Reddit reviews Strangers in Their Own Land

It's called The Great Paradox.

>Inspired by Thomas Frank's book What's the Matter with Kansas?, I began my five-year journey to the heart of the American right carrying with me, as if it were a backpack, a great paradox. Back in 2004, when Frank's book appeared, there was a paradox underlying the right-left split. Since then the split has become a gulf.
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>Across the country, red states are poorer and have more teen mothers, more divorce, worse health, more obesity, more trauma-related deaths, more low-birth-weight babies, and lower school enrollment. On average, people in red states die five years earlier than people in blue states. Indeed, the gap in life expectancy between Louisiana and Connecticut is the same as that between the United States and Nicarugua. Red states suffer more in another highly important but little known way, one that speaks to the very biological self-interest in health and life: industrial pollution.
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>Given such an array of challenges, one might expect people to welcome federal help. In truth, a very large proportion of the yearly budgets of red states -- in the case of Louisiana, 44% -- do come from federal funds; $2,400 is given by the federal government per Louisianan per year.
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>But Mike Schaff doesn't welcome that federal money and doubts the science of climate change: "I'll worry about global warming in fifty years," he says. Mike loves his state, and he loves the outdoor life. But instead of looking to government, like others in the Tea Party, he turns to the free market.

Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hochschild

https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Their-Own-Land-Mourning/dp/1536684937

>The acceptable phrase, which Hochschild heard over and over, was “line cutter.” The real problem with this country is the “line cutters,” people who jump their place in line for the American Dream, while those in the poor white working class have been patiently waiting their turn for years. The “big government” that oppresses them gives unfair advantages to the line cutters, in the form of welfare payments, affirmative action, and recognition of special status. People who have worked hard all their lives with little to show for it must witness the undeserving “line cutters” moving ahead of them, and we all know who those are: blacks, foreigners, and anyone who receives government handouts. This even includes Medicaid: there is a widespread but mistaken belief that people on Medicaid do not work, even though it is documented that most Medicaid recipients do work (and of course many are children, or are too old, sick, or disabled - especially the nursing home population). So if Republicans want to do away with Medicaid, don’t expect much outcry here: let everybody work for what they get instead of leeching off the public dole.

>As Hochschild describes it, this resentment of the line jumpers has been simmering for years:

Anybody who is not white and working class, who is successful, "cut in line" ahead of them, and they abso-fucking-lutely hate them.

If you really want the answer to that question, read the book "Strangers in Their Own Land" where a liberal sociologist goes out of her comfort zone in the heart of Republican territories in the South and interviews 60 individuals to get their perspective. Basically she wanted to understand what life is like for them. Where they get their information from. Why they shape their opinions.

In short, she discovers that under the onslaught of the mainstream networks that skew heavily toward the left, these individuals felt marginalized, dismissed, made fun of, were uneducated, homophobic, sexist, racist and every vitriolic thing you can think of. That characterization made them feel isolated and jaded, meanwhile you had the Rush Limbaugh's and O'Reilly's defending them (or at least on air) so naturally even though many of these individuals might have had affinity towards their left leaning brothers and sisters, thanks 24 hours of consistent demonization by the media, they had no choice but to go against their morals and ethics and instead vote for the conservative.

So in the end, their behavior is molded by corporate media instigating strife and polarization for the sake of revenue and ratings, and while their jobs are stagnant and going nowhere they're witnessing the nepotism and line cutters getting ahead. They quite literally feel like strangers in their own land because America has become, "a giant marginalization machine." It's not theirs and its putting them back.

Now wait, hold on... I know what you're going to say so let me circumvent your next question.

When you wonder why they vote against their own interest, it's quite easy to understand why when all they hear from the front of the line is, "oh you redneck!" then it makes complete sense whey they act the way they do. And guess what mi amigo, you would act the same too if they treated you the same way. Sadly, in the end both sides do this (by they I mean biased corporate networks and politicians) and until the citizens of this country both realized they're getting fucked in the ass the feces throwing and tribalism will continue to ruin this nation.

this book is a good look into the way that the poor/working class think. a sociologist embedded herself in the poor US south.

a few takeaways I had were that it's a mixture of short term thinking and allegiance to the companies that have given them jobs. the poor don't think about the social programs that the liberals/NDP/Greens want to implement. They look at their paycheque and how small it is, and then look at how much tax is taken out and think "ah ha! if I just paid less tax I'd be better off" which is true in a way, but obviously not good for them in the long term. when they're living paycheque to paycheque, theyre looking into what can help them today, not what will help them in the long term with social programs if they lose their job or it gets sent overseas.

in a similar way, thats why the poor are so supportive of industry and anti-government intervention and environmental regulations. the poor rely on companies that employ them and can't afford not to be working. so they oppose anything that would disrupt business and put them out of a job. and of course big polluters/manufacturing jobs pay them a wage, so theyre sympathetic to those industries. they may hate things like pollution in their area and that effect on their lives, but they hate not having a paycheque more, so they prioritise that.

essentially, we are thinking big picture/long term, they are thinking small picture/short term.

it's a good read. highly recommended. knowing the way that those that you disagree with think is very useful.

I don't think it's helpful for anyone to pathologize people who vote in a particular way. It's fair to point out, a lot of Obama voters turned around in 16 and voted for Trump.

Another problem I see is the notion that the world is literally filled with hateful, The_Donald types. It isn't. It isn't even a little bit. Those super vocal Trump supporters are the exception, not the rule.

This is more an area for sociology, not psychology.

EDIT: I need to go find a book about this, hold on. Keep checking this comment and I'll update.

edit 2: found it. This will give you a clearer understanding of the mindsets you're seeing. https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Their-Own-Land-Mourning/dp/1536684937

Especially in context to, "line cutters," which is what all of this really boils down to.