What it really is that pisses me off.

[feuervogel]

I'm sick unto death of the clueless, usually-white, often-male, frequently-straight, almost-always-cis and able-bodied, middle-class-or-higher-born republibertarian who thinks that hard work* is sufficient to succeed in life, or become wealthy, or just not be One of Those Lazy Fucking Poor people.

These clueless people need to learn and internalize that their success in life (defined as, idk, not being lazy welfare mooches or some classist bullshit) is not solely the result of whatever actions they have taken in life. They were born into families with the resources to help them succeed. It's not the result of their extra-special, superior character that makes them not lazy and less likely to be encouraged to be dependent on social welfare.

There are plenty of people born in the middle class who understand they had advantages in life that others didn't. They don't attribute their success to greater moral character, or others' failings to inferior moral character. They understand that environment, socio-economic status (class), race, and all sorts of other things have an influence on people.

Dear clueless middle-class-born republibertarians: check. your. privilege.

*whatever the fuck that means; if you tell me my mom, who's a secretary and had a second job as a cashier so she could keep the roof over our heads when I was 10, isn't "hard working" because she didn't fucking go to college or doesn't run her own business, those are the last fucking words you'll ever say to me, because I will cut you out of my life faster than Mark van Bommel can get a yellow card.

Comments

[yhibiki]

Ugggh I know. It's almost not worth debating with those people though, because they just don't fucking get it. And I want to bang my head against something whenever I hear conservatives on TV spouting bs like that.

(I personally know I'm in a very privileged position, because my parents can and do support me in my academic endeavors.)

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't think that kind of attitude is a function of politics and luck alone. I think it's also a sign of what they used to call "bad breeding," and an unwillingness to learn from others' experiences.

Noblesse oblige has its problems, but this isn't really a compelling replacement.

[matt_doyle]

But of course, most of those republibertarians don't believe in the existence of privilege.