Time for Democrats to shun the "white working class"?

[parochial boy]

I think it's worth mentioning that there is a handful of states where white deaths outnumber white births.  I used to feel kinda sad about that, but you know, there's this novel thing called "personal responsibility" that fewer people are taking advantage of these days.  You know, "personal responsibility" - that buzzword that Republicans and olds on Facebook throw around when ever they feel like taking out their grievances out on minorities and young people?

I do not like to make light of most people's deaths, but perhaps it is time these folks started practicing what they preach.  Instead of blaming the blacks or the gays or the Muslims or the Jews or any other "baddie" for your own shortcomings, try owning those things yourself.  And if, for what ever reason, you cannot contribute anything of value to the community you live in, then at least have the courtesy to not pass on your legacy to future generations who might otherwise have a better shot at life than you did.  That's what I've been, uh, "practicing," and it's worked quite well for me so far.  It will work as well for anyone regardless of their race or their gender or how much of their lives they've spent sitting in a cubicle, or wherever.

For disclosure: if saying all of this makes me a Horrible Person™, I'm fine with that classification.  I accept it.  But at any rate, my own health problems (which I have tried not to make too big a deal about in public... not anymore at least) are going to kill me by middle age anyway, so it's not like it really matters.  I don't use that as an excuse to sht on everybody who doesn't look like me or engage with the metaphysical the same way that I do.

Live a simpler life.  Take responsibility for yourself.  Take care of your own family (if you have any) and what goes on in your own backyard.  Turn yourself over to something greater than yourself.  Quit idolizing celebrities.  Those things are what's in the best interest of the "white working class," and more.

oh, and stop watching porn.


Oh, and on a final note, my disdain for WWC yahoos should not be taken as a nod to Silicon Valley yuppies/elitists, who have as much a role in America's cultural decay as anyone else.

Even if I understand your frustration "personal responsibility" is a nasty, nasty snakish phrase and should be rejected wherever it comes up.

We should never, ever allow someone's own personal "failures" to justify their suffering, because, you know what, people suffering is a bad thing, and is unneccesary in a society as wealthy as 21st century America.

[parochial boy]

I was thinking in terms of GDP per capita adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity.

The comparison with the Nordic countries usually works because they are countries with similar levels of economic development (all are in the region of $50k), but have significantly lower levels of people living on low incomes, living in relative poverty, in poor health, dying young etc...

You could argue for HDI as a measure (or even income inequality adjusted HDI), but it is a little subjective as the US has much higher inequality, and lower life expectancy and literacy, relative to other countries with similar levels of GDP per capita.

Gross GDP would be a completely useless measure for obvious reasons...

[parochial boy]

No, but a person who uses their failures to justify open hostility to minorities deserves no sympathy, as far as I'm concerned, from anyone.  The left becomes complicit in this when they write these attitudes off as "economic anxiety."  If anything, they are completely fine with suffering as long as the people they hate suffer more.

We did not get people like Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, and Greg Gianforte in our government by accident, remember.  People had to vote those guys in.

But I think the dynamic is a little more complex than that - the hostility towards minorities comes out of things like feelings of insecurity, of losing out in the modern world; basically it is an inevitable consequence of economic liberalism (using the European definition of liberalism). When you see your own life going backwards, it is not exactly surprising to see people blaming other people for it; after all, everyone has a tendancy to blame other people when things have gone wrong.

The fundamental reason the left exists is to stand up for the least powerful, which includes the WWC, and if it lets down these people then it is not doing its job at the end of the day.

On the back of that, I really think that shunning the white working class because we dislike their culture, or the way they have reacted to a negative set of circumstances, is just falling into the same "divide and rule" trap that the right use, and always have used, to keep themselves in power.