Talk about “elitism.” Last night while discussing “downscale voters,” salt-of-the-earth FOX News contributor (and Weekly Standard editor) Fred Barnes ridiculed and demeaned working class Americans by making the distinction that they aren’t “lower income,” but rather “lower class.”
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Download | Play (h/t Bill W.)
Look at the smug look on his face as he demeans the majority of Americans. Apparently to Barnes union workers and, indeed, anyone who actually labors for a living, is not as good as him. Kudos to the panel who, for reasons you can decide yourselves, distances themselves from his insensitive and bone-headed remarks.
Something tells me we’re looking at Duncan’s “Wanker of the day.”
TPM has more and Faiz sums it up nicely:
Hume opened the segment by asking Barnes to elaborate on his view that many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters are “downscale.” Barnes could hardly contain his laughter as he explained that the term “working class” is a euphemism because “it’s kind of mean to say ‘lower class.’ It’s as simple as that.” He explained that the “lower class” are people of low “social class.”
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WTF! That son-of-a-bitch said that! On live TV? My God, Faux News viewers, save yourselves. If you still keep watching this garbage you’ll turn into zombies. Oh wait, it’s to late.
Simply showing his true colors. Can’t damn him for that.
Maybe he should remember that old piece of common sense…”Better to remain silent and thought an idiot, then to speak and remove all doubt”.
These are the ‘elite’ opinion makers who have fueled Senator ‘All Hat No Cattle’ Obama’s rise to the ‘top’. He and they have a mutual love-in goin’ on.
Until McSame steps into the ring.
Here’s another elitist for ya to check out:
Enough is enough!
Why isn’t Limpballs in a uproar about this. I mean isn’t he the patron saint of the middle class? All those white dudes on the bottom of the economic rung. Oh, I forgot. Rush probably agrees with him.
ASSHOLE !!!!
Hume, Kristol, Barnes - all punk-assed bitches!
There, I said it.
Time for his taxes to go way, way, way, way, way, way, way up…
That sentiment is absolutely representative of conservative thought– not just the modern incarnation, but everything it’s based upon, going back hundred of years. The idea that all of us working stiffs (or the “great beast” as they used to refer to the working class) is comprised of inferior people who need to be controlled by their betters… well, that’s the only *real* conservative value.
And why wouldn’t these wealthy conservatives believe that? They hoodwink the same “values voter” rubes every 2 years with the SAME con game, shove more pro-wealthy legislation down their throats, and the dopes just keep lapping it up.
.
Such Rovian euphemisms coming from a Democrat’s camp…
I suppose spelling it out helps… NO?
Hillary (R) Clinton!
… because (R) isn’t just for (R)odham anymore…
(R)epublican (R)over would also paint his opposition as being the elitist he sees himself to be.
Look, according to Barnes;
I’m an elitist because I work for my money…?
I’m an elitist because I make 22K a year…?
When Democrats start sounding like (R)epublicans, I turn them off…
**hint - hint** Hillary (R) Clinton!
.
Yes, it’s certainly elitist, but it’s also the ugly truth.
There is no aristocracy in the U.S., just wealth-based class distinction.
There is a professional class that kind of blurs the lines in the middle, a “middle class” where money was available for education.
Just watching all those decripet white dudes gives me a chill down my spine. Jeez, I think I’m going blind.
what exactly is so controversial about his statements? Blue collars vote against gay rights, against their own economic interests, against the environment and for what? For their narrow, superstitious, uneducated and plebian beliefs. They voted Bush in twice, they’ll vote for John McCain and Hillary and they made fucking Transformers the #1 movie of all time. They are cannon fodder.
Seems they want class warfare
Now you zombies who watch Fux news have the proof that these elite aholes are laughing at you. So this guy, and dont be fooled by the fake anger by Mort etc. they all believe that you idiots who are middle class and “work” hard for a living are idiots! You continue to watch these fools and vote for their candidates.
It’s even worse than that.
At about 1:47 Mort Kondracked says “..working class democrats and working class whites and the rest of them are not lower class, they’re middle class.” Accompanied by lots of HA HA from the rest of the panel.
Teh bigotry, like teh stoopid, never ends.
I love how “transparently” bilious this guy is. I also love how any moronic statement by a thug gets turned around and put on the Clintons. Very rich. Good luck, America.
My mother taught me that it was ‘low class’ to assume you were better than others, Fred.
They think they are ‘The Masters Of The Universe.’
Class warfare? Bring it on!
I’ll be in any class where Barnes isn’t–especially the middle/working class to which I happily belong. They hate it when the little people can read, think and write. Hence, the delay on Senator Webb’s G.I. Bill.
Let them eat cake…
Talk about “No Class”.
Well now…if it was not for the working class there wouldn’t be anybody like Fred Barnes….because without the working class who would provide the goods and services this country needs.
So the working class are the real “elites” they provide the impetus that keeps this country going.
Gee, I guess the feces-flingers at FOX have figured they’ve gotten all the mileage they’re gonna get out of the “Obama’s an elitists who bad mouths working people by calling them “bitter”" meme. Hey Fred! If it weren’t for the wingnut welfare you’ve been getting from FOX and your gig at the Standard Weakly, you wouldn’t even have a fucking job! Poor Fred, he just doesn’t get the fact that aside from himself, and his little cadre of cut rate NAZIS (Hello, Kondracke! Hello Krauthammer!) nobody would even know that he exists. Fuck him!
So let me get this straight . .
If you work for a living, watch Faux and vote repug, you are a “hard working murikan”. If you work for a living and vote dem like HRC, you’re “low class”. Did I get that right?
Man! These guys need to get out and mow their own lawns, wash their own clothes, and do their own grocery shopping for a couple of days. That Barnes character is amazingly out-of-touch.
Fred, buddy, I am a working American. I went to college, and I paid for it myself, btw, unlike some of your “upscale” comrades. Working Americans are people who actually make something or provide something meaningful for others to purchase that makes their lives better. How, exactly, does that makes me “downscale?” By “upscale,” do you mean people who shuffle other people’s money and other investments around, siphoning off plenty for themselves, while actually making or providing nothing of value? That’s what I would call our “leech class.”
When Obama and Michelle and their two daughters move into the WH in January, are you ever in for a big wake-up call about America’s working class’ place in our society. An Obama presidency will mean “Leech Class: 0; Working Class: 1.”
End of the clip:
“Look, we know we’re really stupid people who get our rocks of saying deliberately provocative things, but we’re not so stupid that we don’t realize the bonehead across the table just insulted everyone. Even though we agree with it in the locker room we don’t want you to switch channels so we’ll pander a little bit and pretend like we don’t agree with what he just said. But we’ll be laughing our asses off over drinks after show. Stay tuned so our sponsors don’t ditch us. Thanks.”
“Downscale”, hahaha. Fuck these media pimps, I’m so sick of this garbage.
OK now I feel better…
Grinning, giggling, moronic assholes, every one of them.
Don’t they know who their own audience is?? Red-state working stiffs. Unbelievable.
Fred Barnes is like school in the summertime…
…NO CLASS!
Sincerely,
Fat Albert
Hey Fred, “FUCK YOU”, you elitist punk!
make the pie higher @ 13:
They certainly do *not* want that. That’s why they all tried to distance themselves from Barnes’ unusually frank statement. As Barnes said, they do indeed ‘all know who he was talking about’, but they also know that issues of social class are to be denied at all times.
The last thing they want is open class warfare. They want to continue their decades-long covert class war, in which they assault the poor and the middle class constantly, but cover it up with wedge issues like abortion and prayer in schools.
FOX News’ Fred Barnes = No Class
“Something tells me we’re looking at Duncan’s “Wanker of the day.””
Everyday.
What an idiot.
So Faux News tries to backtrack into “working families”
Here’s what Working Families have to say about Rethug Shills
I think the unions are going to have to go after these rethugs hard this national election.
I’m looking forward to the day when I hear about Fred Barnes receiving treatment from “lower class” EMTs for the category 4 heart attack he suffered while eating pasta and meatballs.
What a dick.
Class and wealth are not the same thing.
Upper Class people are people that inherited wealth from established families. Middle class people are business owners. Bill Gates is considered middle class. Lower class people are workers, hence the reason they are often called “working class people”. A very well paid doctor or lawyer is considered lower or working class; if he/she works for a company.
It just amazes me that in a room full of college educated journalist not one has taken an entry level economics class.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
The real irony is that the Fox viewership doesn’t know they just got insulted.
They think they’re part of the top 2% wealth in the country.
“Working class” is a euphemism? Meaning that they don’t literally work?
That’s not only elitist; it’s completely out of touch with reality.
I don’t mind if he considers the working class “low class,” as long as he doesn’t mind that I consider America’s upper-one-half-of-one-percent class, “the first people up against the wall when the revolution comes.”
P.D. @ 11:
Sometimes during their bullshit sessions on State Television (aka FOX) degenerate into total farce. I’ll never forget the time Britt’s Fumes had them on, around the time Obama had announced he was running for President and there was some “controversy” over whether African Americans considered Obama “black” enough. Picture these three idiots (Barnes, Kondracke, and Krauthammer) - possibly the lamest white guys in America - sitting around bloviating about how African Americans were supposed to view Obama. It was absolutely fucking hysterical! For a brief moment, I had thought that the “Half Hour News Hour” was on and that they actually discovered how to be funny. Alas, though, this was a “serious” discussion.
I Like Pie @ 36:
Who wrote that text book? Martin Feldstein.
Seriously, do you actually think about what you say, or do you simply make it up as you go along.
He’s not black, he’s not a Democrat, and he didn’t say “bitter”, so it doesn’t count.
Being “low class” has nothing to do with how much money you make. Mr. Barnes’ comments seem pretty low class to me.
btw, clinton has begun her scorched earth policy
Fred Barnes speaks for the smirking nazi chattering class of reich-wing parasites. These FAux folks are not “conservative.” Pray tell what have they ever conserved? Our Constitution? Our Bill of Rights? Our natural resources? Anything? They’ve been blindly and stupidly goose-stepping behind the Bush nazi regime for the last eight years.
CatAtomic @ 31:
It’s simple really. They want to own everything and have all the power. They’re smart enough to know they can’t do that without making people desperate enough to rebel. So ultimately, they want to keep you at the lowest threshold possible that’s not below your comfort zone.
And guess what? They keep finding that we’re willing to tolerate more and more abuse so they keep lowering the bar. That’s why an administration likes Bush’s has gotten away with everything it’s done with no consequences whatsoever.
And it can get far worse before we’re willing to do anything about it. So they keep exploring to find how low they can go and how much more they can take.
But they don’t want to go too far no matter what. It means most of them would lose everything.
Did you hear that camera operator? How about all you telepromt writers? All of you gophers, assistants, secretaries, script writers? How you didn’t just turn everything off and walk right out on this jerk is beyond me. All you “lower class” workers at the Weekly Standard? Did you hear what YOUR BOSS just said what he really thinks about you? You are nothing but low class and he’s just telling the truth to America. And yet, you still will show up tomorrow morning as usual, won’t you? Because you are so brainwashed and in the know that you are convinced that he surely wasn’t referring to you. Well, yes he was. There is no way in hell I would EVER step foot in any office or room this pig headed blowhard was ever wasting space in.
Even I can’t defend that one. But let me work on it.
Uh, “Marge” is back. Hey everybody! All together now: “FUCK YOU, MARGE!”
These people are so arrogant. I can’t wait for the debt bubble to burst. All these smug little bastards that are riding the gravy train are going to be jumping out of windows left and right. Here’s the funny part; I am going to be the guy with the garden hose that washes their brains into the gutter.
Give the old fool credit. That’s exactly what they think of their base.
Albatross @ 40:
Right on, Albatross!