It has taken a long time, and a metric fuckload of provocation for me to get to this point.
I have, at long last, utterly and I think permanently lost patience with so-called liberals or self-styled progressives who conflate class standing with intelligence. (Let’s leave the problem of conflating “intelligent” with “agrees with me” for another day.)
This offensive hypocrisy takes a number of forms. It can manifest as regional chauvinism (usually directed against the southeast, but often the midwest or intermountain region, and occasionally against California), education-level elitism, or urbanites dissing ruralites.
Sometimes, as was the case with that Blue State Secession bullshit last year – a surprisingly stupid idea that refuses to die, though these days anyone with any sense has abandoned it, which at least makes it a useful marker of liberal twitdom – you get all three of those forms wrapped into a tidy package, not unlike the tidy packages I discard every morning after walking Zeke.
I’ve been very patient with such crap. No longer. To borrow a notion from a bit of recent fuss over sexism in the blog world: if you spout that kind of garbage, you are no ally of mine. Until you change your attitude, you can no longer assume I’ve got your back.
Oh, and here’s a couple ways to not only out yourself as an elitist but to win special “fuck off, hypocrite” points in the process:
- bash people of a poorer class than you after making a name for yourself objecting to slurs against women or racial minorities or other disempowered groups;
- do any or all of the above on the Internet with a “handle” that has an obvious reference to your degree in it.
most all points, could you give just a small clue as to the context of this rant?
As someone who lives in Texas and has had to endure a continuous barrage of bullshit concerning my intelligence, right to continue breathing air, the complete waste of space that this state is and so forth AND someone who is currently ABD but relegates ALL of my intelligence to things outside of my formal schooling (to me schooling and education are not in the least bit equal), I just need to know.
Heh.
Context: Seeing the same argument three times in three separate email lists in the course of a week.
It’s an old sore spot, and I posted a rant on it very shortly after the 2004 election.
that if you don’t have $$, you aren’t intelligent/educated/ that arguemnt? oh, Chris, let me at ’em…please?
I read your November rant; took a while for me to understand what had prompted this diary — but I think I got there.
I wish people would identify with each other better, and avoid stereotyping people into groups.
Earlier this week I posted the following on another blog (in response to a strategy of ignoring the South):
I am impressed thus far with the redesign of the DNC website, which has a whole section dedicated to “The South”
Finally, I wouldn’t even presume to know what everyone who lives in my CITY of 1-million plus thinks (in California) or what message would target them successfully. I think it is downright silly and a loser out of the gate to look at a geographical REGION as having one mind-set that will vote lockstep on every issue. I have never even been to the South, and still know enough to not stereotype everyone living there as some of things in this diary. The trends are urban instead of rural, and Hispanic instead of white — let’s give some support to the Democratic Party resources in their areas to capitalize and succeed.
What has been sorely lacking from the Democratic Party is a spine, and clearly communicating consistent messages. Senator Reid is a Mormon, and is not for abortion — but neither am I nor is former President Clinton. One thing that unites us three as Democrats is the belief that a woman’s medical decisions are between her and her doctor, and the government needs to stay the Hell out of it. And whatever happened to upholding the law, and making abortion “Safe, Legal, and Rare”?
We need to stay away from Republican-lite, and trying to appease and twist on some issues such as abortion because a focus group or polling shows that some people think it should be illegal in all cases. I think people from all 50 states are just longing for their leaders to talk honestly and openly, and then live by those ethical standards.
The Democratic Party in Montana is doing just fine; kudos to them. Dean’s 50-state project is dead on — give a little help even where it appears to be a lost cause. The Democratic Party will be better for it and the Republican Party will be forced to defend itself more broadly both geographically and ideologically.
In November, I phone banked from a red area of California to a red area of Colorado, though not deep red as I recall. I was provided a script by MoveOnPAC.org, but found that most contacts went beyond the scripts into a more broad discussion — often about now-Senator Salazar. I was re-taught the lesson that most of us are just trying to get through this so-called life, making it the best we can for ourselves and our family.
I don’t know what it would take to knock a blue-nosed elitist down a notch or two, and I can only begin to understand the frustration of living in a red state. But, I bet the people mean what they say and say what they mean a whole lot more often. I think I just got caught in some stereotypes myself.
Yesterday’s front page was a picture of Rove, followed in each column with negatives on Republicans. I was impressed with the launch of the new site as well. So much for first impressions.
Changing my registration to “Decline to State”.
had it up to fucking here rant?
When the people you are so fed up with reveal (by the insults they choose to hurl at us) that to them –
“Southerner” = white person.
Thank you! You have enlightened me. This practice is so ubiquitous that I had not consciously noticed it.
I’m still processing it, but my initial thought is that in many cases, the problems of the South lie squarely on the shoulders of white people, since some of us have unfairly monopolized and controlled the resources here for centuries. (I am a white male in Mississippi). So, when someone calls out “Southerners” when they mean Southern whites, I think they are assigning blame appropriately for the most part. But it does seem racist to me in an insidiously subtle way to say “Southerner” when you mean “White Southerners”. I hear the phrase “Southern blacks” used when people want to refer specifically to that portion of our population, but less often “Southern whites” and never “Southern Asian-Americans” or “Southern Native Americans”.
Personally, when I say things like “most Southerners are polite to one another” I mean ALL Southerners, so I don’t think I use the term the way you are describing it. I think that’s also why your observation has previously escaped my conscious awareness.
I’m going to have to think about this some more, but I’m glad you shared your rant.
to those supposed “liberals” that Chris is fed up with. See this comment.
Another version: Whenever I have to endure another rant about how “Southerners are racists who have never and will never forgive the Democratic party/LBJ for supporting the Civil Rights Act,” I see the teenagers at the lunch counter. I see people walking miles to work and back home again, day after day, during the bus boycott. I see people facing down dogs and firehoses. I see Medgar Evers pulling into his driveway. I see the march reach the bridge. I hear Dr. King.
All of those people I see are Southerners. I cannot grok the concept that those people I see will “never forgive” support for the Civil Rights Act. I cannot grasp that someone would call themselves a liberal and not be able to “see” those people.
Yep. James Chaney was a southerner. Medgar Evers was a southerner. Fannie Lou Hamer and Rosa Parks and Myles Horton. Most northern progressives could learn a lot from the Highlander Center in Tennessee.
Ok, I got it. But I still think that the practice of using the term “Southerner” that way is far more common than that. I think the term is used like that by lots of people without them even thinking about its implications. The stereotype is so insidious as to go virtually unnoticed, and it is generally accepted as “correct” usage.
I am a proponent of precision in language, and I often catch these types of generalizations and ask the speaker/writer to clarify. I rarely encounter someone who is unwilling to clarify their language. And I hope that my requests for clarification make an impact on the speaker/writer. From now on, when I hear someone use the term “Southerner” in a way that seems incorrect, I’m going to point it out. Just like you have done here.
Thanks again.
It’s just like the Right stereotyping liberals as academic or Hollywood elitists, ignoring the many blue collar union folks, the college student working their way through college or coming out with mountains of debt. Then again, that seems to be part of their strategy; divide and conquer.
It’s easy to get frustrated and talk about the “stupid Southerners”; so much of the ridiculous stuff we hear about comes out of that region of the country, and combine that with how those states overwhelmingly voted for the current Administration. But it’s also dangerous. We fall into the trap of thinking that we’re better than “those folks”, and thus give up on efforts to reach out and find our common ground.
Just a few thoughts in the early morning…
Having lived in a trailer, and in the south, Texas, Florida, I have seen how people in those places are marginalized and painted with a broad brush by elitest liberals. Proud, hardworking and open minded people don’t take kindly to this kind of shit, and once treated this way, they aren’t likely to give a damn about anything else you might have to tell them, no matter how much they might agree. Howard Dean is on the right track in attempting to reach out to them again and listen to them again. I wouldn’t expect any major shift soon, but shifting local politics are hard to detect at first anyway, but it’s the best way in the long run to exert national electoral power.
As far as I’m concerned, the Congressional Black Caucus is the only segment of the Democratic party that is still true to authentic liberal/ progressive ideals, and they are the only ones standing up for those ideals now. If it weren’t for them, I don’t think we would have any national party left to turn to. Although they aren’t exclusively southern, they do represent a powerful minority that the Democratic Party takes for granted at election time yet casts aside as fringe after elections. Risky business.