deep thoughts for a Monday morning

[orangerful]

Very interesting read from the Harvard Business Review - What So Many People Don't Get about the U.S. Working Class?

Biggest issue is they forgot to say WHITE working class right upfront but otherwise, I found this fascinating and a way to try to understand what was going on in their minds. I don't agree with their decision to support Trump, but the first steps to fixing any problem is understanding both sides, right?

And, of course, these are not the only people that voted for Trump, but this is the group getting the bulk of the blame.

Decent comments too! I mean, some people are just angry, but others have good points about the article, other issues, and where they disagree but still relatively civil!

I've added a safety pin to my work lanyard as a silent protest and a nod to anyone who feels unsafe in these times.

Comments

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

I've been reading stuff like that too, and I do understand their frustration. So many people are in similar situations, and I do get why they voted the way they did.

Problem is, Trump's running mate wants people like me brainwashed and tortured, and he's filling the cabinet with people who can actually make that a reality. That's the one thing I cannot get past.

Here's where I am: we need to help each other, because the government we're getting right now isn't going to help any of us. Even the ones who voted him in. I'm wearing my safety pin too. There are a couple of families who come to Storytime on the regular who wear head scarves. I haven't seen them in a while and I really hope they're okay.

[hanorganaas.livejournal.com]

I feel like the desperation of others for a "better America" got Trump voted here. And it went Awry. Trump seems like he did this as a Publicity Stump and now we're stuck but I don't think with Trump's age hes gonna do two terms so there's a caviat.

I Am also gonna buy safety pins this week and put one on. I feel like because I fall into so many Marginalized categories I need to show I support!

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I've tried understanding. Hell, I'm in the demographic that is supposed to have voted him in (white, working poor). But all I know is, understanding the people who voted for him aside, a great lot of the ones who did so have no reason to be grumbling, as they are not in the same situation as the people they just threw under the bus. I've tried to understand. But I also know that intolerance is the main reason for voting against yourself - and that is what they did. They must know that. I cannot condone the rise of hate and the idea that putting that man in office makes what he says (and has done) okay. Which is exactly what voting him in has done. Now you have people acting on what they only used to say behind closed doors. And I fear for my neighbors. I fear for myself and my little family as well - not because of violence...but because we're already bad off and now it will only get worse. And how soon before minorities and those being targeted by hate groups fight back (as they should!), but people like me and my family will either get mistaken for the enemy or caught in the crossfire.

Understanding is all well and good. As long as both sides are doing so. But we have one side that was indifferent to all but themselves and willing to pass the blame for what they felt was wrong on the groups they were told were the problem. There was no critical thinking. There was no asking questions. There was no studying both sides of the debate and trying to understand on THEIR end. There is blind hate, blind indifference and a willingness to believe the people that have been steadily making everything a mess are suddenly going to fix it.

And I'm still obviously pissy about it all...apologies, lovie.

I'm wearing my safety pin. And I hope that I can help. I just don't want to have to tangle with those who are the opposite in thinking and I'm too pissed to be rational about it right now. I've tried rational. It didn't get me very far - and being tolerant and understanding of bigotry has only gotten a man in office who will devastate our economy, drive the working class harder than they have been for even less, plummet our climate over the cliff's edge and undo every public service and social service that our society depends on (and has been depending on) since FDR. Arrghhh...

*HUGS*

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I've read a couple of things like that as well and their frustration is understandable, but I cannot get past that the cabinet is filling with people who stand for everything I despise.

[rahirah]

I really think this author is underestimating ingrained racism and sexism in his attempt to make it All About Class. As he himself points out, it is the WHITE Working Class he's talking about. And their contempt for women and non-whites drips from every word he writes. Their so-called dignity depends on the oppression of other groups.

I mean, yes, we have to understand why people feel as they do in order to reach them, but understanding does not mean we have to accept that their feelings are A-OK and we should just roll over and accommodate them in everything. Because what they want is NOT simply good jobs -- it's a return to a social order where they were on top of the heap, and everyone else had to defer to them. The world is not going to return to the 1950s. Good-paying factory jobs are not going to magically return -- automation is doing them in as fast or faster than globalization. And I am damned if LBGT+ folks are going back in the closet, and non-whites are going back to the back of the bus, so that middle class white people can feel comfortable in their social superiority to everyone else.

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

In a way, I can understand where these people are coming. I understand being desperate for a change and wanting to get away from the same old, same old politicians. But the thing I can't wrap my head around (aside from basically turning a blind eye to racism) is why do these people so desperate for change think that Trump is going to fix everything? He talked all of this crap about "draining the swamp" and his first steps in office were to fill it back up with the usual suspect politicians like Priebus and with racist, anti-Semites like Bannon. What in these months and months and months of election trash-talking has Trump actually specifically said that makes people actually believe he's going to bring back jobs and be different from other politicians? Because he says he's going to? Just because he's not a politician? It just does not make any sense to me.

Stacey

[snogged.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to understand both sides, but the choices Trump has making for his transition team do not give me hope.

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

I feel badly for them because the people who are under employed in fields that are rapidly disappearing I think will suffer a lot in the next four years. I don't know if they'll come to see that it was because there never was a plan to help them from Trump or if the blame will be shifted elsewhere but it's going to be rough for them.