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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 11, 2024

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The big class war of our era is between the people who live off the system and thsoe who pay into it. The welfare class and the sociologists are on the same side while a plumber is on the other side. The welfare class and the sociologist both want a big public sector while a plumber has little need for the welfare state. The women voting left trope isn't entirely true. Single women who get paid through the government are solidly left while women who don't fall into this category are far less radical. Women aren't really swinging the the left as much as they are increasingly single and employed in the public sector.

Much of the radicalism among the left probably stems from many in the left investing 6 years into getting a master's in something with a strong ideological bent, being entirely reliant on the government for the job and their social status. They are terrified of ending up as someone in East Germany with a masters in Leninism.

The most important thing the right can do in order to secure a long term future for itself is to reduce the size of the left's client classes.

Pop quiz: which of the following jobs contribute more to Democrats than Republicans?

  • Flight Attendant
  • Bartender
  • Librarian
  • Taxi Driver
  • Pediatrician
  • Architect
  • Carpenter
  • Park Ranger
  • Gardener
  • Chef
  • Union Organizer

Answers. I think your category completely fails to capture our red/blue divide. Is that because you borrowed it from Ayn Rand?

Any proper system has to explain the machinist vs sheet-metal-worker divide (around a 30-point difference) and I have yet to see one that does.

Small business (possibly owner or part-owner) vs union shop, I suspect.

Isn’t “welder” likely to be a union shop, too? And I’m not even sure what qualifies one as a “machine operator.”

Machine operator is a pretty basic role. If you’ve ever used a 3d printer and had to deal with leveling the bad, clearing stuck plastic, verifying that prints are proceeding correctly etc. it’s basically that but with bigger machines.

Unironically the most interesting thing about this dataset is it sorts "Web Developer" into "IT" and not "Engineering." I have no doubt many flame wars could be fought over that one.

And the second most interesting thing is that the most Republican professions work with fossil fuels, and the most Democratic professions work against fossil fuels. Forget about Black Lives Matter, the divide between the left and the right seems to be about Black Gold.

Umm, yes. The GOP is most accurately described as a pro-fossil fuels Party which supports the interests of social conservatives(not necessarily socially conservative interests) and tax cuts.

I would add a lot of other “female” coded jobs (eg HR) are largely (though not entirely) created by the government but paid by private sector directly.