05-11-2017, 08:37 AM
(05-11-2017, 07:03 AM)Odin Wrote:(05-09-2017, 11:56 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: But rural folk in some northern states (among them most blatantly Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan) see evidence of the urban middle class coming to their communities with their expensive boats (conspicuous consumption) and have a love-hate relationship with them. Yes, they may get jobs in convenience stores that sell motor fuels, snacks, beer, and fishing bait to such people, but those customers are spending more on boat fuel in one purchase than these rural people are making in a day. Some may have bought cottages at the lake, having bid up the prices of the only desirable real estate -- the places in which many of the rural folk used to go for summer swims and go out on a canoe. So along comes Donald Trump with the message: hurt the educated middle class that exploits you and looks down upon you.
OMG yes, this is 100% true. There is quite a bit of resentment among working class people in rural Minnesota lakes country for all the wealthy seasonal people with their lake homes. And in the fall you get the cake eaters from the Twin Cities suburbs coming up north for hunting and local hunters here hate those people for tons of very valid reasons.
Just for reference:
It has an ironic reference to Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat cake".
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.