Why Poor Whites Vote Against Their Interests

[H. E. Panqui]

Is anyone able to sense who works in the dreaded private ['free market'] sector where expenses/costs, revenue, etc. matter and who 'works' for 'the government' where it doesn't matter so much?

 

[BirdinHand]

Is anyone able to sense who works in the dreaded private ['free market'] sector and who 'works' for 'the government'?

It’s funny that you think they are so separate

 

[H. E. Panqui]

It’s funny that you think they are so separate

It's not funny that you don't think/understand so.

 

[Geoist]

If you demonstrated an understanding of how DEI efforts work, the quality of your posts would be improved.



The fatal flaw with all those arguing against DEI efforts is that they fundamentally just do not grasp that DEI efforts don’t influence the final hiring decisions - no one gets the job because they were black versus white.

They get the job based on their merits.

When they argue that the government is actually forcing private corporations to adopt DEI policies it is clear as day these people are just talking out of their asses and parroting what rightwing media tells them.

 

[NatMorton]

It absolutely does. Motivation is the difference between whether the boss did something legal or illegal by denying the Jewish applicant a job.

Show us where in The Civil Rights act there is an exclusion for your good intentions?

Says the guy who accuses me of wanting Jews out of the Middle East. Look in the mirror, bud.

Stay on target.

 

[BirdinHand]

It's not funny that you don't think/understand so.

Considering I have decades of experience in largely private industry that also worked in coordination with government sectors, I know.

 

[H. E. Panqui]

Considering I have decades of experience in largely private industry that also worked in coordination with government sectors, I know.

['largely private' lol!] Just as I assumed.

 

[NatMorton]

'A ROLE' LOL!!! THE MOST CRITICAL ROLE!!

“The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation. To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller–Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes.​

They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make catspaws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business.” [only the names have changed]​

― John Francis Hylan, Autobiography of John Francis Hylan, Mayor of New York

Do you have anything relevant to say about this century?

 

[H. E. Panqui]

When they argue that the government is actually forcing private corporations to adopt DEI policies it is clear as day these people are just talking out of their asses and parroting what rightwing media tells them.

COERCING ffs!!

 

[H. E. Panqui]

Do you have anything relevant to say about this century?

If you were a monetary realist you'd understand the basics haven't changed.....get knowledge..

 

[NatMorton]

The fatal flaw with all those arguing against DEI efforts is that they fundamentally just do not grasp that DEI efforts don’t influence the final hiring decisions - no one gets the job because they were black versus white.

Your argument goes of the rails right there.

That is, in fact, the very problem with many DEI efforts. For example, Harvard was caught excluding Asians for no other reason that race.

 

[Geoist]

Show us where in The Civil Rights act there is an exclusion for your good intentions?

Show us where in the Civil Right Act corporations are forbidden from valuing a culturally diverse workforce.

Stay on target.

And yet you chose to bring that lie into my thread.

 

[Fledermaus]

Private commercial banks 'create deposits' out of nothing and loan them at interest... duuuuuuh..

I take it you refer to the Federal Reserve. The institution created to address the financial panics that plagued the US for decades prior.

The United States has an interest in the Federal Reserve Banks as tax-exempt federally created instrumentalities whose profits belong to the federal government.

Interesting.

Do some basic homework for once... Steve Zarlenga, Bill Still, Stephen Goodson, G. Edward Griffin, Ellen Brown, The Alliance For Just Money, etc..

Steve Zarlenga wants too centralize banks to include the Federal Reserve banks. Do you approve?

G. Edward Griffin? Really? The guy that believes chemtrails exist over LA and that cancer is a nutritional deficiency curable by consuming amygdalin?

 

[NatMorton]

If you were a monetary realist you'd understand the basics haven't changed.....get knowledge..

I've worked in the financial services sector, including the banking sector, off and on over the last 30+ years and in over 20 countries. Because of that firsthand, professional-level experience I have far more knowledge about how they operate than do most other people.

Say, what are your credentials in this discussion?

 

[NatMorton]

Show us where in the Civil Right Act corporations are forbidden from valuing a culturally diverse workforce.

No where. Yet if they engage in racial discrimination in pursuit of that "culturally diverse workforce" they're likely to find themselves on the wrong end of a court decision.

 

[ataraxia]

Because if that "help" involves an act of racial discrimination that act becomes illegal.

https://debatepolitics.com/attachments/screenshot-2025-07-31-at-5-43-21%E2%80%AFam-webp.67582425/

 

[NatMorton]

https://debatepolitics.com/attachments/screenshot-2025-07-31-at-5-43-21%E2%80%AFam-webp.67582425/

A tip: cartoon stereotypes aren't helping your cause.

 

[ataraxia]

A tip: cartoon stereotypes aren't helping your cause.

You don’t like detailed sociological/historical/paychological analyses either.

But we can go there too if you want. Let me know.

But you can’t dismiss it all.

 

[NatMorton]

You don’t like detailed sociological/historical/paychological analyses either.

But we can go there too if you want. Let me know.

But you can’t dismiss it all.

Let's go there. Please read post 169 and discuss the point made there.

 

[ataraxia]

Let's put aside the reality that two people can never be that equal and go with it.

If helping the disadvantaged is your aim, how do you know the minority candidate didn't come from a wealthy home and the white applicant from a poor one? Or maybe the minority candidate had two loving parents and the white kid got the shite kicked out of him on a regular basis?

Would you be OK with basing such decisions purely on financial background? It’s an interesting thought.

 

[NatMorton]

Would you be OK with basing such decisions purely on financial background? It’s an interesting thought.

Possibly, but it doesn't matter. Were a company to do that, they would not be violating the law. When they make race a selection criterion, they are.

 

[ataraxia]

Possibly, but it doesn't matter. Were a company to do that, they would not be violating the law. When they make race a selection criterion, they are.

OK- maybe this might be an area of common ground.

But corporations left free would not move in that direction if left alone- because naturally the wealthiest are also going to have the most education, connections, resources, even bribes and kickbacks-for there to be any incentive to do that. Those born into circumstances which do not offer them such advantages would have very low chance of being able to break out of it and realize their potentials- where we could all benefit. Such optical outcomes would require some outside intervention.

So this is another example of how fairness, opportunities, and best long-term outcomes for all don’t just happen magically by leaving everything free.

Are you OK with any interventions into that kind of freedom?

 

[Bullseye]

Why do poor whites vote against their own interests?

Lyndon Johnson once stated:

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”​

This statement is as true now as it was then. Corporations and their rich overlords want to maintain their power and wealth. In order to do that they must offer (through their politicians and media) 'social status.' You may be poor, but at least you aren't these black cityfolk! Or these immigrants! Or these queerfolk! And by the way... those groups are the real threats to society. Let corporate media distract you with black violence porn and scary anecdotes of bearded transwomen leering at your daughter in the public bathroom. Never mind the corporations and rich siphoning off wealth and security from workers. Never mind them whittling away union power. Sure, right-populists may take notice, and may not be too happy about it. But, in the end, it's all worth it if those 'others' get punished.

Until we acknowledge the problem it will continue to fester.

I would suggest maybe you and your sources don't really understand "poor whites" interests and ambitions.

 

[H. E. Panqui]

I've worked in the financial services sector, including the banking sector, off and on over the last 30+ years and in over 20 countries. Because of that firsthand, professional-level experience I have far more knowledge about how they operate than do most other people.

Say, what are your credentials in this discussion?

Student of Economics...became aware of 'who creates our money and how do they do it?', the legal nature of money, some history, etc., some 30 years ago.

Are you familiar with any of the following?: Steve Zarlenga, Bill Still, Stephen Goodson, G. Edward Griffin, Ellen Brown, The Alliance For Just Money, etc.?

In some ways money is 'the great scoreboard of life'... is it too much to ask that the scoring system be widely understood, egalitarian, PUBLIC, etc. and not esoteric, privileged/elitist, and largely PRIVATE etc.. Don't you think?

Btw, people blathering about DEI and many many other stinking things are blathering essentially about money...hopefully they can at least admit that...

 

[Michael Cole]

Well yes and I'm saying the category of race really has subtle ethnic roots which globalism has amplified.

You can say that, but history shows people tied to the land, their nation, their empire. Skin color was not a "tribe" until the trans-Atlantic slave trade. White supremacy arose out of colonial conquest. Globalism is irrelevant, unless you want to claim settling the New World and conquering Africa are globalism.

I don't think race is just skin color either to be fair. Race has cultural associations as well, but again I grant that separating peoples purely due to melanin content is silly.



I'll summarize my point briefly:

Racism has its origins in the slave trade, that's true, but that origin comes from the fact that when Europeans landed on Africa, they were presented with a totally asymmetrical civilizational relationship. Caravels and guns met mud huts and no written language in the African interior. Racism doesn't come from some arbitrary statistic like melanin content, but from the legacy and conquest of the African continent where Europeans assumed that this civilizational divide necessarily meant they were almost dealing with a different sub-species of human. This assumptions informs pretty much all racist ideology to this day, not skin color.

We're in agreement, which is my point. The difference between Brits hating and conquering Scots and Brits hating and conquering Africans is that in the former, skin color is irrelevant, while in the latter, skin color is seen as indicative of the cause.