I am not familiar with this site, The Bellows. However, I thought this article by Michael Lind of U Texas about the various classes in America, and the class war not being what we popularly suppose, was quite good, and the associated links in the sidebars looked interesting as well. I don't know when I will get to those. They sound like renegade liberals or even ex-liberals over there, which is usually worth checking out. Their attitude seems to be "Where I grew up, liberals were open-minded. What happened?"
I think he misses a couple of important points, particularly about the growing split between the left and the ultra-left. Yet perhaps he is just remaining focused and keeping that for another day.
On a similar topic, Ross Douhat weighs in on an unnoticed motive for beleaguered whites to embrace this White Fragility idea.
Their attitude seems to be "Where I grew up, liberals were open-minded. What happened?"
ReplyDeleteYes, liberals always saw themselves as open-minded, but William F. Buckley's crack about open-minded liberals didn't come out of a vacuum, but out of what he observed. This is what William F. Buckley said: "Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."
Tribal instincts, of seeing them as the good guys against the baddies, helped them dismiss other points of view.
Granted, my reading of the article is so far (I'll go back) superficial, but the class distinctions he makes don't ring entirely true. It's not that they are wrong, but that they aren't entirely correct. That objection is tempered by my suspicion that he's right that the war is in the upper horseshoe.
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