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?

Ghostof - genuine question, why is the right responsible for the declining high street?
Surely online shopping and large, out of town retail parks are more responsible?

Ghostof - genuine question, why is the right responsible for the declining high street?
Surely online shopping and large, out of town retail parks are more responsible?

I'd suggest that nearly a decade of austerity, lower living standards and wage stagnation means people are spending less. We are told the right are strong on the economy and employment. Where will the staff of Toys R Us, Maplin etc go?

James O’Brien isn’t some sort of leader of the middle classes. He’s ONE man, whom I find I disagree with on many issues

No facts are more people are living alone and that have become the expectation and norm

We’re back in the day the expectation was living together on a shared house. And that was the norm

And it was quite common to have a house full single ladies living together

And tbh if you ask many young people how much they spend vs how much they save you will have your answer

People, particularly families want security not insecure private rentals.

30 years ago 1 salary households could afford to buy. Now they struggle. That is social regression.

Toys r Us and Maplin have gone because there is no functional need for them anymore. That is nothing to do with highstreet spending. People no longer want a house full of shit plastic. That applies to both companies. People no longer give a toss about sound systems or speaker cables, or LAN cables. That is jack shit to do with 'austerity'. That is to do with advances in technology and people now rejecting the tat and shit filled lifestyle hangover from the toy and electronics boom in the 80s and 90s. Mobiles will be next. We have basically hit 'peak mobile' now until there is some huge technology breakthrough like 3d projection or Black Mirror style handsets with electronic glass and transparent components.

You can be educated and working class and socialist OP.

The entire UK economy is built on services and goods. Of course people want gadgets/electronics we live in a consumerist society. If people stopped buying these things the entire economy (including internet firms) would take a huge hit.

When peoples finances are squeezed they stop spending on non essentials.

NRFTY but op YANBU.
This bothers me:
A former friend of mine was always being overtly lefty, going on about articles she'd read in the New Statesman, blah blah. But then openly sneered at "chavs" and even taught her DC to laugh at "chav clothes" and stuff like that. I was shock - I mean be an outrageous snob about poor poeple if you want, but how can you claim to be a socialist as well?
Whoever said that-I get what you are trying to say, but the thing is "Chav" doesn't mean poor. Chav isn't interchangeable with working class person. My street is pretty much working class. There's only a couple of chavs, and they're the ones with the new Range Rover, the plastic toys all over the front garden, the stench of weed wafting from their house and the mum who stands in the doorway smoking a fag in her dressing gown at 4 pm. These are not universal working class signifiers (although I have come to realise most of the middle class think they are. .)

You can be educated and working class and socialist

You really can! ( But again the middle classes don't seem to beleive this!)

You really can! ( But again the middle classes don't seem to beleive this!)

Have you spoken to them all?

GhostofFrankGrimes

Not talking about families

Young people expect to have their own house even when renting they often won’t tolerate a house share

My bil has just is in his late 20s and none of his friends share a home none they all rent on couple or singly

Home ownership is declining. House shares serve a purpose but are generally shit beyond a certain age. People struggle to save for a deposit when renting.

YANBU

GhostofFrankGrimes

They are shit beyond a certain age but I am afraid even those on their 20s beyond uni are deciding it’s not for them and thinking you can leave uni and go straight into a flat of your own is 🤔🤭

Also the young thinking their to good to live in certain areas when they have no money
😬 my sil sells houses and people are now asking for playrooms as standard these are young families peoples expectations are 🙄

The basic problem in this country is lack of social mobility. Until a decent proportion of our politicians and leaders come from the working classes, we will just have increased inequality.

And that ain't going to happen any time soon because those in power cling on to and consolidate their privilege through private education, internships and jobs for the boys.

In the fifties and sixties, grammar schools gave us a genuine increase in social mobility. In the eighties and nineties we had plenty of state educated politicians and for a time things seemed to be becoming more equal.

Now, I dunno, its like animal farm again when the pigs turn into the farmers. People who have jumped up a class seem desperate to pull the drawbridge up behind them.

Ghost of Frank Grimes
Has the actual spending on Toys and Electrical goods declined or was it simply a case that the move to online shopping undermined Toys R Us and Maplin's business models

They are shit beyond a certain age but I am afraid even those on their 20s beyond uni are deciding it’s not for them and thinking you can leave uni and go straight into a flat of your own is

well, if they are working full time in a professional job its not much to ask is it? A roof over ones head.

my sil sells houses and people are now asking for playrooms as standard these are young families peoples expectations are

Unbelievable isn't it? Families looking for family homes.

Home ownership is declining for a number of reasons - one of them is a lack of housebuilding

Home ownership is declining for a number of reasons - one of them is a lack of housebuilding

Houses are still being built. Whether they are affordable is up for debate.

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.

Are your mature students usually lower achieving, @RoseWhiteTIps? I find the opposite, they are usually highly motivated and academically very successful. Students who find university their natural domain are rare, among both mature and young students.

Poking fun at the less privileged is sadly a sport among some rich kids, they hide it a bit when they are older. Young privileged people are sometimes less subtle.

The basic problem in this country is lack of social mobility. Until a decent proportion of our politicians and leaders come from the working classes, we will just have increased inequality.

The problem is not that middle-class, privately educated people are monopolising political opportunities, it is more likely that those from the working classes are less politically active or involved to even want to become politicians. A sense of believing that they have a voice and wanting to act upon it is crucial to getting more working class people to be more politically active.

I voted for Brexit and I am very proud that I did. And I have no regrets at all. I would do the same today, tomorrow, every single day.

I would never vote for labour, god forbid.

I may vote for the Conservatives though, depends on what happens with Brexit.

I suppose I am working class - father was in the Armed Forces, mother never worked a day in her life.

I did get accepted at uni, back in 1979, but I took a 'gap' year (flounced around the IOW), met the exH, had 3 brats, got divorced, got remarried, worked full-time, 'retired at 48, restarted work a year ago, just because I could.

I find the little lefties, with their face masks and homemade banners, quite cute, bless 'em.

Oh if only......

Thank you for answering my question ghostof

GhostofFrankGrimes

No it’s people expectations about what one should have just newly married with a young family

My in laws started off with a bed sit and with each child worked their way up but it would have occurred to them they hat would or should have a 4 bed no child sharing a room a large kitchen and a playroom straight off the bat

But I am afraid this is what are young people now think is the norm