Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
You don’t see the scorn that the educated and upper middle class have for the uneducated working class? The derisive comments made about trailer trash, hicks, skids, and mouth-breathers. The food they eat (Tim Hortons and Boston Pizza LOL!). Their ugly clothes and out-of-date fashions. Their bad habits (smoking, VLTs, lotteries). Their activities (ATVs, going to church). The newspapers they read (the Sun), the lowbrow TV shows they watch (reality TV, Dr Phil). I enjoy taking the piss out of the Oilers as much as anyone, but the jokes about Edmonton on this forum are pretty much all sneering at working-class stereotypes.
This sort of snobbery has been around forever. But it has taken on a darker tone now that educational polarization has reshaped politics, and the educated and uneducated are on opposite sides of partisan politics and culture wars. The euphemism treadmill has accelerated even faster now that using a term that’s four or five years old marks you out as not merely an uncultured troglodyte, but a hated political enemy as well. Employing newly-minted language and gestures that emerge from academia has become even more important now that they mark you as not only educated and culturally attuned, but as morally superior to the troglodytes.
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Part of it is that it's pretty easy to shut people out these days. You don't have as many personal interactions in public spaces, retail stores, bars, etc..., so people interact a lot less with people outside of their own spheres. So it's pretty easy to just believe that all of these lower class people don't exist, when in reality they make up an increasing proportion of Canadians. Currently, the bottom 40% of Canadians hold no wealth whatsoever, and the top 1% hold over 1/4 of all wealth.
https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/web/defaul...1-007-S_en.pdf
These figures are pretty astounding, and it's clear that the current system isn't helping anyone except those that already have everything.