ROGER SIMON: GoFundMe and How the Left Came to Despise the Working Class.
To understand it, you have to go back to the man who started it all, Karl Marx, who expected his communist revolution to begin in heavily industrialized Germany.
He was wrong, of course. It began in the much less developed and largely agrarian Russia. In Germany, the working class was not nearly as attracted to his theories as he had hoped. The majority rejected them.
This trend continued as communism did better in poorer countries (China, Cambodia) than it did in the industrialized West, where it was supposed to take hold.
This failure was not lost on a group of intellectuals known as the Frankfurt School, who brought their revised Marxian theories designed to succeed where the working class approach had failed—notably via the so-called march through the institutions (media, entertainment, education)—to the United States at the end of World War II.
This indeed was an intellectuals-first revolution, and it has succeeded almost completely in our university system, where their “critical theory” dominates. They also succeeded, to lesser but still powerful degrees, in turning the media and entertainment, pretty much destroying Hollywood in the process. Why would the Chinese object?
This was clearly a top-down revolution, with elites dictating to hoi polloi what they should think and how to behave. In the way of the world, those elites also became increasingly rich, richer than anyone else in the history of the human race (the likes of Bezos, Zuckberg, Gates, et al.). They knew best. (Someone should write a book about that.)
In the process, the working class, what Amity Shlaes earlier called “The Forgotten Man,” was forgotten.
Which brings us to the truckers. This time—I think, hope, and pray—these elites have gone too far. The yawning gap between them and the people they lord over has become too great. People are sickened, as they should be, by the arrogance.
Thank you, GoFundMe, for blowing it. This is a teaching moment. Let’s use it.
As Glenn wrote last week in his New York Post column, “Truckers are starting a working-class revolution — and the left hates it,” “For more than a century, lefties have talked about such a revolt. But if you really paid attention, the actual role of the working class in their working-class revolution was not to call the shots — it was to do what it was told by the ‘intellectual vanguard’ of the left. A working-class revolution led by the working class is the left’s worst nightmare because the working class doesn’t want what the left wants.”
Related: Ted Cruz Calls For FTC Probe Into GoFundMe For Shutting Down Convoy Fundraiser. “Cruz’s comments follow announcements from several Republican state attorneys general that they plan to investigate GoFundMe for potentially violating state consumer protections laws. Other prominent Republican lawmakers, including Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, have signaled their intent to scrutinize the crowdfunding site.”