Jeff G @ Protein Wisdom:
Let’s begin with the snobbish paternalism and rank condescension that tries to present itself as a kind of championing of the masses. First, Obama, 2007, the “other race speech”: Poor people ‘[n]eed help with basic skills, how to shop, how to show up for work on time, how to wear the right clothes, how to act appropriately in an office.”
Compare with Michelle Obama and Lisa Cericola, Supermarket Shopping 101:
Before you can cook for your family, you need to know how to grocery shop for foods you’ll use. From how to make a list to making healthy choices, consider this your go–to cheat sheet […] You’ve got your list, you’ve got your cart – let’s get shopping! Focus on the perimeter of the store first – that’s typically where you’ll find the produce, meat and dairy sections, which stock fresh, whole foods that should comprise the bulk of your shopping list. Then navigate your cart toward other essentials, like canned goods (beans and tomato sauce), grains (pasta, rice, boxed couscous or quinoa mixes) and frozen foods (fruits, vegetables, seafood).
Steer clear of the cookie, snack and soda aisle until after you’ve collected everything on your list – at that point, your cart should be full, which might make you feel less tempted to buy things you don’t need. By always heading to the essential areas of the store first, you’ll train yourself to form a shopping pattern that’s healthier […]
Note the themes here: the workaday world of the typical 99%ers is filled with difficult, often exotic challenges and potential distractions, making the United States, with all its supposed freedoms a very difficult place to navigate effectively and efficiently. So while the Republicans with their social darwinist mindset would have you believe you should sink or swim on your own out there in the competitive wilderness of a supposedly free peoples — you are either the Grizzly or the salmon, and that’s just the way the free market works — the progressives understand your fears, and moreso, with a kindly guiding hand, will help remove social barriers such as choice and competition and all the burdens therein that come with the destructive mythos of “liberty” and self reliance and rugged individualism; and that’s because while in theory things like competition can prove occasional useful, for the vast majority of the masses, people who’ve been public school-educated and whose idea of high culture is the monthly splurge at Red Lobster (complete with an appetizer!), liberty is in fact a burden, requiring of them a level of engagement and knowledge and attention that can distract from the kind of quality of life and inbuilt stability a fundamentally transformed United States promises to provide. Republicans want you alone and frightened; progressives understand that it takes a village, conveniently located in the District of Columbia, and flush with enough of your tax revenues to distribute wealth where it needs to go. For our own good.
Now. Compare the above mentioned themes to those presented by Obama in his now infamous “you didn’t build that” speech
I like it.
Infantilize their supporters out of one side of their mouths then demand those of us adult enough to know “how to show up to work on time, wear the right clothes and act appropriately in an office,” support those who wasted their youths acting black instead of learning social skills.
AND, to add insult to that injury; making some sort of moral equivalence between these two types of folks.
No.
IF you want to waste your growing up years in gang clothes, rapping and cussing, stoned through all your classes, you will reap the consequences.
Unless YOU turn around and clean up your clothes and mouth and get an alarm clock you will always be on the fringes of civilized society.
You put yourself there.
BUT Obama went further.
Obama has made public schools punish all ethnic groups EQUALLY.
That means, to kick out a black kid for egregious acts or omissions, the teacher MUST also kick out a white kid, an Asian kid, an Hispanic kid.
OR, to be ”fair,” the teacher can just keep the black kid around to disrupt class and be ”equal.”
So, I guess now the “White Man’s Burden” is the “Half White Man’s Burden”.