I think they accidentally raise an interesting question of current left wing optics, and how the public receives them
OP this is not directed at you at all, since I know you are setting up an argument that someone you disagree with made. But there’s something implicit in this line of thinking that really grinds my gears and something that the western left needs to purge from our brains real damn quick.
I’m gonna just talk about the masks part, the other aspects like hair or tats other users have already covered.
The implicit argument here is that “normal” people are now anti-mask and think anyone wearing a mask is “weird”. And if you go by who is given a platform in our society - namely, middle class and up white folks - sure, you might be right. But if you talk with working class folks in our society who face the most oppression - BIPOC folks, people with health issues, LGBTQ folks, low wage white workers who aren’t total chuds - I mean I’m not saying they’re all masking up. But at least those groups of people in my experience in August 2023 do no see masking as “weird”. And just importantly, the groups of people I mentioned are the same people we should be organizing for and with. I honestly do not give a single fuck what some white dude financial analyst or ink toner distribution manager thinks of some DSA people masking up. They’re not the ones who we are going to convince, not at this moment and maybe not ever.
This is a societal problem. It actually kinda mirrors commodity fetishism, IMO. We all have no idea how large or small certain social groups are. White, college educated well off folks are waaay over represented to the point that we all think they make up a larger percent of the population than they are. And poor folks, we (we as a society I mean) tend to think they are a much smaller group than they are. But I was just reading a 2019 study today. Workers making less than $16/hr who were the sole breadwinners or shared a home with only other workers making that much or less made up about 25% of the workforce. For perspective, white evangelicals - a group that wields massive power and influence in the US - are about that same size. And that study totally excludes undocumented workers, the unhoused, and employed which are about 10% of the workforce IIRC. And $16/hr in 2019 dollars is pretty low threshold. I think it’s better to look at how many households only have like $500 or $1,000 saved up, and it’s usually like a majority of Americans or close to it.
Those are the people we should be agitating. They’re the actual silent majority and by and large, I don’t think they would consider these people “weird” (old people might, but old people think young people look weird no matter what). I do think there’s revolutionary potential here. It’s a huge number of people and they either look like these DSA comrades or don’t think there’s anything really weird about them.
OP this is not directed at you at all, since I know you are setting up an argument that someone you disagree with made. But there’s something implicit in this line of thinking that really grinds my gears and something that the western left needs to purge from our brains real damn quick.
I’m gonna just talk about the masks part, the other aspects like hair or tats other users have already covered.
The implicit argument here is that “normal” people are now anti-mask and think anyone wearing a mask is “weird”. And if you go by who is given a platform in our society - namely, middle class and up white folks - sure, you might be right. But if you talk with working class folks in our society who face the most oppression - BIPOC folks, people with health issues, LGBTQ folks, low wage white workers who aren’t total chuds - I mean I’m not saying they’re all masking up. But at least those groups of people in my experience in August 2023 do no see masking as “weird”. And just importantly, the groups of people I mentioned are the same people we should be organizing for and with. I honestly do not give a single fuck what some white dude financial analyst or ink toner distribution manager thinks of some DSA people masking up. They’re not the ones who we are going to convince, not at this moment and maybe not ever.
This is a societal problem. It actually kinda mirrors commodity fetishism, IMO. We all have no idea how large or small certain social groups are. White, college educated well off folks are waaay over represented to the point that we all think they make up a larger percent of the population than they are. And poor folks, we (we as a society I mean) tend to think they are a much smaller group than they are. But I was just reading a 2019 study today. Workers making less than $16/hr who were the sole breadwinners or shared a home with only other workers making that much or less made up about 25% of the workforce. For perspective, white evangelicals - a group that wields massive power and influence in the US - are about that same size. And that study totally excludes undocumented workers, the unhoused, and employed which are about 10% of the workforce IIRC. And $16/hr in 2019 dollars is pretty low threshold. I think it’s better to look at how many households only have like $500 or $1,000 saved up, and it’s usually like a majority of Americans or close to it.
Those are the people we should be agitating. They’re the actual silent majority and by and large, I don’t think they would consider these people “weird” (old people might, but old people think young people look weird no matter what). I do think there’s revolutionary potential here. It’s a huge number of people and they either look like these DSA comrades or don’t think there’s anything really weird about them.