# Sneering progressives are driving young white men into the arms of the GOP **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2018, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566 "2018-05-04T09:14:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/161 "2018-05-04T23:05:24Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > In any case if I was a rural white millennial male, or even a blue collar one, not highly educated, no IT skills for example, now dropping lower and lower from safe middle, the vision you are selling? Sign me up for them GOP phone banks! At least they pretend to care about my problems. They may be selling me a bill of goods but they at least aren’t calling where I live bumfuck and telling me that my community doesn’t matter and isn’t worth making an effort to save. Yeah, I, with my High School diploma and no skills, should move to the great city where I know no one and have no family and no supports and no job. Everything solved! Great plan. So you’re ENTITLED to a job being created where you are instead of moving to a job? And you think the Republicans will do this for you? Because that seems the very antithesis of established Republican positions. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/162 "2018-05-04T23:17:11Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Here we go, another comment that has exactly fuck-all to do with this thread. You sound like a primitive progressive chatbot that only knows how to say a few stock phrases, regardless of context. Dude, your entire argument is fiction. > [@](#): > > Just be open to straight white guys being progressive, welcome them into the tent, without **expecting them to apologize for their white maleness that they were born with.** **THIS IS RIGHT WING PROPAGANDA.** I’d make that big and blinking if I could NO ONE is being expected to apologize for being a white male. No one has every asked, implied or expected me to do so. I have never seen it done to anyone else and I would bet money that it has never happened to you. Like the ‘apology tour’ that never happened, constantly claiming that Democrats and Liberals are apologizing for our country or for being white. It isn’t happening. Stop claiming that it is. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/163 "2018-05-05T00:07:08Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Dude, your entire argument is fiction. > > **THIS IS RIGHT WING PROPAGANDA.** > I’d make that big and blinking if I could > > NO ONE is being expected to apologize for being a white male. No one has every asked, implied or expected me to do so. I have never seen it done to anyone else and I would bet money that it has never happened to you. > > Like the ‘apology tour’ that never happened, constantly claiming that Democrats and Liberals are apologizing for our country or for being white. It isn’t happening. Stop claiming that it is. I don’t know about specifically “being expected to apologize”, but I see a fairly significant bit of truth to the OP’s claim that “there are constant negative references to white men as though they are all the enemy of all that is good in the world.” For example, here is a recent post from [DemocraticUnderground.com](http://DemocraticUnderground.com): > [@](#): > > **Have you read the book; “Stupid White Men”, by Michael Moore?** > It goes a long way to explain the stupid things white men are doing to the nation, the world, and thus, to themselves. > > [Book Stupid White Men for sale | eBay](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=&_sop=15&_productid=216387308&LH_BIN=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbook+stupid+white+men.TRS0&_nkw=book+stupid+white+men&_sacat=0) > > It is worth reading. Sadly, the stupid can not be fixed. That was on [Wednesday morning](https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100210566822). ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/164 "2018-05-05T00:11:45Z")
Michael Moore. Say no more. He’s hardly representative of Democratic or Liberal thought. I’d say he’s our version of Glenn Beck, but Beck gets more air time and respect from Republicans than Moore from most Dems. Please don’t pick on isolated nutbars on the far left and then attribute that thinking to all other Liberals. And dear God, stop listening to Conservatives telling you what Liberals think. They’re full of horseshit. They honestly have no idea what we think. They make shit up to scare you. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/165 "2018-05-05T00:19:39Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > NO ONE is being expected to apologize for being a white male. No one has every asked, implied or expected me to do so. \*\* I have never seen it done to anyone else and I would bet money that it has never happened to you.\*\* I have brown skin. I have never been taken aside for questioning by a police officer or shot at or frisked because of my brown skin. Therefore… ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/166 "2018-05-05T00:22:00Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > … of who I have in mind—and that’s the white boys from the other side of the tracks. The ones who grew up in affluent suburbia, who are heading to good colleges and then presumably on to good jobs in large, dynamic, growing urban areas. … Do you ANY I mean any, even the level of an internet poll, evidence that educated suburban males who go “to good colleges and then presumably on to good jobs in large, dynamic, growing urban areas” are moving away from D let alone into the R column? ANY AT ALL? No? No. **Chimera** , please tell _where_ you think that white High School education man with no technical skills is moving to for _what_ exact job. IS McDonalds hiring this week? I believe that “he” is entitled to some empathy and respect, as everyone else is. IF a party comes off saying that we have jobs training, educational initiatives, and plans, for those need a hand up the ladder … except for _you_. Because … white? So no way you could us some opportunities created too? Well, not exactly an appealing invitation into the tent. Dude, no, the GOP is doing things that in reality hurts not helps rural Americans. _Almost_ as much as following your advice to just move to a city would. Can the D side do better? I think so. The party includes some pretty great minds, better than mine anyway. And better than what the GOP is doing is not a high bar. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/167 "2018-05-05T00:24:08Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I have brown skin. I have never been taken aside for questioning by a police officer or shot at or frisked because of my brown skin. Therefore… Ok, then please provide a citation of a white person being asked to apologize for being white. Not some generic statement or claim by someone, an actual example. You want to claim it is happening, provide proof. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/168 "2018-05-05T00:27:29Z")
To the point of suburban white males, likely educated … not Millennial but [in VA](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/virginia-politics/governor-exit-polls/?utm_term=.55991f09fa60) all White college graduate men moved up 6% D-ward from Clinton’s performance, from 40 to 46%. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/169 "2018-05-05T00:30:18Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > **Chimera** , please tell _where_ you think that white High School education man with no technical skills is moving to for _what_ exact job. IS McDonalds hiring this week? Actually, pretty much everywhere around me has hiring signs. We’re at peak employment. Look, I never said it would be easy. Our ancestors made bigger leaps just looking for work. Hell, my grandparents came here in the 30’s, in the middle of the Great Depression. But at some point you have to be honest. Polaris may operate a factory in small town Minnesota, but that’s where they started. The top banks and insurance companies aren’t putting tech centers in small town America, unless you consider putting a call center in Sioux Falls to be creating jobs in a rural area. So you may need to do what people have done since the dawn of time. Get help from your family to move to a better job, then pay them back and help them move to those jobs too. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/170 "2018-05-05T00:34:13Z")
“Hey, you know something people? I’m not black. But there’s a whole lots a times. I wish I could say I’m not white”. ― Frank Zappa. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/171 "2018-05-05T01:42:16Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > This analysis is so shallow it’s ridiculous. Uh, no. The point is that, when folks in minority positions are pissed off and saying things that paint with too broad a brush, the last thing a white dude should be doing is to interrupt and say, “NOT MEEEEEEEEEEE.” I get irritated when I read stuff that decries all men, or all white men (or all white women for that matter). But I’ve learned that rolling my eyes and moving on is the best response. For one thing, the white dude lecturing the person in a minority position never changes a single mind. For another thing, these broad brushes never do actual damage (unlike, say, the broad brushes that paint black men as all violent and result in disproportionate police violence and incarceration). For a third thing, nobody has demonstrated that a statistically significant number of white males are so butthurt by such broad brushes that they’ll vote for Trump out of spite–much less the insane 20 point swing that Slacker can’t help but believe in. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/172 "2018-05-05T01:54:05Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Actually, pretty much everywhere around me has hiring signs. We’re at peak employment. > > Look, I never said it would be easy. Our ancestors made bigger leaps just looking for work. Hell, my grandparents came here in the 30’s, in the middle of the Great Depression. > > But at some point you have to be honest. Polaris may operate a factory in small town Minnesota, but that’s where they started. The top banks and insurance companies aren’t putting tech centers in small town America, unless you consider putting a call center in Sioux Falls to be creating jobs in a rural area. > > So you may need to do what people have done since the dawn of time. Get help from your family to move to a better job, then pay them back and help them move to those jobs too. So, do you say the same thing regarding the lack of jobs in certain urban areas? So sad too bad. Move to the suburbs, where the companies moved to? In fact politicians mostly have not. From tax incentives to educational programs to . variety of grant programs to transportation infrastructure… there has been effort - sometimes but not always successful effort - to lure companies and jobs back into cities while creating a workforce with the skills for those jobs. The message from the leaders of my party to those in urban areas with few jobs and an undereducated workforce was never “Get help from your family to move to a better job, then pay them back and help them move to those jobs too.” It was trying find ways to build opportunities and have a safety net. But “so sad too bad, move” is the best we can do for this group? Trying to help this demographic deal with their real problems also is the right thing to do. Both from an ethical and from a partisan perspective. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/173 "2018-05-05T03:04:11Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Michael Moore. Say no more. He’s hardly representative of Democratic or Liberal thought. … The point wasn’t even about some silly book that Michael Moore wrote, but that some poster on DU this very week thought it was worthwhile. You have made several factual errors here: > [@Chimera](#): > > Please don’t pick on isolated nutbars on the far left and then attribute that thinking to all other Liberals. First off, I never attributed anything to “all” other liberals. > [@Chimera](#): > > And dear God, stop listening to Conservatives telling you what Liberals think. They’re full of horseshit. They honestly have no idea what we think. They make shit up to scare you. Secondly, I don’t know if you realize this, but I was quoting directly from DU, not wherever you imagine I spend my time reading. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/174 "2018-05-05T03:18:11Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I don’t know about specifically “being expected to apologize”, but I see a fairly significant bit of truth to the OP’s claim that “there are constant negative references to white men as though they are all the enemy of all that is good in the world.” For example, here is a recent post from [DemocraticUnderground.com](http://DemocraticUnderground.com): > > That was on [Wednesday morning](https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100210566822). By “constant negative references,” you mean “a thread on a lefty messageboard, referencing a 14-year-old book, and eliciting a total of three responses in 48 hours”? Fuck me, the tsunami of antiwhite bigotry is gonna KNOCK US ALL DOWN. Hurricane, your evidence is absurd. If I find a poster on an alt-right messageboard that extols the virtues of the Turner Diaries, what will you conclude about the state of the political right? Can we call it “constant racist inveighing against mud people as the enemies of all that’s right in the world”? Or would you correctly dismiss a single post as a single post? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/175 "2018-05-05T03:49:56Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > By “constant negative references,” you mean “a thread on a lefty messageboard, referencing a 14-year-old book, and eliciting a total of three responses in 48 hours”? Fuck me, the tsunami of antiwhite bigotry is gonna KNOCK US ALL DOWN. > > Hurricane, your evidence is absurd. If I find a poster on an alt-right messageboard that extols the virtues of the Turner Diaries, what will you conclude about the state of the political right? Can we call it “constant racist inveighing against mud people as the enemies of all that’s right in the world”? Or would you correctly dismiss a single post as a single post? I provided one example. You seem particularly hung up on the fact that it was just one. How many more would I have to provide to convince you that there’s a trend of negative references to white men / mockery of them as a demographic group? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/176 "2018-05-05T03:56:42Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Exactly right. Andy misses an important point: those right wingers are saying nasty things about a group of people who make up hardly any of the votes Republicans rely on to win elections. There is little penalty to be paid for alienating them en masse. The same is not true for Democrats and white men! > > And then of course there’s the basic idea “two wrongs don’t make a right”. The Republican National Committee certainly wants white men to believe that the Democrats are alienating them, or trying to, or spreading anti-white messages, or blaming everything on white men, or asking white men to apologize for their race and gender… but this is all fiction. The RNC certainly is grateful that you are helping them spread this message, but it’s bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/177 "2018-05-05T04:22:01Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I don’t know about specifically “being expected to apologize”, but I see a fairly significant bit of truth to the OP’s claim that “there are constant negative references to white men as though they are all the enemy of all that is good in the world.” Pretty much the counter to the Right Wing theme that all the misfortune of people of color has been brought down on themselves by their own actions. Both sides use knee-jerk responses to avoid examining issues. The problem with the OP is that he threw this into one of the debate fora instead of placing it in IMHO or The BBQ Pit. He has failed to present a single bit of evidence to support his contention. Demonstrating that some (unidentified) number of progressives have dumb ideas to which certain sectors of Millennials could take objection is easy. What he has utterly failed to do is present any evidence that white, male, Millennials even listen to such stuff or are in any way affected by it. All the cited references, thus far, have pointed to the economy or other cultural factors without any evidence that the rhetoric of a small group of Facebook posters has any bearing on the views of white, male, Millennials. It would be just as easy and relevant to claim that those guys are being influenced by the overwhelming nonsense promoted by Faux News (which they were not watching when they were younger). ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/178 "2018-05-05T04:23:49Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I provided one example. You seem particularly hung up on the fact that it was just one. How many more would I have to provide to convince you that there’s a trend of negative references to white men / mockery of them as a demographic group? Well, you could at least have cited someone who is actually read by Millennials (or anyone else). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gatorslap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gatorslap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatorslap)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/179 "2018-05-05T05:29:50Z")
What, exactly, is the Democratic Party supposed to do about random people, who are not affiliated with the party organization, saying bad things on the internet? I find it hard to believe that a significant number of voters hold the statements of said random people against Democratic candidates for office. That would be akin to voting Dem solely because Milo Yiannopoulos is a dick. Who the hell votes that way? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566/180 "2018-05-05T06:12:49Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > “anti-gun” too. It’s a bit like being “anti-rape” or “anti-cancer.” Double negatives don’t count. 😉 Oh, you don’t think “gun” is a negative? Are you sure? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneering-progressives-are-driving-young-white-men-into-the-arms-of-the-gop/813566.md?page=10)