Art by bigskycastle
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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Depends on if we can get away with interpreting "middle class" in the image, not as a physical group of people, but as a mindset.
"Middle class" being the mindset where you find your needs are met well enough that scarcity is no longer an issue but not so secure as to feel confident in fighting to get others their share.
True, I do think the concept of the "middle class" needs to go away entirely. The idea of a "middle" implies that there is a class of wealth above and below said middle. There is only the working class and the ruling class, wealth classes aren't relevant concepts in a functional society.
It stopped being a particularly meaningful term when the distinction between "middle class" (bourgeoisie) and "upper class" (aristocracy) stopped being meaningful. After that it's just been used to make some variation of "those more privileged workers who get tasty good boy treats as a reward for being white landowners in the imperial core" feel special and separate from other workers.
There's definitely an analysis to be made about how the intersection of privilege, land ownership, and petty capital ownership creates a reactionary class of precarious but entitled shitbags who are simultaneously murderously terrified of losing their meager fiefs and rewarded enough by the system that they support it against any and all change, but "middle class" is too empty and propagandistic a term now.
I think there is something of a "class between" the working and ruling, of people who don't quite run the system but are protected by it enough that they have an incentive to defend the people who do run it. Perhaps there's better ways of describing them.