One of the funny factoids about the modern American economy is that as "high skilled" jobs have taken over the market, fewer and fewer white men are going to college because they feel like they shouldn't have to in order to make as much as their blue collar factory grandpa or whatever, and they resent having to compete with the women, especially Black women, who are working hard to get those degrees and jobs.
But they all blame affirmative action or DEI or whatever.
Even so, the racial and gender wealth gaps remain MASSIVE with the vast majority of wealth continuing to be in the hands of white men.
And we're not just talking about millionaires and billionaires. The median white household controls infinitely more wealth than everyone else.
But it's middle class and more affluent white people -- the middling lawyers, car dealership owners, etc. -- who are the strongest base of support for Trump and the GOP.
It's not about money.
The groundswell of reaction in this country is coming from middle class and more affluent white people, especially the older ones, who are angry over a perceived but insignificant loss of status in a world that still revolves almost entirely around them.
It's easy for them to rile up poor and racist white people, obviously, seeing as they control the media they consume, which spews out an endless stream of scaremongering about crime, immigration, critical race theory, trans people, etc.
These are the people who have been pulling the ladder up behind them and locking in their systemic advantages, which they use to siphon the country's wealth to themselves and their useless inheritors, creating a growing aristocracy of white conservative nepotism babies who have no idea how anything works and destroy everything they touch.
These people are incredibly stupid and easily swept up in faux religious hysteria that has everything to do with enforcing their racism and sexism on the rest of the world.
They feel threatened by facts and educated people, especially those who aren't white, and they would rather destroy everything -- especially education -- than have to share or listen to criticism or allow any kind of change.
These people are fascists. But the news media they own obviously won't call them that.
@gwynnion Mike and Patricia McCloskey said the quiet part out loud.
Anyway, in case this wasn’t on your radar, you might enjoy: https://archive.is/grtme
I’ve been using “American Gentry” ever since reading that.
