The Carrion Class

 

The coalition now aligned against Trump shares something. Many, if not most, profit from human misery. At the same time they are isolated from the effects of human misery themselves. This is doubly true for the most vocal among them.

They are rarely individuals who produce things. They are not those who raise crops, fish, ranch, extract minerals, work in factories, or engage in construction. In large numbers those folks support Trump. Those who oppose Trump are not the men and women who repair machinery or maintain our infrastructure, haul goods, collect the trash, or clean our streets. Again, the folks with dirty jobs largely support Trump.

They are not those who protect others at peril of their own lives: the military, firefighters, or police. Some of those running those institutions – the ones with desk jobs safe from the consequences of being on the sharp end – oppose Trump. Most of those who actually risk their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, each day to perform their jobs will likely vote for Trump.

Instead, the anti-Trump coalition is made up of an amalgamation of those who produce nothing and risk nothing.

One faction provides services, but their actual performance – regardless of how necessary those services are – is usually irrelevant to their compensation or whether they receive advancement. This includes many public sector employees – a large part of the Democrat base. These include public teachers whose classroom performance matters less than their ideological purity. It includes the vast collection of regulators, code enforcers, and civil servant bureaucrats who shuffle paper all day. It includes those in local, state, and federal jobs who provide direct services to the public, the employees at the DPS, CPS, senior services, parole, or welfare services. (I am not saying there are not dedicated individuals working in those areas. I am saying their compensation and advancement is independent of whether or not they actually do a good job.)

Another faction is made up of rent-seekers; those that get paid by allowing the productive sector of the economy to produce. This includes people whose careers depend on the laws being impenetrably complex: the fixers, those who receive money for leading ordinary people through a thicket of regulation. It also includes “community organizers” who run protection rackets whether it is “nice business you got here, shame if it caught fire” or “shame if we have to tell everyone how racist you are.” They are the people who collect taxicab medallions and use the government to shut down competition. They are the modern-day robber barons, who extract a toll as the price of doing business. Of course, they oppose Trump. He threatens their existence. Taxicab medallions are worthless in an environment with Uber or Lyft.

Another faction is the out-and-out criminal class. Those who would rather make a living by stealing from others, and are too lazy to find a way to do their thefts legally. The ones who enjoy mayhem, who use violence as a release. Those who lack the patience to produce and work out their envy on those who can make things by destroying what is created. They realize one section of the anti-Trump coalition needs the chaos they create, so they instinctively ally themselves with those opposing Trump.

The most insidious section of the anti-Trump coalition is made up of those who need chaos to prosper. They include those who offer solutions for a living. Not those who offer solutions that work, but those who find employment offering solutions that sound good but are impossible or impractical. After all, if the problem were fixed, they would be out of a job. Those who prosper because hard times generate increased demand for their services – the repo men, divorce and bankruptcy lawyers, and foreclosure processors. The pundocracy falls into this category, especially when Trump’s solutions challenge or offend their worldview. After all, if there were no problems, who would want to read their scribblings?

The final faction is made up of the takers. Those who believe the world owes them a living simply for existing and who support the Democrats because of Free Stuff. They fail to realize their free stuff depends on others’ labor. They desire to be slave masters but refuse to recognize that reality.

One thing linking all these factions is a lack of consequences. Their existence is not predicated on actually doing anything or at succeeding. They get rewarded regardless. Often, the worse things get for others, the better things are for them. Endless poverty, endless war, endless shortages, and endless misery do not touch them. If they do, it enriches them. These become a feature, not a bug. If Trump wins they continue their lives largely unmolested. If Trump loses – and shortages, injustice, and inequality result from the Democrat’s avowed policies – they either benefit or are no worse off.

They are willing to condemn millions of the lower working classes, including large numbers of minorities, to a future of poverty and misery. They enable those who rob gig workers of the opportunity to better themselves. They abet those seeking to strip honest Americans of their right to bear arms and religious Americans the freedom of religion.

Call these people what they are: the Carrion Class: the non-producers who glean their livelihood from picking at the carcass of productive America and productive Americans. Perhaps not all of those voting against Trump are necessarily part of the Carrion Class. But they are known by the company they keep. Aesop wrote a fable about this. As the Bible says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

There is a saying that when the coyote chases a rabbit, the coyote is running for its next meal, while the rabbit is running for its life.

The Carrion Class is running after its next meal. The Trump Coalition is running for its life. With whom do you choose to be associated?

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Dude! People on the West Coast are still eating dinner.

    • #1
  2. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Dude! People on the West Coast are still eating dinner.

    Oh well.

    • #2
  3. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Outstanding.  Well said, sir.

    Seawriter: Those who would rather make a living by stealing from others, and are too lazy to find a way to do their thefts legally.

    Perfect.

    • #3
  4. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    There’s a lot of truth in this, but not complete truth.  I know quite a few “progressives” who don’t fit this model, including:  a mechanic, several nurses, several programmers, a couple of business-to-business salespeople, and a successful tech entrepreneur.

    It’s dangerous to underrate the opposition.

    • #4
  5. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    David Foster (View Comment):

    There’s a lot of truth in this, but not complete truth. I know quite a few “progressives” who don’t fit this model, including: a mechanic, several nurses, several programmers, a couple of business-to-business salespeople, and a successful tech entrepreneur.

    It’s dangerous to underrate the opposition.

    Don’t read “all” into “most.” As for those that choose to be storks? I am sure they are all very good birds, but they will be known by whom they associate.

    • #5
  6. D.A. Venters Inactive
    D.A. Venters
    @DAVenters

    Don’t worry, folks. I know posts like this make it seem like Trump is facing long odds, what with all those heavily populated groups aligned against him. 

    But take it from me – I work as a public defender and I have a general private practice, too – I can assure you that Trump has a great deal of support from the criminal class! Not only that, but I know an awful lot of these mooches and takers, layabouts, rent seekers and ne’er-do-wells. Many, many of them, in fact most of them that I come into contact with, are solidly behind the President! 

    Take heart, it’s not just the virtuous few who will be there The Donald in November.

    • #6
  7. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Perfect 

    • #7
  8. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):
    Don’t worry, folks. I know posts like this make it seem like Trump is facing long odds, what with all those heavily populated groups aligned against him. 

    Except the groups aligned against him are not really that heavily populated. There are far more people belonging to the groups supporting Trump than the groups opposed to him. There are still a lot more people producing than taking, even if the media makes it seem the other way around. Only 16% of the population is employed by the government (including teachers). The useful class outnumbers the carrion class by somewhere between 3: to 1 to 4 to 1, It’s just that the carrion class makes a lot more noise.

    • #8
  9. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):
    Don’t worry, folks. I know posts like this make it seem like Trump is facing long odds, what with all those heavily populated groups aligned against him.

    Except the groups aligned against him are not really that heavily populated. There are far more people belonging to the groups supporting Trump than the groups opposed to him. There are still a lot more people producing than taking, even if the media makes it seem the other way around. Only 16% of the population is employed by the government (including teachers). The useful class outnumbers the carrion class by somewhere between 3: to 1 to 4 to 1, It’s just that the carrion class makes a lot more noise.

    Indeed, buzzards do seem to be rather noisy.

    • #9
  10. D.A. Venters Inactive
    D.A. Venters
    @DAVenters

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):
    Don’t worry, folks. I know posts like this make it seem like Trump is facing long odds, what with all those heavily populated groups aligned against him.

    Except the groups aligned against him are not really that heavily populated. There are far more people belonging to the groups supporting Trump than the groups opposed to him. There are still a lot more people producing than taking, even if the media makes it seem the other way around. Only 16% of the population is employed by the government (including teachers). The useful class outnumbers the carrion class by somewhere between 3: to 1 to 4 to 1, It’s just that the carrion class makes a lot more noise.

    I was being facetious. My point is that many of the people among the classes you disdain are strong Trump supporters.  There are good and bad people, makers and takers, on all political sides and any attempt to designate a class of people, based on vocation, as virtuous, and others as villains, is folly. Not only that, it’s also vaguely Marxist. 

    • #10
  11. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Seawriter (View Comment):
    Only 16% of the population is employed by the government (including teachers).

    Is that the same as saying “only” 16% of the population doesn’t produce, but only consumes?

    • #11
  12. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Seawriter: They fail to realize their free stuff depends on others’ labor.

    I think you’re giving them too much credit.  I think many of them do realize it; they just don’t care.

    • #12
  13. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Seawriter: They fail to realize their free stuff depends on others’ labor.

    I think you’re giving them too much credit. I think many of them do realize it; they just don’t care.

    And not only that, they think they’re not getting ENOUGH OF other peoples’ labor.

    • #13
  14. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):
    Don’t worry, folks. I know posts like this make it seem like Trump is facing long odds, what with all those heavily populated groups aligned against him.

    Except the groups aligned against him are not really that heavily populated. There are far more people belonging to the groups supporting Trump than the groups opposed to him. There are still a lot more people producing than taking, even if the media makes it seem the other way around. Only 16% of the population is employed by the government (including teachers). The useful class outnumbers the carrion class by somewhere between 3: to 1 to 4 to 1, It’s just that the carrion class makes a lot more noise.

    I was being facetious. My point is that many of the people among the classes you disdain are strong Trump supporters. There are good and bad people, makers and takers, on all political sides and any attempt to designate a class of people, based on vocation, as virtuous, and others as villains, is folly. Not only that, it’s also vaguely Marxist.

    I caught that tone. This is what I will call the exception police in action. They are everywhere- and since we are applying vague labels, they are generally Democrats. (Although, more accurately, they tend to be people who are bad at logic, which makes them Democrats disproportionately)

    Here’s how it works: Someone,  like this posts author,  sees a commonality among certain groups, classes or categories and makes a general observation. All that’s needed is a significant percentage over half to give the correlation some credit, although other specific factors could be involved. If other factors can be shown to account for the anomaly, that helps negate the claim. 

    But that’s not what these people do, or are even capable of doing. They use the exception card as a cudgel to defeat uncomfortable arguments, as though it’s meaningful. Also, I find that females ( not all!) tend to do this regularly.

    Example:

    Claim :Californians will vote Biden in 2020

    Exception cop: I know a lot of Californians who are Trump supporters…

     

     

    • #14
  15. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Is that the same as saying “only” 16% of the population doesn’t produce, but only consumes?

    Almost all air traffic controllers are employed by the government, but they are as much a *productive* part of the nation’s air transportation system as are pilots and mechanics.

    There are quite a lot of *actual research scientists* employed  by CDC, NIH, etc, in addition to all the bureaucrats and activist types. 

    OTOH, the 16% number underrates the true scope of government employment…there are a *lot* more people out there working for what I call the ‘extended government’…contractors, consultants, etc.

     

    • #15
  16. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    David Foster (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Is that the same as saying “only” 16% of the population doesn’t produce, but only consumes?

    Almost all air traffic controllers are employed by the government, but they are as much a *productive* part of the nation’s air transportation system as are pilots and mechanics.

    There are quite a lot of *actual research scientists* employed by CDC, NIH, etc, in addition to all the bureaucrats and activist types.

    OTOH, the 16% number underrates the true scope of government employment…there are a *lot* more people out there working for what I call the ‘extended government’…contractors, consultants, etc.

    If there’s one commonality among the 16% it’s that they all have a vested interest in raising their salaries by raising taxes, by voting for others to raise taxes as a legal matter subject to law enforcement rather than a matter of supply and demand.

    • #16
  17. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    David Foster (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Is that the same as saying “only” 16% of the population doesn’t produce, but only consumes?

    Almost all air traffic controllers are employed by the government, but they are as much a *productive* part of the nation’s air transportation system as are pilots and mechanics.

    There are quite a lot of *actual research scientists* employed by CDC, NIH, etc, in addition to all the bureaucrats and activist types.

    OTOH, the 16% number underrates the true scope of government employment…there are a *lot* more people out there working for what I call the ‘extended government’…contractors, consultants, etc.

     

    Here’s the one that kills me: 90% of the CIA is stationed within the USA.

    Awesome.

    • #17
  18. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    Here’s the one that kills me: 90% of the CIA is stationed within the USA.

    Awesome.

    Ummm…

    How does the CIA do their job if they’re all … well … here?

    • #18
  19. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    Here’s the one that kills me: 90% of the CIA is stationed within the USA.

    Awesome.

    Ummm…

    How does the CIA do their job if they’re all … well … here?

    Badly?

    But it gives them plenty of opportunities for coup attempts.  Unfortunately not in countries hostile to the US. But then again, they proved just as inept at their attempted coup in the US as they did overseas.  That’s a plus I guess.

    • #19
  20. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Seawriter (View Comment):
    That’s a plus I guess.

    We take what we can get, I guess.

    • #20
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