100 Comments

This captures the dynamic perfectly as it applies to individuals. The college-educated people heroically renouncing their whiteness would give up anything — even their own children’s dignity — to have a different skin color, and they’ve finally found a socially acceptable way to express their sadism and contempt for the poor.

The new racism couldn’t prevail, though, if it catered only to the perverse desires and anxieties of individual elites. Neoracism will win because it answers the need of institutions like Wal-Mart, Microsoft, private colleges and the military to prevent working people from liking each other enough to organize for better pay, medical and dental care, and secure housing.

I genuinely wonder why so few of the broke baristas in the DSA left don’t understand this. Until fairly recently, I was active in left-wing politics (attending meetings, knocking doors for local candidates), but as soon as progressives started dabbling in race-essentialism, confession, and ancestral guilt (or keeping silent while this happened in front of them), I was out. (The first time “progressive stack” was used at a DSA meeting, I was like, “wait—what?”)

I’m not a genius, but it seemed obvious to me that reverting to a medieval understanding of race — or pretending that we were all living in apartheid South Africa — would be harmful to people who have to work for a living.

People who were serious about organizing and empowering the “proletariat” wouldn’t constantly insult and alienate IRL proletarians with terms like “privileged,” “fragile,” and “cis” (or, in my majority-Latino part of the country, “Latinx”). You don’t organize the working class by scolding them, policing their language, or demanding that they renounce their values and common-sense beliefs. You don’t organize working-class Americans by telling them that their country, their flag, and their cousins who died in needless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were always worth less than shit. You don’t tell them that masculinity is inherently shameful or evil. Hey, look: masculinity may BE shameful or evil, whites may be morally inferior from birth, and religion might be strictly for morons and losers, but you still don’t say those things to people when you’re trying to talk them into forming a labor union.

I guess my “socialist” friends sensed, correctly, that people like Adam Johnson, who were willing to play along, would continue to be valued members of the tribe, while people like Michael Tracey and Glenn Greenwald, who held on to their principles, would become pariahs. I have a Japanese friend (a first-gen immigrant) who has been working more and more references to “white men” and even, very occasionally and carefully, “racist jews,” into her conversation. I understand why she’s trying to reset her moral compass, but I don’t think the trick will work for her.

Ironically, the year that Swarthmore and Sarah Lawrence grads donned their forever-masks will also be the year they went mask-off. It required one anomalous, narrowly decided election between an unusually genial Republican and an unusually off-putting Democrat for social-justice leftists and their friends in academia, government, and media to pathologize and slander the entire state of Virginia. When Arizona and Georgia tip very slightly back to the GOP in 2022, voters in those states will get to hear what the clever people thought of them all along.

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An unusually astute comment and worth the read. McAuliffe's problem was the same as Clinton's. They both felt "entitled" to rule by dint of who they were.

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Thanks!

And I’ll save other people the trouble of pointing out that the comment is way, way too long. (This is apparently what happens when I’m on my smartphone at 4am while having terrible insomnia. My daytime comment is: “Great post. Leighton nailed it.”)

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Bill Clinton grew up poor. Talk about a swing and a miss:

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Got you a new subscriber.

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I love your comment, and admire your passion to help organize working people. It has become clear to me that all this division by identity is absolutely to weaken the working and middle classes to protect the elites.

I'm battling to organize the workers at our venture capitalist owned ski hill for better working conditions and pay. The place is their most profitable property, but their practices would not survive scrutiny in any other industry. What astounds me is how demoralized and accepting many people are of their conditions.

Our collective enemy is the government, the elites and corporate honchos all of whom write the laws to protect themselves while they draw generous salaries, pensions, benefits off our backs.

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As a highly educated native West Virginian, I started libertarian, ended up liberal/progressive about halfway through college to 2020, then ate a giant black/red pill. I have a tremendous tremendous amount of spite and thirst for vengeance for the professional managerial class for everything from our summer of love in 2020 to masking my fucking two year old in preschool. I will do literally anything in my power to legally and morally make these bastards pay, and I will never again vote for any of the people who foisted this upon us.

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Preach brother! The liberals are poking a very mean big bear.

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But I haven’t even met you, let alone engaged in oral sex with you.

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“highly educated”.

That discipline must be Rectum Sniffing.

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Oh …mass deportations of brown ppl who've lived here for decades and are good, productive members of the community is ok with you …because you had issues with COVID policies…..

Self absorbed piece of shit is what you are.

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You better believe it darling! Xoxoxo!!! Grab your ankles and kiss your ass goodbye!

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6d
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Just because your family engages in these practices doesn’t mean the rest of Americans do my dear.

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citizen. that's not how you spell asylum-claimant

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Sure you are toots.

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Yayyyyyy

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Between you and Antioine Doinel, I feel much less crazy. For a long time, I've been telling people the elites (both sides) are trying to foment a race war to avoid a class/caste war. So whatever you do, don't buy into the race hysteria. Yes, there are problems, but one of the most egalitarian places you'll find is a trailer court. Everyone just wants to get by.

Thank you for another wonderful article. You make so much more sense than the establishment "thinkers" on either side.

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I see this happening as well, but it’s also being done by government actors. We see “academics” being paid by the CIA to “study” civil war, and their conclusions are that it is going to be started by whites who are frightened about finding themselves in the minority. They say it’s going to be a war between whites and everyone else who isn’t white. Working class people aren’t buying it, but the elites are, hook, line, and sinker.

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are there studies like this being done?

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Yes, check out the Center for Systemic Peace. It's a quasi academic / political / family organization that provides "data" for people like Barbara Walter to go out and claim they are "experts" on civil war. (Note, Dr. Walter is employed by the CIA and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.) It's one big circle-jerk masquerading as science for regime propaganda purposes only.

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I disagree with the comparison between poor rural whites and welfare queens. The term welfare queen points at the importance of incentives and unintended consequences of government actions. If you pay people enough to have babies, well some people are going to have babies rather than work. So despite good intentions, the policy fails. and in fact has deleterious effects. On the other hand, poor whites aren't suffering from policy directed at them with good intentions. They're suffering from policies that disregarded them.

Also, what are the Lee Atwater dog whistles the right routinely sounds? And why do you think the

partial Republican embrace of populism is faux?

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That may be, but "welfare queen" was absolutely used as a way to discredit welfare recipients as undeserving parasites on the system rather than struggling people in need of help.

Re: dog whistles, two of them are right here in this discussion — Atwater's southern strategy and "welfare queens." But throughout the 80s and 90s there was a ton of the same: "crack babies," "superpredators," rap music corrupting our youth, War on Drugs (and yeah I'm aware that plenty of Democrats championed them too; this isn't a partisan point).

I think Republican populism is fake for the same reason I think Democratic populism is fake: because I believe politicians deploy these messages cynically. Trump's populism was a total charade. He capitulated to Wall St as soon as he took office.

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Im a youth raised on rap and I can 100% confirm that rap music corrupts the youth. I was on a path towards prison and all I did to change that trajectory was start listening to older music instead of the garbage that was pumped into my brain from age 10-22

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Brilliant. That's thinking for yourself. If you need financial advice play "You've Got To Have An Ace In The Hole " by George Strait. C+W song but a whole 3 year economics course in 3 minutes.

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OK, I read the dog whistle line as a current thing. And I can agree with your cynical take on populism from our political class. Although I think applies not just to populism, but nearly every claim to have the electorates best interests in mind. At best politicians seek to win elections, which I guess is fine since any system that depends on virtue is in my opinion likely to fail. I think this is why democracy is the least bad system we have, since it in theory at least aligns the incentives of leaders with the populace.

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I agree with every word.

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This is an argument from ignorance. Every item you've listed as a "dog whistle" were serious issues that society grappled with and, much like immigration and inflation this last election, the Right won on simply by being the side willing to admit that the problems exist and offering to do something about them. You might not like admitting where the problems have been, but surveys of Black communities have consistently shown that they don't favor having their communities ravaged by crime, drugs, and gangs. You say that you're aware "plenty of Democrats championed them too", but you don't seem aware that includes the Black voters themselves, the victims of the crime, the drugs, and the gangs being called out. It's not a "dog whistle" to actually LISTEN to the complaints coming from the law abiding citizens watching their daughters become addicts and their sons be killed on street corners.

"Law and Order" keeps being a winning issue for the Right, not because of any racism or classism, but because the number one demographic overrepresented among crime victims IS... the working poor. Just enough money to be worth robbing, not enough money or influence to defend themselves, and always there in easy proximity for the criminals to target. Yet the Left, which always claims to champion the poor and the working class, are inconsistent (at best) at standing by the working poor when they are the victims of people who look like them, people who live in their communities. No, it's somehow so much easier for the Left to sympathize with the criminals, say they're the real victims, and assert that "the real blame" lies with somebody who doesn't look like them and lives in a much nicer part of town, and that it's a "racist dog whistle" for those people who don't look like them and live in a much nicer part of town to point out who actually committed the crimes.

Mock populism all you want, but maybe study it too. It's what happens when elites don't LISTEN to the genuine concerns of the people. Trump managed to set records for black employment, had real income improving faster in the bottom quartile than the top, and made engagements with HBCUs and criminal justice reform high priorities that he delivered on. His share of minority voters has improved with each election. You can be the meme who thinks that all those "Obama to Trump" voters are somehow stupid, ignorant, gullible rubes and yet YOU are their champion (despite you disregarding what they say their priorities are, how much better off they were under the last Republican administration, and who they trust more to lead the country next), but that kinda makes you look a lot like the very people you're criticizing for not listening to the working class.

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First of all, this post is 3 years old, as is the comment you're responding to. I wouldn't answer in the same way today. Second, you're assuming a lot of things about my beliefs that are pretty far off base, especially in the last paragraph.

Browse through my reporting on crime, violence and blight in American cities, and my writing on populism and elitism, and I think you'll find I'm not the caricature you're making me out to be.

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I'm a pessimist, so I'm often happy to be proven wrong. I'll give you a chance. How would you answer today?

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Dec 4Edited

> If you pay people enough to have babies, well some people are going to have babies rather than work.

Regardless of the specifics of welfare here, with the world entering an era of disastrous fertility crisis, we could use more babies.

And less work, for that matter, or rather better spread of the necessary work (as opposed to social life/family/mental killing busywork, people working in rent-seeking corporations, and cancerous consumerist growth).

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Thanks for noting that. And it continues, with fema unavailable to help the flood-unhoused, largely white low income folk, while other groups get support.

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How and why do the poor and working class whites wear the mantle of "white privilege," and "white supremacy?" The "anointed" are using these non-provable little phrases to say "it ain't us." They're saying to minorities that the reason their lives are miserable isn't because of us, it's because of them. Who, after all, controls the major institutions in this country? Academia, entertainment, sports, etc., are all dominated by the left, so when "white whatever" is uttered, they're pointing their fingers at themselves.

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I don't know why this showed up in my newsfeed years later, but it did. It says "Bari Weiss liked" it.

Earlier this morning I found out that Joe Biden found a Billion dollars laying around for victims of natural disasters in Africa.

Last week I read an article here on Substack about how FEMA is offering $18,000 to people in Appalachia, for property worth over $200,000. If they don't take it? "Too bad so sad, live in your tent white trash."

Someone is going to have to prove to me that there was no intent on the part of the American Establishment, via the major parties and corporate interests, to commit crimes against humanity. And someone is going to have to prove to me that it hasn't been going on for decades now. Otherwise I want a new 'Nuremburg Trials', and I want it today.

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Dec 5Edited

The money send to Africa aren't going there to help disaster stricken Africans either. They are there to making dependent / blackmail (by selectively withholding it) / buying out their leadership, to lure them over from trading and working with a certain Asian country, and help continue their exploitation...

Let's not be fooled the elites care for Africans either (whether African-Americans in the US or actual Africans). It's performative and self-serving.

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There is li+hium found in 4 of the 27 affected counties. Search Tin-Sp0dumene Belt • Li+hium mines • N P R article (and others) from 2yrs ago (don’t use g0ogle) - production of which makes li+hium hydroxide for “green” batteries (think C@li push for full E V by 2O30). Pent@gon gave $90mil for 1 of 3 mines to reopen, which has been underway. They are waiting people out & govt is reeping $$ by abusing their citizens & funding foreign wars and woke agendas to reduce pop by 10-15%, ask criminals G@tes + F@uci & nihilist org w e f. Nuremberg 2.0 is much needed.

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I agree but seriously doubt that we will Nuremberg 2.0. How long should we wait for justice? Tired of waiting. Grab your pitchfork and dust off them guillotines.

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Nah.

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SO INFURIATING. You did a really good job of articulating how insidious and sick the mentality of middle and upper class white anti-white racists, punching down while patting themselves on the back for how righteous and right-minded they are. I want to throw them all into a volcano.

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Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire [the eternal separation from God].

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Tick tock…

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I think a really good strategy would be to convince poor white people that the reason they're poor is because of people who don't look like them - and who have less social, cultural, economic, political, etc. - are actually stealing things from them/the problem.

That way, there is no collective working together across class lines because that would be Communism.

Someone should try that.

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Poor people are poor because they make poor choices. Basic personal finance education would eliminate most poverty. Basic education in general would eliminate most problems across the board. Just like fat people are fat because they make poor lifestyle choices. The dumbing down of America project has been a resounding success.

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Nope. That only applies to the Blacks.

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Ever been to Iowa?

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You're failing to distinguish poor urban whites, living on benefits, from the mostly white people of rural america. Tbe dynamic and history is different. But the disdain from the left is tbe same.

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Compelling read. It dovetails nicely with Musa Al-Gharbi's idea of symbolic capitalism

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Did someone post this somewhere? It's a 3 year old piece that's somehow getting traction again.

Very happy to see that happen, of course, but just curious.

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I have seen it posted on Substack a couple times in the past few days, so I guess it has indeed been getting some renewed traction.

I did not, actually, even realize the original date it was published. Considering the demographic trends from the election, and as applied to the 'working class' more broadly, it reads as prescient analysis

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Yeah. Three years later and it’s only gotten worse. 40 days and counting… if we make it that far without some serious shenanigans.

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I don’t discriminate against others because of their race. I discriminate against those who are willfully stupid; who choose to remain ignorant.

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Well written article. Perception in America will always be the ruling factor within this country and why identity politics is just a sophisticated version of the “blame game”. Elites on both sides of the fence don’t not care about impoverished people within society. The notion of this piece presenting justification in which just progressive white elites look down on poor white people and negating the fact many conservatives do the same feeds into this propaganda model that doesn’t lead us anywhere toward real solutions. Economics will always be the core issue that needs to addressed when bringing up a very multifaceted issue like this. MLK understood that economics is truly the bridge that can bring people together on a level that scares these elites on both sides because it disrupts their way of normalcy. This is what America needs to focus on. We have to move away from this urge to place blame on parties and have more constructive conversations on where we have similarities in our plight for economic prosperity for all. The reason why that will never happen is because we as a society fall prey to the psychological tactics that are geared to have us disseminate information that magnify our cognitive bias. Donald Trump and Elon Musk do not care about poor white people, they are demagogues who understand that poor people will consume media especially social media and not have objective reasoning to truly understand the economic landscape within this country. Trump going to scoop fries at McDonald’s is a surface level attempt to bamboozle people in his effort to be “relatable” and people succumb to it unfortunately. America votes with emotion and that is why campaign messaging works. Poor people irregardless of race are at the bottom of the American barrel but instead of working together to get out, different groups are trying to get out on their own and never succeeding.

This is why propaganda messaging is so effective. When the “welfare queen” push was done by Reagan it set off a wave of psychological manipulation that it got people to believe that a certain race was “lazy” and exploiting the system and in the interim convincing poor white people to think the same way as well even though their situation was just as dire. In this era of social media and engagement it’s more crucial than ever to have these conservations and constructive. These topics can spark real change if executed the right way. I’m just afraid we’re too far down the identity politics road to truly come together right now.

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First thing I have read that makes consistent sense.

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The White Race traitors will not be forgotten, forgiven, or absolved of punishment!

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Excellent!

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100%

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My wife decided she was tired of the carpet in our 20X30 den. For me and my son to be able to carry it to the curb, it needed to be cut in three sections, which led to...If you have ever used a chain saw INSIDE your house, you might...

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