The Trickle Down of Sneering Contempt
This blog has repeatedly cautioned progressives and coastal elites to watch their tone when describing the people and politics of "flyover country."
People don't like being sneered at and called "deplorable." Some 70% of white working class men voted for Trump. They felt dissed. They voted.
Public sneering serves a purpose. Sharing a sneer confirms one is part of a group. One is communicating that one is in on a joke, that the group "gets" something the outsiders do not.
It is harder to see this behavior when it is ones own people doing the sneering. People might miss how unlovely and counter-productive it is when one is on the inside. Fortunately there is a text available for progressive sophisticates, Laura Ingraham's two minute commentary on LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
She sneers at the black athletes. She mocks their grammar. Her vocal tone confirms the point even when she isn't saying it overtly: those big stupid black men, uneducated and uneducable, with big undeserved incomes, uppity, not knowing their place, talking politics when all they are good at is "bouncing a ball", they aren't as good as people like us.
That is harsh to say. Surely I must be exaggerating? See for yourself. Watch the video. Two minutes well spent.
Communication is amplified through eye-roll and tone, a primary vehicle in political communication.
"Shut up and dribble." Ingraham, wearing her trademark gold cross, is on Fox News. She does what Trump has done so successfully, political judo on the political left and coastal elites. They take resentment of urban sophisticated Democrats and amplify the outrage they feel at being thought deplorable. They send it back adding to it subtle or not-subtle racism: we white, Christian, heterosexual "normal" Americans can do some sneering of our own. Just look at those black athletes, freakishly big and dumb, talking about stuff they know nothing about, criticizing their betters. Shut up and dribble.
1 comment:
Ms. Clinton's "deplorables" comment was outrageous because it was the truth.
It cost her. But to some it went straight to the point, and it was clearly a calculated remark that needed to be said. Since the election we have seen a rise of the worst elements of our society, and the fragility of our democracy. Science denying is deplorable. Substituting religion for reason is deplorable. Unfettered greed is deplorable. Trump's lies feed the alternate reality of bigots and conspiracy theorists. Regressives twist language to create false narratives and obfuscation ('death panels" "political correctness").
You are correct. Progressives should not stoop to gratuitous name calling, but pointing out moral and intellectual depravity is not that.
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