Fucking made my month. I can die happy.

  • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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    6 months ago

    Super disingenuous

    Come on. I read the book a few years ago; there’s nothing disingenuous about correctly remembering it uses “a cornucopia of private electric appliances,” among other items, to argue that poor white Americans are so well off they (generally) won’t respond to radicalization. Bringing in the actual text is good for the discussion, but there’s no reason to start accusing people of intentionally misrepresenting it.

    Besides, I’m mostly questioning the conclusion here, not the facts it’s drawn from. Of course living standards are higher in the U.S. than, for instance, Guatemala. But most Americans will never visit Guaremala or have more than a passing thought about living standards there, so how relevant is that disparity to whether I can radicalize a poor white American? If a politician from either major party told poor Americans they can’t complain because poor people in other countries have it worse, we’d clown on that, and your poor American would compare their living standards to that of their boss and think it’s nonsense, too. It’s a bad argument.

    • ButtBidet [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      6 months ago

      I’m not seeing you self crit about taking a passage about a majority of whites owning homes and cars, and simplifying it to refrigerators and TVs, nor has your comment changed to reflect the accuracy of the text I demonstrated. I’m not hear to shame a fellow Marxist, but I hope that seeing the how facts suffer from you perspective might change your opinion.

      If a politician from either major party told poor Americans they can’t complain because poor people in other countries have it worse,

      The book doesn’t come close up stating this. Hexbear is filled with white ppl complaining about the state of affairs, and no one is doing this.

      I’m mostly questioning the conclusion here

      Your conclusion doesn’t seem accurate, as I’ve pointed out

      • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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        6 months ago

        I’m not going to self crit over not remembering every part of a passage verbatim. The exact details of American living standards aren’t what’s important, anyway (which is why I’m not getting into the lack of comparison points; for instance, what percentage of black Americans own a car/drive to work?).

        My criticism is that if you’re poor relative to the people around you, that’s far more of a factor in your radicalization potential than how much you have relative to people you hardly think about. Especially as the American version of poor still involves serious issues like housing instability, hunger, significant barriers to healthcare, etc.

        • ButtBidet [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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          6 months ago

          I’m not engaging with you further until you at least edit your objectively wrong assessment about refrigerators and TVs in the book.

          • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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            6 months ago

            “I refuse to engage with the substance of what you’re saying until you edit a comment, no I don’t care that you already acknowledged you did not remember the whole quote verbatim”

            Debate pervert shit. You want to talk about self crit, start there.