Maga men love Trump and his war against the age of wokeness
Big chunk of women are in favour too.
America is both the most advanced and important country on earth, and, by European standards, one of the most backward, too
Note the implicit claim there – our way is the more advanced. Instead of the one that more closely accords with voter desire…..
I seem to notice something similar here.
But could that be because everyone knows what the opinions of this withered old fossil are? And tries to have nothing to do with him??
I’ve known a lot of Yanks over the years. I don’t think I’ve ever come across the frat boy type. Has anybody here? They sound like that particularly odious strain of public school boy that you read about in the papers but rarely encounter in real life.
Yes, but they sorta rejected those “European Standards” (like being taxed to death to be ruled by unelected bureaucrats) in both 1776 and 2024.
Given European growth rates, maybe they have a point?
“Back to that picture on the jet: four men, all grinning goonishly over their burger boxes and fries …”
Grinning?! That means they’re happy! How dare they.
The idea that the events of 1776 happened because they were being “being taxed to death” is wonderfully daft. It was simply because they wanted to keep receiving a subsidy from the taxpayers of Great Britain and Ireland for the rest of time. When the government in Westminster tried to make them pay their share they declined; it was all a great tax avoidance scam.
As BiS notes, and having lived in both places, I have encountered both the British chinless wonder/public schoolboy and the US ‘frat boy’ types in their native habitat. And both are (as he suggests) a pretty rare breed.
I think the article displays the usual UK indifference to accuracy when it comes to what goes on in the US, and uses ‘frat boy’ as a throwaway moniker for a type they barely understand, but seek to denigrate. ‘Real’ frat boys would not be seen dead at a UFC event, and they absolutely, positively and to-a-man voted for Harris/Walz. Remember, children, ‘Animal House’ was a movie, and bears no relationship to real life.
But it’s OK, it will just take them a few weeks to realign and come up with a new derogatory blanket term for the tens of millions of men who voted for Trump. My money’s on ‘redneck’, but I’m sure that others can add candidate terms.
llater,
llamas
‘Real’ frat boys would not be seen dead at a UFC event, and they absolutely, positively and to-a-man voted for Harris/Walz.
Are you certain? The more elite the school (in general public perception; I don’t want to hear the spluttering comments about how could anyone find, say, the Ivy League quality places), the more the administrations have gone after the fraternities. It’s more at the state schools that the fraternity system is a bigger thing. And my experience always was that the anti-Greek system and anti-athletics types had a lot of overlap, and were further from the right.
@Ted S. – well, exceptions to every rule, no doubt. But my experience of college students in the US (when recruiting/hiring) is that they are overwhelmingly Democrats, and those who identified as being fraternity members would typically be upper-middle class children of professionals – you have to be, to afford the expenses – and so demographically even-more-likely to trend Democrat. In my own back yard, when you consider that the voting precincts in Washtenaw County, Michigan, that encompass the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University went for Harris/Walz over Trump/Vance by as much as 8 to 1, I think the overall trend is clear.
In any event, the ‘frat boy’ stereotype comes mainly from the movies and from the fever dreams of a certain subset of Democrats. Even the largest universities probably only include, at most, a couple of hundred men who could fit that description, and they’re certainly not a significant proportion of Trump’s support.
llater,
llamas
Funny how fraternities made a comeback in the US. When I went to college in the early ’78 they were definitely “uncool”. There was still an anti-establishment vibe and fraternities screamed establishment. Most people I knew wouldn’t be caught dead admitting to being in one. I think John Belushi and “Animal House” may have made them popular again as the portrayal didn’t look very “etablishment”.
Its funny tho – by our standards Europe is pretty backwards too;)
Except for suppressors. Its weird that a place so opposed to personal firearms is reasonable on firearm suppressors.
Speaking of colonial types, I haven’t noticed any posts from Dennis (of the highly variable handle) recently. I hope he’s OK.
@Llamas
There was an article I was reading on Unherd , just past Trumpageddon, by a US journo. His thesis was the US voters have split into two mutually antagonistic camps. College educated vs “the uneducated”. So he reckoned the latter feel excluded from the former & resent it. And thus Trump. How do you take that Llamas?
From a Brit take, I don’t know anyone who didn’t go to university thinks they’re inferior to those who did. It’s just a different life choice. Especially as so many of the non-university bods are far better off than the university ones.
I think there’s a growing resentment of the proliferation of credentialisation; Since one encounters so many of the functionally moronic prospering solely on a piece of paper. (see the 2Tier government) I don’t think it’s escaped people’s notice that as the proportion who’ve gone through higher education has risen, the less competent people there are around. It’s hardly done the prospects of the UK much good, has it?
So with reference to the Unherd article, I’m not sure if he’s got the sense of exclusion the right way round. It’s more “We’re people ensure the USA functions & there’s you lot.”
bis,
“ From a Brit take, I don’t know anyone who didn’t go to university thinks they’re inferior to those who did.”
From our generation only what, 5% or just over, went to university? Of those that I knew who went most were deserving and didn’t see themselves as anything special other than they tended to be quieter and more academic, though not necessarily brighter. Obviously a few exceptions.
Thanks to Blair we now have those at the 50% boundary believing they are somehow special and better than those who don’t go to university, but what is worse, they think that those of our generation who didn’t and couldn’t go to university are inferior.
I’ve had this argument with them online over Brexit, apparently they were trained to think critically and so could make better decisions than us thickos.
@Chris
I suspect Dennis (….) is sleeping off a mahoosive hangover after recent events
@BiS – hooo, boy – trying to figure out why the election turned out the way it did likely goes above my pay grade.
But I think you and/or the article you cite is on to something when it describes the rise of a ‘credentialled’ class, which is accurately defined as not specifically college-educated, the attempts of this class to try to amass power, influence and money based upon their often-valueless and sometimes-spurious credentials, and the pushback from those outside that class against what they see as the judgemental and belittling affects of those within the class. The poster child for the sort of person we’re talking about is ‘Dr’ Jill Biden – it may be remembered that it was seriously suggested by Whoopi Goldberg – another member of the class who is actually possessed of no meaningful credentials at all but who feels entirely entitled to tell the rest of the nation what it should think and how it should vote – that ‘Dr’ Jill would make an excellent Surgeon-General. That sort of assumed superiority, based on more-or-less imaginary credentials, just drives many working-class Americans up the wall. When they see supposed ‘top men’ running the great institutions of the country who are all more-or-less frauds – presidents of major universities whose degrees turn out to be the result of plagiarism, Senators who claim a particular racial identity to take advantage of affirmative-action programmes, self-proclaimed champions of the poor and oppressed with untold millions in the bank, all the way up to a US President who habitually, constantly lies about his own life and accomplishments – it’s no wonder they turn away in disgust.
I’ve seen a tiny bit of this myself. I’m retired now, but when I was working, I noticed that the way I had to interact with working-class folks subtly changed over the years, and that an education and career record that had automatically earned me respect and deference in years past, no longer did so with many people. At the same time, in the professional sphere, the emphasis on credentials , qualifications and bits of paper became ever-more-pressing – I was always a puzzle to these folks because I obviously knew what I was doing but my engineering degree was from a school they’d never heard of so they couldn’t assess its ‘worth’ in a league table of credentials.
The entertainer and pundit Mike Rowe is very good on this topic and I suggest some of his interviews on the Tubes of You to better understand this growing mindset. The mainstream Democrats have completely, utterly missed the bus on this trend, long may they continue to do so.
llater,
llamas
@ BiND & Llamas
You’ve both confirmed what I was thinking. These people may think they are superior & other people resent not being one of them. But they’re the only one’s with that opinion. And as Llamas suggests, it’s moving towards where ordinary peeps want to exclude this lot & not be associated with them.
I suspect Dennis (….) is sleeping off a mahoosive hangover after recent events
I very much hope so 🙂
@ BiND & Llamas
Neatly illustrated here.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/yellowstone-paramount-kevin-costner/