I was just casually talking with my mostly white, white collar coworkers about drug legalization. I made an offhand joke about how nearly all my old school friends dealt drugs, mostly just weed, at one point or another to make ends meet.

Shocked silence. Mumbles. That weird pursed lip thing that white, white collar types do.

Luv 2 not be able to make friends at work because of a fundamental disconnect between our formative experiences. Luv 2 probably have just hurt organizing efforts because I spooked the people I’m trying to organize :deeper-sadness:

  • cybernetsoc [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 years ago

    Yeah, being constantly around white collar professionals really made me so acutely aware of all these critiques of the emptiness of suburbia. But in terms of relating to them, it essentially boiled down, “oh these people are very easy to relate to if I just assume life revolves trying out new restaurants and escape rooms and politics is just entertainment where I feel inspired by Butigeig or horrified at the Orange Man’s rudeness”. It might be that I am less threatening since I am a very nerdy white guy, but I also get weirded out by the opposite reaction, where stories of getting in brawls with meth heads and dealing with family members being busted for drug possession are treated with a strange fascination.

      • LilComrade [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        3 years ago

        because they’ve advanced the ability for the police to control people so much that they don’t need a large reactionary middle class to keep their rule stable.

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          3 years ago

          Well that and the fact that unlimited economic expansion is running up against ecological limits. Faced with the choice between ceasing extraction and extracting from their middle class “allies”, the billionaires are choosing the latter.