this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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From a materialist lense, middle class usually refers to the small business owners, landlords, etc. Petty bourgeoisie basically. They historically tend to welcome fascist ideology out of fear of losing their privileged position in society.
So there's a difference between the working person who might get caught in a false consciousness versus the tenuously well-off person who's somewhat class conscious. The latter is likely a lost cause more often than not. The former can often be reasoned with if we can speak to their experiences as a worker and cut through the spectacle.
But yeah the Liberal use of the term "middle class" as someone occupying arbitrary income brackets is an immaterial abstraction with very little utility for either prediction or description.
In my mind it's always comes down to a very simple question: Do they have to work for someone, or does someone work for them? If the first is true, they're working class, if the second, they're capitalist class, aka ruling class.
There is no middle class.
Eh I just don't think there's much utility in being so strict with categories. That's fine as a shorthand though, and for explaining to coworkers who aren't familiar with the theories.
But the point of a material analysis is to, well, analyze. What are people's material interests? How do those interests shape a person's revolutionary or reactionary potential?
Rather than try to illustrate it myself with made-up examples, I'm gonna delete the paragraph I wrote and just post an actual material analysis from history
The whole point is that we're fighting amongst ourselves about what basically amounts to comfort levels for the most of us, while we should all look at each other as comrades to stand with against those that are actively taking advantage of all of us plus the rift we've created between ourselves.
I agree with the sentiment, but please do read the essay I linked. It really changed the way I thought about things.
It's very much about strategizing and analysis, not moralizing or dividing or anything like that.
Oof, I just looked and I'll try when I'm better rested but damn, someone really needs to find a way to make theory accessible to nonmedicated ADHDers 😬
Oh I can empathize with that struggle. If I get time this week maybe I'll try to write a basic summary of it.