I think the article makes some good points.
As a guy who grew up on construction sites around framers, tiles setters, plumbers etc etc but who always loved books, history and intellectual debate for its own sake it's really important to be able to bridge that class/education/desire-for-intellectual-engagement gap.
I have a cousin up in Portland who lives a stones throw from Reed College and who's a reedie alum and a self-described die-hard liberal. He got his degree in women's studies. And I can remember visiting him for the first time since I was a kid a couple of years ago and describing some of the guys I was working with at the time and how I tried to bridge the seeming gap with them. We were working on a big remodel in Marin and most of these guys were off-roaders, rock-crawlers, hunters, and cross-fit enthusiasts. Most couldn't remember the last thing they read that was longer than a paragraph. I had headphones in one ear and listened to podcasts and audiobooks while running romex and mounting boxes and throwing verbal jabs around when I could. They loved to talk shit and most could not have given two fucks about ideas or as they put it, I swear, "book learning".
One guy lost the use of one of his thumbs in a crabbing accident, was covered in tattoos and had a shaved head. White guy. Built like a brick shithouse. Loved to be a dick. Thought the government was poisoning him with chemtrails and GMOs. Living stereotype. He also thought China was going to invade and he'd have to take to the hills with guns to defend himself. Lunch was fun. Another guy was from a ranching family going back like four generations or something and they couldn't make ends meet that way anymore and he'd turned to tile setting to make a living.
The trick is just to treat the person with respect and empathy, like the article says. I used to ask Mike, the plumber with a limp thumb about his girlfriend and how his house was doing, if it was in good shape, what music he was listening to etc etc. Luke, the tile setter, was really into WWII cause it was the last good one and we used to talk about Rommel the Desert Fox and the north african campaign. I eventually helped him put up new drywall in his house and replace his well motor.
You have to establish rapport on common ground and then spread that commonality slowly into other areas, not just expect people to be able to leap right to where you're at with nothing inbetween, especially if they have no desire or training in it.
I remember talking with Paul the reedie about all this and when I got to the fact that most of these guys were misogynist assholes who openly hated gays and the liberal media, he was baffled as to why I'd bother putting up with these people. Because they were people, I said. These were men I worked right alongside and who took pride in their work. And if I wanted them to be better people it was my duty to make an effort towards that without blaming them for simply being who they were. I showed them respect. I listened to their problems and offered solutions. And I didn't intellectually bully them or put them down except in ribbing jest (sometimes it's okay to call an idiot an idiot if you're on good enough terms).
It's like the opposite of "It's not my job to educate you."
I never understood that. Maybe that's because my education mostly happened at such a far remove from the ivory tower of the higher education system. I never finished my own degree and was intensely frustrated with the whole process. Maybe I'll go back someday and finish it.
There's an unspoken expectation among those who've never swung a hammer, hooked up an electrical panel or laid a tile that they're better than those who do. Blue collar people are looked down upon and are rarely offered a hand up, even rhetorically, by those who believe them to be their inferiors. I used to ask my cousin Paul "Who's the "worst" person you'd invite to your dinner table?" as sort of an intellectual exercise. "How different a person from your own sociocultural experience would you be able to actively connect with and whom you'd offer your hospitality to?"
He didn't have an answer. Not that the answer was really the point or anything.
That basic dignity and hospitality and ability to connect on more than just an ideological level has largely been lost in the culture, so loud is it.
I believe it's also called dining with the opposition.
Anyway, I didn't mean to make this so frigging long when I started it, but I feel like I've myself viscerally and personally experienced both sides of this thing. I could go on and on but ultimately it's about finding common ground and common values and slowly expanding from there. Simple as that.
