Yeah I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I’m born and raised in a small town basically right next to the Appalachian mountains. My job is representing the blue collar workers in that town against insurance companies. So I spend all day everyday having extensive conversations with farmers, factory workers, construction workers, general laborers, etc.

Most folks I know on the left when to fancy schools, as I also did, before returning to my hometown area, and have zero adjacency either in their past or their present to working folks. But nevertheless they opine on their well-being and purport to know their interests as pretty much a pillar of their politics.

It’s a performative caring most of the time, but ultimately empty and untethered.