what the reaction is, if you think that sort of thing is totally fine.

[IceSpear]

P.S.: Does anyone seriously believe a generic racist, sexist, or homophobic comment would've attracted nearly as much attention or condemnation as posting a few pictures of hicks did?

I guess you could post some pictures and comments intended to denigrate these groups of people and see what the reaction is, if you think that sort of thing is totally fine.

Sexist and racist comments are posted on this forum on a daily basis, particularly when it comes to these groups' support for Hillary Clinton. Usually they get a blind eye, and at most are confronted by a few posters, but certainly nothing of this scale. Just admit the double standard and this forum's coddling of white men and move on.

And can the pearl clutchers who add nothing to the conversation take it elsewhere? It's getting old. Go make some excuses for why referring to Hillary Clinton as a shrill harpy isn't sexist, and why implying blacks are too stupid to know what's good for them isn't racist at all.

[Asian Nazi]

Sexist and racist comments are posted on this forum on a daily basis, particularly when it comes to these groups' support for Hillary Clinton. Usually they get a blind eye, and at most are confronted by a few posters, but certainly nothing of this scale.

I think most of us have given up.  We're such a tiny minority on this forum that we'll get shouted down and silenced if we complain, and the moderators at best do absolutely nothing to help us.

[IceSpear]

Sexist and racist comments are posted on this forum on a daily basis, particularly when it comes to these groups' support for Hillary Clinton. Usually they get a blind eye, and at most are confronted by a few posters, but certainly nothing of this scale.

I think most of us have given up.  We're such a tiny minority on this forum that we'll get shouted down and silenced if we complain, and the moderators at best do absolutely nothing to help us.

I usually don't bother to point it out or confront it since it's the internet and is to be expected, and my psyche isn't fragile glass like some here, so it's very easy to brush off. But the double standard is quite funny when it comes to poor white people. If you make a single derogatory comment, it inevitably turns into an enormous dogpile and circlejerk about how evil and cruel and heartless you are, and about how YOU are what's wrong with the Democratic Party, and West Virginia would still love Democrats if it wasn't for some random internet commenters being mean to them. It's as funny as it is predictable.

Again, the fact that a 99.9% white male forum is going to give special consideration to white males is not exactly a groundbreaking discovery. Just admit it and move on.

[Figueira]

Actually IceSpear does kind of have a point. I have seen people here argue, for example, that the Democrats should abandon environmentalism in an effort to win West Virginia, which is incredibly ridiculous.

However, "Other people on Atlas are bigoted too!" isn't an excuse to be bigoted. Classism is a form of bigotry.

My point was that hicks are the only "protected group" among Atlas lefties. Xenophobia, racism, sexism, and homophobia is brushed off as "legitimate respectful political disagreement." Only when you bash poor white people does a swarm of angry posters come out of the woodwork to condemn you as literally Hitler. You know, despite the fact that class can be changed, whereas race, sexuality, etc. cannot be. In fact, my initial posts were bait just to prove this very point! It worked beautifully.

Let's be real for a second: A typical Atlas leftie would trade the votes of 1,000 black people for a single racist white Appalachian conservative coal miner. They would trade Virginia for West Virginia just because it makes them "feel good." I think I'll just take it as some weird compulsion/quirk (lord knows Atlas has no shortage of those), because the alternative is too sad to think about.

I don't think I'm part of this group of "atlas lefties" who have this double standard, but that still doesn't excuse your posts earlier in this thread.

And yeah, I don't get what people's obsession is with winning West Virginia. Maybe it's because it makes the map look nicer? Actually I think that might be it.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

I challenge anyone to drive through Eastern Washington or Northern Idaho and claim that the people there enjoy any kind of "white privilege."

Their are plenty of poor white people in western Washington, too. The Pacific coast has been pretty devastated economically (minus the really tourist-y parts), and having grown up in rural-ish Snohomish County, I can say there are a lot of poor white places with heavy drug problems there, too (Granite Falls, Arlington, Camano Island, most anywhere in the foothills/mountains of Snoho, Skagit, and Whatcom).


Granted, crossing from Spokane County into Kootenai County is quite the experience. Oh boy.

Do people actually think that Coeur d' Alene or north Idaho in general is some sort of poverty pocket? It's a reasonably affluent community by the standards of Idaho. North Idaho has also never struck me as being particularly poor either.

Spokane, on the other hand, strikes me as a community where there are many poor white people.

Coeur d'Alene has some pockets of poverty, though it's pretty nice overall. It's once you get outside of the city proper that it gets more depressed.

Spokane is... Well, it's Spokane. A few years ago Northeast Spokane was one of the poorest ZIP codes in the state.

I grew up in Coeur d'Alene. In fact, I grew up outside of "the city proper". I've never seen it as a particularly impoverished place. I guess I could see why people would think that. After all, it's quite odd to see run-down houses with horses in the backyard or whatever but those people are rarely poor, they're simply from a different cultural background. I guess Post Falls and parts of downtown Coeur d' Alene have some concentrated poverty but it's hardly noticeable and these pockets aren't homogeneous.

Anyways, I thought about this a bit and realized that Sanders' comment is a gaffe: I think what he meant to say is that white people don't know what it's like to live in an impoverished community or neighborhood, which is generally true in the United States. Segregation by income certainly occurs but, for the most, poverty is dispersed in white America and not concentrated.

For instance, I was friends with many people who fell below the poverty line but I was also friends with kids from families who lived in "McMansions". It's quite typical for this to occur in small/medium sized cities: public schools in predominantly white communities tend to feature students from a wide-range of incomes. This is not so in communities that are segregated by race. So Sanders has a good point; one that's recognized by the vast majority of the literature on social mobility.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Spokane has plenty of poor white people. Logan neighborhood downtown in one of those "don't walk at night" neighborhoods (though Spokane has quite nice parts, too). But as you head from Spokane eastward, it gets more and more redneck-y. Liberty Lake is a step down, and then you hit State Line and its nothing but Cabella's and trailer parks until you get to Coeur d'Alene itself, which is an all right town.

I think the operative word here is "redneck-y". The rednecks aren't poor; in fact, they're often quite well off. They're enjoy putting things in their yard that we normals consider to be low-class or, for lack of a better word, "white trash" cultural items. I know this because I'm friends with someone from a family like this: they own a sizeable amount of property and own a few small businesses but their lawncare is very lacking and they don't maintain their house in a manner that's "respectable". They don't have health insurance. They're not poor though.

Only reasonably affluent people shop at Cabella's btw. My family is well-off but they think Cabella's is "too expensive" and "for rich people". Ultimately, what I'm getting at, is that what people who live in Seattle or New York or Los Angeles consider to be "white poverty" is frequently rooted in misguided stereotypes. So-called "rednecks" are rarely poor. After all, their poorly maintained lawns and are their poorly maintained lawns.

For what it's worth, most poor people in Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene tend to be quite similar to poor people in Spokane, which is to say that they're not "country" and poor youth in both cities tend to listen to "hip-hop" or bad "scene" music. I know this because these were stereotypes attached to "Lake City High School", which contains the few poverty pockets of CDA. Kids who went there were judged to be "ghetto", not "redneck".

[Figueira]

I challenge anyone to drive through Eastern Washington or Northern Idaho and claim that the people there enjoy any kind of "white privilege."

Their are plenty of poor white people in western Washington, too. The Pacific coast has been pretty devastated economically (minus the really tourist-y parts), and having grown up in rural-ish Snohomish County, I can say there are a lot of poor white places with heavy drug problems there, too (Granite Falls, Arlington, Camano Island, most anywhere in the foothills/mountains of Snoho, Skagit, and Whatcom).


Granted, crossing from Spokane County into Kootenai County is quite the experience. Oh boy.

Do people actually think that Coeur d' Alene or north Idaho in general is some sort of poverty pocket? It's a reasonably affluent community by the standards of Idaho. North Idaho has also never struck me as being particularly poor either.

Spokane, on the other hand, strikes me as a community where there are many poor white people.

Coeur d'Alene has some pockets of poverty, though it's pretty nice overall. It's once you get outside of the city proper that it gets more depressed.

Spokane is... Well, it's Spokane. A few years ago Northeast Spokane was one of the poorest ZIP codes in the state.

I grew up in Coeur d'Alene. In fact, I grew up outside of "the city proper". I've never seen it as a particularly impoverished place. I guess I could see why people would think that. After all, it's quite odd to see run-down houses with horses in the backyard or whatever but those people are rarely poor, they're simply from a different cultural background. I guess Post Falls and parts of downtown Coeur d' Alene have some concentrated poverty but it's hardly noticeable and these pockets aren't homogeneous.

Anyways, I thought about this a bit and realized that Sanders' comment is a gaffe: I think what he meant to say is that white people don't know what it's like to live in an impoverished community or neighborhood, which is generally true in the United States. Segregation by income certainly occurs but, for the most, poverty is dispersed in white America and not concentrated.

For instance, I was friends with many people who fell below the poverty line but I was also friends with kids from families who lived in "McMansions". It's quite typical for this to occur in small/medium sized cities: public schools in predominantly white communities tend to feature students from a wide-range of incomes. This is not so in communities that are segregated by race. So Sanders has a good point; one that's recognized by the vast majority of the literature on social mobility.

I think his main point was simply "white people don't know what it's like to be black" which is, quite frankly, true. He worded it badly, though.

[Famous Mortimer]

Spokane has plenty of poor white people. Logan neighborhood downtown in one of those "don't walk at night" neighborhoods (though Spokane has quite nice parts, too). But as you head from Spokane eastward, it gets more and more redneck-y. Liberty Lake is a step down, and then you hit State Line and its nothing but Cabella's and trailer parks until you get to Coeur d'Alene itself, which is an all right town.

I think the operative word here is "redneck-y". The rednecks aren't poor; in fact, they're often quite well off. They're enjoy putting things in their yard that we normals consider to be low-class or, for lack of a better word, "white trash" cultural items. I know this because I'm friends with someone from a family like this: they own a sizeable amount of property and own a few small businesses but their lawncare is very lacking and they don't maintain their house in a manner that's "respectable". They don't have health insurance. They're not poor though.

Only reasonably affluent people shop at Cabella's btw. My family is well-off but they think Cabella's is "too expensive" and "for rich people". Ultimately, what I'm getting at, is that what people who live in Seattle or New York or Los Angeles consider to be "white poverty" is frequently rooted in misguided stereotypes. So-called "rednecks" are rarely poor.

White trash aren't poor, they can afford refrigerators and cell phones.

[The Dowager Mod]

Most of my fathers side of the family in TN is below the poverty line.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Spokane has plenty of poor white people. Logan neighborhood downtown in one of those "don't walk at night" neighborhoods (though Spokane has quite nice parts, too). But as you head from Spokane eastward, it gets more and more redneck-y. Liberty Lake is a step down, and then you hit State Line and its nothing but Cabella's and trailer parks until you get to Coeur d'Alene itself, which is an all right town.

I think the operative word here is "redneck-y". The rednecks aren't poor; in fact, they're often quite well off. They're enjoy putting things in their yard that we normals consider to be low-class or, for lack of a better word, "white trash" cultural items. I know this because I'm friends with someone from a family like this: they own a sizeable amount of property and own a few small businesses but their lawncare is very lacking and they don't maintain their house in a manner that's "respectable". They don't have health insurance. They're not poor though.

Only reasonably affluent people shop at Cabella's btw. My family is well-off but they think Cabella's is "too expensive" and "for rich people". Ultimately, what I'm getting at, is that what people who live in Seattle or New York or Los Angeles consider to be "white poverty" is frequently rooted in misguided stereotypes. So-called "rednecks" are rarely poor.

White trash aren't poor, they can afford refrigerators and cell phones.

No, I mean, quite literally, most rednecks that people think are "poor" are not impoverished according metrics of poverty used by sociologists, the government etc. They certainly lack access to "social capital", which hinders their ability to achieve social mobility, but they're not materially impoverished.

Very few poor people in the US own houses unless they live in communities that have experienced acute economic dislocation.

Note: I'm not arguing that poverty isn't a problem in white communities.

[Famous Mortimer]

So all that was just a way to say that White people can't be poor because they own houses? Houses, especially McMansions in the middle of nowhere like poor White people own, are worth a lot of money on paper but basically impossible to sell unless you're willing to take a loss. You take away the "value" of these houses and White people are just as poor as minorities. Most studies confirm this, the media usually covers them as "Average White Family Worth 100K More than Black Family" but then read, and yeah, it's all because of crappy houses, they don't have 100k laying around.

Also the argument that you can't be poor and own a small business is stupid. Otherwise there's a lot of Afghan fried chicken joint owners in New York who have lots of "material capital".

[Vern]

My family use to be poor, when I was little. But my parents worked their butts off to give us a better life.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm related to some. Accidentally voted no.

I like your picture.  What all does it entail?

It's a painting of the Virgin Mary by a Spanish artist named Francisco Laporta Valor. It seems to be of her at the Annunciation, and the quote below it in my signature is taken from the Magnificat, the little slam poem she recites in response to Gabriel's message. (I'm assuming no knowledge of this because you're a newbie and I don't know what your religious background is; if you already knew some or most of this then I apologize and I'm not trying to talk down to you.) I'm a pretty hardcore Christian socialist, emphasis on both 'Christian' and 'socialist', and the Magnificat is a big part of how I came to that position.

Anyway the usual suspects plus IceSpear are [Inks]ing horrible and as somebody who is the child of a 1. socialist 2. single mother and 3. grew up on and off food stamps in a part of 4. Vermont with 5. Appalachia-y vibes where people 6. cling to guns although not necessarily religion so much and 7. vote for Bernie Sanders, I can tell NYJackass in particular that he's talking out his ass and other urban liberals really ought not to be buying the sh**t he's selling. It's a sin and shame that so many of them are.

[afleitch]

Not in the 'American' sense, until I met some of my husband's family. Who are probably some of the worst, most self obsessed, narrow minded, racist people I have ever met in my life.And I tend to like everybody. They have made an almost conscious decision to slide into poverty and ignorance. Meeting them broke a 'compass' in me and therefore I don't think I should comment on an asinine thread like this.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This forum is hilarious. How many different groups of people are constantly bashed here? Yet like clockwork, the second anyone takes aim at the hicks, droves of people start hyperventilating about how mean, insensitive, and cruel you are. lol

This is a really curious complaint given that we have had longterm posters banned for racist and homophobic remarks.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You appear to have something of a superiority complex, which is curious as you don't exactly come across as intelligent.

But I'm reminded now of 'Red' Ted Grant of Lambeth who while out canvassing encountered a senior local government officer who said that he intended to vote Labour and responded to this by shouting 'I don't want someone of your class voting for me!' - except that at least that was laughable ideological inflexibility rather than pure unadulterated snobbery.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

To be perfectly honest, I do not know any poor people of any race.  All my friends are in the top 1% in terms of income.  All my relatives and co-workers are all in the top 5% in terms of income.  Only exception would be vendors of all sorts (cleaning lady, gardeners, handyman, heating guy, nannies etc etc) which I would not even say I know them well beyond the transnational nature of our relationships.

I just want to highlight this post FOR ALL TIME because wow.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Oh God, I hate these comments and the poor white-hating done.

Yes, absolutely.  This is plain ignorance.  This is why Democrats have no hope of winning West Virginia.  This is why Matt Bevin is governor of Kentucky.  This is what is the matter with Kansas.  This is why George W. Bush won in 2000.  

This forum is hilarious. How many different groups of people are constantly bashed here? Yet like clockwork, the second anyone takes aim at the hicks, droves of people start hyperventilating about how mean, insensitive, and cruel you are. lol

As for your post, GOOD! I don't want WV/KY in the Democratic coalition. Democrats being angst ridden about those places voting Republican is about as silly as if Republicans were angst ridden about not being able to appeal to socialists in Vermont or far left hippies in San Francisco. Oh wait, that wouldn't happen, since they're not retarded. If anything, bashing those places helps fire up their base and improve where they actually need to.

You Hillary supporters are working hard to shrink the party.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Maybe if you had even the slightest idea of what growing up with a jobless single-parent is like, you'd understand why I have nothing but contempt for inbred Appalachian hicks who literally sh**t away their votes at politicians who have no interests but "muh guns", "muh abortion", "muh cultural values", and "it's dat dang ol' ns fault!" on their mind.

Kind of hard to follow the logic there, actually. It may be one of those things that exists in your mind but which is not immediately visible to everyone else. Though, fwiw, most poor people (by the usual definitions, whichever you prefer) in Appalachia don't vote.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Oh God, I hate these comments and the poor white-hating done.

Yes, absolutely.  This is plain ignorance.  This is why Democrats have no hope of winning West Virginia.  This is why Matt Bevin is governor of Kentucky.  This is what is the matter with Kansas.  This is why George W. Bush won in 2000.  

This forum is hilarious. How many different groups of people are constantly bashed here? Yet like clockwork, the second anyone takes aim at the hicks, droves of people start hyperventilating about how mean, insensitive, and cruel you are. lol

As for your post, GOOD! I don't want WV/KY in the Democratic coalition. Democrats being angst ridden about those places voting Republican is about as silly as if Republicans were angst ridden about not being able to appeal to socialists in Vermont or far left hippies in San Francisco. Oh wait, that wouldn't happen, since they're not retarded. If anything, bashing those places helps fire up their base and improve where they actually need to.

You Hillary supporters are working hard to shrink the party.

Can you not? We don't all think this way, at all.

[Yank2133]

Oh God, I hate these comments and the poor white-hating done.

Yes, absolutely.  This is plain ignorance.  This is why Democrats have no hope of winning West Virginia.  This is why Matt Bevin is governor of Kentucky.  This is what is the matter with Kansas.  This is why George W. Bush won in 2000.  

This forum is hilarious. How many different groups of people are constantly bashed here? Yet like clockwork, the second anyone takes aim at the hicks, droves of people start hyperventilating about how mean, insensitive, and cruel you are. lol

As for your post, GOOD! I don't want WV/KY in the Democratic coalition. Democrats being angst ridden about those places voting Republican is about as silly as if Republicans were angst ridden about not being able to appeal to socialists in Vermont or far left hippies in San Francisco. Oh wait, that wouldn't happen, since they're not retarded. If anything, bashing those places helps fire up their base and improve where they actually need to.

You Hillary supporters are working hard to shrink the party.

Shrink the party? They are a dying voting block that have chosen social issues over economic issue. Seriously, some of you guys need to wake up, they are never going to vote for the Democrats.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Not helping people because of their political misinformation is absolutely disgusting. Not to mention, it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of who the poor are. Even in Appalachia, the real poors don't vote.

This is an excellent post though.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Oh God, I hate these comments and the poor white-hating done.

Yes, absolutely.  This is plain ignorance.  This is why Democrats have no hope of winning West Virginia.  This is why Matt Bevin is governor of Kentucky.  This is what is the matter with Kansas.  This is why George W. Bush won in 2000.  

This forum is hilarious. How many different groups of people are constantly bashed here? Yet like clockwork, the second anyone takes aim at the hicks, droves of people start hyperventilating about how mean, insensitive, and cruel you are. lol

As for your post, GOOD! I don't want WV/KY in the Democratic coalition. Democrats being angst ridden about those places voting Republican is about as silly as if Republicans were angst ridden about not being able to appeal to socialists in Vermont or far left hippies in San Francisco. Oh wait, that wouldn't happen, since they're not retarded. If anything, bashing those places helps fire up their base and improve where they actually need to.

You Hillary supporters are working hard to shrink the party.

Shrink the party? They are a dying voting block that have chosen social issues over economic issue. Seriously, some of you guys need to wake up, they are never going to vote for the Democrats.

Maybe they saw that there wasn't much difference between the parties on economic issues after NAFTA and welfare reform, so they might as well just vote on social issues.

[Kingpoleon]

Democrats:
#NoPoorWhitePeopleExist
#WhyDon'tTheyVoteForUs

Let's be honest: very, very few poor whites vote Democratic. Democrats are more likely to not be in the same social circle as poor whites, so they are the elite ones here. Also, I find it ironic the Democrats want votes from people who don't exist.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anyway, poor Appalachians/Southern whites are never going to vote for us.

Never is a strong word given that, for instance, rather a lot voted for Al Gore even.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

lmao