Infighting & class warfare among the “radicals” means CAPITALISM IS WINNING.
I’m pretty sure the existence of homeless people means CAPITALISM IS WINNING, but whatever.
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So anyway:
a) what you are doing is classist
b) and if we are not allowed to talk about how stuff is classist unless we are poor, we are certainly not allowed to talk about “class warfare” unless we are poor
Well… I am poor. I made some less-than-ideal choices in the past and ended up sleeping in alleyways for a while. Nowadays I’m supporting myself & my unemployed partner on ~8K/year. I don’t like to explain (or brag about) this as a Valid Reason to Speak about a Particular Issue, because I am not usually proud of being poor (because capitalism!), but I guess it applies in this context. Also I was raised with a stubborn belief that it is important to be able to pass as NOT-Poor-White-Trash and so as I child I got vernacular/slang criticized out of me and learned that Having an Education and knowing how to read and write eloquently are all very important in order to be taken seriously by Other People (who could potentially provide jobs, educational opportunities, and extensions on repaying past-due debts).
That being said, I’m relating this discussion to what ponys brought up re: the fetishization of poverty within the punk community and how if looking “trashy” is an expression of punk/rad culture/ideals then how does one know offhand what privileges are actually in place? (eg. I own one pair of pants due to my economic situation vs. wearing the same pair of pants in defiance of consumerism OR wearing the same pair of pants as a mere “fashion statement.”) There are different routes to radical thinking/lifestyles, and some of us come into it from living in poverty and some of us come into it from the suburbs, and then because of the dress code and lifestyle choices one can’t always tell the difference. So then it’s weird, to me, to get called out for a particular assumed privilege (such as having a middle class background) when I didn’t have that privilege and when in fact I am coming from a history of Family Struggling in Various Levels of Poverty for Generations so… paralleling that with “hobo bean night” doesn’t offend me, although it may offend others with different backgrounds/identities, but they are still welcome to come and eat beans, presumably.
While gopfuzz’s response (“When you actually have to work to feed yourself…”) was snarky and aggro, IF he is also in the Poor-White-Trash economic stratum and is actually experiencing poverty and/or has been a “wandering worker,” is it still class-appropriation to align one’s own community-feeding events with a history of something similar (ie “hobo stew”)? Personally I prefer reclaiming “Poor White Trash” as a means of “owning my poverty” (as per blairellis’ response) but also when I was travelling I did work odd jobs (“hobo”) and sometimes begged for change (“crusty”…although I didn’t get drunk while travelling, and my definition of crusty has always been “drunk and obnoxious vagabond-by-choice”). I didn’t like to use “hobo” because I didn’t ride trains, though.
Also, veering somewhat off-topic but pertaining again to things ponys mentioned, there is the weird exclusion thing in punk/rad communities where as an Actual Poor Person there are a lot of rad activities I can’t participate in due to lack of time/money, as many aspects of punk culture are tied to capitalism still (shopping for vintage clothes, buying vinyl, going out to cool local restaurants, drinking fair-trade coffee, being able to afford crafting supplies to do diy things) — and also simply not having the time to participate in these community functions (in addition to not having time to read, not having time to keep up with blog discourse) because being Actually Poor takes up a lot of time going to jobs, waiting on buses, waiting at the laundromat, waiting in line for foodstamps, etc.). Then there can be exclusion on the other side when poor punx get all judgey upon finding out that other punx are sitting on trust funds or have parents who provide them with cars or groceries. And how sometimes it feels like a very thin line between Ally and Privileged Person Attempting to Speak on Behalf of an Oppressed Group Even Though they May Not Know Jack Shit about What It’s Like (even though it is not always necessary for one to personally experience an injustice to want to help others fight against it). And so when I say that “class warfare among the radicals means that capitalism is winning” I mean that there’s this divide-and-conquer thing happening where we are unable to relate and work together sometimes because “you’re being privileged” and “you don’t know what it’s really like!” (questioning “authenticity,” clinging to “identity”) and meanwhile, people are hungry and still homeless, cf. theory + action in tandem, not versus.
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You said:
Incidentally, is this directed towards the General You, or the Original-Poster You, or me? (Since I didn’t say that stuff & Appeal to WikiPedia is still Appeal to the Dictionary/Authority anyway.) My only original response re: infighting & then reposting the Hobo Ethical Code was a hiding-behind-other-people’s-words appeal for all to maybe try to deal with Serious Relevant Issues in a not-mean-and-personally-attacking-based-in-nonpolitical-other-problems way.
Afterward I saw a useful image in the CrimethInc. Work book of a cartoon punching herself in the face, captioned “An ineffective way to deal with your privilege.”
