The Democrats' Oliver Anthony Problem

submitted by penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable from (liberalpatriot.com)

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[–]BerryBoy1969It's not red vs. blue - It's capital vs. you 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Progressives need to apologize to Oliver Anthony. He understands working people better than they do, he can talk to them better than they can and if Democrats ever want to regain their lost working-class support they need to shut up and listen to guys like him instead of telling him to shut up and listen to them.

The problem with progressives, and their shitlib brethren who automatically default to the Circle D Corporation, is the fact that they don't believe they have an Oliver Anthony problem. They still believe that after their owners have selected the final two candidates they're allowed to elect, they will have brow beaten the ignorati into pragmatic acceptance of their half bowl of shit.

They're confident in their status as the adults in the room, to convince the children that they know what's best for them, and for their own good, but more importantly, for the good of others, they should practice harm reduction by choosing the half bowl of shit Democrats Inc. have on offer.

If it wasn't for all the college educated people out there reaching out to us dumb fucks, we'd probably vote against our own best interests forever.

[–]unagisongsBurn down Reddit! 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

They're confident in their status as the adults in the room

Everything since the 2016 presidential elections show Democrats aren't confident in their position. The 2016 presidential election should have woken them up if they were the adults in the room. Instead they immediately curled themselves into conspiracy theories and irrational fear mongering madness, lashing at everything and anything within reach. For the Democrats it really was their 9/11 as they immediately fell into the same neocon trap Republicans did with the actual 9/11. Attacking the wrong countries. Embracing xenophobic paranoia that had nothing to do with the situation at hand. They have shown little maturity and lack any real belief in their cynical swooning for the educated managerial class.

[–]BerryBoy1969It's not red vs. blue - It's capital vs. you 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They're dyed in the wool shitlibs, snowflake "progressives," and young kids who don't know any better yet.

What they should do is never a part of the equation for them. Stopping the Republican party from destroying their view of what their owners demockracy should look like, is the only thing that matters to them.

Smugnorance is an ingrained personality trait endemic to the Blue Magoos who infect the Democratic party. If they choose to identify as the adults in the room, no amount of evidence proving otherwise will shake them from what they believe themselves to be.

It's who they are.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

Excerpt:

Consider that Anthony’s song is powerfully directed above all at economic unfairness and a system that screws the working class and favors the rich who want to “have total control.” Catnip for Democrats right? Wrong. Because Anthony neglected to scrub his lyrics of lines that might offend the tender sensibilities of the liberal commentariat his song has been excoriated as “welfare-bashing and conspiracy-tinged,” “in the wheelhouse of the Q-anon movement,” and of course racist.

...does the fact that Anthony complains about those taking unfair advantage of government programs make him a screaming racist reactionary as many liberals seem to think? Andy Levison correctly notes:

[A]nyone who reads the hundreds and hundreds of pages of focus groups where working-class people complain about welfare cheating will notice one interesting fact. A vast number of the anecdotes the participants offer are not repetitions of conservative clichés about African-Americans and “welfare Cadillacs” but rather very specific stories about these workers’ able-bodied friends, neighbors and relatives who are drawing undeserved disability payments or workman’s compensation or cashing social security checks that should be going to someone else in the person’s family and their sense of contempt for these people who they know personally is far stronger than it is against any abstract stereotypes.

The fact that Democrats responded with visceral dislike to a song that expressed the complicated populist views of an actual working-class person shows how unwelcoming the party has become to actual working-class people, as opposed to mythological proletarians who combine hatred of (Republican) corporations with reverence for “Bidenomics” and careful usage of all the approved intersectional language.

Speaking of Bidenomics, it’s important for Democrats to understand just how poorly the Biden economy has played with working-class voters so far, which is interacting with these voters’ general sense that Democrats don’t much like them and their uneducated, uncouth manner of speaking and thinking.

[–]BlackhaloPurity Pony: Pусский бот 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

those taking unfair advantage of government programs

I don't think that's quite accurate. I think his criticism was that the system encourages the abuse and dependence on government programs that might have good intent, but that end up perverted into something else by the rich men.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I can see the rich trying to pervert it so as to destroy it, but I'm at a loss to understand how exactly they would accomplish this unless it's getting their legislative lackeys to keep loosening the requirements to make it more vulnerable to abuse. That does have a ring of plausibility as far as the results if not the origins. From experience in my own field and collaborative working relationships with professionals in other fields, I know how the diktats coming down from the state and federal level just get stupider and more counterproductive over time to the point they become Frankenstein monsters made up of mismatched pieces.

[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I think Blackhalo meant Anthony's criticism of the system was perverted by the eponymous "rich men," not necessarily that the system itself was deliberately perverted for a malicious end.

[–]BlackhaloPurity Pony: Pусский бот 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Why not both?

[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Both are certainly possible, but I think this is a case where malice doesn't need to be posited to explain the available facts. Bureaucratic inertia, a terror of being called uncaring or even racist, and the normal metastasization of government programs without herculean efforts at oversight would suffice.

[–]3andfro 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Democrats don’t much like them and their uneducated, uncouth manner of speaking and thinking.

Though certainly not working class himself, Trump offended many PMCs and comfy socioeconomic groups because he wasn't "presidential" and played in word and action to a working-class base.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

He's much too direct for their tastes, they like upbeat "messaging" because it allows them to obscure what they really think and do.

[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

A vast number of the anecdotes the participants offer are not repetitions of conservative clichés about African-Americans and “welfare Cadillacs” but rather very specific stories about these workers’ able-bodied friends, neighbors and relatives who are drawing undeserved disability payments or workman’s compensation or cashing social security checks that should be going to someone else in the person’s family and their sense of contempt for these people who they know personally is far stronger than it is against any abstract stereotypes.

Here's a concrete example of this from Peter Santenello's documentary, which I posted a while ago.

And another: "How do 19-year-olds get checks?"

White kids talking about their white family, friends, and neighbors. It's a massive problem, and it's endemic in many areas of the country. Some are rural. Some are urban. Some are black. Some are white. Some are brown. It has nothing to do with "racism."

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Which shows the racism is in the eyes of the beholder, if they automatically assume you mean blacks or browns or whatever when you bring up welfare fraud. I had a very white neighbor who was blowing through the huge life insurance settlement she got when her husband died so she could get back on food stamps - not only a fraudster but a stupid one since her house was paid for and she could have lived out a pretty worry-free existence if she'd had a lick of common sense.

[–]unagisongsBurn down Reddit! 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Rather once something becomes about racism a.k.a. identity politics then they can turn off and stop listening. Genuine cognitive dissonance invites people to look for an easy out. They want their identity politics to protect them from having to empathize with the wrong tribe. If all they look for is outage the only thing they will find is outrage. Once the outrage blinders go up, everyone can retreat into their respective tribal perspectives. Nobody has to think about the empathizing with the "wrong" people then. We've all become children clutching our security blankets screeching about wrong think, wrong people, wrong identity without a hint of irony.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They want their identity politics to protect them from having to empathize with the wrong tribe.

I think this nails it.