I don't want to see this country turn into a welfare, nanny state, where we stand in line for groceries, and we're in welfare lines, and in socialized medicine lines.Like Atrios, at whose site I found the link, I'm not entirely certain what to make of poor people protesting marginal increases on taxes for rich people, or whatever it is, precisely, that they're protesting. America's underclasses are increasingly displaced and marginal--maybe cultural resentment is all that's left available to them. It is, nonetheless, pretty incredible that a bunch of underemployed, overindebted losers form the main public face of anti-Obama, anti-tax, and anti-stimulus animus in this country.
-Joanne Wilder, Welfare Queen
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with availing oneself of the provisions of the welfare state while railing against its political and economic underpinnings. I have not renounced my own first-world lifestyle to protest the fact that it is secured on the backs of the oppressed around the globe.
But on the other hand the participants in this whole preposterous and hilarious teabag business are clearly motivated by the long-simmering need to maintain some vestiges of the tenuous class distinction they imagine exists between themselves and their darker imagined other, so that being down on your luck and collecting food stamps for a while does not make you one of those people, with their
22 comments:
snob.
speaking of low slung jeans...
I dunno, I've developed something of a soft spot for the 'baggers. They may have clusterfucked their anti-big-government outrage with immigration paranoia, misplaced red-bating, and foam-at-the-mouth patriotism, but show me any recent anti-war march that didn't include support for either Palestinian nationalism or imperialist, baby-bombing politicians. Hell, UFPJ's latest peace slog in NYC couldn't even decide if it was marching against war, corporate bailouts, or as a campaign event for Reverend Billy.
Republican groups may be desperately pumping money into this thing hoping they can ride its populist crest back into power (while doing everything they can to not-so-successfully hide what they're up to), but I'm not convinced that they aren't just as afraid of these pissed-off conservatives and their Rage Against the Machine as their democratic counterparts. I like the idea of the government being afraid of a public backlash against its seizure of increased power, whether that pressure's coming from the left or the right. Hell, Texas has even been whispering the S word.
show me any recent anti-war march that didn't include support for either Palestinian nationalismAnd what's wrong with Palestinian nationalism?
Having attended the St. Paul rally yesterday, I can safely report that the teabagger "protest" was poorly organized and astonishingly boring - really little more than cheap entertainment for cranky geriatric bigots. There as no Rage Against the Machine but there was a lot of grumbling about the Darkie in the White House. I mean, fuck, Even the libertarians got bored and left after a couple hours of petty whining and pouting.
I think the S word is a good thing. Even if it means there are a lot of petty tyrannies (the Christian Republic of Alabama, anyone?) at least the collection of miniature disasters won't be waging war quite as vigorously around the world.
The faux class distinctions are an interesting one, ioz. I recently tried to help my mother understand what is going on in our economy. She dropped a few comments of contempt and disgust that the taxes of rural New York, where she lives, are sucked into New York City to pay for shiftless poor people living there.
She said she always believed that to make it in America you must be really poor or really rich, that the middle class has no chance.
This coming from a single mother who raised three kids on a series of minimum wage job and child support in a square cinder block hovel built about 20 feet off a heavily used trucking highway. She was the picture of poor for a long time and is now only barely making it. We got free lunches, worked on farms as kids to help pay bills, literally ate road killed deer if we could get to them while fresh, snakes we caught in the yard, etc. I could only wince inwardly and let it go.
Sorry to get into personal anecdote time...
These poor people have been fed so many lies I don't think they'll ever be able to figure out exactly what it is they want. Other than to be told what good Americans they are by their (light-skinned) betters.
I'm not entirely certain what to make of poor people protesting marginal increases on taxes for rich people, or whatever it is, precisely, that they're protesting. to use your own words...and thus always, blog. dude, you need to work on this one. its not coherent.
*insert dismissal with flippant remark here*
Could you repeat that in English?
Justin - perhaps you should just explain to her that 25% of the entire state budget comes from taxes levied on us folks who live in nyc. We actually support the social programs in the state, not the other way around.
Lucid, that was why I winced.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with availing oneself of the provisions of the welfare state while railing against its political and economic underpinnings.This is a good point.
It would be nice, though, if all this rage was directed toward or stemmed from something coherent. Reading your post, I realized I don't know what, exactly, these Tea Parties are meant to protest.
It's surprisingly hard to find out. People like Michelle Malkin and Glenn Reynolds seem more interested in lauding this impressive outpouring of anger on the part of the common man then they are in explaining what the heck the common man is so angry about.
I mean, they seem to be just sort of protesting any vague liberal shit that annoys them. It's surprisingly hard to find a person on the web who says, These Tea Parties are meant to protest policy X (Policy X here being something slightly more specific then "the bailout") because it has negative consequence Y (Again, the negative consequence should be mildly more specific then "it moves us towards socialism").
I mean, they don't like the bailout, I guess, because government spending lots of money is bad.
I don't know. Even the vaguest, least coherent war protester can say, "I know this war is going to kill a whole bunch of innocent people" which is a pretty convincing reason to get angry.
It does sort of bug me that these Tea Partiers only woke up to protest massive spending now that the money is not being directly used to kill innocent people.
Good Lord, Montag, that was a spreading steamer of a George Will column that you just plopped into this-hear IOZ bowl.
George Will wrote: Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote.I imagine George Will felt he had to explain what "gamers" meant, in order to distinguish today's gamers from the ones Will used to hang out with, who rolled those weird-shaped dice and got lost in steam tunnels.
Geez, if I may be permitted to pick a few criteria for revoking people's voting cards, vidgames wouldn't be high on my list of priorities. I can think of some others.
If you drop the blacks from the voter rolls, drop the video gamers and pot smokers, and who is left with the right to vote? George Will and his friends. Slick. Oh, and git off my lawn.
Christopher said: It does sort of bug me that these Tea Partiers only woke up to protest massive spending now that the money is not being directly used to kill innocent people.The Dead Kennedys said: "The arms manufacturers tell me unless we get our bomb factories up to full production, the whole economy is gonna collapse!"
Bullshit, Brian. Texas should be sold back to Mexico, and Alabamans should be sold to whoever wants them for pets. Those useless fucks don't get to walk away in a hissyfit after having caused us so much grief for so long. Compensation is in order.
Why not? Now that we've drained the oil out of the place, there's nothing there but rattlesnakes and Republicans. Texas should be disposed of like toxic waste.
there's something obvious that i'm rather surprised is not getting said around here: this is a fascist movement without a leader. legetimate economic resentment being chanelled into class- and race-based anger. only thing these "idiots" lack is a boogeyman. they boo at the mention of "socialism", "bankers", "immigrants" and "criminals". the rage is there, just not the focus.
all we are missing, as chomsky says, is "an honest demagogue". these tea parties seem like exhibit A that we are but one charismatic leader away from our very own descent into barbarism.
Generous of you as always, IOZ, to absolve yourself of any guilt, responsibility, or legitimacy.
I like the idea that one can be absolved of legitimacy. That should get our resident legal scholars churning, or at least our local Augustinians. Lord, give me Responsibility and Legitimacy, but not yet!
Next up, candlelight vigils for Halliburton executives who got smaller bonuses this year. "Rim Job Parties", I think they're called.
"...but I'm not convinced that they aren't just as afraid of these pissed-off conservatives and their Rage Against the Machine as their democratic counterparts."
Nah. It's got to be sweeeeet indeed for the economic elites, to see 'populism' redefined as 'protect the rich'. That pretty much makes sure that there will be no populist movement.
-Barry
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