The Stagnant Working Class

[Mnementh]

NightlyPoe said:

the-pi-guy said:

Everybody understands the video is poking fun at the "hypocrisy" of the "liberals" who complain about capitalism while benefitting from the progress, the technological achievements and the wealth that it has given them.  

Just because someone disagrees with the conclusions of the videos, doesn't mean they don't understand that it's trying to make that point.   

Then why are you still misunderstanding it?

Up until like the very end when it takes a couple pot shots, it's pretty much focused on what is a common complaint:  That the working class is not keeping up while showing that the conditions are constantly improving.  People don't see how their lives are improving at such a rapid rate.

That conclusion is basically correct.  I'm sure you want to add some nuance that it could be better still, but the basic point is solid.  Things are getting better and they always have been getting better.  The feeling of being "left behind", which is not necessarily a liberal idea, in fact such populism is a major factor in the Trump coalition, is, as a whole, incorrect.

You completely miss the point again and again. The video shows incremental improvement to the lives of people and that is true. It then connects it to an ideological discussion, which is the faulty point. See, in east germany things were better in the 80s than they were in the 50s. In the Soviet Union things were better shortly before it dissolved than they were 50 years prior. Actually, things got worse at first after the soviet union dissolved and Russia turned to capitalism. Same in China, Vietnam, Cuba. It is not capitalism, socialism or whateverism that caused this improvement in live, it is technological progress, which is completely independent of ideology.

The fallacy here is, that complaints about things that could be better (which are justified) are caricated in this video as complaints about things stay the same. But that wasn't actually said by progressives. See, I am a technician. In the technical world constructive criticism is something good, as this means we have an idea what can be improved. That is why technicians tend to welcome constructive criticism. This is the worldview that resulted in exactly the technological progress the video depicted. Now constructive criticism at society, economy and government are met often by conservatives and right-wingers with resistance. This is what holds us back. Not every concept that is proposed has to be implemented as proposed. But if we want progress, we have to listen to the problems people have.

So the funny thing about the video is, that it criticizes progressives by presenting progress in a way that insinuates that progress came from the conservative 'do not change anything'-mentality.