insightful read, without offering all the answers

[callmeslick]

get past the sensationalist title.....
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/%e2%80 ... li=BBnbfcL

[woodchip]

I had trouble getting past the white worker bashing:

The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. Forget all your cheap theatrical Bruce Springsteen crap. Forget your sanctimony about struggling Rust Belt factory towns and your conspiracy theories about the wily Orientals stealing our jobs … The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin.

[callmeslick]

didn't read for comprehension, did you? The quoted bit was identified as how the right views the poor whites, followed by a bashing from a leftward view. The article goes on for a long while citing errors and excesses in both views, examines recent writing from inside the culture, and validates certain negatives without citing a real fix.

[woodchip]

A little correction slick, the author saw it that way, not the right. He defines what elitism is and why we need to get people like him out of the party.

[callmeslick]

huh?

[woodchip]

Thought so.

[callmeslick]

at what point did the author indicate that he needed to leave WHICH party? He pointed out, using the insights of the author he interviewed, some of the very real issues, mixed with bad self-image related problems,within that community, and gave a sort of accurate back history(for instance, all the records I've read of the Virginia colony indicate that quite a few younger indentured servants went on to be major landowners, even three or four Africans). Still, the class distinctions between the old Virginia families to the east and northern reaches of the state and the mountain and lowland Carolina whites are obvious to this day. I just found it an interesting read, with perspectives that one may not ponder, but, in my case, sees play out every day. Viewing that piece as bashing white workers is amazingly short sighted. The piece shared blame for the current malaise in that community upon, in no order of importance: history, liberal misplaced concern, republican ignorance of the existence of them, self-reinforcing behaviors and patterns of blame of the group itself and the too-rapid evolution of the 21st century economy. Hardly black and white thinking, which is good, as most every reality is nuanced.