I’ve seen some people dunking on the guy who’s like “USAID was our main customer, shutting them down needed to happen though” but I feel like that’s kinda the skeleton key for all American politics right now: so many people don’t care about their material conditions as long as it owns the libs - ThreadSky

sky.skymarchini.net • 13 hours ago

I’ve seen some people dunking on the guy who’s like “USAID was our main customer, shutting them down needed to happen though” but I feel like that’s kinda the skeleton key for all American politics right now: so many people don’t care about their material conditions as long as it owns the libs

Reposted from George Pearkes

The Dallas Fed's Manufacturing Activity Index records comments every month from its respondents (factories in southern NM, TX, and northern LA). These typically run pretty far to the right of the WSJ Editorial page. Anyhow, here's what they're saying this month:
www.dallasfed.org/research/sur...

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hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social•9 hours ago

A little race reductionist and "poor people are just lazy" for sure but I do think to a small extent poor white people are poor and vote against their material interest because they don't really care about their material status that much.

hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social•9 hours ago

I think the vast majority of poverty is institutional factors outside of people's control but simultaneously if you choose to stay in your economically unproductive hometown for family or your own connections to the area, that does show a dedication to values other than material status

frangsbo.bsky.social•9 hours ago

They think they don't care. At some level of worsened material conditions they will care.
I'm not disagreeing with you. I think that average material conditions in American have been so relatively good for so long that huge numbers have no idea how bad it can get or believe some magic saves us.

blueoddball.bsky.social•11 hours ago

I think it speaks to sheer economic illiteracy and pitiful public communications on how aid and federal spending works. Same with the Ukraine military assistance. Like, USAID is necessary because there is no other buyer for all of these US ag commodities. So the govt made one!

deficit-hawktuah.bsky.social•11 hours ago

They don't care, yet.
They've been insulated from the impacts let's see how cheery they areif it goes to shit.

gibbetgiblits.bsky.social•12 hours ago

The don’t care about their material conditions *for now*

marcellograz.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Mate, the SS knew the Holocaust was damaging the war effort. Did not care. The Stalinists knew purging the was a bad idea, they did not care. Talibans care not for their nation’s gdp or objective wellbeing. Synth’ed: ad maiora.

jhop7.bsky.social•12 hours ago

So, that particular person who was in food manufacturing and sold primarily to USAID, and said ending that program "had to happen"... where do they think the food they make goes?! It's real food feeding real starving people. In what real world does that real job need to end?

pitbullallie.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Because they're now convinced that the food was a cover for making people in Ecuador trans or something equally incoherent and made up.

jhop7.bsky.social•11 hours ago

I keep forgetting how they operate. 😳

regimecpa.bsky.social•12 hours ago

As a guy who grew up in the DFW exurbs, these guys literally believe they will be fine in the new landscape that emerges from the ashes and they absolutely won’t be lol

regimecpa.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Their employees will bear the brunt first and will turn way quicker, the bosses are absolutely insane and possibly unreachable.

tylerh3.bsky.social•12 hours ago

💯

cuddlessmash.bsky.social•9 hours ago

If they lose their companies they tend to spiral in my experience.

They will still vote R if they vote but generally they're stuck dealing with many more pressing matters

sky.skymarchini.net•13 hours ago

I’ve spoken about before how the left/lib “these people are voting against their own self interest!!” thing (why would people dependent on gov programs vote for the gop which wants to end the program?) ignores that those people might be ideologically against it, and don’t care about the $$$ impacts

louisevans.bsky.social•9 hours ago

This is the missing step in “free markets will erode away workplace segregation”: racists will pay money to keep society racist.

sky.skymarchini.net•13 hours ago

Now their ideology may be incoherent, racist, uninformed, or some combination thereof, but that doesn’t really matter: material politics is a dead letter and we’re instead stuck with a huge swath of people ideologically committed to “burn it down cause talk radio said the Dems like trans people”

tequila0341.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Absolutely would not say it is a dead letter. There is 35-40% of the country which will starve to death for Trump, but the swing 20% absolutely will not.

unavaleable.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Hoover to 39.9% of the vote in 1932!

khartsun.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Alan Keyes got 27.05%
Mark Robinson got 40.08%

khartsun.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I think the crazification factor might actually be 40%, with Keyes being an outlier

uckema.com•5 hours ago

Say the line “post material politics”
Yayyyy

clawfoot.bsky.social•12 hours ago

That's seen him Braveheart where the king orders The Archers to fire.
And his advisor asks "sire, wount we hit our men?"
King:"yes, but we'll hit theirs as well"

jmteo.bsky.social•11 hours ago

It is completely pathetic and idk what the fuck to do about these people. The answer is probably “fuck them”

activeoppressor.bsky.social•11 hours ago

There is a book about this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_of_Whiteness

kja.bsky.social•12 hours ago

I worked in nuclear power several years ago, and the executives (mostly conservative former engineers) were overwhelmingly opposed to any action on climate change even though decarbonization was a huge boon to nuclear energy.

frangsbo.bsky.social•9 hours ago

That's pretty classic actually. Nuclear holds out the (false) promise of being able to decarbonize without changing behavior. Very familiar with that mindset.

kagiboran.bsky.social•12 hours ago

materialist politics is (mostly) dead

twoodard.bsky.social•12 hours ago

I think we've just reached a level of affluence that it takes a lot for materialist politics to kick in. But the last time we were facing economic collapse a black guy carried Indiana.

kagiboran.bsky.social•12 hours ago

yeah, hence "(mostly)"

Materialist politics is dead*

*offer may not be valid during deep recessions

conjurial.bsky.social•11 hours ago

it's not dead it's just sleeping off a long ketamine bender

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