Book: A Colony in a Nation

Chris Hayes (of "All In With Chris Hayes" fame on MSNBC) has written a book arguing that the poor live in a colony inside the U.S., with different rules, different standards, and a lot less rights. He likens their situation to the 13 colonies before the war of independence, with soldiers stationed in their neighborhoods and the larger community depending on the colonists for income through repressive taxation, fines, illegal searches & seizures, etc.

It's liberal claptrap of course but he makes an entertaining argument of it.

Skimmed the last 4/5ths. No new information.

NoCoPilot wrote:

It's liberal claptrap of course but he makes an entertaining argument of it.

What do you mean by "liberal claptrap"? I have heard the right wing use that phrase, but to them it applies to anything said by anyone who is not a fascist.

NoCoPilot wrote:

It's liberal claptrap of course but he makes an entertaining argument of it.

I don't know about that. I think it neatly encapsulates the Republican view, especially the Trumpist view, of how America is and how they want it to be. They see poor people and people of color as living in ghettos (I know, they don't really, but that's beside the point) with less rights than real Americans (defined as either rich or white or both), and they want the policing of "those people" to be intrusive, coercive, and violent.

It may be overstatement to argue that the "colony" exists now, but give the Republicans a few more years to destroy civil rights and the social safety net and the picture could look very real.

Any time you define large groups of people as essentially identical it's claptrap.

Any time you say people are stuck in their social strata without any vertical headroom it's liberal.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Any time you define large groups of people as essentially identical it's claptrap.

Any time you say people are stuck in their social strata without any vertical headroom it's liberal.

That sounds like right-wing claptrap to me.

What do you mean by "right-wing claptrap"?

NoCoPilot wrote:

Any time you say people are stuck in their social strata without any vertical headroom it's liberal.

Class mobility is a significant measure of how healthy your social structure is. 40, 50, 60 years ago, America rated quite well. These days, after 40 years of Republican voodoo economics, it doesn't. That's not claptrap, that's a fact.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Any time you define large groups of people as essentially identical it's claptrap.

Any time you say people are stuck in their social strata without any vertical headroom it's liberal.

What are these? Are they excerpts from the book? Are these what you believe the book is supporting? Are these your opinions, in agreement with or in opposition to the book's remarks?