What does "antipathy to people who are not like them" mean?

[boston bean]

Here is the Merriam Dictionary definition of antipathy:

Main Entry: an·tip·a·thy
Pronunciation: \an-ˈti-pə-thē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural an·tip·a·thies
Etymology: Latin antipathia, from Greek antipatheia, from antipathēs of opposite feelings, from anti- + pathos experience — more at pathos
Date: 1600
1obsolete : opposition in feeling
2: settled aversion or dislike : distaste <his well-known antipathy to taxes>
3: an object of aversion



What the hell is really talking about?

This is gonna fit in well with the good ol Reverend Wright narrative.

[tekisui]

1. He's talking about people who dislike or distrust those that are different

And how that distrust is magnified and exploited by "wedge issues" to get people to vote against their better interests.

[boston bean]

2. So you agree, he thinks small town america is bigoted? nt

[Teaser]

3. No. But I bet if I go through your comments here over the years

I can find you saying it somewhere.

[boston bean]

4. Go for it. Atleast you two aren't drinking the kool aid and saying how this is "great"

and how brilliant Obama is. For calling small town america bigoted.

[tekisui]

5. I agree that many in small town America fear the "other".

Have you read, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" It's a great book and documents what Obama is referring to. It is one of those hard truths. Middle America has been voting against their economic interests, all the while being told that the "other" is to blame for their problems. There is a lot of bigotry in small town America. A lot.

Who do you think Elton John was talking about. Rural America is lagging in their acceptance of people different than themselves. Obama is willing to explore that, and has gained support from many that I would never ahve imagined would support a black man for President.

[ayak9]

6. Obama has obviously read that book

All these pundits don't seem to understand what's the matter with middle America. Hopefully, this little blow-up (designed to deflect attention from Bill's bringing up Kosovo slip-up) will be the fuel to finish off Hillary's futile campaign.

Bitter, you bet. Obama hears you, middle America. Hillary only sees a rose garden. She looks at Pennsylvania and only sees hope and energy - talk about pie in the sky unrealism. The only hope and energy that most of us see comes from the Obama campaign - the one that Bill called a fairy tale.

[tekisui]

7. Well said,

:hi:
I said welcome to do DU, but then saw you've been here quite a while!

[GoldieAZ49]

18. If middle America is so bigoted what makes you think theyi are going to vote for Obama?

He goes to San Francisco to raise money and insults them to his fellow liberal elitists and it makes national news.

Insulting them and their values behind their backs...you think that will play well for him?



I would much rather hear Obama's conversations with his base than his stump speech, it shows who the man is.

[stray cat]

21. like almost all democrats he does better in cities than the country

[John Q. Citizen]

33. I live in small town middle America and he didn't insult me. I think he was only insulting you,

personally.

No one else, just you.

I think you deserve it.

[Astrad]

8. He's referring to anti-immigration feelings

The right often stirs up anti-immigrant feelings to mobilize people's feelings of economic insecurity at a make believe external threat rather than the real culprit, the right's own policies.

[GoldieAZ49]

11. Considering we are all descendants of immigrants

The "anti-immigrant feelings" is BS. Obama is trying to stir it up to 'balance' his Wright problem.

illegal immigration is another story, it is modern day slavery and has done serious economic damage.

[ShortnFiery]

16. Exactly. No where else is the brutal treatment of immigrants better described than within ...

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

http://www.spikebooks.com/upton-sinclair-the-jungle/

Written like fiction, Sinclair’s book ostensibly follows the story of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian who, with several members of his family, come to Chicago on the tail of the American Dream and find themselves working in the nightmare of the Slaughterhouse district. But in effect The Jungle is an epic look at the obscene cost of unfettered capitalism run rampant in the early 20th century. Sinclair’s book is a muckraking expose of the institutionalized inequality, corruption, privilege, sickness and slavery needed to keep the machine running that runs beneath he lean veneer of the American dream of freedom and success. A fascinating and incredibly coarse indictment of the out-of-control capitalist structure at the turn of the century The Jungle, sadly, rings true in a number of areas today.

Jurgis starts off firmly believing in the American dream, even while working in slave-like conditions for the meat packers, brushing off the arguments of broken men and unionists that the machine will eventually crush him as the bitter ramblings of lazy and feeble men. It’s this stubborn arrogance that carries Jurgis through the unceasing volley of injustices that make up the entirety of the book. The Rudkus’, due to their innocence and desperation, get swindled into ‘buying’ a ‘new’ house where they pay an exorbitant quantity every month, but never own the house until it is all paid off. If they miss one payment the house, and all their payments go back to the landowner, who repaints the house and sells it as ‘new’ to the next batch of immigrants. The threat of losing their house becomes the greatest chain they carry and in service of it every member of their extended family, including the grandparents and children, works to survive.

It’s a losing battle, of course, and work in the packinghouses brings poverty, disease, death, injury, injustice, rape, jail and exploitation to the Rudkus family. With no other options and a thousand men clamoring at the gate for their job, the Rudkus family works endless hours in mind-numbing, incredibly risky work. Here Jurgis gets first hand experience of the inevitable ’short-cuts’ that arise from profit-driven enterprises. In the drive for even a half-penny of profit spoiled meat is bribed past inspectors, men are crushed and killed, waste is driven wholesale into public drinking water and, like the meat the process, every ounce of worth in a human being is taken before being discarded in favor of fresh meat. Early on Jurgis is impressed with the way in which the packers have set up their enterprise to squeeze every possible quantity of wealth possible from a pig. Jurgis also is happy that he is not a pig – only to realize at the end that he and all the working men were treated as cruelly and as senselessly as the animals, driven to the point of death to churn out meat faster and faster and then discarded.

----------------

Throughout our ultra and mostly unregulated capitalistic history, poor immigrants are not treated much better than animals. :(

[2rth2pwr]

32. That's what Obama said too. That these small town people are anti-immigration.

WTF?!? Being against Illegal Immigration is much different than being a racist.

[ShortnFiery]

9. You're confusing "antipathy" with "empathy"

Obama is doing his best to UNDERSTAND (empathy) why so many rural people feel disenfranchized from the Political Process as a whole.

Nice try. No cigar.

[boston bean]

10. he used the word antipathy, which now mean empathy in Websters Obama dictionary. OK I get it. nt

[ShortnFiery]

25. Now you're twisting. Antipathy is "a symptom" of their fears. Throughout our history

WE ALL have demonstrated antipathy for "the other." Especially when we are not allowed to INTEGRATE and UNDERSTAND "those people" it's a survival instinct - human nature to be wary.

But you know that, don't ya?

It's pathetic IMO, how desperately HRC supporters are in their attempt to stir up "a smear" out of NOTHING AT ALL, i.e., Obama's attempts to understand rural America.

I have clout because I was raised in a town of 106 people. And you better believe, the youth have mostly departed if they didn't inherit their parents ranch/dairy farms. YES! The remaining residents are both angry and seriously BITTER that the rest of our nation seemingly doesn't give a damn. They cling to each other and to their extended families. A healthy percentage of people left in "my small town" are relatives who remain ... disenfranchised Americans who have every damn right to their feelings.

Obama is telling us "the truth" of what makes people feel alienated from the political system. But instead of contributing to the discussion, smarmy opponents snip OUT little bits e.g.,FOX deleted his comments about The Bush and Clinton administrations from their quote with "..." :thumbsdown:, and USE this "hacked up comment" in order to unfairly trash the character of the messenger.

Not. This. Time.

[GoldieAZ49]

13. so Obama doesn't mean what he says?

Just replace the words he uses with what you want to hear?

Is that how the "Blank Screen" works?

[rodeodance]

30. yup--that is why he had to once again play the WORT game last eveing.

[Texas Hill Country]

12. yes, yes it will.

[Terran]

14. Racism and xenophobia

Duh.

[GoldieAZ49]

15. Obama is projecting his attitudes on middle America

I am sure they will respond with their votes.

We will see who is bitter and using their religion as a crutch then.

[Terran]

17. Sorry, was I talking to you?

What does your non sequiter of a comment have to do with my post?

Edit: Oooooh, sorry! I get it now. You're trying to imply that Obama is the racist xenophobe here! That's HILARIOUS! Gotcha. Thanks for playing.

[GoldieAZ49]

20. see, you are making progress!!!

increasing your comprehension skills is always a good thing.

[Terran]

31. lol

lame

[cali]

23. I love where I live and I love the people who were born here

and who's grandparents were born here, but I recognize that many of them do have an antipathy toward outsiders- at the very least they're ambivalent about them. And man, do people love their guns here.

[GoldieAZ49]

26. in Vermont, right?

Here in Southern Arizona the majority of the population moved here from the midwest or east coast, and over the past decade from California.

It is considered a 'transient' population because people move in and out of the area constantly. Diversity and a changing population is accepted and expected.

Gun ownership is prevalent, I don't have a problem with that.

[cali]

27. In rhe Northeast Kingdom

not remotely the Vermont of quaint towns. Ramshackle farms, lots of people with missing digits, 8% plus unemployment. Wild places. Closed down paper mills. Towns that didn't get electricity until the late sixties. And yes, still some one room school houses.

[stray cat]

19. My relatives from small towns in the south seem more racist and anti-homosexual

than here in NYC. Maybe simply because many of them have never had a black or gay friend and so its easy to see them as other and mock them. Of course some of them seem to look at democrats the same way.

[OzarkDem]

22. Contempt for voters

will not get him far.

[cali]

24. yes, indeed Baghdad Bobette

Obama insults voters, and Hillary Dearest would never do such a thing.

[rodeodance]

29. you are right. Hillary would not "insult voters" Thank you cali

....yes, indeed Baghdad Bobette
Posted by cali


Obama insults voters, and Hillary Dearest would never do such a thing.

[rodeodance]

28. I take it to mean that Obama thinks small town folk are small -minded--This will not

go over well at all.

Condescending attitude of politician!

[GeorgeGist]

34. in simple term, it means ...

nothing.