Reply #65: I'm just speaking truth, which intellectuals don't want to hear. [View All]

One of the most tragic aspects of being a progressive is seeing intellectuals issue statements to each other, and hear the responses..."Great post," "this is insightful," "brilliant." Meanwhile, the people they NEED to reach never read these brilliant words of wit and derision, because the intellectuals never want to talk to people INFERIOR to them.

This is why progressive policies never pass, and why the Republicans (who aren't afraid to talk common or dumb or just plain stupid) have maintained control, and why Democrats are still deathly afraid of them.

The fact is that writing is no longer a paid profession. I can point to all the posts on DU with beautiful ideas and clever turns of phrase...that earns the writers NOTHING. And the same is true of online writers, who are paid perhaps two cents a month for submitting articles to things like Salon and Huffington Post.

Your generation, my generation, and several generations were told that wearing a coat and tie, never getting our hands dirty, and supervising people was the only honorable path in life. Along with those degrees we were given classist prejudice; a car mechanic or a plumber was worthless compared to an executive in an Armani suit.

We were lied to. And now, with those white-collar jobs getting discarded, we are learning the hard way how wrong we were. A car mechanic will always find work and people willing to pay for it. A BA in English who can write a detailed proposal is a leach on society, and can easily be plucked out and thrown in the trash.

Does that make it any clearer for you, bunky?