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“Eat the Rich” memes spread, but is it a political movement?

  • Thread starter Thread starter nycfan
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dcphx said:
Hating the successful/rich is the underpinning of MAGA. We're already a decade in as a political movement. I know it sound surprising given who is the figurehead of MAGA, but the vitriol from many supporters of MAGA begins with their insufficient resources to live the American dream. They want to go back to the 50's/60's because a single income of even a factory worker was sufficient to own a home, raise kids and have a stay at home spouse, when CEO salaries were 20x of the average worker rather than the current 275x. In the strive to improve their bottom line, American businesses have economically strangled their customer base.

I know it is easy to lay the MAGA movement at the feet of racism, misogyny & ignorance, and there is some of that, but IMO the driving force behind MAGA is income inequality.
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I also think that the 1% slogan, while catchy, really doesn't do a very good job of capturing the issue. 1% in America is making a little over 500k a year. That's a lot but it doesn't touch what the truly wealthy are making.

Couple of tidbits I've heard recently, possibly on here so apologies if I'm stealing anything from anybody:

-What's the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire? A billion dollars.

- 1 million minutes is a little under 2 years. 1 billion minutes is 1,900 years. That's the scale of the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire.

I don't think the 1% is the problem. It's the .1% and .01% that needs to be looked at with a different capital gains tax strategy and estate taxes. Some more favorable Union and worker protection laws would help too.
 
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finesse said:
While you're not wrong, you are greatly ignoring how the rich play on the bigotries of race, religion and sexual orientation to divide and distract the lower classes from focusing on the real issues of class and wealth. It's an old strategy but still a very effective one.
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the playbook is to distract all of us peasants with the culture war BS while they rob us all blind.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
I also think that the 1% slogan, while catchy, really doesn't do a very good job of capturing the issue. 1% in America is making a little over 500k a year. That's a lot but it doesn't touch with the truly wealthy are making.

Couple of tidbits I've heard recently, possibly on here so apologies if I'm stealing anything from anybody:

-What's the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire? A billion dollars.

- 1 million minutes is a little under 2 years. 1 billion minutes is 1,900 years that's the scale of the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire.

I don't think the 1% is the problem. It's the .1% and .01% that needs to be looked at with a different capital gains tax strategy and estate taxes. Some more favorable Union and worker protection laws would help too.
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This is a more relatable scale, IMO

1 million seconds is 11 1/2 days.
1 billion seconds is 31 years 8.5 months
 
Paine said:
The ultra rich have inflicted countless injuries upon working people and the poor for decades and decades. Apparently it’s only class war when the lower class starts to fight back.
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So shoot rich people in the back of the head as they walk to meetings?
 
lawtig02 said:
This may be an unpopular opinion here, but I see resisting the rise of a populist left counter-movement to be just about as important for the Dems over the next 4-8 years as resisting the immensely dangerous populists on the right.
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I see a very narrow path to a left wing populism that isn’t a destabilizing force. I’m afraid we need to be plotting that course as a precautionary measure.
 
lawtig02 said:
This may be an unpopular opinion here, but I see resisting the rise of a populist left counter-movement to be just about as important for the Dems over the next 4-8 years as resisting the immensely dangerous populists on the right.
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I agree, but it's going to be much tougher for Dems to counter a populist left movement than a populist right movement...and we've seen how poorly they've done countering the populist right.

As has been said many times before, the problems Dems face is that they have both advocate for political goals while also working to save the foundations and structures of government (and society).

It's going to be much, much tougher if the attacks on governmental and society structures start to come in a material way from the left as well as the right. At some point, you're not even advocating for anything that assists people directly, you're simply trying to save the system...and it's a hard job to save a system that nearly no one feels like is serving the people.

One silver lining is that a substantial populist left may serve as a counterweight to the populist right and, in a better world, push the populist right back toward being a governmental partner. It's one thing to advocate for destroying the boundaries of government when the alternative is merely the status quo, but another when the alternative becomes that your political opponents will suddenly take extra-governmental actions against you. If the populist left rises as a political movement, may we get lucky enough that it works to push everyone toward cooperation rather than further destroying the fabric of our government and society.
 
BlooVooDoo said:
I see a very narrow path to a left wing populism that isn’t a destabilizing force. I’m afraid we need to be plotting that course as a precautionary measure.
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I don't really think it's that bad. Bernie is a left-wing populist and you're not hearing him wanting to end democracy. AOC is a left wing populist but she's not out there shouting from the rooftops that we need to start stringing up billionaires. None of these fringe left-wing nuts are getting elected. The left-wing folks that are getting elected are advocating for crazy things like universal healthcare and a wealth tax.
 
SnoopRob said:
I agree, but it's going to be much tougher for Dems to counter a populist left movement than a populist right movement...and we've seen how poorly they've done countering the populist right.

As has been said many times before, the problems Dems face is that they have both advocate for political goals while also working to save the foundations and structures of government (and society).

It's going to be much, much tougher if the attacks on governmental and society structures start to come in a material way from the left as well as the right. At some point, you're not even advocating for anything that assists people directly, you're simply trying to save the system...and it's a hard job to save a system that nearly no one feels like is serving the people.

One silver lining is that a substantial populist left may serve as a counterweight to the populist right and, in a better world, push the populist right back toward being a governmental partner. It's one thing to advocate for destroying the boundaries of government when the alternative is merely the status quo, but another when the alternative becomes that your political opponents will suddenly take extra-governmental actions against you. If the populist left rises as a political movement, may we get lucky enough that it works to push everyone toward cooperation rather than further destroying the fabric of our government and society.
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Really good comments. I’m not optimistic that silver lining will happen, but it’s something to hope for.
 
dcphx said:
This is a more relatable scale, IMO

1 million seconds is 11 1/2 days.
1 billion seconds is 31 years 8.5 months
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I used to have several of these kind of things in my head when I was teaching freshmen about evolution. It helped to frame the age of the earth in a context that was relatable. Years to seconds was a favorite. Another good one was to convert years to inches. A long human lifetime is equivalent to about 8 feet. The age of the earth is equivalent to about three trips around the equator.
 
finesse said:
While you're not wrong, you are greatly ignoring how the rich play on the bigotries of race, religion and sexual orientation to divide and distract the lower classes from focusing on the real issues of class and wealth. It's an old strategy but still a very effective one.
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I have posted this joke before but it fits here...

A 1%er, a working class white guy, and a working class black guy are sitting at a table having ordered a pizza. The wait person places the pizza which has been cut into 8 slices on the table.

The 1%er snatches 7 slices and then leans over to the white guy and whispers, " Watch out, that N-word is going to steal your slice "
 
lawtig02 said:
I agree MAGA is much more of an economic phenomenon than a racist or misogynistic phenomenon.
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off topic but man there's a lot you have to ignore to reach this conclusion. another thread maybe. and magas arent as interested in economics as social class. think about wuffies, among whom maga runs strong. wuffies dont hate "holes" because of our success; after all they don't hate dook nearly to the same degree. they hate "holes" because they see us as condescending jerks who lack common sense.
 
superrific said:
i am old enough to remember occupy wall street. that never became a political movement. this wont either.
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Respectfully, you need to look into how many of the right wing populists got their start in OWS.

It absolutely became a political movement. Just not the one that people would expect.
 
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