Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

[deleted] t1_j231ibu wrote

[removed]

202

dern_the_hermit t1_j233s54 wrote

> This guy can't even articulate what they are protesting

It's the ethic of total retaliation:

> "Their lack of education has not only rendered them completely useless in a highly technical economy, but it has also given them the leisure to cultivate a powerful resentment… and to translate it into a destructive cult which the mass media insists on portraying as a sort of isolated oddity” destined for extinction.

> Studs Terkel, after reading that passage out loud in a 1967 interview with Thompson, calls it “the key” to the entire book. “Here we have technology, we have the computer, we have labor-saving devices,” he says to Thompson, but we also “have the need for more and more college education for almost any kind of job, and we have this tremendous mass of young who find themselves obsolete.” But Thompson replies that the real consequences have only started to manifest: “The people who are being left out and put behind won’t be obvious for years. Christ only knows what’ll happen in, say, 1985 — a million Hell’s Angels. They won’t be wearing the colors; they’ll be people who are just looking for vengeance because they’ve been left behind.”

200

LemonFreshenedBorax- t1_j249glo wrote

I'm sorry but this is slightly off base. There were a handful of angry redneck thrill-seekers in Ottawa last year but most of the protesters tended to be reasonably-well-off small business owners whose grievances were not necessarily economic in nature (i.e. fascism's traditional power base). If our society's actual left-behind people were to try that shit, they would have their heads caved in by the police inside of twelve hours.

If you own a lifted F-350 and you can afford to skip work for three weeks, you have not been "left out" of anything important, with the possible exception of good taste.

93

tehmlem t1_j24v76q wrote

The small town elite expressing their rage that being the big fish in a small town doesn't entitle them to social control.

21

dern_the_hermit t1_j24wh3z wrote

> If you own a lifted F-350 and you can afford to skip work for three weeks, you have not been "left out" of anything important

But you sure can FEEL that you have been left out, which matters more than the actual reality of their situation.

19

BruceRee33 t1_j256w9w wrote

Seeing as a lot of these Freedom Convoy participants were inspired by Trump and his moronic supporters in the US, I find it ironic that they are protesting because of how they feel. What was that slogan again that conservatives are so fond of? Oh yeah, it was, "F*ck your feelings." They can dish it out abundantly but they sure can't take it at all lol.

9

nsci2ece t1_j27ciim wrote

It's the same with the Jan 6 insurrection.

The vast majority of participants were very, very far above the poverty level.

5

InternationalFig400 t1_j2553dn wrote

"A year ago Anne Case and Angus Deaton, Princeton University economists, published a study with the startling finding that since 1999 death rates have been going up for white Americans aged 45-54. It is even worse than it sounds, since death rates were declining for the general population. One of the big reasons for this increased death rate has been increased use of opiods and other drugs, leading to overdoses, along with liver disease from drinking too much alcohol and increased suicide rates. The problems were especially acute among working class and rural whites with only high school or less, and later studies found that they extended to younger members of this social class in their 20s and 30s. Loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs was clearly a primary reason for this despair.

Compared to 1999, white workers, according to another recent study in the Commonwealth Foundation: “have lower incomes, fewer are employed, and fewer are married.” This study found other causes for the increased death rates than just the ones mentioned above, but didn’t deny the Princeton findings." https://www.truthdig.com/articles/why-the-white-working-class-rebelled-neoliberalism-is-killing-them-literally/

The study pertains to the US, but these are the kinds of material conditions which give rise to political grievance(s) that galvanize the masses and result in these kinds of protests and movements, regardless of SES, i.e., class.

Capitalism is dying--wages and incomes in terms of purchasing power have stagnated the last 40 plus years. We are experiencing spiralling inflation, and politicians deflect and point fingers away from the economic roots of the problem.

15

dern_the_hermit t1_j25avll wrote

> but these are the kinds of material conditions which give rise to political grievance(s)

They're also conditions that can be CAUSED by political grievances, mind. Poor health care systems can lead to overprescribing of painkillers and poor support during recovery, for instance.

It's not like society handed these guys a few beers and them bam they want to overthrow the government.

3

InternationalFig400 t1_j260o0o wrote

I think in terms of causality, the economic decay is giving rise to political action.

We didn't see any of this in the post war period until the 1970s as there was a sharp rise in the rate of inflation. The leap frogging between capital and labour over inflation led to an increase in class conflict--historical data showed a rise in strikes and lockouts that peaked in 1976, when over a million people protested on parliament hill. It continued on into the 80s, but not as much, as the policy of full employment was dropped by Ottawa......

The analysis by Cole argues that the economic decay of the hollowing out of industrial sectors (the "rust belt"), gave rise to political actions and grievances, not so much the reverse.....

1

dern_the_hermit t1_j2619iy wrote

> We didn't see any of this in the post war period

The stuff I initially referenced above was about the Hell's Angels, formed in 1948.

3

Amerlis t1_j2324bg wrote

Milking the donation cow for every drop.

33

nsci2ece t1_j27cdas wrote

The majority of participants weren't truckers.

Over 90% of Canadian truckers were vaccinated + the only vaccine mandate that could genuinely impact truckers was under the jurisdiction of the USA. Unvaccinated Canadians cannot enter the USA because of an American policy, so any quarantine requirement is a complete and total non-issue (can't "return" to Canada if you can't leave to begin with).

2