95 upvotes, 5 direct replies (showing 5)
the dignity of being mangled in industrial accidents and being poisoned by companies who’ve bought off their politicians. the dignity of drinking yourself to death. being able to beat and insult women and POCs isn’t anything. it’s nothing. time was a person’s salary was enough to buy a home and a car: but mistaking buying power for dignity shows that the men who yearn for it have rocks for brains.
the only dignity afforded to the regular men was in joining a union: the dignity of solidarity. the dignity of knowing that your buying power came from the fight that you and your coworkers were winning for each other.
it’s a dignity that lifted a lot of boats, and we lost it in the 80s. it’s a dignity that has as much room for people of colour and women as it does for white men.
Comment by ciaoravioli at 20/01/2025 at 23:12 UTC*
124 upvotes, 1 direct replies
time was a person’s salary was enough to buy a home and a car
Honestly, even this is exaggerated to fit the narrative of people who romanticize the past. Boomers enjoyed a total anomaly in the housing market, which was never sustainable. US homeownership rates now are higher than they were in the 70's, but even at it's peak in 2000's (which was very driven by deregulated mortgages), it didn't crack 70%. Even in the 50's, rates hovered in the 50% range
Comment by navigationallyaided at 21/01/2025 at 17:56 UTC*
17 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Well, in South Korea Samsung(and their spinoffs) controls almost all the levers of their government and economy - but you have to be cozy with them as well. Their biggest employer wants the same thing as a Fortune 500 wants - cheap labor, MBAs making decisions, etc. But, the people impeached their president for just that. Not too much different than Wall St. and now Silicon Valley/Austin(Elon Musk) having the GOP by the balls so to speak. The Democrats also needs that corporate money too.
It’s almost like a real-life version of Rocko’s Modern Life in South Korea. Samsung is pretty much like the fictional company Conglom-O.
Comment by LMS_THEORY_ at 21/01/2025 at 05:40 UTC
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Those things went hand and hand. Lower class White men were given the jobs, the salary simply because they were white. Now that birthright is gone, somebody has to pay. But not other white men because only they can restore they lower class White men's status. Unfortunately the genie is out of the bottle, and the 'deaths of despair' is a result of self loathing. And if I don't like myself how can I like someone or something else?;
Comment by rorank at 20/01/2025 at 22:42 UTC*
143 upvotes, 1 direct replies
being able to beat and insult women and POCs isn’t anything
only dignity afforded to regular men was in joining a union
I think that you have some great points but your comment is really dismissive of the oppression actively carried out by white men, or what you’re calling “regular men”. This is another reason that class solidarity is in shambles in the United States, revisionist history regarding the standing of poor white men relative to women and POC. The “dignity” of working yourself to death and providing for your family is literally a privilege that was withheld from women and POC for centuries. A privilege that **many** died for. So please do not take it for granted that being on an equal stage to white men still sucks, because being enslaved, killed, raped, and otherwise targeted by said white men **is definitively worse**. It’s fucking insane that you don’t consider safety from physical violence to be a part of the dignity that you want.
I won’t at all deny that this is in no small part a bid to ensure that the masses are busier fighting eachother than the powers that be, but that doesn’t erase the history of what happened. And acting as though it does is a hampering on the movement as a whole. You don’t have to apologize but acting like the shit didn’t happen is fucking ridiculous. It’s especially absurd when you consider it’s Martin Luther fucking king day.
Comment by Quarterlifecrisis267 at 31/01/2025 at 19:44 UTC*
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Women and BIPOC didn’t even get the freedom to do that. Male privilege was found in the freedoms men had that women didn’t. White men still got to earn money to support themselves and their families. Women and BIPOC were kept from doing so.