This piece makes me think of another thing you wrote, something like "conservatives don't believe shit just happens." To me, the mirror image of that is conservatives don't believe in structural causes of oppression, be it poverty, misogyny, or racism. Everything bad that happens to you is either your fault because of an inherent flaw or bad decision, or someone else's fault because otherwise you would have been just fine.
"Existing hierarchies serve me and people like me and that is good" is a fundamentally conservative belief. It's also a belief that is mutually exclusive to "structural causes of oppression are real and bad."
Bottom-half white men are waking up to the fact that existing hierarchies don't serve them and people like them. These men are not, as a result, by-and-large, becoming more conservative. They're becoming more radical. They're becoming more populist. They're becoming more authoritarian and fascist.
But this turn away from conservatism and support for existing hierarchies is an opportunity to disrupt the conservative and libertarian to fascist pipeline and sway some of them over to liberalism. I think. I hope.
I’m sorry about the delay here – it took me some time to figure out what was bugging me.
I don’t think it is specifically a belief in female idiocy – I think it is a belief in manager idiocy.
That probably doesn’t make much sense, does it?
A lot of the world is divided into the producers, the ones who actually do the work and know what they’re talking about, and managers who don’t do the work, don’t understand it, and spend much of their time wasting time rather than doing their job. Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne may be billionaires who run giant companies, but they’re producers; Dilbert’s Pointy-Haired Boss is a manager, who is a drain on his company’s resources and makes decisions that are completely out of sync with reality. Managers are so out of touch with reality that their decisions may not be intentionally malicious, but it makes very little difference to those on the sharp end.
Put crudely, a person who has never been poor cannot understand what it is like to be poor. A person who has never been a farmer cannot understand what it is like to farm. A general who has never seen combat cannot know what it is like to be on the battlefield, etc, etc. Because they lack such knowledge, they don’t know what’s important; they’re literally ignorant of their own ignorance. The bigger the company, the more it becomes weighed down by managers (some micromanagers who exist to form a barrier between the workers and the big bosses; some HR officials who cannot be relied upon to act rationally, etc, etc) and the more the workers do their best to ignore the managers, because the managers don’t know what they’re doing. We end up with situations like ‘due to cutbacks, we have to fire Dave.’
I think there’s a strong disconnect between the ‘managers’ in urban fields (such as Official Washington) and the ‘producers’ in rural areas. The latter are sick of being told what to do by people who don’t understand farming life, who probably don’t know where meat comes from, and seem bent on ruining the farming life. A lot of producers – doctors, for example – are exiting the field because they didn’t train for years to wrestle with bureaucracy; others – teachers, for example – are paying lip service to new ideas because they know they won’t last. As Eisenhower put it:
"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field."
Or as I might put it, virtue signalling is very easy when you don’t have to give up anything you value – or need.
I think that explains lot of Trump’s appeal too – he may not be a producer, by any reasonable standard, but he managed to pretend to be one far better than Hillary Clinton.
An anecdotal observation, I see more and more of the talented and smart women accomplishing more and greater good in small and rural towns in the areas of the arts, social service, and entrepreneurial activities. Yes the brain drain in rural America is real, but economics could be slowly be reversing the tide. The brains could start come back home, to affordability. Roll Tide now has a new meaning!
I think I'd prefer to lower housing costs in superstar cities and move everyone there. But if we're going to have brain drain, I'd rather it not be due to misogyny. So, good!
I had to read "#notallmen" three times before I realized it wasn't anti-tall men. 'Cause I'm a dummy ...smh
This piece makes me think of another thing you wrote, something like "conservatives don't believe shit just happens." To me, the mirror image of that is conservatives don't believe in structural causes of oppression, be it poverty, misogyny, or racism. Everything bad that happens to you is either your fault because of an inherent flaw or bad decision, or someone else's fault because otherwise you would have been just fine.
Yes, here! https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/the-happy-wife-school God there's so much I want to say about conservatives, rape, the illusion of agency, victim-blaming, etc.
"Existing hierarchies serve me and people like me and that is good" is a fundamentally conservative belief. It's also a belief that is mutually exclusive to "structural causes of oppression are real and bad."
Bottom-half white men are waking up to the fact that existing hierarchies don't serve them and people like them. These men are not, as a result, by-and-large, becoming more conservative. They're becoming more radical. They're becoming more populist. They're becoming more authoritarian and fascist.
But this turn away from conservatism and support for existing hierarchies is an opportunity to disrupt the conservative and libertarian to fascist pipeline and sway some of them over to liberalism. I think. I hope.
Would you be interested in coming on my show to talk about ideas in this article and the prior one?
Interested? I’m incredibly flattered! Of course! Email me at cathy.reisenwitz@gmail.com
I have thoughts on the matter, but I can't figure out how to put them into words. Can I get back to you?
Chris
Of course!
I’m sorry about the delay here – it took me some time to figure out what was bugging me.
I don’t think it is specifically a belief in female idiocy – I think it is a belief in manager idiocy.
That probably doesn’t make much sense, does it?
A lot of the world is divided into the producers, the ones who actually do the work and know what they’re talking about, and managers who don’t do the work, don’t understand it, and spend much of their time wasting time rather than doing their job. Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne may be billionaires who run giant companies, but they’re producers; Dilbert’s Pointy-Haired Boss is a manager, who is a drain on his company’s resources and makes decisions that are completely out of sync with reality. Managers are so out of touch with reality that their decisions may not be intentionally malicious, but it makes very little difference to those on the sharp end.
Put crudely, a person who has never been poor cannot understand what it is like to be poor. A person who has never been a farmer cannot understand what it is like to farm. A general who has never seen combat cannot know what it is like to be on the battlefield, etc, etc. Because they lack such knowledge, they don’t know what’s important; they’re literally ignorant of their own ignorance. The bigger the company, the more it becomes weighed down by managers (some micromanagers who exist to form a barrier between the workers and the big bosses; some HR officials who cannot be relied upon to act rationally, etc, etc) and the more the workers do their best to ignore the managers, because the managers don’t know what they’re doing. We end up with situations like ‘due to cutbacks, we have to fire Dave.’
https://ifunny.co/picture/due-to-cut-backs-we-are-gonna-have-to-re-KpEyJhCD7
I think there’s a strong disconnect between the ‘managers’ in urban fields (such as Official Washington) and the ‘producers’ in rural areas. The latter are sick of being told what to do by people who don’t understand farming life, who probably don’t know where meat comes from, and seem bent on ruining the farming life. A lot of producers – doctors, for example – are exiting the field because they didn’t train for years to wrestle with bureaucracy; others – teachers, for example – are paying lip service to new ideas because they know they won’t last. As Eisenhower put it:
"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field."
Or as I might put it, virtue signalling is very easy when you don’t have to give up anything you value – or need.
I think that explains lot of Trump’s appeal too – he may not be a producer, by any reasonable standard, but he managed to pretend to be one far better than Hillary Clinton.
Sorry for the rambling – I hope that makes sense.
C
>And one study suggested that more skilled gamers treated female players better than those who were worse at the game.
Gamers... are... good?
Good gamers are better, anyway
An anecdotal observation, I see more and more of the talented and smart women accomplishing more and greater good in small and rural towns in the areas of the arts, social service, and entrepreneurial activities. Yes the brain drain in rural America is real, but economics could be slowly be reversing the tide. The brains could start come back home, to affordability. Roll Tide now has a new meaning!
I think I'd prefer to lower housing costs in superstar cities and move everyone there. But if we're going to have brain drain, I'd rather it not be due to misogyny. So, good!
Ps. I've not read any Thomas Sowell... what would be a good book or read to start getting an over gist of his economic outlook?
Honestly this is enough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell
https://imgur.com/a/Wa4ATzy