To not find middle class ‘socialists’ laughing at the poor and uneducated very funny.

[Mightymucks]

I’m currently a mature student and am on a lot of FB pages related to my Uni. I need to be on there for news, but an awful lot of the content seems to be middle class self proclaimed socialists laughing at jokes poking fun at the thick unwashed masses who might have the temerity not to slavishly agree with them on every issue.

Take this morning. One of them posted a joke about an imaginary rabid Brexiteer called ‘Sharon from Croydon’ who voted for Brexit ‘because she thinks brown neurosurgeons are stealing jobs she would have been qualified for if she hadn’t dropped out of her hair and beauty NVQ’. Cue much hilarity from these students and lots of comments about ‘thick northerners’ whose capability of engaging with the political process doesn’t extend beyond looking at one slogan on a bus.

I called him ‘a snob’ and he responded that he was ‘calling out racism’ despite the fact that ‘Sharon’ is fictional and therefore doesn’t need calling out. It was just a series of lazy stereotypes designed to stoke predjudice and exactly the thing socialism is supposed to be explicitly against?

A symptom of this in a ward by the Uni near me Labour has actually removed a local candidate with long standing Labour links and huge respect from locals because he is
‘too working class’ for the students to vote for and replaced him with a history academic from out of town.

I should point out that in my working class northern area I don’t know a single person who isn’t aware that Marxism and socialism represents the working classes and the poor and uneducated. But apparently a University education doesn’t extend to teaching that these days.

I also know it isn’t universal in Labour because I had a fantastic female middle aged canvasser around this weekend who was totally clued up on issues of local concern like school funding and libraries and actually convinced me to vote for them.

But AIBU to hate these middle class millennial fuckwits who pretend they’re socialists but are actually massive fucking crashing snobs?

AIBU to hate these middle class millennial fuckwits

Aren't you just the same?

The electorate can usually sense when such political groups have contempt for them, and usually repay such contempt at the ballot box (as recently with Trump and Brexit).

Agree Mightymucks. And Lifebegins, I don’t think the OP can be the same if the OP is arguing with them and calling them out on it.

How on earth is she the same?!

Political satire isn't a new thing.

That's how it works surely, stereotypes of a particular type of supporter, like people who want the ban on fox-hunting overturned are always portrayed as wealthy, braying types.

I can't be doing with thick as pigshit people either - and I'm a working class northerner.

My kids went to a council estate primary as that was where we lived and some of the parents were unbelievably stupid.

Example - the application form for secondary school places. It said on it in huge fucking bold writing "Do NOT name your preferred school three times as only one will be taken as a request and the other two will be void". So what do they do?

"Oh I'm putting Hogwarts down three times cos Kai's mum said that's what you do to get the school you want".

Don't even get me started on "it's all the fucking kosnovos taking up the good school places! Britney' mum said her friends kid goes to Moon primary and there all the foreigners sit on chairs and the white kids have to sit on the floor!"

Can't stand thick people, there is no excuse no matter what background you come from.

The electorate can usually sense when such political groups have contempt for them

Agreed

Who other than wealthy braying types wants the fox hunting ban overturned?

I snorted a tiny bit at the Sharon from Croydon thing, though. Sorry!

really? the OP says the MCs are taking the piss out of WCs, but she calls the MC fuckwits?

Anyway there's always a snowflake on a FaceBook page who has to take offence.

... and no jokes ever are made about middle class Liberal elite.

Are they very young? The young are horrifically arrogant.

They're just young. Most of them grow up eventually.

Mature students are perhaps quicker to take offence - just as they are quicker to take notes in lectures. Lol

What’s your point BossyPaws? That some people are thick?

Of course there’s an excuse for it, not everyone has the same intellectual capabilities.

I just can't stand people who think they are better than others because they have more money or a a "better job". Money and power just goes to some people's heads and I find them the most unpleasant people in society.

That attitude annoys me too. I empathise OP. I've seen it in the left a lot and it is not just restricted to students.

They are just young!? Erm...most of them are straight in from school so yeah, they are “just” young. University is their natural domain whereas many mature students couldn’t get a place when they left school - and probably had to access one later via a slightly easier route.

student politics - just a joke from entitled types (and let's face it, all in Britain are entitled, we have toilets and drinkable tap water). The problem is when they don't grow out of waving their rent-a-mob banners and end up in parliament...

I'm from a working class background and frankly the Sharon character is highly recognisable. It's not even satire because there are literally people like that. It's just description. The deselection of the working class Labour candidate is infinitely more concerning.

Take this morning. One of them posted a joke about an imaginary rabid Brexiteer called ‘Sharon from Croydon’ who voted for Brexit ‘because she thinks brown neurosurgeons are stealing jobs she would have been qualified for if she hadn’t dropped out of her hair and beauty NVQ’.

Sorry, but that is hilarious.

"really? the OP says the MCs are taking the piss out of WCs, but she calls the MC fuckwits?"

Yes, these MC are fuckwits. Because at the same time as pouring out their bile and loathing for the working class, they will use them to signal their boundless compassion and empathy for the poor. These MC in the OP's post are typical of a certain kind of "socialist" who merely uses the WC in their class war against the rich. All the time they actually seethe with contempt for their uneducated views and simple way of life. Hypocrisy at its finest.

OP you really should reply to the calling out racism comment, exactly as you have said: "Calling out the racism of a fictional character you have invented to mock the working class? How brave of you."

YANBU.

I have numerous post-grad degrees and a professional job. My best friend left school without her GCSEs and has no qualifications. Our friendship works because we each recognise that education and intelligence are not the same thing, and we hold values such as kindness and respect for others as far more important. Also, there is plenty of evidence to show that the well educated can be horribly ignorant.

I'd argue that 'true' intelligence recognises this and the energy spent laughing at people for their lack of knowledge/ignorance and for daring to hold a different viewpoint would be far better spent patiently repeating your view point and supporting it with evidence. It's surprising how many people change their minds.

All that said, satire has always been used to make political points, and as long as it has an equal counterpart to balance it, it generally represents a healthy society that has freedom of expression.

Aren't you just the same?

No. I’m too old to be a millennial for a start. And I’m not laughing at people who are supposed to be represented by a philosophy I claim to espouse.

Last time I looked Marx never said ‘Middle class students from the Home Counties unite, you have nothing left to lose but your chains (and your inheritance from your parents)!

In the UK, being uneducated and pig ignorant is a choice. Ime there are quite a lot of people who embrace their ignorance because they are, at heart, prejudiced, entitled fuckwits who are convinced that black people/women/foriegners/the disabled are taking their "stuff" (jobs/opportunities/respect/share of the pie). They occur in all social classes and deserve to ridiculed and challenged at every turn.