Not In The Club

Uneducated people are easily manipulated. By uneducated, I mean those who don’t know history or basic science or haven’t sharpened their critical thinking skills by analyzing literature, studying advanced math or philosophy or logic. Every day we hear references to American history, “old time religion” and the “original intent” of the Constitution. Without a knowledge base, you don’t know if what you’re hearing is true, half true or nonsense. And if you’re not a critical thinker, your reaction might be emotional rather than reasonable. For instance, if you knew anything about science, a red flag would immediately go up when someone tells you evolution is only a theory because the word “theory” in science doesn’t have the same meaning it does in ordinary speech. If you were aware of this, the word “only” would be a dead giveaway that you’re being manipulated or the person making the claim is ignorant, or both.

Working class white people in this country are routinely manipulated by the Right Wing. They hear what sounds to them like high-minded rhetoric about “hard working Americans” willing to “pull their own weight,” and stuff about patriotism and duty, and they lap it up. It makes them feel good about themselves. They’re regularly pitted against those who are worse off than themselves. They’re convinced that the poor who survive on government assistance are lazy and living a high life on their tax dollars. That carefully crafted and fomented hatred is a distraction created by the Right. The Right is hoping these uneducated working class whites won’t look up state and federal budgets to see where the money is going. They’re hoping the uneducated white workers won’t stop and think about how their wages are dropping as the wealth of those who employ them continues to increase. It’s always, “You’re the backbone of this country. So keep working…harder and harder. Don’t be like those lazy people who don’t work. They can, but they won’t. And look at that one over there, isn’t his skin tone darker than yours? And that one, is she really an American? That over there is Muslim. Better watch out, or he’ll kill you.” Meanwhile, the rich and their hired guns—Republican politicians and Fox News commentators—laugh at the gullibility of the uneducated white workers. They laugh all the way to the bank.

It was the same way in the South after the Civil War. Wealthy white families maintained their power with the help of dirt poor and ignorant whites. They convinced the poor whites that Jim Crow laws meant that they were in the club. They focused poor white rage on blacks so they’d go on working for next to nothing while believing that the reason they never got ahead was somehow because the blacks were cheating them.

Little do these uneducated white working class people know that they’re not really in the club at all. If those they’re suckered into backing ever accrued enough power, they’d bust the unions of the working class. They’d do away with minimum wages. They’d end Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They’d end unemployment benefits. They’d do away with workplace safety regulations. They’d do away with antidiscrimination laws. If they had it their way, an employer could fire you anytime for any reason, and there would be no safety net there to help you. If you got sick and couldn’t pay, you wouldn’t be treated, even if blood was gushing from an open wound. In the Right Wing paradise, if you don’t have the money then fuck you. And if you don’t have the money, it’s your own damn fault. That includes the uneducated working class. What the Right Wing doesn’t tell the uneducated white working class is that they consider them lazy, too. As far as they’re concerned, if you haven’t made yourself indispensable—usually with advanced training and education—or amassed a fortune for yourself, then you are good for nothing and expendable.

I wish there was some way to reach these people, explain to them that they’re being taken for a ride. I fear that, with their unwitting help, this country could one day fall into fascism, or we could see the rise of a modern version of feudalism.