{"id":102188,"date":"2018-02-17T00:50:41","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T07:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=102188"},"modified":"2018-02-18T17:48:32","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T00:48:32","slug":"the-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2018\/02\/the-trick.html","title":{"rendered":"The Trick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Rev. William Barber is absolutely right<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Most pastors say they preach the truth. The Rev. William Barber also delivers sermons on another topic: \u201cthe trick.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trick is Barber\u2019s term for something that he describes as a weapon of mass distraction. It stymied the leaders of the\u00a0populist movement<\/a>\u00a0in late 19th century. It vexed\u00a0union leaders<\/a>\u00a0who promoted workers\u2019 solidarity. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. died trying to beat the trick.<\/p>\n

The trick is when white politicians persuade poor white working class people that the source of their pain is people of color, immigrants and other scapegoats, says Barber, who rose to national fame after helping lead Moral Mondays, a social justice movement formed in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to show them the trick,\u201d says Barber, his rich, baritone shifting into preaching mode when asked how he would address this challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of people in this country who are poor are white people. You have to undermine the trick and say, \u2018Listen, you want a living wage, but the people you voted for don\u2019t want a living wage. You\u2019re upset that you don\u2019t have health care. Guess what, black and Latino people aren\u2019t your problems. It\u2019s the people who are voting against health care.\u2019 \u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yep.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how this strategy of envy works.\u00a0 Note the following extremely typical Right Wing class warfare meme:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

In such memes we are invited to notice heroes and villains. Figures like soldiers, cops, firefighters, and EMTs are the heroes, valiantly saving lives and doing it for peanuts, in contrast to an obvious, greedy, selfish, cowardly, villainous French Fry Slinger who selfishly seeks a living wage for his job so he can selfishly support his family. The point of such memes is to generate a feeling (not a rational thought) of contempt for the French Fry Slinger, not to generate the thought \u201cWe should be paying soldiers, cops, EMTs, firefighters, and French Fry Slinger a living wage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, imagine another meme exactly like this, except that it reads:<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s CEO: $9,247\/hour
\nCop: $18.27\/hour
\nFirefighter: $16.04\/hour
\nEMT\/Paramedic\/Soldier: $15.59\/hour
\nFrench fry slinger: $7.25\/hour<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The contrast is clarifying, no? Suddenly, it\u00a0 becomes extremely clear that the purpose of such memes is to direct your attention away from so much as\u00a0thinking<\/em>\u00a0about the executives who radically underpay all these people. The message, in obfuscated English, is \u201cLet us all hate the Bad French Fry Slinger! He is selfishly demanding pay that is nearly the same as\u2013or even more than!\u2013these great heroes! Let us all take up torches and pitchforks and be very angry at this poor slob in his low-paying powerless job because\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Because why exactly? Because he\u2019s responsible for depressing the wages of underpaid cops, firefighters, soldiers and EMTs? That\u2019s rubbish. He has no power. He doesn\u2019t sign their paychecks. He (and just as often she) is often on public assistance\u00a0because the company he works for won\u2019t pay him a living wage and pressures him to go on the dole to supply what they refuse to pay him<\/a>\u00a0(which means that, yes, you and I pay taxes so that the company doesn\u2019t have to pay wages\u2013effectively putting companies like Walmart and McDonalds on welfare). But the worker getting ripped off by his company and at the very bottom of the corporate food chain? He and she are struggling to get by on two or three jobs.\u00a0 Such people have, quite simply, nothing whatsoever to do with whether cops, firefighters, soldier, and EMT\u2019s are not paid a living wage.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the McDonald\u2019s exec has\u00a0everything<\/em>\u00a0to do with how much the French Fry Slinger makes and a vested interest in ginning up public hostility to his attempt to raise his income. Which brings us back to the real purpose of such memes. For as long as you are heaping scorn on the French Fry Slinger for his imaginary greed in desiring a living wage, you are not heaping it on the exec for his real greed in denying it to him. Likewise, as long as you are aiming your outrage at the French Fry Slinger for somehow being mystically to blame for the shameful treatment of the cop, firefighter, EMT and soldier (and their families), you are not aiming it at the people who cheat the cop, firefighter, EMT, and soldier out of\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0just wage and neglect them to death in VA hospitals.<\/p>\n

In short, it\u2019s the old strategy of \u201cDivide and conquer.\u201d Don\u2019t get played.<\/p>\n

My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, \u201cHave a seat here, please,\u201d while you say to the poor man, \u201cStand there,\u201d or, \u201cSit at my feet,\u201d have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme that honorable name which was invoked over you? (Jas 2:1\u20137)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Image by Ben Popken<\/a> for The Consumerist, used under CC BY 2.0.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rev. William Barber is absolutely right: Most pastors say they preach the truth. The Rev. William Barber also delivers sermons on another topic: \u201cthe trick.\u201d The trick is Barber\u2019s term for something that he describes as a weapon of mass distraction. It stymied the leaders of the\u00a0populist movement\u00a0in late 19th century. It vexed\u00a0union leaders\u00a0who promoted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":102280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[692],"class_list":["post-102188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-living-wages-are-biblical"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Trick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rev. William Barber is absolutely right: Most pastors say they preach the truth. The Rev. 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