Remembering "deplorables"
Mocking someone with Parkinson's (or other disability) is *a whole lot different* from mocking someone because they are ignorant and refuse to concede that fact. Something dramatic has happened since the 1980's and I think I know the reason.
In the 80's I lived in the South. Education was nearly free (junior colleges full-time tuition $35/year, state universities full-time $880/year) but in rural NC most folks didn't go to college. Most folks worked at one of the burgeoning furniture factories. BUT among those uneducated furniture factory workers there was a sense of deep respect for those attending college as well as those who graduated from college. In short, they were ignorant, knew it and knew it would be better if they weren't. They didn't hide their ignorance or pretend it didn't exist. Most didn't attend college for reasons ranging from never having had anyone in the family place a high value on academics to having children to rear, so they instead "got a job" in a factory that, despite being fervently anti-Union, still paid a livable wage, given the cost of living at the time.
Today, the factories are all closed. Furniture is now manufactured in S.E. Asia and imported. The world famous "Hickory Home Furniture Mart" is long gone, despite the fact that for its last few years all the furniture at the mart was imported from Asia instead of just travelling the thirty to forty miles down the road from places like Lenoir and Marion. That left a lot of people out of work and with a lack of hope. New economy types like Google promised jobs when they opened a data center in Lenoir and received huge tax breaks. But when the data center opened, they hired fewer than five people, at least one of which was a janitor position. The jobs that required a college degree and paid well went to people who came from elsewhere. Meth use exploded. A people without hope will resort to self-destruction.
And something else changed. Their attitude toward the educated went from one of deep respect to one of profound resentment. As long as the uneducated could get by, feed and house their families, annually take them to the beach and so on, they did not resent the fact that the educated were far better off than they. But the uneducated have well and truly been left behind and they deeply resent it. This resentment has led to them being emboldened to be uninformed. Far from the old days when a lack of education was almost a source of shame, and more importantly led to an understanding that maybe they shouldn't be making big decisions, they decided that they, too, deserved to be heard. They became embarrassingly proud of their ignorance.
Well, they've certainly been heard from. From Dubya and Rumsfeld to Trump and Pompeo, the uninformed have left permanent scars on what's left of our society. They're too ignorant to admit it, but Capitalism has failed them - as has Western Democracy as practiced in the US.
Given the spectacle of Trump's trial in the Senate (aside: reminiscent of Disney's Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland - "Verdict first! Trial afterwards.") the one thing that is clear above all others is that we were premature in declaring victory in the Cold War.
So, what else is there to do but poke fun?
In the 80's I lived in the South. Education was nearly free (junior colleges full-time tuition $35/year, state universities full-time $880/year) but in rural NC most folks didn't go to college. Most folks worked at one of the burgeoning furniture factories. BUT among those uneducated furniture factory workers there was a sense of deep respect for those attending college as well as those who graduated from college. In short, they were ignorant, knew it and knew it would be better if they weren't. They didn't hide their ignorance or pretend it didn't exist. Most didn't attend college for reasons ranging from never having had anyone in the family place a high value on academics to having children to rear, so they instead "got a job" in a factory that, despite being fervently anti-Union, still paid a livable wage, given the cost of living at the time.
Today, the factories are all closed. Furniture is now manufactured in S.E. Asia and imported. The world famous "Hickory Home Furniture Mart" is long gone, despite the fact that for its last few years all the furniture at the mart was imported from Asia instead of just travelling the thirty to forty miles down the road from places like Lenoir and Marion. That left a lot of people out of work and with a lack of hope. New economy types like Google promised jobs when they opened a data center in Lenoir and received huge tax breaks. But when the data center opened, they hired fewer than five people, at least one of which was a janitor position. The jobs that required a college degree and paid well went to people who came from elsewhere. Meth use exploded. A people without hope will resort to self-destruction.
And something else changed. Their attitude toward the educated went from one of deep respect to one of profound resentment. As long as the uneducated could get by, feed and house their families, annually take them to the beach and so on, they did not resent the fact that the educated were far better off than they. But the uneducated have well and truly been left behind and they deeply resent it. This resentment has led to them being emboldened to be uninformed. Far from the old days when a lack of education was almost a source of shame, and more importantly led to an understanding that maybe they shouldn't be making big decisions, they decided that they, too, deserved to be heard. They became embarrassingly proud of their ignorance.
Well, they've certainly been heard from. From Dubya and Rumsfeld to Trump and Pompeo, the uninformed have left permanent scars on what's left of our society. They're too ignorant to admit it, but Capitalism has failed them - as has Western Democracy as practiced in the US.
Given the spectacle of Trump's trial in the Senate (aside: reminiscent of Disney's Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland - "Verdict first! Trial afterwards.") the one thing that is clear above all others is that we were premature in declaring victory in the Cold War.
So, what else is there to do but poke fun?