la_marquise: (Caspian)
la_marquise ([personal profile] la_marquise) wrote2016-06-27 10:40 am
Entry tags:

#redwriter Blame The Rich

Everyone seems very determined in preaching the mantra of 'no, there's no hope: know your place'. And any attempt at looking for any alternative way is greeted with derision and contempt.
I'm 53. I am *not* naive. The next person who dismisses me with that line will be summarily blocked. If I have to respect you, then you play by the same rules and respect me. Sneering, gloating and bullying do not entitle you to a courteous response from me. Pointing and laughing when your own house is on fire may be cathartic, but it's not my duty to be polite when you shove it in my face.
Sneering at the underprivileged and labelling them stupid, racist, ignorant etc is not a solution. Calling everyone not in your little bubble 'them' is not a solution. I disagree profoundly with the working class and underclass leave voters but I do not blame them for what has happened. The narrative of fear, suspicion and jingoism has been fostered and promulgated by a particular subset of the global elite, who see personal advantage in creating and maintaining divisions between nations and cultures and who benefit by keeping the poor frightened, envious and empoverished. It has been created by a weak Tory leader who could not heal the deep divisions in his party. It has been created by ambitious and cynical upper class men who saw a chance to gain vast personal power.
Blame the plutocrats, and the media barons. Blame the Westminster cynics who repeatedly chose their own personal ambitions over what actually helps those they purported they serve. This includes the Blairites who are more interested in grabbing back leadership than in trying to address the crisis that grips the country right now. This includes the squabbling Tories. This includes UKIP, who have masqueraded as the champions of the people while admitting the rank and file of the old BNP and NF to their ranks and offering them up as plausible potential councillors and MPs without checking to see if they advocate apartheid or homophobia or virulent sexism.
Blame the rich. Every time you point fingers at the disprivileged who have voted Leave after decades of neglect and abuse from the establishment, you collude with that establishment. I wish to the bottom of my heart that more of the poorest had been able to believe in the EU and vote Remain. But I refuse to play the 'them and us' game. I refuse to follow the narrative preached by the greedy, biased, wealthy ruling classes who have brought the rest of us to our knees with their pandering to the free market over all, and their contempt for anyone who isn't just like them.
ext_12726: (Default)

[identity profile] heleninwales.livejournal.com 2016-06-27 03:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I totally agree. Blaming the leave voters is not going to help us find a way through this mess. No one has listened to the opinions of people from depressed areas for decades and if they try to make their concerns felt, they are discussed as bigots. If they are ignorant, it's in the original meaning of the word, ie not knowing. They have been lied to for years by the tabloids and don't have the education and critical thinking skills to look for more reliable sources of information.

Like [livejournal.com profile] dorispossum, I am fed up of the young blaming the old. I was with three friends last Friday morning. Average age of the group was 84 (I was the youngest at 64) and we'd all voted to remain. If all the young people who were eligible to vote had actually done so and all voted remain, we probably wouldn't be in this mess now.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2016-06-27 06:35 pm (UTC)(link)
The tabloids are deeply, deeply implicated in this.