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blue bits. red rocks.
Wednesday 25 November 2009

They are that great white unwashed that educated liberals just cannot get their heads around. Liberal audiences ask me, “Why are so many working class Americans non-union or anti-union?” Sometimes I reply that if you kick a dog hard enough and often enough, the dog will do any goddamned thing you want, whether it is “in his interests” or not. If the dog doesn’t bite that union organizer, the poor fucking beast doesn’t get fed at all. Educated urban liberals never seem to grasp that most Americans no longer have access to the levers of self-determination. But then, I never expect the bourgeoisie to understand the legions of industrial serfs outside the gates. Nor do they much bother to try. After all, they’ve “got theirs.” Education, safe working conditions, negotiable wages, access to real culture if they choose, progeny who will more or less continue their class patterns, even if on a somewhat lesser scale. When they look around their affinity groups and communities, they see only people like themselves. “Naw, we’re not elites,” they conclude. Joe Bageant

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