Paul Krugman asks a simple
question about why white (conservative) people who fly into a rage always seem
to do so over really stupid things: Something that strikes me, however — and which I don’t fully understand — is that when people like this turn to angry rhetoric, with at least a hint of violence, the trigger events tend to be trivial. There are plenty of real grievances that could be motivating working-class whites…
Now, I loves me some Krugman but
he’s missing the super obvious here: White conservatives are angry at a
racially unjust economic system that has started to treat white people the same
it’s always treated black people.
White people enjoyed a lifestyle
unprecedented in history and managed to deny that life to millions of minorities.
But the rich got so greedy that
the system is breaking down and now everyone is suffering. Except
for the rich, of course.
The end result is that they
can’t attack the system they love without admitting how unjust it was in the
first place. What are they going to say? “Hey! Where are all the white jobs?!”
On top of this frustration is
the cold and horrible (for white people) realization that they no longer have
total control over the government.
With a black president in the
White House, there is zero chance of getting through the kind of policies that
used to transfer immense amounts of wealth to the white community while leaving
the black community out in the cold.
Those days are over and with the
rapid “browning” of America, they aren’t coming back.
This leaves us with millions of
angry white people betrayed by a system they believed in and supported their
entire lives.
But to admit that the system was
unjust would be to admit that they, white people, benefited at the expense of
black people in the first place.
Most white people, including
liberals, would rather gnaw their arm off to escape this trap.
And so they find the most
ridiculous and mundane targets for their rage, a rage that should be
directed at the system but can’t be.
It really is that simple.
Author Justin Rosario is a stay at home father and liberal blogger that
enjoys exposing conservative lies, hate and greed. Follow him on twitter
@FilthyLbrlScum