queeranarchism:twryst:working-class-worm: corvid-420:wetwareproblem:king-emare:stand-up-gifs:
queeranarchism:twryst:working-class-worm: corvid-420: wetwareproblem: king-emare: stand-up-gifs: A lot of people in the replies to this seemingly have no idea what “class” is. It’s not a set of values or something you automatically earn after college or like some mysterious inherent quality your parents pass down to you. (Like, maybe your parents have enough money/assets where they can sustain you through economic insecurity, but let’s be honest…that’s not most people’s situation.) If you are struggling with bills, if you don’t have savings, if you constantly question even small purchases, if spending a few thousand dollars on a vacation seems like a distant dream…you are not middle class. And most importantly, saying you are not middle class is not an attack on your character. Instead it’s a reminder to fight for your own economic interests, and not to let companies, your boss, or politicians trick you into working against yourself by believing you’re part of the “mythical middle.” Damn What’s more, if your first response to “you’re not middle class!” is to treat it like an attack on your character?Then you really need to stop and examine what you think about lower-class people. Americans like to quote Kurt Vonnegut, that ‘socialism never took root in America because Americans see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.’ What that politely obscures is why Americans see themselves as future rich people: they despise the poor, even if they themselves are poor, and so would rather see themselves as “middle class” rather than ever see themselves as “poor.” I would also like to add on this that if you are paying a mortgage on a home, but it’s a 30 year mortgage…you’re NOT middle class. Sorry! “But by these definitions, almost NOBODY I know in the USA qualifies as middle class?!?!”Yep. Correct. Turns out the result of several decades of a “disappearing middle class” is almost everybody is poor. I think an important thing to realize is that1. There is the material reality of being working class. By which pretty much all of us are working class because we have to sell our labor to survive, which is what a worker is. Even if your paycheck is pretty good. Even if you have savings and no debt. If you have to pay your labor to stay that way, you’re working class. 2. In addition the material reality, our society has constructed a social fiction by which people who went to a nice college, who work in an office, who can present the image of not being poor, are seen as ‘middle class’ culturally. And as with many social constructs, those people are granted some amount of social privilege based on that, which translates to material benefits like having a better chance of getting a job or better living conditions. If that’s you, recognize that 1. yes you are a worker and your place is in the working class struggle and 2. have some self-awareness and don’t hog the spotlight or talk over people facing the brunt of the social stigma of being seen as working class. Centralize their voices, put them in decision making positions within the working class struggle. -- source link