Vox.com Artcile - The Smug Style in American Liberalism

[Raeph]

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/1145137...can-liberalism

Very interesting and LONG article on the drifting between working class voters, specifically white working class, and the Democrat party in the United States.

TLDR:

Between 1960 and 1980 working class people left the Democrat party, leaving them mostly the party of elite ideologues in the countries coasts, and in college campuses.

Rather than trying to understand why the working class left the party, the elites became smug and demonized the working class as foolish and stupid. They then built a political/social coalition around shared belief in the having the "right" kind of ideas and the "right" kind of solutions. Those who did not share these beliefs were shunned and ridiculed as stupid hicks, unworthy of consideration because they didn't have the self interest enough to believe in the "right" kind of ideas and processes.

Fast forward to today 21st century Liberalism is less about New Deal style public support concern for your better man, which leads to social reform policy, and more about maintaining a coalition of people who demonize people who don't believe correctly, with smug overtones.

This lack of respect for large swaths of the populace leads to an ever-widening disconnect between the people that need help and solutions from the leaders, and the leaders who espouse the position that "If those people just believed like we do their lives would be better".

I am suggesting that they instead wonder what it might be like to have little left but one's values; to wake up one day to find your whole moral order destroyed; to look around and see the representatives of a new order call you a stupid, hypocritical hick without bothering, even, to wonder how your corner of your poor state found itself so alienated from them in the first place. To work with people who do not share their values or their tastes, who do not live where they live or like what they like or know their Good Facts or their jokes.

This is not a call for civility. Manners are not enough. The smug style did not arise by accident, and it cannot be abolished with a little self-reproach. So long as liberals cannot find common cause with the larger section of the American working class, they will search for reasons to justify that failure. They will resent them. They will find, over and over, how easy it is to justify abandoning them further. They will choose the smug style.

Maybe the cycle is too deeply set already. Perhaps the divide, the disdain, the whole crack-up are inevitable. But if liberal good intentions are to make a play for a better future, they cannot merely recognize the ways they've come to hate their former allies. They must begin to mend the ways they lost them in the first place.

Thoughts?

[I Push Buttons]

more about maintaining a coalition of people who demonize people who don't believe correctly, with smug overtones

I thought we were talking about Democrats, not Republicans.

[Raeph]

I thought we were talking about Democrats, not Republicans.

From the article you didn't read:

Finding comfort in the notion that their former allies were disdainful, hapless rubes, smug liberals created a culture animated by that contempt. The rubes noticed and replied in kind. The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you are going to make a snappy snide comment at least have the decency to wait long enough to give the appearance that you read the 7300 word article linked.

[Saucexorzski]

Its sorta how they mock the hippies these days. The hippies were freaking awesome compared to the new left that has taken the role of "the man" and is enforcing their own moral views of how one should act/think just as the religious right did before they lost power.

[Khaza-R]

Its sorta how they mock the hippies these days. The hippies were freaking awesome compared to the new left that has taken the role of "the man" and is enforcing their own moral views of how one should act/think just as the religious right did before they lost power.

Hippies are way closer to the modern Libertarian party then they are to the far left Democrats. The people you're referencing too are just liberal authoritarians.

[Spectral]

I grew up rural and came from a working class family, so that's what my family and early friends are. I got out, got highly educated, and generally now travel in circles that are from upper-middle class (or higher) backgrounds and work in academia or other education intensive positions. As such, I've seen both sides of this divide. When I was in the time of my life that I was trying to escape that rural, low-class identity, I happily embraced the smug sense of superiority - it feels good to believe that you'd learned Really Important Things that your elders didn't know. I suspect this is a pretty common thing for college students and young professionals.

At some point in the last couple years, I've become pretty disenchanted with the tone of the American left. My actual policy positions haven't changed that much, but I sure am sick of the identity politics and quasi-religious devotion to the ideals of the left.

I'm probably not going to read the article as I'm not in the mood for 7300 words, but at a glance, the tone and core message looks about right to me.

[Independent voter]

The anti-Americanism of the left has alienated Americans for a long time.

[Wells]

TIL people are dicks on all sides of politics. The article doesn't accurately describe voter dynamics in the US imo. Yes, the Democrats moved away from the white working class as a target, but that's really just to be expected for a party targeting urban voters to a greater degree.

[Berengil]

I grew up among the sort of people the article is talking about. When I got out and got away, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. The fanatical devotion to religion over reason, the blatant racism , the disdain for sexual minorities.... whatever happens to those sorts of people ( meaning the ones I grew up among) , I have no fks left to give.

[I Push Buttons]

If you are going to make a snappy snide comment at least have the decency to wait long enough to give the appearance that you read the 7300 word article linked.

1. It is written by a guy who is like 24.

2. He seems to have confused the classical liberalism/libertarian ideals vs. authoritarianism debate with right vs. left... There are authoritarians, which is who he seems to be directing his argument at, on both sides... Likewise classical liberals on both sides.

3. Half the example he cites (if not more, I don't know, as you have pointed out, I didn't read all of it) are to blogs... "Look at how the left demonizes this person! *links a wordpress/blogspot link*"

[Wells]

1. It is written by a guy who is like 24.

2. He seems to have confused the classical liberalism/libertarian ideals vs. authoritarianism debate with right vs. left... There are authoritarians, which is who he seems to be directing his argument at, on both sides... Likewise classical liberals on both sides.

3. Half the example he cites (if not more, I don't know, as you have pointed out, I didn't read all of it) are to blogs... "Look at how the left demonizes this person! *links a wordpress/blogspot link*"

Let's not overlook his insistence that well informed satire seems to be a bad thing when liberals are doing it.

[Grimbold21]

Is this about the regressive left?

[Sargerasraider]

I was surprised to find this article on Vox, which is so often perpetuates the kind of thinking this article argues against.

[Theinquisition]

The anti-Americanism of the left has alienated Americans for a long time.

Pretty much.

I think this is why trump resonates with people do much. Not because people like him, but because he pisses off the anti American left.

People don't like trump, but they dislike the detractors even more.

[Wyrt]

The anti-Americanism of the left has alienated Americans for a long time.

What does that mean exactly?

[PC2]

I'm not sure how the side begging for more handouts comes off as smug. I see their style as pathetic.

As a moderate conservative I have to say that the disenchantment with Republicans is probably worse. Just look at Donald Trump. That's the conservative solution: tear it all down lol.

"Tear it all down" would be more appropriate for Bernie Sanders policy.

[Theinquisition]

I'm not sure how the side begging for more handouts comes off as smug. I see their style as pathetic.



"Tear it all down" would be more appropriate for Bernie Sanders policy.

It's smug in the sense that they think they are actually entitled to do so.

[Bosen]

This is an overgeneralization, I think. One person's opinion in their experience is valid,and may even be agreed with by others that have had similar experiences and feelings,but I think it's dangerous to just say that's how a group of people are and why, like it's a fact. The article itself serves to divide and cause more anger and potentially change the perception of a group. It sounds unreasonable.

Someone has come up with a similar article for the other side,I'm sure. I also think it's dangerous to speak for others in such a grand fashion. I find politics obnoxious.

[Wells]

Pretty much.

I think this is why trump resonates with people do much. Not because people like him, but because he pisses off the anti American left.

People don't like trump, but they dislike the detractors even more.

What the fuck does this even mean?

[Espe]

What the fuck does this even mean?

Something something Southern strategy, something something "good 'ol days!"